Weekly News Update

Heritage Oaks, PA-USATF Championship 10K (From Linda Hall)

Want to be a “professional runner” no matter your actual speed? Heritage Oaks Open 10k

It was a great day for this race in Paso Robles. Cool and sunny. In the National Masters Championship 10k, Chips Super senior women had a team of

Barbara Miller

Nova Poff

Linda Hall

There were fast folks from all over (Utah, Texas, Indiana, etc.) in this race. Barbara was second in her age group and Nova was third. In addition, in the age graded results, Barbara took home $1000 prize money. Great work Barbara!!!

Some younger Chips there in the open division, but I did not get their results.

It was really true: everyone who ran the open 10k got $50 as they crossed the finish line. There were also a lot of fun runs including some really fast kids in the half and full mile runs, great costumes in the Mascot race (all entrants eligible for a $500 draw prize...we really need to get a chip in a Buffalo costume next year), and a funny diaper dash where all entrants were eligible for a $250 draw prize. Four round trips for two to Hawaii were also given away as draw prizes. It was a fun family championship event.

Rio Del Lago 50 Miles

Our own Mark Lantz, already leading in the 40-49 men’s ultra Grand Prix series added to this with THE OVERALL WIN at the Rio Del Lago 50 miles beating even all the team groups in that distance this past weekend. Whew ! Second, some 30 minutes back was former Chip Jim Howard (age 52) making an impressive return to solid form after an almost life-threatening fall from his home roof last year.

Ultra Grand Prix Current Standings….Chips in Control !

The PA-USATF Ultra Grand Prix series is being totally dominated by the bison and bisonette this year. Leading the women’s under 29 division is Chip Molly Pelton; leading the women’s 40-49 group is Chip Rena Schumann followed in second by Chip Karyn Hoffman. In the women’s 50-59 group, Chris Flaherty is #3 and Barbara Ashe holds #5 overall. Leading in the women’s 60-69 division is Barbara Elia.

In the men’s 30-39 group, Erik Skaden is numero uno, and Mark Lantz is tops in the men’s 40-49 segment followed in 3rd there by John Nichols. In the men’s 50-59 division James Yee comes across in the 5th position and in the 60-69 group, Ernie Takahashi is #3 followed in 5th by Ron Peck.

In TEAM SCORING, the Buffalo Chips are #2 in men’s and #1 in both mixed and women’s groups. The club’s overall standing is….NUMBER ONE in the PA-USATF 2006 Ultra Grand Prix at this time !

Congratulations to all bison and bisonettes who have taken this extended series of challenges this year.

World News……

Berlin Marathon Produces Year’s Fastest !

Following his 58:55 road half marathon world best time this past January at the Phoenix Rock and Roll venue, Haile Gebrselassie (ETH ) continued his road dominance with a sparkling solo 2:05:56 NR for a $50,000 + $30,000 bonus in time incentives payday. His closest pursuer was almost 5 minutes behind at the finish line. Gete Wami, also of Ethiopia, ran 2:21 for the women’s win and a $65,000 total payday.

Gebrselassie was on WORLD RECORD pace up to 35 km, from that point he slowed just enough to miss the CR and WR set by Paul Tergat on this course at 2:04:55. (Tergat had the advantage of a training partner who was able to push him right up to the finish line where his buddy was outkicked but still finished at 2:04:58 for second place that day and the fastest “loser” in history!)

T-Marathons Equal

This past weekend, both the Toronto and Turin Marathons were hosted and both settings saw men’s overall winning times of 2:10. Coincidence, but at least somewhat interesting.

Boulder Backroads Marathon and Half-Marathon (Colorado)

The full marathon on a rolling course under perfect weather conditions was won in a somewhat slowish 2:43:10 with the second place finisher almost a full six minutes back. The big news here, however, is that the FIRST PLACE OVERALL was a FEMALE, Nuta Olaru, one of the elite women training in the altitude there. Of course that 6000’ elevation had something to do with the “somewhat slowish” times.

In the half-marathon, Chips Lee Rhodes (70-75 age division) was second and Ginger Bryan (65-69 group) dominated her division. Chris Iwahashi took a 3rd place in her 50-54 age group.

This was a totally spectacular event staged in a beautiful setting with great overall entrant services and support.