Spartans Track and Cross Country Club

This was the big one; the Finals! 6.4 miles in the turf and dirt. All the hot shots were there, even the mighty Spartans. Wheezer Man had another new tune – a medley of old ‘favorites’. I hated it, but it worked for him – he soon was far ahead of me. Ratty Julious was there, showing great improvement. Obviously, to improve so much so soon, he is using some unsportsmanlike aid. I say we should be competing on just our God given natural abilities; not stoop to enhancements. Julious, you cheater – training! For shame. That’s not natural.

The impressive show was in the men’s open race. One runner immediatley jumped to the front, improving his lead with a sub 5 minute mile pace. We stood and watched; even in our wildest dreams we couldn’t run that pace for any distance. He was ‘only’ an ‘unknown also ran’ in the 5000 at the Olympics. Amazing talent out there. The Spartans wern’t quite as impressive.

A big contingent of 50’s Spartans allowed us to fill down and field a 40’s team as well. The cheer squad was small but fantastic; lead by Carmen, clanging the cow bell and snapping photos. The final results are on the PAUSATF web site, go there to see ALL the results and final standings. Suffice it to say, our best news was that we were there and we had a good time. We scored very well at lunch afterwords. See ya next year…

Jerome

Recent rains made a perfect course and then paused for a great day – sunny, cool and calm and a course that was damp, no dust no mud.

With some fill-in’s from the 50’s, the men’s 40’s team came in 5th out of 6 teams.
DAVID WOODRUFF, 46yrs, 13th in 40’s
BRIAN CONROY, 49, 24
JAMES CUNNINGHAM, 58, 27
JEROME WOEHL, 59, 28
KURT GRAVENHORST, 55, 30
DAVID PRINCE, 46, 31
FRANCISCO VERDUZCO, 54, 32

The men’s 50’s came in 2nd out of 3 teams.
PATRICK BUZBEE, 52, 3
SALVADOR MARTINEZ, 51, 5
PAUL TJOGAS, 51, 9
ART SANCHEZ, 51, 11

The Spartans website site was down for the past few days due to server issues. Most of the information was recovered but not all.

The Discussion section is offline for now. We’re now on a newer, faster, and in many ways a better server.

Sorry for the inconvenience

This race was up in exclusive Marin. China Camp, one of the prettier courses was doubly blessed with beautiful weather. First it makes a flattish mile loop around bayland marshes and then goes in to the hillside oak forest for some tough climbing. Carlos will be glad to hear that our esteemed opponent, Wheezer Man, from the River City Rebels, was there. Hoping to avoid Carlos’ attention, he sang a new tune:

-chorus-
Heyyou!
Heyyou!
Heyyou!
(pause)

-verse one-
Wheet!
(pause)
Blurrrr!
(pause)

-repeat chorus-

-verse two-
Wheet!
(pause)
HEYYAH!
(pause)

Adding to the color was Empire’s Sampson DeFeet. He was found tiptoeing through the tullies; being closely trailed by Cisco. The Spartans were again two men short of filling a 40’s team. In the 40’s were Brian Conroy, hobbling Nick Butterfield, with 50’s Francisco Verduzco filling in. The 50’s team was led by Sal Martinez followed by Paul Tjogas, Art Sanchez and Jerome Woehl. Our lovely, all female cheer team, led by Sacramento Teri and her clanging cow bell, pushed us to spectacular Spartan finishes.

Speedy Spartans shine again! Saturday’s Spartans we were so fleet, we beat the rain and sleet! The highlight of the mens’ race was at the start, when the Santa Clara U cross country ladies lined up at the transition, bearing their svelte tummies with bright red letters spelling out – SANTA KLARA UNIVERSITY. I assume that’s what it said; I couldn’t see much in the crowded start. Before the start, I swear that I saw one girl with a ‘K’ on her tummy, you figure out where that would go; ‘Klara’ was my best guess.

Mending Carlos Sequerios Sr was there to root on Carlos Jr and all us old Spartans. He was seen in so many places along the course, that he must have run farther than any of us. Get on the course, Carlos – you are ready! No lady Spartans were running or cheering. Our dream is to have our lady runners standing there spelling out ‘Spartans’. We could even settle for ‘Sparse’ – that’s more than a ladies team. So far we occasionally have enough for an ‘S’.

Race results are on the Association web site – PAUSATF.org. We all ran well – every Spartan was ahead of someone, thanks to all the over 60 guys that were out there. Dave Woodruff again led the Spartan’s charge, followed Seniors Sal Martinez, Paul Tjogas, Jerome Woehl, Kurt Gravenhorst, LeRoy Dahlan and Francisco Verduzco. Having two more Spartans would have allowed us to score a 40’s team.

Spartan members today came out and ran a great race with the Women’s 5K team taking 1st place and the Men’s 5K team, narrowly missing 1st by 9 seconds, and taking home the 2nd place award. Individually, many members placed and received nice looking trophys.

(Results posted at http://www.zinsli.com/results/weekend.htm)

This was my first race, and I had a great time. Other Spartan members were there as well. Pat, Mike, and Adolfo ran and they all placed! Surprisingly, I also placed!

Mike King: 2 mile; 2nd Overall, 1st in age group.
Pat Buzbee: 2 mile; 1st in age group.
Adolfo Lim: 10K; 17th overall,3rd in age group.
Huy Nguyen: 10K; 20th overall, 3rd in age group.

Pictures are also up; check them out.

Huy