Once again a Brazen Race is "Raptors Country."

Post date: Nov 21, 2012 6:47:06 AM

April 2011

Other than the pesky guy from Los Gatos, the Raptors dominate the Brazen Wildcat Run.

Today we had most of our fast "old" faces racing (other than Annabel, who was sorely missed and wanted to be there) but the limelight shifted to a group of new (not to Raptors but to Brazen races) youth runners from our club.

Jacob and Claire at the start. This narrow section led directly to the first of many killer hills.

First event off was the 10K. When that was all over, Jake Sarasohn, in his first 10K simply ran away (no pun intended, honest) with his age group, finishing twelfth overall and almost nine minutes ahead of the next youth runner. And who was that runner? Claire, who took first in her age group! Claire was a whopping eight minutes ahead of the next youth runner of either gender! So, just to um. . . put this in perspective, Jake was seventeen minutes ahead of the first non-Raptor kid! Sheesh! This club shows no mercy. Adding to the "hardware haul" was Claire's Dad, Tarq, who took third in his age group!

Claire finishes her first 10K. looking chipper and relaxed as ever.

So that was petty spectacular but we also had a bunch of runners in the 5K. How did that go? Well, out of nowhere came Andy, whom I don't think has ever run a long race with the Raptors. He blasted off the line, never looked back and finished third overall, beating the next closest Raptor (Max, who also ran a great race, but made a wrong turn on the course) by three and a half minutes! Andy also beat the fourth place overall runner by almost a minute. And yes, these were serious adults he was racing against. Adding to the unreal quality of all this was the fact that, even finishing third overall, Andy was only second in his age group. The equally awesome kid that runs for Los Gatos (Alex Sokol) finished second overall. The adults in these races must be getting really depressed!

The Raptors explode off the line!

Following Max to the line were fellow Raptors Jamie (who also ran a great race in the new racing flats he had just inherited from Max, who outgrew them. In only his second 5K, Jamie was tenth overall, giving the Raptor's kidsthree in the top ten!) and Nikhil, who finished second in his age group. Also having an excellent finish was Andy's dad Maury. Maury had managed to pick the hardest Brazen race for his Raptors competition debut, but, undaunted, he powered to a 23rd place finish and only missed getting third in his age group by three seconds. If you factor in the one-minute "pit stop" Maury took on the course. . . it would have been third easily! So we had two amazing father/child runs in the club today.

The gang, minus Tarq. Eventually we will get everyone who runs in one picture! Next to Claire is Chaia, who did her long run earlier and then came to support the team. How cool is that?

Definitely another stellar Raptors day! I never get tired of the P.A. announcer saying, "And here come some more Raptors!"

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