Two Raptor winners at Mt. Eden "Run to the Lake"

Post date: Jan 21, 2013 2:55:52 AM

July 8, 2012

Well, okay there were two actual age-group winners and technically Nolan didn't win anything. But he did quite well. So yes it was another stellar Raptors day! The alarm went off at at about 6:15 and the first thing I noticed was that it was already light outside. Wow! Who would have guessed? Certainly not moi, who usually rolls out closer to um . . . maybe nine! The ride down was the usual easy Sunday morning journey due to the lack of people. I always get just a bit of that "Was there a nuclear war and nobody told me?" feeling since we are all so used to the roads being packed.

I easily found our crew at the signup area and we headed off to the start. Jared and Nolan were already lined up at the front and I convinced both Krisna and Isabelle to move waaaay up so they didn't get hindered by slow runners and walkers.

This race is always well-organized and sure enough the runners were set loose pretty much as scheduled. Just after the start I ran into the old Berkeley HS distance coach, Brian Bort. Brian left BHS last year to return to his old private HS in St. Louis to coach track and XC. He felt he had been promoted too fast at BHS and needed some time with an older, more experienced guide and mentor. That can be called dedication, huh? Anyway, he's back and will be coaching again at BHS, starting tomorrow! This is great news for Bay Area running in general since he is a great coach and always has new, fun ideas!

As the 5K finishers began to arrive, the first Raptors finisher was Nolan. . .in second place overall!

Where is third place?

Nolan has won this event outright for the past two years but he had a bit less time to train this year since he was involved with some minor activities like graduating form Albany HS and getting into college (University of Oregon! Congrats, Nolan!). Even given all those distractions he finished a huge distance ahead of 3rd place!

Isabelle at the finish. First place and suave as ever. Can women be suave?

Our next Raptor was. . . Isabelle! in an excellent 25:21. She was followed in short oder by Krisna in 25:42. Krisna scored a fine seventh in his age group and Isabelle scored her first major road-race victory by winning her age group! Way to go girl!!!

Krisna puts on his sprint.

After that, attention turned to the 10K, which was won in a rather remarkable 32 minutes. That's a fast time for a local race, especially given the hilly nature of the Mt. Eden 10K course. Soon though, Jared came into view, putting on his usual super-fast ending kick. Need I even mention that he decimated his age group and won yet again. Well, he did! Jared was followed by Sarah who also had a strong kick, refusing to let the woman behind her catch up.

Jared took eleven mimutes off his PR for this course!

After the kids picked up their awards (medals with blue ribbons look so nice don't they?), Gary, Jared, Krisna, Isabelle, Dave and I repaired to the local Carrows. All the kids ordered these large platters of food. I was thinking "No way these little people can eat all that." They did! Well, okay, I finished Krisna's last pancake!

The winnahs!