Race Coverage

Speed and Serotonin...

Tuesday, 07 June 2011 03:00

Facebook Photos L - R - Lila Tully (can you believe she's 60!), the incognito Cheryl Zitur & Gabby Keller and Gunther. These girls set some awesome records at Buffalo last Sunday.

Race Coverage Stuff - Sunday was a record-setting day. Warm, without being too hot. Breezy; enough to facilitate evaporation but not enough to slow one down. Clear and sunny; enough to lift spirits of a chronic malcontent....

When field depth is added to these favorable climatey and serotoniny conditions, amazing things can happen, as Dan Hedgecock proved at Pigman Sprint, and Jon Balabuck demonstrated at Buffalo Olympic. Hedgecock's became the only amateur in Pigman's 20-year history to crack the 1:02 mark, something that has been done only by pros (DKT twice.) Pushed by 2010 AOY HMs Patrick Davis (IA) and Patrick Parish, Hedge went where no man, no non-pro man, that is, has gone before. We suspect that a modicum of pain was involved.

Way to go Dan!

From the standpoint of volume-osity, more records fell at Buffalo than at Little Pig, but then, that was a foregone conclusion. Buff's course had been changed, lengthened actually, thus all new overall and AG marks were set. But many of the times were faster, some significantly so, than the old course records. These fast times established new Race Records. Starting with Balabuck's brilliant 1:56:06, which was 1:43 faster than Sam Hauck's old RR, set in 2008, five divisional bests were turned in in the Olympic distance race. Here they are, with the former marks in parentheses.

- 00-19W - Gabby Keller, 19, Maple Grove - 2:38:49 (Previous CR - Sarah Daniels' 2:42:11 in 2007)

- 20-24W - Claire Bootsma, 24, Minneapolis - 2:10:28 (Previous CR - Nordica Stocker's 2:30:13 in 2008)

- 30-34M - Jon Balabuck, 31, Thunder Bay, ONT - 1:56:06 (Previous CR - Dan Cohen's 1:58:40 in 2008)

- 45-49W - Heidi Keller-Miller, 45, Chaska - 2:15:36 (Previous CR - Heidi Keller-Miler's 2:16:55 in 2010) (Keller-Miler also owns 40-44W CR)

- 55-59M - Greg Taylor, 56, Yankton, SD - 2:09:35 (Previous CR - Leonard Klun's 2:20:06 in 2010) (Taylor also owns the 50-54M CR)