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(February 27th, 2003)
4x800m relay
This event was a late addition to the
program tonight, as it is the opportunity for two teams from the
Central Park Track Club to go after certain age-group records.
The team of Paul Groce, Chris Potter, Glen Carnes and
Armando Oliveira were aiming for the American record for Men
35-39 of 8:51.09 (2:12 average). The team of Kim Mannen,
Darlene Miloski, Sue Pearsall and Stacy Creamer were
aiming for the World and American record for Women 35-39 of 10:29.15
(2:37 average).
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01 There were seven teams in this relay event.
Five of the teams were formed from various members of the Central
Park Track Club. Our lead-off runners were Adam Manewell,
Kira Morser, Paul Groce, Kim Mannen and
Isaya Okwiya.
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02 Boom! And they are off and running ...
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03 Leading the race is Isaya Okwiya, followed
closely by Paul Groce. Coming around the bend are
Kim Mannen followed closely by Kira Morser
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04 Kim Mannen followed by Kira Morser
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41 Adam Manewell, Kim Mannen, Kira Morser
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05 Isaya Okwiya and Paul Groce
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06 Kira Morser about to pass Kim Mannen
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07 Paul Groce hands off to Chris Potter,
just behind Craig Chilton
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08 Kim Mannen hands off to Darlene Miloski
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09 Darlene Miloski followed by Chris
Potter and Craig Chilton. Coach Devon Martin
is checking her watch behind them.
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10 Alexandra Horowitz followed Kira
Morser
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42 Alexandra Horowitz, Craig Chilton, Chris Potter
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11 Frank Handelman ready to receive from
Craig Chilton, and Glen Carnes from Chris Potter
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12 Darlene Miloski
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13 Glen Carnes and Frank Handelman
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14 Alexandra Horowitz hands off to Ana
Echeverri
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15 Sue Pearsall swings by the cheering
Jerome O'Shaughnessy
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16 Glen Carnes
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43 Glen Carnes, Frank Handelman
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44 Ana Echeverri
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17 Sue Pearsall
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18 Sue Pearsall
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19 Armando Oliveira
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20 Sue Pearsall
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21 Armando Oliveira approaches the finish
line, with Sid Howard recording the time. Yes,
they broke the American record.
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22 Sue Pearsall hands off to Stacy Creamer
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23 Stacy Creamer, with announcer Ian
Brooks
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24 Stacy Creamer, passing a teammate
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25 Stacy Creamer crosses the finish line.
Yes, they broke the world record. Please observe that
the required three timers were present for record purposes.
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45 Alexandra Horowitz reviews the split
sheets with her teammates
RECORD-BREAKING RELAY TEAMS
RELAY REPORT (from the Journal, 2/28/2003)
The night began with a large number
of heats in the mile race. We had seventeen entries among
the hundreds of milers. Yet, somehow, this fourth and last
meet of the series was not as exciting as the previous ones.
One major reason was that our attention was turned to our main
event, the 4x800m. And after the relay, the interest seemed
to have waned for the rest of the evening.
The 4x800m relay was a late addition to the program. There
were seven teams entered in the race, of which five were composed
of Central Park Track Club members. The addition of this
event, which was going to take just over 10 minutes to complete,
provided the opportunity for two of our teams to go after some
records in the book.
You all know by now that our two teams did break those records.
Record-breaking events like these happened not by chance, but
through careful planning. It must have all begun some time
ago when coach Devon Martin began to read the record book
and compared the listed records against the current personnel.
There may be some 'soft' records in the book, and we may have
some obvious candidates. To arrive at a team of four runners,
it may be necessary to identify, persuade or otherwise cajole
others who may be running the first track race of their lives.
Then it becomes a matter of preparing the teams with warm-up races.
For the men 35-39 team, the American record was 8:51.9, which
worked out to be 2:12 pace on the average. During this indoor
season, we have these results for our four runners: Paul Groce,
2:05.0 at the last Thursday Night At The Races; Chris Potter,
2:07.83 at the NY Elite Invitational; Glen Carnes, 2:11.0
at the second Thursday Night At The Races; Armando Olivera,
56.8 at 400m at the first Thursday Night At The Races, 55.4 at
400m at the second Thrusday Night At The Races, 3:09.84 at 1200m
at the Armory Collegiate Invitational, 4:08.4 at 1500m at the
MAC Last Chance Meet and 4:27.81 at the mile at the NY Elite Invitational.
All these times are faster than the required 2:12 average pace.
For the women 35-39, the world record was 10:29.15 (2:37 average)
and the American national club record was 11:01.44 (2:45 average).
During the indoor season, we have these results for our four runners:
Kim Mannen, 2:24.7 at the last Thursday Night At The Races;
Darlene Miloski at 2:40.0 at the last Thursday Night At
The Races and 2:40.65 at the MAC Last Chance Meet; Sue Pearsall
at 2:44.0 at the second Thursday Night At The Races and 2:45.4
at the third Thursday Night At The Races; Stacy Creamer
at 2:39.0 at the previous Thursday Night At The Races. Before
the race, it would appear that the American national club record
was easily within reach but the world record would come down to
a matter of seconds. As a technical note, Stacy Creamer
is 43-years-old, but the USATF rules permit relay records from
mixed age-groupers whereby the team is assigned the age group
of the youngest runner. This is premised upon the sad, often
but not always true fact the older you get, the slower you run
(or, in Jack Brennan lingo, the faster you used to run).
We have several people taking 200m splits for all the teams, which
can be framed into a 'running' commentary on the race.
For the men, we have
Paul Groce, 30.09, 1:00.17, 1:30.95, 2:03.31
Chris Potter, 28.66, 1:00.61, 1:34.19, 2:08.37
Glen Carnes, 30.65, 1:02.91, 1:35.91, 2:11.37
Armando Oliveira, 27.28, 56.50, 1:28.68, 2:04.82
For the women, we have
Kim Mannen, 34.5, 1:10.4, 1:43.9, 2:27.1
Darlene Miloski, 36.5, 1:14.1, 1:54.4, 2:34.9
Sue Pearsall, 39.6, 1:20.1, 2:02.2, 2:43.2
Stacy Creamer, 37.6, 1:17.0, 1:56.5, 2:38.3
For the men, there would in fact be little suspense as every runner
was expected to and did deliver the better-than-target pace.
The American record was taken down from 8:51.09 to 8:28.3.
For the women, we used our fastest runner Kim to build a big cushion
in the first leg and then our second runner Darlene came through
with a big-time effort that was 5 seconds faster than her season
best so far. By the third leg, the suspense was removed.
The world record was taken down from 10:29.15 to 10:23.5.
For both teams, there was a 'youthful' exuberance effect as when
the runners started out too fast and paid dearly at the end.
We believe that if these people get another opportunity this season,
they will better those records through better pacing. They
may get another chance at the Front Runners Track Meet in a few
weeks' time.
The eight runners on this team are home-grown products in the
sense that we did not recruit an all-star team for this purpose.
Some of these people joined our club with aspirations of running
marathons before we straightened them out. In the case of
Kim Mannen, it took many years of lobbying and it was only
until she threw up six times during her last marathon in Houston
that she saw the light. Their accomplishments tonight were
therefore all the more sweeter. In the case of Stacy
Creamer, she could not have imagined this moment when she
joined us in 1987 and not even over all those years since until
the idea was proposed to her recently.
As we told you, this race had five Central Park Track Club teams.
Among the other three teams, there were also some very fast runners
(Isaya Okwiya, Craig Chilton, Adam Manewell, Kira Morser
(who became our 6th all-time best 800m runner after tonight),
Alexandra Horowitz, to name a few). And of course
anyone familiar with our team would wonder just where Charlotte
Cutler, Devon Martin, Jessica Reifer,
Evan Zeisel, David Epstein, Oliver Martinez
and company were. But on this night, those other runners
did not get a chance to set records because of age-group/nationality
requirements and/or resting for the distance medley relays at
the USATF National Indoor Championships this Sunday. We
began this report by saying that these records come opportunistically
due to the presence of the right personnel on the right occasion.
But those opportunities would not be realized without the depth
and organization (which means, especially, coach Devon Martin)
of this club.
MILE RACE
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