Seasonal Overview
Rick Platt Commentary – Roger Hopper is again incredibly busy with these Runner Rankings along with his high mileage training for a December marathon, and coaching a few elite Hampton Roads runners. So he doesn’t have the time as he once did to add commentary to his top 25 rankings in the overall, Masters and 60+ divisions for men and women. In his absence I’m again adding occasional commentary on things I find noteworthy or of great interest.
Many runners rely on natural talent alone. Others train like the dickens. Emily Honeycutt, the Tabb High School cross country and track coach, and ranked #3 for this Summer Rankings period, uses a great phrase, “Hard Work Beats Talent.” I can’t imagine any runner in the Hampton Roads area who trains harder than Roger. His mileage is as high as 150 miles per week, and it’s not just quantity, but high quality, including stretching and cross training to stay healthy. If he’s ranked #1 it’s because of hard work, not just talent. It’s not easy doing such high mileage, taking great dedication and focus.
Speaking of talented runners, some of our oldest runners ran amazing performances during the summer period (from Memorial Day to Labor Day weekends), with age grades over 85%, and multiple state records. For the Spring Rankings period, the definitive race was the Run the DOG Street 5K in Williamsburg. For the Summer Rankings period, the definitive race was the 43rd annual Elizabeth River Run 10K in Norfolk, on the final weekend of the season. There were three age 65+ runners who broke Virginia state 10K records at that race, now offering $2,000 in prize money ($500-250-125 to top three overall male and female, and $125 to the top Masters male and female), thanks to race director Thomas Hicks, the award-winning Tidewater Striders president (Club President of the Year by the Road Runners Club of America).
The record breakers were Joey Hallock, 69, of Virginia Beach; Pete Gibson, 66, of Murfreesboro, NC; and Betty Brothers, 75, of Virginia Beach; who each set Virginia state records, and age graded over 84%. Hallock, who broke the state record for women 65-69 with a time of 48:48 (the old record of 49:19 was by the Colonial Road Runners’ legend Joan Coven in 2007), age graded 87.84%. Gibson, who broke the Virginia state men’s 65-69 record the week before at the Democracy Dash 10K at Jamestown Island with a time of 40:26, improved on that time by 13 seconds to 40:13, and age graded 85.43%. And Brothers, who broke the state record for women 75-79 at this year’s Victory at Yorktown 10K in April with a time of 55:55, improved that time by seven seconds at ERR with her 55:48, age grading 84.04%.
Adam Otstot, our dominant Masters male during this rankings period broke the all-time Colonial Road Runners 40-44 (and Masters) age-group records this summer for the 8K (25:48 on the Greensprings course) and the 10K (33:19 at Democracy Dash, the exact same time he ran at ERR to easily win the Masters division there), after breaking the all-time CRR 40-44 (and Masters) record at 5K during the Spring Rankings period (15:41 at First Colony).
Our #1 overall female, Maria Spady of Hampton just barely made the rankings, running the first weekend of the summer (Yorktown Freedom Run 8K on Memorial Day), then no races all summer, until being convinced at the last minute by Hicks to run the ERR 10K, which she won in 37:29 over the elite Charlottesville runner Ann Mazur (who holds the all-time CRR 10K record of 36:21 from this year’s Yorktown race, but had a bout of COVID this summer hamper her training). Although Spady had a slightly slower 10K equivalent for the summer rankings period than the #2 ranked runner (37:29 to 37:32 vs. Jo Reihner), her win at ERR, the most important race of the summer, held more weight.
For the second consecutive year Hopper placed second at the ERR, but it took a national-class runner, recruited by Hicks, to beat Hopper. Peter Lomong of Fork Union, originally from South Sudan then from a refugee camp in Kenya, attended high school at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, then attended Northern Arizona University, where he helped his NAU team to two NCAA cross country team championships. Lomong ran 30:01 at ERR.
Just barely missing out on the women’s top 25 was a remarkable 8-year-old, Isabella Strumke of Toano. She ran a 46:19 at the ERR 10K, and was the leading age-graded runner for the Colonial Road Runners team, at 82.35%. Her 10K equivalent of 46:19 was just 13 seconds off the 25th ranked runner for women overall. And her time was only 41 seconds off the Virginia state 9-and-under record of 45:38, set in 1996 by Aspen Foster of New Energy and the Striders. I expect Isabella to break a few state records (the 10-mile record should fall in November), and to regularly start ranking in the women’s top 25 overall. She turned 9 in September so has a full year to go after the state 9-and-under records.
Male Overall
Male Masters
Male 60+
Female Overall
Female Masters
Female 60+
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.
