Boston Marathon – Monday April 19:
Former four-time winner of the Boston Marathon, Robert Cheruiyot could not compete this year because of injuries. So who won? Robert Cheruiyot! Well, a different one, from the same region of Kenya, but not related. This Robert Cheriuyot is only 21 years old, but he smashed the course record, by over a minute to finish in 2:05:52. In a decisive move he pulled away from last year’s winner, Deriba Merga in the Newton Hills after the two had broken away from the rest of the elite men. Americans Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighin were fourth and fifth overall. Top Delawarean was Steve Sinko in 2:28:25, 56th overall.

The women’s elite race was the unusual move to the leader breaking from the group in Wellesley, several miles before the hills of Newton where moves are traditionally made. At one point Teyba Erkesso built a 2:15 lead, but it dwindled toward the end as Tatyana Pushkarena closed on her in the last few miles. In the end Erkesso held on to win by three seconds, in 2:26:11. No elite American women entered the field this year and the first American woman was Paige Higgins, who ran 2:36:00.

Here are the times of the participating PCVRC members:
Wes Stafford – 3:15:22
Mike Brown – 3:18:17
Lee Kauffman – 3:22:07
Theresa Kauffman – 3:31:50
Chris James – 3:35:41
Paul Schweitzer – 3:45:19
Paul Nemeth – 3:57:44
Margie Hughes – 3:59:27
Mark Lozier – 4:17:34
Barbara Chelpaty – 4:33:33

Race for Wishes 5K, Think First 5K
Club members Greg Cauller (17:46) and Lynn Knothe (20:09) were the male and female winners of the Race for Wishes 5K.

Club member Epi Camacho was second overall at the Think First 5K in 18:34.

Valley Forge Revolutionary Five Mile Run
Pike Creek Valley Running Club had a group of nine participants in the Valley Forge Revolutionary Five Miler on Sunday. This was a good turnout for Boston Marathon weekend and the club had a good score of 388.757. The club moved up from seventh to fifth in the overall club standings after three events(with the first two combined for one score). However, it is becoming clear that the competition this year is much deeper with twelve teams competing. Since the lowest score is dropped from the final total, even the teams which have missed a race are still in it. In the second chart below, note that the top six teams are all within 15 points of each other.

Here’s a closer look at these teams:
* South Jersey Athletic Club has won the team competition for a number of consecutive years. Several of their top runners were in Boston in past weekend. They will probably score better in coming races.

* Runaway Success, the current leader in competition, was second last year. It is led by Doreen McCoubrie, who won the Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon last year, and Scott Lebo. Both appear to be national class runners.

* Downingtown Running Club, which was fourth last year, is led by another national class runner, Matthew Sandercock and 23 year-old Samantha Howard.

* Bryn Mawr Running Club and Moorestown District Running Project are clubs which are built around running stores. Traditionally this type of club has young fast runners who only show up for a few fast races – the Adrenaline 5K, the Broad Street Ten Miler and the Philadelphia Marathon races. However, according to Robin Jefferis, Long Distance Running Coordinator for MA-USATF, while the young fast runners may only show up occasionally, the clubs intend to field teams for the entire series. This means they won’t run away with the competition, but they’ll be in the mix.

* Greater Phila TC, Rosemont, and Pineland Striders most likely will field teams through the entire competition.

* TNT Racing Int’l Track Club, a new team, was led last weekend by former PCVRC member Kareem Lanier and is composed mostly of people from the Lincoln University area.

* The most intriguing new team is Athena Track Club, which blew away the competition at Valley Forge and is currently in second place. This club was established in 2006, locally based in Southeastern PA, as a national club for masters women and has competed in numerous track and field events. Now, it appears to be attempting to field a team for the Grand Prix series with a very small group of runners. Through three races, the club has only had seven participants: Lorraine Jasper and Julie Hankin, two women who have been on the area running scene for many years, Linka Hawke, another masters runner about equal in ability to those women, the husband and wife duo of Greg Watson, a former professional biathlete and Cecily Tynan, 22 year-old Molly Pritz, who appears extremely talented, and 80 year-old Patrick Nutt from Kennett Square, who is well-known to older area runners. Can this small group continue to field teams through the entire series? Time will tell.

The bottom line is that the MA-USATF Grand Prix series will be the most competitive it’s ever been. The key of PCVRC will be an it’s been in the past – consistency. If the club can continue to field competitive teams through the entire series, it stands a chance of attaining one of the higher club positions when it’s over.

Name – – – – – – Time Age Grade
LOREN JOSHUA WILMINGTON DE 8 26 53 79.417

CAMACHO EPI WILMINGTON DE 46 31 45 79.370
SHUFFLEBARGER FRED UNIONVILLE PA 85 33 54 78.958

COMPTON DEBORAH NEWARK DE 374 41 39 76.150

SIMMONS DANIEL NEWARK DE 140 36 4 74.861

COFFIN DEAN WILMINGTON DE 106 34 47 67.944
DURKIN JAMES ARDMORE PA 662 46 13 64.695
NEILAN CLAIRE NEWARK DE 291 40 5 61.164
SZYMANSKI RICHARD WILMINGTON DE 457 43 3 54.472

CLUB ADR – ROD COMP VFR
Runaway Success 405.322 398.249 803.571
Athena T C 392.656 410.775 803.431
Downingtown RC 404.856 395.931 800.787
Bryn Mawr RC 419.265 377.645 796.910
Pike Creek Vly. RC 402.743 388.757 791.500

South Jersey AC 409.269 379.509 788.778
Greater Phil TC 403.435 372.739 776.174
Rosemont 370.853 368.869 739.722
Moorestown DRP 416.334 321.521 737.855

Pineland Striders 370.855 343.415 714.270
TNT Racing Int’l Track Club
Breakneck T C

The next event in the Off-Road Series is the Triple Crown 10K this Saturday at Carpenter State Park on 896 above Newark. In addition to being part of the series, the event is directed by club member John Mackenzie and benefits area homeless shelters. For more information, go to: http://www.traildawgs.org/

Final Reminder – Boston Send-off Party:
We will again be meeting at the Hunter’s Den, 3517 Old Capitol trail, Wilmington, DE 19808. As always we have this of the last Wednesday evening before the Boston Marathon, this year April 14, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Weekend highlights:
Tom Jermyn was the top masters runner and second overall in the JoJo D’Occhio Fdn. 5K in 17:46

Theresa Kauffman was the overall female winner of the Prompt and Play 5K in 21:01.

Club members at the Garden Spot Marathon and Half-Marathon:
Austin Gee ran a 2:51:29 to finish fourth overall and 1st in the 20-24 age group. Although he had hoped to run closer to 2:45, he siad that there were “more hills than I thought”. (See account below.) Austin also was part of the winning relay team, the Negative Splits, along with Josh Loren and two other men, which finished in the same time of 2:51:29. Essentially the other members of the relay team acted as pacers for Austin.

Dave McCorquodale (me) finished the marathon in 4:20:45, good enough for third in the 65-69 AG. The first finisher in the AG, who is 67, finished in 3:43:56. Ironically the first 60-64 male ran 4:48:18.

Steve Thorpe ran 5:34:07.

Dirk Sweigart ran 1:34:37 in the half-marathon and was first in the 50-54 AG. His first place finish was made possible because top three male masters finishers were all over 50.

Garden Spot as a race venue: These races are located in New Holland, Pa., a mere 45 to 60 minutes from anywhere in Northern Delaware. The races start and finish at the retirement community of Garden Spot Village, a retirement community where Dirk’s parents live. Many of the residents, including Dirk’s father, volunteered for the race. The races occur in beautiful, rolling, Lancaster county, past dozens of Amish farms.

This course has some unique things to experience: After the initial five miles were closed to traffic, the roads were open to traffic, but it was scarce. In fact the Amish buggies, pulled by horses cantering along, were almost as numerous as the cars. This meant that one had to be alert to dodge the small brown mounds left on the road. Occasionally one was greeted by the pungent aromas from where cattle were gathered or from fields with freshly spread manure.

The course featured one major hill, crested twice at mile 5 and mile 22. From the course map, it appeared that in between there weren’t many hills, but course maps are deceptive. In fact, the course constantly rolled with only a few miles of relative flat areas. While I was trying to maintain a pace about 9:30, going downhill from the first crest was such a drop that I ran an 8:36 mile. I commented to the guy next to me that I was going to pay for that on the way back. Sure enough on the equivalent mile returning, I clocked a 12:41 which included several minutes where the slope was too steep to run anymore and I walked.

Then there was the wind. Starting at 12 mph, it picked up after the first hour to constant speeds of 15 mph with gusts of 23 mph. After passing the half-marathon turnaround at about seven and a half miles, suddenly it seemed the runners were more exposed to the wind and constantly running into it for the next seven miles. Then we had the wind at our backs until mile 24 when again we had to run the last two miles into a headwind.

The volunteers were friendly; Good water, Gatorade and gel stops; enough food at the end. I highly recommend this venue as long as you aren’t looking for a PR. The races and relay were capped at a total of 1,100 and are probably going to be limited to that number in the future. Next year this race will occur two weeks earlier because of some construction going on in the area.

LDAF Half Marathon
Results of club members in the LDAF Half-Marathon which took place in Lewes on Sunday:
Adam Shilling 1:30:27 2nd 35-39
Wes Stafford 1:35:57 2nd 45-49
Carole Feole 1:42:43 1st 50-54

Boston Send-off / Spring Party
Not sure how many club members actually are signed up for Boston this year after the early close-out last November. But this get-together is more a welcoming of the spring running season and a good reason to get together to swap running tales and future racing goals. We will again be meeting at the Hunter’s Den, 3517 Old Capitol trail, Wilmington, DE 19808. As always we have this of the last Wednesday evening before the Boston Marathon, this year April 14, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
If you’re not yet a member, join and meet us!

Tyler Arboretum 10K Trail Run – MAUSATF results
Last Saturday Pike Creek Valley Running Club had a team which did well in the Tyler Arboretum 10K Trail Run. It scored 346+ points to finish second among the five teams in the race and it’s currently second overall after two events, trailing Greater Philadelphia Track Club by 20 points. However, the next two teams are close, so this will be an exciting competition this year. The next event in the series will be the Triple Crown 10K Run in Carpenter State Park, Newark. Club member John Mackenzie is the Race Director of this event. So let’s have a great turn-out.

The following club members age-group standings after to events are: Tara Huang, Tied for 1st, open Female; Josh Loren, T4th, Open Male; Tom Jermyn, T1st Masters Male; Tom Steenkamer, 3rd, Grandmasters Male; and fred Shufflebarger, 1st, Seniors Male.

Ray Christensen’s Tyler Arboretum 10K Trail Run recap:

Weather for Saturday’s 10K in Media was a far cry from the warmth of CR weekend. It must have been under 30 degrees for the 9am start, but 360 runners enjoyed a fairly non-technical course through the beautiful park, highlighted by four stream crossings where we had the option of tip-toeing across on stones or splashing through for wet feet. With tech tees, tree seedlings and great food for all runners, it would have been a satisfying morning already. But with Josh, Tom J, Tom S and Fred all placing in their 10 year age groups, our team scored well. Lorri Fencer had a nice run as our all-important lone female runner. We always carpool, so if you’d like so check out some pretty places to run outside of Wilmington, join USATF and become part of our road or trail teams (see http://www.pcvrc.com/gp.php). Don’t worry about speed. That’s what the fast guys are for.

133 56:26 LORRI FENCER 49 60.129
28 44:47 EPI CAMACHO 54 70.822

85 52:02 RAYMOND CHRISTENSEN 48 58.071

13 41:36 TOM JERMYN 47 72.035

4 38:26 JOSH LOREN E M 29 69.904

41 47:25 FRED SHUFFLEBARGER 61 71.036

19 42:54 TOM STEENKAMER 51 72.144

Adrenalin 5K & Caesar Rodney times and USATF results
Pike Creek Valley RC had an excellent turn-out at both of the MA-USATF events held this weekend. The results for the MA-USATF races are printed below. These weekend was unique in that two of the MA-USATF races took place. So for this one-time circumstance, the scores for both events were combined as one event. If a runner competed in both, the higher age-grade was counted if it was among the top five club score; a second score by the same runner in the top five did not count and the next person’s age-grade was used. This combined event yielded 11 teams which qualified, which is most likely the highest number of teams yet competing to score in a MA-USATF event and there were several other teams which did not meet all of the qualifying thresholds.

Currently, after this first event, PCVRC stands sixth out of the eleven scored teams with 402.743 points. Currently in first is new team Moorestown District Running Project with 416+. However, it remains to be seen whether all of these teams will continue to turn out for the series races. Several teams, which appear to be organized around running stores, usually have a good showing at the Adrenaline 5K and, thereafter, participation in the other events is spotty. One new team is the Athena Track Club, comprised of husband and wife, Greg Watson and Cecily Tynan, who were the male and female masters winners of the Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon, plus Julie Hankin and Lorraine Jasper – two good long-time female area runners – and eighty year-old Patrick Nutt. It’s is questionable that this team will stay in the points chase through the series also.

Thanks to all PCVRC participants! Next up is the off-road 10K at the Tyler Arboreteum. The Valley Forge Five Miler is the next Road Series race.

USATF AGE GRADE COMBINED RESULTS
David James – 18:20 86.000 ADR
Epi Camacho – 1:25:54 80.694 ROD
Deborah Compton – 24:12 80.165 ADR
Thomas Steenkamer – 1:26:35 77.998 ROD
Robert Taggart – 22:23 77.885 ADR
Deborah Compton – 1:53:24 76.102 ROD
Theresa Kauffman – 21:22 75.819 ADR
Dirk Sweigart – 19:55 74.059 ADR
Carole Feole – 1:43:18 73.088 ROD
William Kauffman – 1:33:19 72.995 ROD
Theresa Kauffman – 1:39:33 72.359 ROD
Dirk Sweigart – 1:34:16 71.022 ROD
Kelly Horowitz – 1:34:44 70.162 ROD
Dean Coffin – 30:34 69.449 ADR
David McCorquodale – 2:00:38 63.650 ROD
Raymond Christensen – 1:44:01 63.291 ROD
Mudhillun Muqaribu – 1:34:26 62.707 ROD
Connie Montana – 1:56:45 61.085 ROD
Daniel Weintraub – 1:53:32 59.997 ROD
John Schultz – 32:49 59.929 ADR
Michael Peyton – 1:45:55 59.182 ROD
Jack Horowitz – 1:54:26 57.530 ROD
Tara Huang – 1:55:53 56.810 ROD
Ralph McKinney – 29:58 55.951 ADR
John Schultz – 2:44:08 54.478 ROD

Haddonfield (N.J.) Adrenaline 5K
David James – 18:20 1st 55-59
Dirk Sweigart – 19:55
Dean Coffin – 20:34
Theresa Kauffman – 21:22
Bob Taggart – 22:23 2nd 65-69
Deborah Compton – 24:12 1st 60-64
Ralph McKinney – 29:45
John Schultz – 32:49 3rd 70+

Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon
(used band time, not gun time, mainly so I wouldn’t have a time over 2 hrs)
Mark Vilardo – 1:12:05 1st 35-39 4th Overall
Thomas Steenkamer – 1:26:35
Adam Shilling – 1:32:04
Wes Stafford – 1:33:39
Dirk Sweigart – 1:34:10
Chris James – 1:34:24
Kelly Horowitz – 1:34:31
Ryan German – 1:34:42
Theresa Kauffman – 1:39:31 3rd 45-49
Dan Simmons – 1:40:10 3rd 60-64
Tony Chelpaty – 1:42:02
Carole Feole – 1:43:14 3rd 50-54
Dave Farren – 1:43:21
Ray Christensen – 1:43:44
Epi Camacho – 1:47:54
Claire Neilan – 1:49:33
John Hand – 1:50:57
Lorri Fencer – 1:51:09
Deborah Compton – 1:53:16 2nd 60-64
Dan Weintraub – 1:53:24
Jack Horowitz – 1:53:54
Mark Lozier – 1:54:50
Tara Huang – 1:55:33
Connie Montana – 1:55:53
Florian Nettlesheim – 1:57:00
Dave McCorquodale – 1:59:42 2nd 65-69
Bruce Hubbard – 2:01:47
Elena Kupchik – 2:07:24
Rudy Antonini – 2:13:36
Lenora Wagner – 2:23:47
Jerry Herman – 2:30:14
John Schultz – 2:43:31

Caesar Rodney Teams with Pike Creek runners (accumulated time of top five finishers):
Rebel Pikers – 3rd Male Open – 8:40:56
Rebel Creekers – 1st Female Open – 8:56:08

Join us at Boston Send-off Party 4/14
Not sure how many club members actually are signed up for Boston this year after the early close-out last November. But this get-together is more a welcoming of the spring running season and a good reason to get together to swap running tales and future racing goals. We will again be meeting at the Hunter’s Den, 3517 Old Capitol trail, Wilmington, DE 19808. As always we have this of the last Wednesday evening before the Boston Marathon, this year April 14, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

DE Sports Club Boston Bus
From Tom Fort: Delaware Sports Club’s Boston Bus Trip – We have about 10 seats left on the Boston Bus. We are relaxing the requirements in order to fill the seats. At this point, any one can join us and take in the Boston Marathon celebration. The only limit, we do not want bandits. Please contact Doug White for more information or to make a reservation. 302-588-4880 First come- first served.

Josh wins Catalina!
An item overlooked in the last bulletin: Congratulations to Josh Loren who won the Catalina Marathon on Catalina Island, California. This is a race run on gravel surfaces with constant elevation changes. Everyone describes the scenery as breathtaking. Josh won in a time of 3:02:04, bettering the second finisher by two and a half minutes.

Broad Street Run closing soon
Ralph McKinney reports that online registration for the Broad Street Run 10 Miler to be held on May 2 will probably close by next Thursday. However, it will still be possible to do mail-in registration.

Rome Marathon PCVRC runners
Congratulations to Tricia and Rich Szymanski for completing the Rome Marathon. Trish set a PR with a 4:40:38 time, while Rich finished in 5:17:03, which, according to club prez Ray is “a great time for his training plan”.

Trish’s recap:
Quick recap…. was warm! started out sunny and the warmest day so far but got overcast later on so that was good. NO toilet paper, before, during or AFTER the race in their toi toi (port o pots)…UGH! not sure how many people ran, but it was many more than i thought. it took us over 10 minutes to reach the start. rich and i ran together for the first 10, he kept telling me to leave him but was fine staying w- him until he just said go…so did try to make up time and got negative splits too..woo hoo. but i paid for it in teh end,,the last couple of miles were a struggle….

great medal, and very organized, and rich came in at 517, great time considering the no training! he was not that miserable either. omgosh..the wine here is amazing…!! and cheap!! the first night we got a couple bottles of wine, cheese and crackers and sat on the spanish steps and drank all night. of course, by then, only my sister and i were there..um..well, we couldnt find our way back to ourhotel…despite it being one block from spanish steps..ok..the wine was really good ok!!

Board members and coordinator positions
President Ray Christensen announces that Josh Loren will be joining the PCVRC board and will be our Training Coodinator. Bob Taggart, who has served many years as the club Treasurer before Joel Schiller assumed that role this year, has resigned from the board.

Ray is also looking for people to fill the following position, which do not require the person to be a part of the board: As of now, open positions are Charity liaison, Volunteer coordinator, Sponsorship coordinator, (2) FB Group administrators, PR/publicity coordinator – and possibly “Walking coordinator”. Ray and the rest of the board will help define any role that any member is interesting in assuming. Contact Ray at:

Volunteers needed for Logan House 5K
Wayne Kursh is looking for volunteers to help at registration at the Kelly’s Logan House 5K this Sunday. In exchange, he will give one free race entry per volunteer. So a non-running person could volunteer and a running spouse or friend could be in the race or the volunteer could also run the race. Contact Wayne at: .

UD Tuesday Track Workouts
For anyone interested in the Tuesday night track workouts at the University of Delaware, here is an attachment with the schedule. All workouts will now be outside: See Schedule