2014 Boston Marathon Results for Ventura County and Adjacent Area Finishers

Fellow Bruin and American Meb Keflezighi won the 2014 Boston Marathon on Monday in his personal best time 2 hours, 8 minutes, 37 seconds, just two weeks shy of his 39th birthday. Meb took the silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Marathon, broke his hip during the 2008 Olympic Trials but still managed to finish 8th, won the New York Marathon in 2009 and finished 4th in the 2012 Olympic Marathon.

I don't think the day could have been any better from Meb K and there isn't a more deserving person than him. And he runs in Sketchers, which is kind of cool. Learn more about the Boston Marathon at www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon.aspx.

There were 70 local area finishers in this year's Boston Marathon. Congrats! Here they are:

Josh Spiker, Ventura 2:51:34

Randy Miller, Thousand Oaks 2:58:57

Juan Viramontes, Santa Paula 2:59:40

Sara Roche, Ventura 3:08:51

Joseph Jaurequi, Newbury Park 3:09:47

Sergio Aloma, Simi Valley 3:11:05

Emily Boggs, Newbury Park 3:11:16

Curtis Names, Ojai 3:12:30

Michelle Chille, Agoura Hills 3:12:38 (18th in division)

Rob Hennick, Moorpark 3:12:59

Clinton Cates, Camarillo 3:13:50

Justin Shakespeare, Camarillo 3:15:43

Benjamin Atkins, Westlake Village, 3:16:41

Paul Schwartz, Westlake Village, 3:16:47

Christina Lightfoot (great runner name), Westlake Village 3:16:16

Martin Simon, Newbury Park 3:20:28

Joe Herzog, Moorpark 3:24:40

Denise Millar, Moorpark 3:24:58

Shauna Potrawski, Simi Valley 3:26:49

True Randall, Ventura 3:27:35

Steve Arce, Westlake Village 3:27:48

Jason Griffith, Thousand Oaks, 3:28:45

Marla Randall, Ventura 3:29:12 (16^th in age group!)

Leanne Mohr, Camarillo 3:31:05

Ariane Hendrix-Roach, Oxnard 3:32:17

Emily Stone, Thousand Oaks, 3:34:58

Charles Brown, Moorpark 3:35:58

Janice Hyllengren, Newbury Park 3:37:11

Danny Vasquez, Oxnard 3:40:13

Brett Fuchs, Camarillo 3:41:37

Melinda Casaus, Ventura 3:42:17

David Moore, Moorpark 3:42:45

Marialuisa Vanore, Camarillo 3:44:42

Tom Schmidhauser, Camarillo 3:45:52

Jeffrey Vanneman, Simi Valley 3:45:54

Julie Ungerleider, Camarillo 3:46:56

Amada Garcia, Thousand Oaks 3:48:15

Leontine Shockley, Santa Paula 3:48:42

Sara Jones, Simi Valley 3:48:46

Kent Blankenship, Thousand Oaks 3:50:01

Brett Goldsmith, Simi Valley 3:51:12

Kelly Clark, Ventura 3:53:14

Melissa Hernandez, Oxnard 3:53:14

Wendy Raymond, Westlake Village, 3:53:38

Mallory Ham, Simi Valley 3:53:38

Hugo Ito, Oxnard 3:54:50

Michael Clarke, Westlake Village, 3:55:56

James Dawson, Ventura 3:55:58

Carolyn Talarico, Westlake Village, 3:56:13

Sarah Rossbach, Ventura 4:01:51

Ashley Graham, Oxnard  4:04:58

Joell Quirarte, Thousand Oaks, 4:06:52

Linda Houser, Simi Valley 4:07:51

Patricia Shapiro, Simi Valley, 4:10:09

Amanda Flaum, Thousand Oaks 4:10:12

Andrzej Bieszczad, Camarillo 4:14:32

Susan Duenas, Thousand Oaks 4:23:37

Nancy Aguilar, Newbury Park 4:30:13

Jack Redmond, Camarillo 4:30:59

Tina Burch, Newbury Park 4:30:17

Kathleen Broder, Camarillo 4:35:09

Darleen Hanlon, Westlake Village, 4:39:46

Courtney Kershaw, Agoura Hills 4:41:10

Laura Pedersen, Simi Valley 4:55:20

Mary Nelson, Ojai 5:03:02

Dorothy Baxter, Moorpark 5:06:39

Christine Kam, Ventura 5:07:19

Randy Pentis, Westlake Village 5:35:26

Dennis Silva, Simi Valley 5:43:03

Donald Aguilar, Oxnard 5:59:53

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Pleasantly Surprised at My Time at a Last Minute 10K Race This Weekend

Last Thursday, April 3rd, I decided it would be fun to run the local Aut2Run 10K race hosted by the Autism Society of Ventura County on the campus of CSU Channel Islands.

There were a number of reasons I decided to run the race. My sciatic nerve issue that kept me out of the LA Marathon has subsided and I've been running pretty much pain-free once again. But without any type of race on the horizon, I've been running fairly aimlessly. The race is just miles from my house. And believe it or not I've never seen much of CSU Channel Islands. And of course the Autism Society is a worthy charity to support.

For the last two weeks I've run on the track Tuesday nights with my 11 year old son and some other kids that are part of the local youth track club. My goal was to teach them pacing by running with them, so they could later take that pacing with them when they run 1600/3200 meters in competition. I found it a humbling experience running with these 5th graders as a few were pulling me along with them...until I forced them to hold back a little.

The first night I ran, I was worried about my hamstring issue coming back, but somehow held it together. We were running about 6 min per mile pace, which is still within my comfort zone. Barely. It paid off for my son because he was able to pace himself to a new PR in the 3200 on Saturday and meet the "varsity" standard. His pace was 6:09 per mile.

I was running to help the kids, but on Sunday it was apparent the 400 to 800 meter track intervals I was running with the kids also benefited me as I was able to creep below 38 minutes in the 10K this Sunday in 37:56, good for 3rd place overall. This translates into about a 6:07 pace per mile for 6.2 miles. Damn! Training with these kids apparently helped me!

For no particular reason I don't run a lot of 10Ks. I generally opt for 5Ks. In fact, the last 10K I ran was on August 18, 2012 in 80 degree heat in the San Fernando Valley and before that, sometime in 2010. My 37:56 was faster than both of these. So at age 49, nearly 50, I'm running the 10K distance faster than I was running it at age 45. I guess a little speedwork can pay off...when done in moderation.

The start time of the race was 7:30am, though it was delayed until 7:39am (yes, they announced 7:39, not 7:40, not 7:45, but 7:39). The typical pre-race maneuvering took place. Though I wasn't treating the race like an Olympic Trial or something, I do like to get a decent position at the start so I don't have to worry about maneuvering around people that shouldn't be there at the VERY FRONT. I was standing next to a gal that clearly should not have been at the front of the race, but thankfully she was next to me, not in front of me. I wish everyone would use a bit of common sense at these races. But, time and time again, many do not. They think, cool, I'm at the front. Like being at the front of the grocery store line.  Not cool...unless you plan to finish near the front. Which, in this case, this particular woman finished nowhere remotely near the front of the race.

I digress. After the gun went off, I found myself in 2nd place, behind a young man who, for some reason, turned left after the first straightaway. I followed him, in my race mental zone

But several seconds later, I heard yelling, "HEY! HEYYY! OVER HEEERE! THIS WAYYY!" and sure enough, %^&* ^*%^&, 50 yards or so into the race and I've taken a wrong turn. UGGHH. Immediate mental letdown. A split second I'm thinking %^** it. I'm done. Dropping out. But another split second later I opted to ignore those lost ~8 seconds as we backtracked towards the group. I went from 2nd to around 40th but heck, this was just a fun run. Keep going. Get over it. I did.

As the fuming in my brain settled down, I was able to pick off runners like target practice. A mile into the race and I was still back in around 7th position, but I felt decent and it was actually kind of fun gradually reeling in people. I had figured that the lead runner would be out of range, but I could still clearly see him. He was not extending his lead.

If I had any "beef" with this course, I could not recall seeing a single mile marker on the course. Whether or not there were any, Near the 15 minute mark I had pulled back into 2nd place overall, within seconds of the lead runner. But at this point I felt unsure of how much to push this old body, not knowing how it would hold up. So for the next few miles I traded spots with one other runner, until roughly the 4.5 to 5 mile mark of the race.

As I pulled up next to the markedly taller (than me) runner, I said, "We can catch him." He didn't say anything back. I put the gas on a little, but the guy in front had a pretty significant gap on us. I was slowly narrowing it, clearly in 2nd place, but not quite knowing how much further we had to run. This knowledge gap is a problem when you're trying to compete.

Before I know it, an even TALLER guy passes me by, looking strong. It was a DIFFERENT really tall guy, even taller then the other really tall guy. At that point I was not able to respond. I was still pushing the pace, but I didn't trust my body to trail this guy. In hindsight, perhaps I should have tried. But without knowing how much further we were running, and with no recent 10Ks under my belt, I just kept my pace as the gap between us grew.

Minutes later I crossed the finish, feeling fine, about 20 seconds behind the winner, and 19 seconds behind Really Tall Guy. I am about 8 years short of equaling these guys' combined ages, so I felt pretty good keeping them company.

The day before, I volunteered to work the long jump pit at my son's track meet. I tweaked my lower back being one of the sand raker guys. So I gave that up and became one of the measurer guys. Little did I ponder at the time that bending down 200 times to measure long jump distances would make my quads sore the next day. That soreness was there with me on Sunday, but the Advil I popped in that morning seemed to take the edge off. My advice: THINK about what you're doing the day before a race or suffer the consequences.

I'm a happy camper that I can run a sub-38 10K race with the type of low key training I've been doing.

On that note, the Autism Society of VC did an outstanding job, had an amazing turnout, handed out outstanding looking medals and shirts to all, and raised $100,000. Very impressive. All while sharing useful information about autism. To learn more about the race and the organization, visit aut2run.org and www.autismventura.org.

Results From 29th Annual Great Race of Agoura Hills on March 22, 2014

The 29th Annual Great Race of Agoura Hills took place on Saturday, March 22rd. Once again I could not personally attend because my son has track meets on Saturdays this time of year. But since this is the largest and oldest race in the area, I have to at least check out the race stats!

Overall stats:

• Equinox 5K: 1154 finishers (497 male, 657 female) vs 1,456 finishers (652 male, 804 female) in 2013 and 1,409 finishers in 2012
• Old Agoura 10K: 1317 finishers (469 male, 848 female) vs 1,319 finishers (493 male, 826 female) in 2013 and 1,639 finishers in 2012
• Pacific Half Marathon: 524 finishers (234 male, 290 female) vs 441 finishers (203 male, 238 female) in 2013 and 549 finishers in 2012
• Cheseboro Half Marathon:1037 finishers (520 male, 517 female) vs 913 finishers (478 male, 435 female) in 2013 and 1,034 finishers in 2012
• Kids' One Mile: 296 finishers (168 male, 128 female) vs 381 finishers (205 male, 176 female) in 2013 and 443 finishers in 2012

In total, there were 4,328 2014 finishers, down 4% from 4,510 finishers in 2013 (which in turn was down 11% from 2012).  Half marathon participation grew 15% this year, while there was a significant drop (21%) in 5K participants.

Here are the 5 finishers from each race! Visit www.greatraceofagoura.com for more details.

Cheseboro Half Marathon (Men):

1. Scott Hambly 1:20:54
2. Chris Price 1:22:37
3. Kit Mock 1:23:12
4. Adam Brosh 1:23:23
5. George Eyles 1:23:29

Cheseboro Half Marathon (Women):

1. Jessica Stern 1:30:47
2. Anissa Faulkner 1:31:29
3. Elaine Woodward 1:31:51
4. Stacia Watson 1:35:33
5. Kaitlin Reed 1:35:36

Pacific Half Marathon (Men)

1. Jose Lastre 1:25:01
2. Geoff Burns 1:26:07
3. Ian Clampett 1:28:15
4. Martin Muoto 1:28:49
5. Gilbert Lemieux 1:28:58

Pacific Half Marathon (Women)

1. Vi Hau 1:25:19
2. Carly Johann 1:34:08
3. Gina Johnson 1:34:10
4. Elizabeth Lluch 1:34:57
5. Montana Martinez 1:36:02

Old Agoura 10K (Men)

1. Daniel Haim 37:38
2. Nick Ungermann 37:42
3. Bryce Wendel 37:57
4. Jonathan Lee 38:28
5. Steve Monke 38:59

Old Agoura 10K (Women)

1. Heather Worden 40:55
2. Caitlin Jacobsen 43:08
3. Sara Sadraie 43:16
4. MaryAnn Carraher 43:25
5. Lupita Medina 43:32

Equinox 5K (Men)

1. Chandler Ross 17:00
2. Ravi Guha 17:43
3. Brandon Severson 17:50
4. Phillip Wright 18:27
5. Ryan Harris 19:02

Equinox 5K (Women)

1. Liz Camy 17:09
2. Carol Montgomery 18:16
3. Sarah Shulze 19:13
4. Michelle Ip 19:35
5. Susan Dorrough 21:07

Kids 1 Mile (Boys)

1. Griffin Archer 6:07
2. Jack Gilbert 6:39
3. Tanner Wolfe 6:44
4. Connor Najdowski 6:48
5. Spencer Driggs 6:55

Kids 1 Mile (Girls)

1. Hadley Barber 7:28
2. Nicki Langford 7:30
3. Kassandra Cummings 7:36
4. Reese Wolfe 7:36
5. Livia Shore 7:37