Kensington 8K

By James Moreland
Kensington, MD
September 24, 2011
For the Washington Running Report

Julie Sapper finishes fourth overall.

Walking down Fawcett Avenue in old town Kensington towards the start of the race, two young kids were talking about the race. One said, “There must be a thousand runners here today,” “No way,” replied the older one. She was wrong and the little boy was right. The event has three parts and three different starts off the circular Carroll Place. At 7:45 a.m. close to five hundred 2 mile walkers and runners headed south around the circle. At 8:30 a.m., the main event 8K bolted from the south side of the Noyes Library toward Connecticut Avenue. They would cross the finish line for the first time at just less than a half mile. Three minutes after they got under way, the 1K fun run charged after them from the north side of the library.

Nearly everyone was in a good mood on the cool but humid morning for the first racing weekend of the fall. There were a couple of the hundreds of young runners that got overwhelmed by the pressure but all the fun runners collected a beaded necklace at the finish. Dry your eyes and keep on running. The rain rumored to be done around ten, missed the event entirely.

Many of the runners had run the Run! Geek! Run! 8K last week in West Potomac Park. All of them found the 4^th mile hill on East Bexhill that climbed parallel to the Mormon Temple Hill shut out any possibly of matching last week’s time. The race in its 18^th year also had many returning runners. Perhaps the most often seen face is women’s winner Cindy Conant, 50, of Kensington, MD. She admitted to knowing the course very well. After all she had run the race every year since at least 2002. She moved up to fifth in 2004 and after that never finished lower than second overall, winning in 2006 as well. This year when she won it all again was her fastest time of any of those years as she dipped under 32 to finish in 31:59. That was 17^thrunner overall.

Edi Turco had run the Geek race, finishing solidly in fifth place in 26:55. Today in his 25^th race since Memorial Day he battled Gareth Alberto and Steven Moore through most of the flat first three miles. By the time he charged past the starting line at 4.5 miles he knew he had the win. The final 100 meters up Armory Drive he weaved back and forth waving to the crowd. Alberto had a closer battle and charged through in 27:56 just ahead of Moore’s 28:04. Keith Freeburn has not been racing a long time so he did not know that he was supposed to slow down on a hilly course and nearly matched his Geek time with a very solid 28:53.

After Conant finished there was a bit of a wait by the next three women rushed in like a fast conga line, behind each other but weaving up and back in an effort to change places. Trish Stone, 36, held the runner-up spot and ahead of Sandra Bonilla, 35, by three seconds 32:47 to 32:50. Fourth place Julie Sapper, 39, of Rockville was tops in her division.

While eight of the top nine women were from Kensington or Rockville, many runners came from as far away as Richmond (70-74 age group winner Mary Kate Berglund confessed that she has family in Kensington) and Fayetteville, PA, home of 79-year-old Bob Archibald. The oldest finisher in the race was Eileen Hobsongarcia, 81, who was joined by a contingency also from San Pedro, CA.

There race awards go three deep in ten year age groups but first there was a top master. Jean Christophe Arcaz had been at the race for the last six years. Often he finished just close enough to touch the shoulder of Ted Poulos just ahead of him. Always both of them finished faster than 29:00. This year Arcaz, now 50, gutted out the final yards to hold off Dan‘imal’ Murphy (left) 29:43 to 29:58 to win fifth overall and the top master award. Last year he had been fifth in 28:54 with Poulos tops in 28:51 and Murphy winning second age group in 29:26.

The top women master after Conant’s overall victory was Kris Barner, 46 of Rockville in 36:44. After that there were some amazing age group times. The grandmaster women were all just 50, led by Sushila Nanda. Nanda has 14 age group victories since Memorial Day. For the men Roland Rust, 59, is taking his last few races in the fifties very serious, putting all the younger grandmasters away with a marvelous 31:09. Alice Franks put away the 60-69 women by more than a mile in 40:43. She gave us a pretty smile and said humbly something like, ‘The times aren’t very fast but after all we are just running for fun.’

Fourth place Keith Freeburn proudly noted that his mother Susan finished third in her division. Skip Grant, 76 of Washington, DC  ran an amazing 40:53 to top his division.

Before, during, and after the races Poison Ivy was the band playing music in the adjoining park.

                   Awards Listing (No Duplicate Prizes)
FEMALE
Place Num   Name                Ag City                  Time    
===== ===== =================== == ===================== ======= 
    1   114 Cindy Conant        50 Kensington MD           31:59 
    2   487 Trish Stone         36 Kensington MD           32:47 
    3    61 Sandra Bonilla      35 Kensington MD           32:50 
MALE
Place Num   Name                Ag City                  Time    
===== ===== =================== == ===================== ======= 
    1   517 Edi Turco           38 Arlington VA            27:41 
    2    13 Gareth Alberto      32 Annandale VA            27:56 
    3   348 Steven Moore        33 Kensington MD           28:04 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 99
    1    42 Kris Barner         46 Rockville MD            36:44 

MALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 99
    1    24 Jean-Christophe Arc 50 Rockville MD            29:43 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  1 - 12
    1   757 Adriana Rosas       11 Silver Spring MD        38:33 
    2   253 London Kazor         2 Kensington MD           44:52 
    3    80 Jordan Bryon        12 Alexandria VA           49:44 
    4   133 Maddie Deye         12 Kensington MD           53:50 

MALE AGE GROUP:  1 - 12
    1   134 Brian Diamond       12 Bethesda MD             43:07 
    2    83 Andrew Burklow      12 Kensington MD           45:35 
    3   476 Kemper Stearns      11 Kensington MD           46:50 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  13 - 19
    1   496 Taylor Swift        17 Rockville MD            33:33 
    2    92 Sarah Caggiano      13 Bethesda MD             36:58 
    3   265 Charlotte Kirwan    17 Bethesda MD             38:25 

MALE AGE GROUP:  13 - 19
    1   236 Mark Jacobson       15 Rockville MD            31:32 
    2   266 Lewis Kirwan        13 Bethesda MD             33:29 
    3   100 Kasey Carroll       13 Bethesda MD             34:41 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  20 - 29
    1   169 Miranda Forte       26 Gaithersburg MD         35:54 
    2   567 Chelsea Gibson      22 Bethesda MD             37:04 
    3    37 Briana Balsam       27 Gaithersburg MD         38:02 

MALE AGE GROUP:  20 - 29
    1   637 Micheal Fizdale     23 Bowie MD                31:44 
    2   151 Alex Emery          23 Rockville MD            32:11 
    3   331 Chris McGrath       23 Burtonsville MD         32:21 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  30 - 39
    1   739 Julie Sapper        39 Rockville MD            32:53 
    2   127 Anne Delp           36 Kensington MD           35:36 
    3   257 Ellen Kennedy       39 Kensington MD           36:40 

MALE AGE GROUP:  30 - 39
    1   173 Keith Freeburn      37 Centreville VA          28:53 
    2   754 Marco Rosas Galicia 36 Silver Spring MD        30:01 
    3   610 Daniel Shanley      37 Chevy Chase MD          31:45 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 49
    1   170 Lisa Fox            41 Bethesda MD             37:25 
    2    11 Ann Adkinson        42 Chevy Chase MD          39:20 
    3   582 Beth Krupinski      44 Kensington MD           40:47 

MALE AGE GROUP:  40 - 49
    1   352 Dan Murphy          47 Bethesda MD             29:57 
    2    22 Matt Anderson       45 Fairfax VA              31:06 
    3    21 Mark Anderson       45 Burtonsville MD         31:11 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  50 - 59
    1   359 Sushila Nanda       50 Arlington VA            37:07 
    2   628 Patty Tschideser    50 Chevy Chase MD          39:02 
    3   627 Babby Landon        50 Chevy Chase MD          40:55 

MALE AGE GROUP:  50 - 59
    1   431 Roland Rust         59 Bethesda MD             31:09 
    2   737 Peter Cini          53 Fairfax VA              31:28 
    3   393 David Pinnick       54 Manassas VA             33:14 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  60 - 69
    1   171 Alice Franks        63 Rockville MD            40:33 
    2   111 Vallerie Codrington 60 Lanham MD               48:43 
    3   174 Susan Freeburn      60 Kensington MD         1:00:13 

MALE AGE GROUP:  60 - 69
    1   110 Joe Coblentz        61 Silver Spring MD        42:19 
    2    74 Pim Brouwers        63 Silver Spring MD        45:51 
    3   303 Alan Madison        62 Gaithersburg MD         46:35 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  70 - 79
    1    49 Mary Kate Berglund  70 Richmond VA             57:19 
    2   765 Jamie Wollard       73 Rockville MD          1:11:53 

MALE AGE GROUP:  70 - 79
    1   619 Skip Grant          76 Chevy Chase MD          40:51 
    2   498 Nils Borje Tallroth 70 Bethesda MD             48:12 
    3    25 Bob Archibald       79 Fayetteville PA         48:51 

FEMALE AGE GROUP:  80 - 99
    1   223 Eileen Hobsongarcia 81 San Pedro CA          1:30:57 

MALE AGE GROUP:  80 - 99
    1   333 Jack McMahon        80 Silver Spring MD        49:27