Rebels Cross Country Challenge Recap

The Rebels tried to usher us into the 21st century with the recordkeeping and scoring of the race. It was a partial success at best. Chip timing, which is almost ubiquitous at marathons and road races, made its first appearance at a PA cross country event. Also, same day registrants used a computer to complete their entry instead of pen and paper. The first hint that something was amiss came during the Men’s Open race when they announced some of the masters race runners, including our own Steve Radigan as finishing the Open race. I found a number of disparities in the posted results and I am sure there are more. For example:

· I finished just slightly ahead of another runner, probably less than a half a second, yet the next runner is listed eleven seconds behind me.

· Carlos Siquieros Sr. is not listed in the results even though he ran and finished.

· Julius Ratti is shown as finishing two minutes ahead of me.

· Evidently, in the last week since the Empire Open, Nick celebrated three birthdays because his age was listed as 57. Although, maybe Nick is luckier than a Tamalpa runner who had ten years subtracted from his age and is now a Masters runner instead of a Senior competitor.

The results did not list team affiliations for any of the runners, so trying to figure out our team placing was more challenging than usual. I’m fairly certain that our Super Seniors got third, just 3 points behind Buffalo Chips. It looks like Tamalpa was able to scrape together three runners to take first. The Seniors probably finished sixth (but who can be sure), behind Empire, Rebels, Golden Valley Harriers, WVJS and Pamakids. It turns out that we took fifth last week at Empire (better than my initial estimate of sixth) because Pamakids only had three PA registered runners instead of four. Let’s see if they clear that up this week.

Otherwise, the Rebels put on a good race. The course was well marked and there were lots of volunteers to make sure that no one strayed off of the course. The start was not terribly wide, but it was not congested either. The course was more dusty than advertised and footing was a bit dicey and rocky during the first mile. However, the only shade was in the first mile. The course was relatively flat except for the hill at the beginning (and also at the end, since we came back the same way) and a hill at about the 1-1/2 mile mark. They even had a water stop (staffed by the Wheezer) and a Port-a-Potty at the 2-1/2 mile mark. Overall, it is a fast course.

The women’s race was only 5k (instead of the 7k for the men’s races). Their course was the same, except for the out and back portion (in the fourth mile of our race) was deleted from theirs. As I am writing this and trying to recap the women’s race, I just noticed that they have recalled the results from the PA website.

It was a good day for Spartan harriers. Everyone got PR’s for the course. The weather was warm, but not brutally hot. Sal Marquez was our only Masters entrant and first runner to cross the line. The Seniors team was comprised of Nick, Sal Martinez, Art and myself. Super Seniors team was Steve, Kurt, Lino and Cisco. It was good to see Lino out for his inaugural race. It was also good to see Leroy out there cheering for us. He had a medical emergency last Wednesday (the doctors still don’t know exactly what happened) and was not able to run. I know it lifted my spirits before the three mile mark to have Leroy cheering me on.

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