The U.S. Championships are over, the World championships are over, the NCAAs are over, NIN and NSIC are over... Indoor is almost over. In fact, there's just one meet left: the U.S. National Masters Indoor Championships, March 20-22, in Landover, Maryland.
No, I'm not running -- too busy with half marathons and mileage build-ups and such. But there are some very intriguing races on tap.
The men's 55-59 800m features an appearance by Henry Rono, once the world's best distance runner over the 3K steeplechase, 5000m, and 10,000m. Rono, a recovering alcoholic, has been a great comeback story. However, he has little chance to win because he is facing a field that includes Nolan Shaheed, perhaps the most impressive American male age-group runner in history. Shaheed has a seed time of 2:09.30 -- at age 58 -- and is one of four runners who is seeded at better than 2:10. Top seed is Houston's Horace Grant, the American record holder at 2:06.80.
Rono, Shaheed, et al. are also entered in the mile, where Shaheed holds the American age-group record, and hasn't lost a race against his age group in well over a decade.
Local (New Hampshire) runner Craig Fram is the top seed in the 50-54 10mile and 3000m. Fram has basically announced his intention to go after Shaheed's American record for the 3K, which stands at 8:54.73. Fram has run 9:07 this winter.
Another local runner, familiar to DyeStat denizens as NSHSDad, is John Huth who is entered in the M50-54 400m and 800m. He'll have his hands full in those races, as there are 12 men in the 400 with seed times under 60 seconds, and four in the 800m with seed times under 2:10.
One of the biggest locks of the meet will be in the women's 50-54 3000m, where Olympic Marathon gold medalist Joan Samuelson is seeded a full two minutes faster than anyone else in the field. The listed American record is 10:23.84 by the many-time U.S. age group champion Kathryn Martin, but Samuelson has an excellent shot to break that record, and is seeded at 10:05.
The men's 45-49 mile is a marquee event with three legends of the sport facing each other: Pete Magill (American age-group record holder for the 3k, 5k, and 10k) is the top seed at 4:21. He'll be facing John Hinton (American age-group record holder for the outdoor 1500m), and Anselm LeBourne (former record holder for the 800m). Speed vs. strength! In all, their our five geezers in the race who have run faster than 4:31.
Lest anyone think I'm ignoring the sprinters (who me?), let me give you some idea of the depth of the sprinting events:
In my age-group, 50-54, there are four men seeded at faster than 24 seconds, led by the Greater Boston Track Club's Everad Samuels (23.09). In the 400, there are nine men seeded at 56.00 or better.
On the women's side, 62-year-old Phil Raschker, one of the greatest age-group athletes of all time, is entered in EIGHT sprinting and jumping events -- and she is the favorite to win them all! Here are her qualifying marks:
60m - 8.93
200m - 29.42
400m - 68.34
60m hurdles - 10.38
high jump - 1.38 (4-6)
pole vault - 2.30 (7-6)
long jump - 4.32 (14-1)
triple jump - 9.11 (29-10)
No spreading the wealth around here!
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3 comments:
Although she was not competing at the National Masters Indoor Championships, I saw a result for Monica Joyce who broke the American Record for 50+ at the Gave River Run 15k last weekend running 52:38. That's an average of 17:32 per 5k! Just last year at the age of 49 she won the 5k at the 2nd Boston High Performance meet at Bentley College running 16:01! I guess that you CAN defy age after all.
Hey, Jon -
I scratched in the 400m to run in a 4x8 we cobbled together. It was in the 40-year old age bracket, because we had two 40 year-old guys in it (Darin Brown, who's an ER physician from Conway NH) and Mike Needham. I'm 51, and we had a 55 year old guy. To make it more interesting, we got tossed into a heat with two 30 year old teams.
By the time I got the baton, the field was pretty strung out, but I managed to catch a couple of teams. We finished in third and brought home a bronze medal, which was nice.
Other results from MassVelocity - my track club, was a 1-2 finish in the 800 by James Morton and Ian Smith in the M50 category.
Our M50 4x4 dueled against Houston Elite, taking second in an exciting race. Bill Collins narrowly lost the 200m and ended up with a stress fracture.
Everad was a no-show (I don't know why).
I also had fun running in an ad-hoc 4x4, along with Lexington local Tucker Taft, and two guys from Colorado - one of whom, Scott Hartley, won the M40 mile.
Darin narrowly missed scoring in the M40 mile with an 4:54 to tie his PR. I tied my PR in the 800, but was a bit disappointed in that - but I was tight after the 4x8, and happy enough to catch a bronze.
Next up - 4x4 and 4x1 at the Penn Relays - John H.
Chris -- thanks for mentioning Monica Joyce. Her 15K time is astounding, and serves mention right up there alongside the results from Ms. Samuelson.
John -- thanks for the detailed meet report from the Indoor Nationals, and congratulations on your bronze medal. It sounds like the relays and the 800 were a lot of fun.
Good luck at Penn Relays!
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