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 4th 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 18th 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 17thrunner overall.
Edi Turco had run the Geek race, finishing solidly in fifth place in 26:55. Today in his 25th 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
