No Excuses 5Km
Barbara Miller shows winning form at last month's Zoo Zoom. (SRN Photo)
Each Memorial Day, Land Park is abuzz with with runners for the popular, age-graded, No Excuses 5Km. There are the usual suspects up at the front of the pack (Styczynski, Schenck, Fadling, Myers, Cruz, etc.), but the real stars of this race are a few minutes back.
The age grading format gives those runners who are precocious or durable a chance to shine.
A couple of years ago, the official race shirt had a list of popular excuses on its back. One of those excuses was “I’m not Barbara Miller.”
If you’ve been around the local racing scene for any time at all, you’ll understand the point: Barbara Miller, even now at 72, is remarkably fast.
“How fast is she?” you may ask. Miller’s chip time in the No Excuses 5Km was 23:43, which gives her an age-graded time of 13:07!
Other age graded notables include Janice Kesterson, 58, whose 20:13 chip time translates to an age graded 13:52, and Jacob Nur, 54, who ran a 17:52 for an age graded 15:08.
A precociously speedy Sophia Karperos, 10, ran 20:03 for an age graded 15:09, while Mike Ammon, 67, ran 20:14 for an age graded 15:17.
Impressively, Mike Fadling, 44, and Mason Myers, 43, finished 3rd and 4th in the overall results (16:41 and 16:47) and also finished 6th and 7th in the age graded results (15:19 and 15:30, respectively).
Additionally, Kristen Soloway, 38, was first female in the overall results with 18:20 and finished 8th overall in the age graded results with an age-graded time of 15:37.
In the non-age graded results, the overall winner was Mike Styczynski who finished in 16:01. The second finisher was Steve Schenck in 16:28, and third was Michael Fadling in 16:41.
The first female finisher was Kristen Soloway with 18:20. The second woman was Stacey Worthen in 18:59, and the third female finisher was Chase Worthen (yes, Stacey’s daughter) with a 19:46.
Complete results are here.