patty murray

Well, I say "dismal", and all the other Ric Rojas runners are all laughing at me as usual, because I won my age group (and a $20 voucher from the Boulder Running Company).

In fact Pat Parkhill didn't even wait until she knew what time I'd done before asking Abby, "Has he got the whips and chains out yet?"

As a miler I'm still savoring Patty's big sub 5 minute mile equivalent 1500 meter race at the world masters championships in Italy. Going in it was clear the eventual winner Corrine would most likely be untouchable. Corrine is an outstanding athlete who took home 4 gold medals (800,1500,5000 and cross country) with excellent times in all 4 events. Patty just may have challenged Zofia from Poland for 2nd had she made her move just a little bit earlier. Nonetheless the race and especially the finish offered high drama and excitement for this photographer.

It's midnight by the sea in Riccione, in Italy's Adriatic riviera, but guess who's too excited to sleep...

Patty Murray just got the bronze in the women's 40-44 age group world championship, running out of her socks at sub-5-minute mile pace -- the fastest she's run since high school, 25 years ago. What an inspiration!

Ooo, I'm so proud today!

Patty just emailed from Italy to say she DID win the silver in the 5k -- you couldn't tell from the weird way the world masters championships organizers post the results, and the slightly weird way these races were run.

My training partner and YourRunning.com blogger writes from Riccione:

"The 5000 was a final -- they had a slow heat and a fast heat. I was in the fast heat with two Belgians ranked under 17:00 and I pushed the last mile with a final 75-second quarter to pass one of the Belgians, so I did get the silver medal.

Many of our best masters runners are currently in Riccione, Italy, for the world championships.

News so far... my erstwhile training partner Patty Murray finished a storming second in her heat of the 5000 metres. Looks like she's sucessfully recovered from injury, but may not have the legs to challenge the Belgian Corinne Debaets who is running in a different class, the only woman under 17 minutes. But Patty is second fastest of the lot so far by a comfortable margin, so fingers crossed there is a medal on...

Here I am celebrating one mile run around 5:30 pace and my favourite training partner, Patty Murray, is stringing three of them together to produce an astonishing 17:03 5k!
3 x 5:30 miles plus a bit, in 80 degree temperatures on a hilly course!

Patty was running the Freihofers Run for Women race in New York. "I really wanted to break 17 but couldn't quite do it", she said. She was 15th overall, third in the Masters race, but first US Master -- there was a Canadian and a Russian ahead of her.

Two big stories for me to come out of the Carlsbad 5000 today (Sunday)...

first, Henry Rono served notice that it's not all talk and he really is serious about his comeback, with a storming 17:48 in his first major race since, well... forever. The former three times world record holder was second in his age group behind the man who remains The Man to beat: 57-year-old Nolan Shaheed, who covered 5k in an astonishing 16:31.

Second, comiserations to my training partner Patty Murray, who ran a fantastic 17:05 in the masters women's race and lost the race by just TWO seconds!

Henry got a lot of positive media coverage praising his reinvention of himself as a world-class runner, this time as an age-group masters champion. However, a little puzzling was the mention of Henry's attack on the 4:40 world mile record for 55-year-old men, which some are saying he has scheduled for September at the World Masters Championships in Riccione, Italy. These being regular track and field title events, there is no mile race, just a 1500 metres.

I've been training on my own too long.

Met up with Patty early this morning for our first run together for months. It's been so long that in the meantime she's become a US Masters national cross-country champion and clocked a near national record indoor 1500. Like I said, I knew her when she was nothing :)

My last few months have been "comparatively unsuccessful" (heh heh), to the point that I was beginning to suspect that the virus and low iron stores double-whammy had damaged my heart muscle. Or something. Because as well as feeling tired a lot of the time, I've been unable to get my heart rate up past 70% of max level, making "threshold" training runs a bit of a joke.

Good choice, Boulder Race Series!

Announcing the dates for 2007 with a revamped webpage, the organizers have chosen a "classic" picture of the start of the Beauty and Beast section of the Pearl Street Mile.
That's men over 50 and women over 40.

See the Pearl Street picture "here. Can
you can spot your Enthusiast-in-chief in the line of straining geezers?

Hint: I led the race from the gun for the first 400m before my miling mate Kyle and Colleen de Reuck took over, so don't look at the back! Yes, I "died" and was hanging on bravely (so I thought) until Patty Murray (also visible at the start) came past at a flat-out sprint and really put me in my place.