(6/24-6/30): Goglas, Mennitt, GSTC Drink From the President's Cup

Goglas, Mennitt Go 1-2 at President's Cup

Teams Go 1-2 As MIG Put 8 in Top 12 in Spring Grand Prix Finale

Millburn- For one final time this spring racing season, Ken Goglas sent a strong message to the USATF-NJ grand prix road running scene: he's the guy to beat.    

The big man in gold hit the tape in 15:08, averaging 4:52 a mile, for his first career President's Cup win.  A few strides behind him was his teammate and training partner Steve Mennitt, who finished in 15:12 for the silver.  The two opened their first mile in 4:30, then hit 9:38 for mile two, and shortly thereafter, Goglas slowly pulled away for the dubya.  

Goglas and Mennitt lead a tidal wave of gold in the state's most competitive 5k race, as they became the first club is race history to sweep the top two team spots with eight finishers in the top twelve.  Those included Tim Morgan (5th/15:33), Chris Schneider (8th/15:54), Steve Jackson (9th/15:55), John Welsh (10th/15:56), Paul Matuszak (11th/15:58), and Mike Anis (12th/16:01).

James Lothian (17:44) was the six-man for the A Team that averaged 15:42 for its top five scoring runners.  The B Team, who averaged 16:09, had Chuck Schneekloth (16:29), Tim Paziora (17:11), and Shaun McGeever (18:07) round out their scoring team.

The C Team squeaked two points for their 7th place finish.  Edsel Flores (16:57) lead the charge, followed by David Fett (17:07), Kyle Flyer (17:53), Marty Doherty (18:15), Ken Walsh (18:24), Rob DeCarlo (20:43), and Jeff Blough (26:18).

A few ladies hopped in and did darn good, as well.  Allison Dublinski (18:11) averaged 5:51 pace for second woman overall, and Sarah Schillaci (18:30) ran a fantastic race for third woman overall.  The Stanton twins celebrated their birthday in style, as Danielle (21:31) and Courtney (21:43) both fought off the humidity with the team.   Mark Minervini, sitting his 90 days out for a club transfer, made his uniform debut as well, as he ran 18:06 in the black and gold, while ultra-marathon man TJ Zablocki ran an even 6:00 pace for an 18:37 finish.  He would have been added to a team, but somehow we didn't learn he was racing until a few minutes before the gun went off!

Results are here.

Masters Men Compete in Lager Run

Glen Ridge- The GSTC masters 40s men finished 13th out of 19 teams, primarily because their runners were quite a bit older than their competition.  However, because they didn't have enough 50s runners to complete a 50s team, they were forced to clump everyone in the 40s team (since they had a few guys in their 40s).  Marty Doherty was the first man in at 18:20, followed by teammates Eric Davis (19:22), Peter Auteri (21:29), Fran Beideman (21:30), and Jeff Blough (27:20).  We learned yesterday, which we find quite entertaining, that Peter and Fran refuse to run together in races, despite being training partners and close friends.  There is a long-standing rivalry between the two and, regardless of the good fun before and after, they never work together in a race!  As you can see, Auteri edged out his frenemy by one second.

A few other GSTC'ers fought the heat and humidity last night, including Allison Dublinski (18:24/1st woman) and Karen Auteri (19:12/4th woman).   Jay Margolis ran 18:14, Chuck Schneekloth ran 17:03, and Heather McDermott finished in 22:18.  Results can be found here.

Sieve, Byrnes Run Grandmas

Duluth, MN- Greta Sieve and Jess Byrnes both returned to their mother land, Minnesota, and competed in the Grandma's Marathon this weekend.  Sieve set a blistering pace early on, hitting the 5k (18:36) and 10k (38:11) with remarkable 5:59 consistency.  After rolling through the ten mile mark in 63:43, she finished up in 84:46.  While a bit shy of her goal, she was still 8th out of 3,904 women....a pretty darn good finish, wethinks.        

Byrnes ran a solid 3:30:00 in the marathon, and quite honestly, we wonder how she did that so exactly.  Did she pause at the finish line and perfectly time her crossing of it?  Averaging 8:01/mile, Jess was 194 out of 2343 female finishers!

Look for Nationals Overview This Week

Next weekend is the grand finale of the spring season: the 2013 USATF Club National Championships.  Why is this important?

It's gonna be a three-team showdown between the GSTC, Central Park Track Club, and Shore Athletic Club for the team title, and....we'll tell ya all about it in a few days!  It's so important it will get its own email!

Jones Runs 10k in Boston

Instead of reporting on this through the normal paraphrasing, it's really just better to copy and paste Prudence Jones' email- for reasons you'll see in a moment.

"Ran the BAA 10k today in Boston in 1:08:26 (about 10 min slower than my PR). The reason for the slow time was heat/humidity--I realized about a mile in that there was no possibility of a PR today so I decided to save my legs for track workout tomorrow. alternate story: I took it really slow because I wanted to be sure Lelisa Desisa beat me because he was being so nice in giving his marathon medal to the people of Boston. At any rate, it was a wonderful day in Boston and the whole event was really well coordinated (although the bag check didn't hold a candle to what GSTC did in May)."

 

Steady Striders and Couch to 5k
Thanks to Coach Chuck Schneekloth for leading the track practice for the steady striders and couch to 5k runners!  This coming weekend the group will meet for two different runs: Saturday in Monmouth County and Sunday in Somerset County.  All GSTC members are welcome to join us for a run!
The Steady Striders will meet to run at 9am Saturday, June 29th, at Tatum Park, in Middletown (Monmouth County) and will meet in the parking lot off of Holland Road (144 Holland Road).  For a map and more information about Tatum Park, check out http://www.monmouthcountyparks.com/page.aspx?Id=2538 and http://co.monmouth.nj.us/documents/130/tatum_04_2011.pdf.The
Steady Striders will meet to run at 9:30am Sunday, June 30th, at Colonial Park, in Franklin Township (Somerset County) and we will assemble inparking lot D off of Colonial Drive.  The park has a running trail, a nature path, and also hugs the D&R Canal Tow Path.  For more information aboutColonial Park, or for a park map, respectively, see http://www.somersetcountyparks.org/parksfacilities/colonial/ColonialPark.html  and http://www.somersetcountyparks.org/maps/ColonialParkMap.pdf. 

Tim Morgan Award

It took the USATF-NJ office two months, but they finally updated Jeff Blough's residency verification after Jeff sent them half a dozen emails.  Better late than never, right?

Quotes of the Week

"Wow.  That was impressive.  That was really, really impressive."  -2000 Olympian and 1997 World Championships 800m bronze medalist Rich Kenah, at the President's Cup, during a post-race conversation.  

"I think joining the GSTC was one of the best decisions I ever made."  -new member Angela Dunn via Saturday tweat.  We agree, of course.  

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaay running!"  -Danielle Czohla, via Facebook.  We like her seemingly favorite saying!

"I know I never thought I would be able to reach those times...and it might sound scary but this is the beginning for many of us and for the team overall."  -half miler Ricky Garcia, who came into 2013 with a 1:59 PR in the 800m.  He's dropped six seconds and will be racing this weekend for points in the open 800m and is on the 4x800 team that hopes to win gold in the 2013 USATF Club National Championships.

"I've heard the free beer garden promise before."  -Eric Schneekloth, taking a slight jab at the College Ave Mile, as his older brother tried to lure him to watch the Lager Run on Sunday night.

 

"I'll be there if you need me."  -Dan Teichmann, via text, when hearing the club still needed a racewalker to score points at nationals.  If he can sweat through three miles of walking withot getting a red flag, this will redefine the term "taking one for the team."

"I' m just imagining in a year's time, some stud recruit is sitting in the back seat of the van en route to Rider or something, Anis yapping in his ear, and he's thinking 'this isn't what I expected.'"  -Peter Bolgert, via gchat, talking about the need to revisit how we support athletes in the GSTC Elite Program.  We know this is three quotes having fun with Mr. Anis, but we assure you it's all said in good fun and really just to articulate some important points.