Williamsburg Area Running

Ford's Colony

2002

Ruiz Breaks Course Record at Ford's Colony 8K Run

By Rick Platt

There may never have been a more casual course recordbreaking performance than that turned in by Jamestown High School senior BryceRuiz Saturday morning at the Ford's Colony Run for Shelter 8K. Almost every indicator dictated against a best-ever time for the Colonial Road Runners Grand Prix event.

The previous record of 25:31 was a strong one, set by Tommy Holland, 25, of Virginia Beach in 1998, when Holland was one of the top roadracers in Virginia. Ruiz ran the race Saturday in his regular Adidas training shoes (as opposed to faster racing flats). His father Brent, who coaches Bryce according to the well-respected Jack Daniels training program, told Bryce to go out slow, then run each mile a bit faster than the previous one. Bryce, 19, was not even aware of what the course record was, and he didn't sprint at the finish. His only goal was to have a weekend training run with some company, rather than running by himself. Bryce also had to uphold bragging rights within the family, as little brother Blake, 8, earlier won the one mile fun run in 7:18, and told Bryce he now had to win, too.

Although he went out a bit faster than planned (an opening 5:11mile), Bryce averaged under 5:08 per mile for the 4.97-mile distance, and finished in 25:29, two seconds under the previous mark. Michael Mann, 33, of Hampton and Andre Smith, 29, of Hayes kept up with Ruiz for the first two miles, before falling back. Mann was second in 26:09, smashing John Piggott's 30-34 age group race record by 46 seconds. Smith, the 2001 CRR Grand Prix champion, was third in 26:51, 45 seconds faster than his winning time from last year's Ford's Colony race. Mann, who won the Jamestown High School Swamp Run 5K two weeks earlier, currently leads the 2002 Grand Prix with 19 point (Smith issecond with 17). The next race is the Queens Lake 5K Run on April 6 at New QuarterPark. Ruiz will now turn his attention to the outdoor track season for Jamestown High. After running a personal record 9:17 for two miles at the national high school indoor track championships two weeks earlier in Maryland, his goal for outdoors is to come as close as possible to the magic 9:00 mark for the 3,200 meters (a distance about three seconds shorter than two miles). Bryce plans to attend North Carolina State with studies in their design engineering program.

In the women's race at Ford's Colony, Williamsburg's Alison Holinka won her tenth Colonial Road Runners race in ten attempts, winning by over four minutes. Holinka ran a 30:27 (well off her own course record of 28:37 from 2001), with Masters runners Sherry Volk, 41, of Williamsburg (34:41) and Carol Talley, 47, of Toano (34:47) in second and third.

There were 160 finishers in the various events, 97 in the 8K run, 35 in the 5K walk, 18 in the 5K fun run, and 10 in the one mile fun run. The race walks were won by George Fenigsohn, 54, of Poquoson (28:26) over Harry Watson, 60, of Suffolk (28:29) for the men, and the appropriately-named Linda Walker, 47, of Lancaster (38:02) over Beverly McElroy, 48, of Quinton (42:56) for the women.

The lowkey 5K fun run was won by Ben Smith, 24, of Norfolk (19:29) over Andrew Owen, 15, of Williamsburg (19:56), and by Monika Henn, 13, of Williamsburg (24:41) over Marie King, 20, of Williamsburg (26:19). Henn's time was a 5K fun run record for the women.

Age group records in the 8K were set by Bryce Ruiz (men 15-19, 25:29), Michael Mann (men 30-34, 26:09), Lindsay Kent (girls 14-and-under, 34:51), Joan Coven (women 60-64, 37:55) and Nancy Patron (women 65-and-over, 45:07). For Coven, it was her 20th Colonial Road Runners race age-group record, tieing her with Rick Platt for the most CRR records (Andrew Polansky and Tom Ray are next with 12 each). The Ford's Colony Run for Shelter is organized by, and benefits Housing Partnerships. Drew Mulhare of the host Ford's Colony presented a $4,000 donation check to Nayda Pophal of Housing Partnerships at the race awards ceremony.