This 2007 version of the CIM saw new PRs by Chips Kirsten Schneider (2:52) and Jen Hitchings (2:54) joining a tradition of Chips women's impressive times at our hometown marathon and leading this year's herd of female finishers.
In the program booklet for this year, there is a summary of the "top 75" women's times over the history of CIM, and the second fastest on that list is by our own Eileen Claugus (2:40:04) back in 1985. Third on the history record is another Chip, now living in Hawaii, Jeannie Urness (2:41:08). The very top listing, Linda Somers, did train some with the Chips and was a Chip for a brief period in her early career before getting signed on for a real "professional support" contract.
However another way to reflect on excellence is not just by the very best single performance (PR), but on the overall continuity of excellent performance, and Chip Women account for 49 of those top 75 recorded female times and of those 49 top times, 22 were produced by just THREE of our club's female icons of distance:
Chris Iwahashi-8 of the 75 with course PB of 2:45:29 and average finish time of 2:53:08
Theresa McCourt-7 of the 75 with course PB of 2:50:10 and average of 2:54:04
Connie Kondo-7 of the 75 with course PB of 2:51:04 and average of 2:57:30
I might further note that the very last listed female on this year's top 75 list...who will be displaced by those super times for Kirsten and Jen...is June Hill-Falkenthal. June was a "Chip" for all her strong running years, and she also WON the Sacramento Marathon (precursor to "Cowtown") one year with her PR of just seconds over......3 hours.
George Parrott
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