By Rick Platt
The second annual Jamestown Swamp Run 5K (March 8, Williamsburg, VA) lived up to its name Saturday morning, as muddy, messy, slippery and sloppy conditions confronted the 147 finishers of the trail 5K race. The course doesn't officially go through the swamps that surround the Greensprings Trail, but it was hard to tell the difference this year. While there are many scenic wooden-bridge crossings of the official wetlands along the Greensprings Trail, the very wet winter months of 2003 created many temporary wetlands.
The 2002 Swamp Run was a dry affair with a firm course and relatively fast times.
In contrast, this year there were at least two dozen areas where runners and
walkers had no way to get around the muddy and wet areas. Instead they had to
endure going through often ankle-deep slop. Yet after the race, there were no
complaints, with all saying they had fun doing something different from the
usual flat asphalt road race. The race Saturday was the opening race of the
2003 Colonial Road Runners Grand Prix series.
Conditions were greatly slowed by the wet course (most runners estimated 30
to 60 seconds), yet a dozen runners overcame the obstacles to win the race or
set new race age-group records. Defending champion Michael Mann, 34, of Hampton
was timed in an impressive 16:34, only 12 seconds slower than his 2002 winning
time. High school cross country and track star Jonna Reinhardt, 18, of Williamsburg
and the host Jamestown High School, was runnerup in 17:35. Reinhardt, one of
the top high school distance runners in Virginia, will be attending the College
of William and Mary next year on a track scholarship.
Women's winner Jennifer Quarles, 31, of Williamsburg ran a 20:43 (well off Alison
Holinka's race record of 18:24), but good enough to break her own women's 30-34
age-group record. The women's runnerup, Elizabeth Winthrop (like Reinhardt,
one of Jamesown High's cross country stars) was timed in 21:04 (a race age-group
mark for women 15-19), and just two seconds ahead of a former Jamestown student,
Jessica Walton, 20, of Williamsburg.
Besides Quarles and Winthrop, other age group records set Saturday were by 11-year-old
Russell Hornsby (boys 14-and-under, 21:07), Peter Harris (men 20-24, 18:55),
Rob Vance (men 35-39, 19:43), Ned Berg (men 40 44, 18:34), Rick Platt (men 50-54,
18:57), Robert Wilson (men 55-59, 20:37), Andrew Polansky (men 75-and-over,
27:46), Tom Gerhardt (men's walk, 30:37), Suzanne Gibson (women 55-59, 24:46)
and Nancy Patron (women 65-and-over, 29:04).
Polansky's 27:46 was an all-time Colonial Road Runners 5K record for men 75-79,
breaking by 13 minutes the previous mark of 40:47 by Joseph Moore, 79, of Newport
News at the 1996 Governor's Land 5K. Polansky had turned 75 in December, and
will be aiming this year for all the CRR marks in his new 75-79 age group. He
currently owns 13 of the 14 marks for the CRR's 70-74 division (lacking only
last year's Jamestown Swamp Run, which he did not run).