Seasonal Overview
See the rankings for Rick Platt's commentary
Male Overall
Rick Platt Commentary – As the editor of these well-researched Hampton Roads Runner Rankings, on occasion I find something of interest to comment about, to supplement Roger Hopper’s usual in-depth analysis beyond the actual rankings. For this spring 2022 rankings period, that’s more appropriate than usual, as Roger has been incredibly busy with many things—his coaching at Salem High School, travel to track meets, spending long days at invitational meets, running up to 140 miles per week, doing all the supplemental stuff to keep himself healthy (stretching, strengthening, cross training), and traveling himself to numerous road races throughout Hampton Roads, often an hour or more each way. So for this rankings period Roger didn’t have the time to do the usual in-depth analysis, although much of that can be seen just by carefully perusing the rankings and the individual top two races. Instead, I’ll offer my own commentary.
For the men’s overall rankings, a major item I noticed is that last year, there was a Big Three of Hopper, Adam Otstot, and William and Mary head men’s distance coach Forest Braden. For the spring 2021 period, the fastest times were recorded by Otstot (15:17), Braden (15:21) and Hopper (15:30), and the rankings had an order of Braden-Otstot-Hopper. This year Braden has been busy with his first child (Bowie River Braden), born over the Colonial Relays track meet weekend in Williamsburg, along with some recovery from past injury. But Braden does plan to return, especially in April 2023, when he becomes a Masters runner. Meanwhile, Otstot himself became a Masters runners this year on April 24th, and he quickly broke the all-time Colonial Road Runners records for men 40+ at 5K (15:44, breaking the long-time record of 15:55 by W&M chemistry professor Rob Hinkle, set in both 2004 and ’05) and at 8K (early June, with a time of 25:48; more about that in the summer rankings). And the all-time CRR 10K Masters record is inevitable for Otstot, starting with the Democracy Dash 10K at Jamestown Island the end of August.
This year at CRR races, the 39-year-old Braden has been replaced, remarkably, by a precocious 15-year-old, Isaac Lamprecht of New Kent. The Run the DOG Street 5K was the definitive race of the spring, with Hopper coming within one second of his lifetime PR of 15:14 (from last October at Billsburg) with a winning time of 15:15, Otstot was a close second at 15:22 (an impressive age grade of 87.42%, the highest of all runners for these spring rankings, while he was still age 39), and Lamprecht smashed his previous 5K PR of 16:17 (from the Queens Lake 5K three weeks earlier in March, a race he won) by over a half minute with a time of 15:43. All this by a sophomore at New Kent High School.
Zachary Helm, based on his impressive 1:11:21 at the Shamrock Half was ranked third, ahead of Lamprecht’s fourth place. Although it won’t show up in the rankings times, an equally impressive high school performance came from 17-year-old Salem High senior Draven Fernandez, who ran a 15:52 for the indoor 5,000 meters at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in mid-March. A few weeks later, Fernandez himself broke an all-time CRR record, for men 15-19 with a time of 33:14, smashing his previous CRR record of 35:11 from last August’s Democracy Dash. Draven also put a scare into his coach, Hopper, at Yorktown, who was only 22 seconds ahead of his student for the win.
Male Masters
Rick Platt Commentary – Otstot an overwhelming choice here as a Masters runner, considering he’s ranked second as an open runner. His 10K equivalent is over 3 ½ minutes better than second place Masters. But next year will be quite interesting if Forest Braden joins the Masters crowd, not to mention Ryan Carroll, a few steps behind but still impressive as a 39-year-old.
Male 60+
Rick Platt Commentary – Last year the Big Three for 60+ runners in the spring were Steve Chantry, Rob Whitaker and Rick Samaha, who each won against the others for spring 2021. This year Pete Gibson has impressively joined that group (with Samaha not racing yet this year). Gibson is one of the few runners who can consistently beat multiple national Masters track champion Chantry. And newly-turned 60-year-old Vincent Ortiz has shown he himself can run with that group. The top four 60+ runners this spring all had 10K equivalents between 40 and 41 minutes, with a huge gap to the next group (10K equivalent over 43 minutes). The definitive spring race was the Virginia Regional Ballet 5K at First Colony, with Gibson (19:23) prevailing over Chantry (19:34) and Whitaker (19:37).
Female Overall
Rick Platt Commentary – The big news here is that Maria Spady has supplanted Bethany Spector as the number one runner in Hampton Roads, but Spector has a good reason for her demotion. She and husband Jordan Spector are expecting their first child later this year. Bethany has still shown up for a number of CRR races, cheering on her husband, but also still running the races at a slower pace, all with a significant “baby bump”. Look for her to return just as strong, as many women become stronger runners after having their first child. Spady has earned her rankings, running high mileage, as many as 90 miles per week. No one trains harder than she does. Although #2 ranked Jo Reihner had a significantly better 10K equivalent (36:04 to 37:13), she lost by five minutes to Spady at the Boston Marathon (2:53:14 to 2:58:13), giving Spady the #1 ranking.
Female Masters
Female 60+
Rick Platt Commentary – Betty Brothers earns $100 prize money for breaking Virginia state 10K record for women 75-79 (55:55) at the Victory at Yorktown10K. The other 60+ superstar, Joey Hallock, age grades 86.93% and 86.82% this ranking period (second and third best age grades for the spring).
Races
In order to be considered for these rankings, a race must have open entry to all, have full results listed on a website, and preferably list age, gender, and city of residence of all runners. Road and cross country races will be considered. Any race that is known to have an actual distance significantly different from its advertised distance will have its actual, or more accurate best-guess, distance displayed in parentheses. Races will fall into the following seasons based on the following boundaries: spring is the first full weekend of March up to but not including Memorial Day weekend, summer includes Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, fall is from after Labor Day to before Thanksgiving, and winter includes Thanksgiving races up to but not including the first full weekend of March.
