Weekly News Update

FF Davis PA-USATF Mile….

Chips that took on this short challenge included Roger Fong, Steve Bond, Arnold Utterback, Cindy Scott, Barbara Miller, Nova Poff, Linda Hall, Po Adams and Lindsay Pears-Dickson. One of the best performances of the day was recorded by Cindy Scott with a 6:14 but everybody got to test their “top end” on that course.

FF Davis PA-USATF Mile perspective, submitted by Linda Hall:

The Davis Mile:

The temperature was hotter than last year. Nevertheless, we had a sturdy group of Chips participating in the Davis mile. There were a bunch of youth chips, but I did not get their names or times, although I did see Nathan coming in second in his race. (The other guy was a lot taller than Nathan!)

Here are the Chips I saw... I may have missed some. Despite the hot weather, a number of Chips qualified for an award singlet in this race and at least one (Lindsay Pears-Dickson) had a PR. Here are the times and (places in parentheses) for the folks I saw. Note the places that I have listed are the 5 year age groups and not the 10 year USATF places. The ** before some names means they qualified for an award singlet!! Great work guys!!!

Men
Mark Murray (?Did not get his 5 year age place) 5:09
**Ernie Takahashi (8) 6:08
Arnie Utterback (9) 6:25
**Joel Contrares (11) 6:30
**Doug Braasch (3) 6:50
**Roger Fong (4) 7:20

Women
**Barbara Miller (1) 6:51
Lindsay Pears-Dickson (?Did not get her place) 7:37
**Nova Poff (2) 7:48 (PR for Nova, I think)
Heather Bracken (?Did not get her place) 8:14
Linda Hall (4) 8:32
**Po Adams (1) 11:44

A subgroup of these folks along with Tony Smith (who manned the Chips tent and handed out our club and race fliers) came to Linda Hall's for free brunch to refuel after the race.....A good reason to come to Davis for this race. Doug and Barbara enjoyed a run around Davis after the race in order to work up an appetite for brunch after such a short race. Note that Barbara Miller was only 1 second behind Doug Braasch....watch out Doug, she is going to catch you soon! The Chips were also joined at brunch by Impala Jane Coleman and her husband. Jane was a Chip for a year about 6 years ago when she went to Comrades with the Chips group and finished the race !!!

After the race a group of Chips commented on how helpful the short distance Tuesday night workouts designed for us by George Parrott had been in preparing for this race. The short repeats helped everyone in terms of developing faster leg turnover (and thereby racing fast enough to earn an award singlet). Thanks Coach George.

Iron Family - aka Team Thomas

Submitted by Cheri Alvarez (intro & finale) and Allyson Thomas:

As I, Cheri, reported in a previous listing about our Iron-Woman, Cammy Thomas and her spectacular performance at Coeur d'Alene on June 25. Little did we know (or we sort of knew, but it was hidden) that Cammy gets this dedication and, in my humble opinion, craziness from her father Jon Thomas (aka, JT)!! It seems that JT has snuck in a "race" that only a few folks knew about...he was chosen as the IronMAN for the Eppies Great Race!! What does that mean...well, here is a little clip from his other iron gal, Allyson Thomas:

Our leader and Ironman-inspiration, JT, competed this morning (July 5, 2006) as part of the official "Great Team" of Eppie's Great Race - the world's oldest triathlon! JT is and was the the original Ironman of Team Thomas, having completed in at last 25 of the Eppie's Great Races and placing as high as 2nd in its 33-year event history. JT was selected to be a part of the Great Team about two months ago and has been training secretly and arduously to make us all proud. And proud we surely are!

The Great Team consists of one Ironman (JT), one Ironwoman (Jennifer Whitney) and one Team. Their goal is to set the standard for all competitors on race day (next Saturday, July 15); anyone who finishes before them, gets a free breakfast at Eppie's. JT completed the challenging course (which had a strong headwind on both the run and kayak portions) in 2 hours 10 minutes, a more than 10-minute improvement from his time at last year's race. And he looked FABULOUS while crossing the mock finish line!!! I think he could have done it again...backwards. :)

I had the honor to pace JT on the run portion, while Bruce Aldrich did a fabulous job on the bike. JT ran negative splits each mile on the run, quite impressive for an "old guy" (his words, not mine). Words cannot describe how proud I am of my dad, my father, my hero, who always works so hard and never seeks the spotlight. Today was his special day. A special day indeed. From his very first Eppie's when the family would get all decked out in matching red t-shirts to today, JT has, and always will be, the inspiration for Team Thomas.

I believe JT is going to be relaxing for the remainder of the day (well-earned!), but if you get a chance, you just may want to wish him a BIG Congratulations on yet another FABULOUS, AWESOME Eppie's finish!

Back to me, Cheri....any of you who know the Thomas family know that they tend to "hide" their accomplishments!! They are a true inspiration to me and keeps me going for all I do. And JT, who happens to be a PT (he calls it a physical therapist, I call it pain and torture!!!) has put me back into the swing of things and is just truly, truly amazing!! The Thomas family are one fantastic family in all the sports they do...which is NOT limited to the sports mentioned above!!! Congratulations to JT!!! Way to go (and in your words, not bad for an "old" guy!!!)!!!!

A Personal Comrades Marathon Report (16 June, Durban to Pietermaritzberg, South Africa)

From the 5:30 a.m. start to the closing of the finish line 12 hours later, this 82nd running of the oldest, biggest, and MOST respected ultra in the world was a dramatic experience for the traveling Bison.

Mary Coordt was once again the star of the day, and confirmed her “cover girl” status from the most recent Enquirer. That picture was taken in Cape Town, and now Mary is also the “top Chip woman” ever at Comrades with a brilliant 7:38 (20th overall female) finish. Club founder and exalted Buffalo Abe (A.J.) Underwood came back to the ultra experience after about a 20 YEAR hiatus with a smooth finish around 11:45 and Sharon Lindeque finished her 3rd Comrades in a new PR of UNDER 10 hours with Chris Iwahashi just over that 10 hour mark. Lilian Shek, Dennis Scott, Lee and Myra Rhodes all missed cutoffs. Both Dennis and Myra got to the LAST CUTOFF (80k) before the clock ticked them off the course.

For those who think that the Western States is the “ultimate” in ultra challenges, it certainly is a wonderful event, and 100 miles is a really incredible physical challenge across the Sierras, but Comrades is an international “race” with big prize money for the top finishers. This year the winning woman cashed out prize and bonus money in excess of $200,000 for her victory and new course record !!! The event is covered LIVE on national TV for 12 hours and everybody in the country KNOWS about it. By contrast, ask any citizen “at the mall” on Western States day…”what major athletic challenge is going on as we speak?” Not even in Sacramento will that question be answered correctly all that often…and outside Sacramento….forget it.

Comrades is simply the “ultimate running race” with enough distance (54-56 miles) to be a real challenge and seriously rolling terrain with absolutely top-level athletes at the front to promote excellence.

It is hard to imagine a true “ultra runner” making that claim without the experience of the original, biggest and most prestigious event on their resume somewhere.

Think about the “greatest ultra runners” of all-time…..what are the events on their vita? Ann Trason regularly ran both Comrades and Western. Yiannis Kouras has been to both….When will you get to Comrades, if you have already “notched” WS on your resume? Talk to Mary Coordt about her experiences there. Find out what the term “train” means relative to Comrades on the day.