Rick Platt Commentary and Editorial
Roger is still quite busy running his 150+ miles per week, so I'm happy to again fill in with my Hampton Roads Runner Rankings commentary, since I avidly follow our sport, and write a weekly running column for the Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg's biweekly newspaper.
Whether it's held over the Memorial Day weekend, the official beginning of summer, or over the Labor Day weekend, the official end of summer, Thomas Hicks's Elizabeth River Run 10K is always the definitive race for the summer season of these Runner Rankings. Many of the rankings follow directly the order of finish from the ERR. Despite all too many hurdles, Hicks, the 2021 RRCA Outstanding Club President of the Year, puts together the best, most competitive 10K race in all of Hampton Roads.
In its 44th year, the race originated in Norfolk (Armed Forces Staff College for the start, down to Waterside), moved to Portsmouth for a number of years (nTelos Pavilion), and returned to Norfolk (and now Old Dominion University for the start) in 2021. But it hasn't been easy for Hicks. First the 2022 Memorial Day weekend Patriotic Festival, which had moved from Virginia Beach to Norfolk, took priority for the City of Norfolk over the ERR (police control, etc.), and the race was forced to move in 2022 to the Labor Day weekend Sunday vacated by the former Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Virginia Beach, which had its final race in 2021. The ERR is the final race in the 3-Club Challenge, starting with the Colonial Road Runners's Victory at Yorktown 10K in early April, continuing with the Peninsula Track Club's Yorktown Freedom Run 8K on Memorial Day, and ending with the ERR. There was also the Elizabeth River Run Team Championship Cup awarded for the winning age graded team (top 10 scorers of any age and gender).
While the competing race clearly affected the quantity (entrants) for the ERR, it did not affect the quality of the race. A remarkable 14 runners bettered the national-class 80% age graded standard at ERR, while the races in Virginia Beach had only one over 80% (and that was in Saturday's 5K). Three Virginia state 10K age group records were broken at ERR, by Isabella Strumke (9-and-under), Betty Brothers (75-79) and Richard Grant (70-74). The race was also the RRCA Virginia state 10K championship.
A major part of the competitive ERR race was that the Colonial Road Runners focused all summer on that race, hoping to bring back to Williamsburg the ERR Team Championship Cup. Eight of the 14 runners over the national-class level of 80% came from the CRR, and the CRR had the highest age graded average (for their top ten) in the history of Hampton Roads running, averaging an unprecedented 82.58%, only the second time ever that a team averaged over 80%. The first time was last year when the host Tidewater Striders averaged 80.78%, with the CRR runner-up at 79.89%. Three more CRR runners were at 79%, and they had a total of 15 over 77%, slightly better than the 76.45% team average for the runner-up Tidewater Striders (they were missing several key runners, including of course, Hicks, who can age grade over 87%, but can't run due to his race directing duties). Isabella Strumke won the age graded individual plaque with a score of 89.65%, with the incomparable Betty Brothers close behind at 88.22%. The two officially met for the first time, a great photo op.
Now forced to move his race once again, Hicks will most likely again have a 2024 race date in the early part of the Summer Rankings period next year. Undoubtedly he will again have one of the best and most competitive races in all of Hampton Roads.
Male Overall
One of my jobs is to give an unbiased review of the #1 men's overall runner, usually Roger Hopper, and sometimes that's a judgment call. This rankings period, it wasn't even close, as Hopper had a 10K equivalent of 31:06 (based on his second 2:23 marathon and ERR win in 31:47), far ahead of the next best (32:23 by Wesley Bond and 32:37 by Adam Otstot). Although Bond had a slightly better 10K equivalent than Otstot, Otstot was justifiably ranked second, due to his runner-up finish at ERR (which was his second best race, his best being an 87.11% age grade and 15:39 at Kingswood Klam). CRR runners went 1-2-4-5 in the male overall category, which included Will Jeter (who always runs close behind Hopper and Otstot, but has yet to beat them) and 13-year-old phenom Jonathan Grimm (who came within one second of the Virginia state age 10-14 5K record with a 16:19 at the Raising the Roof 5K). Three teenagers were ranked in the top 25 overall men, Grimm, Isaac Lamprecht of New Kent High (who placed fifth in his age group in July at the World Triathlon Championships in Hamburg, Germany, and who was part of the gold medal USA relay team), and Nate Cochran of Warwick High. Grimm is only an eighth grader this fall, and will join the Jamestown High team next year. He will most likely break Virginia state age group records before turning 15 next August, at 5K and 10K, and maybe 8K. Three one-race wonders (Jackson Martingayle, Dillon May and Thomas Amabile) would have placed in the top five with a second race, and Patrick Murphy and Forest Braden (a former #1 ranked runner) were close to that level.
Male Masters
Otstot was heads above the rest, with a 10K equivalent of 32:37 (age grading 87.11%), but runner-up Thomas Hicks was impressive with two age grades over 87% (87.73% and 87.05%). Hicks, 51, is a decade older than Otstot, 41. With a second race, Forest Braden would have been #2 and Scott Ickes #5.
Male 60+
The rivalry between Rob Whitaker, 64, and Pete Gibson, 67, is impressive. Whitaker has been beating Gibson routinely in CRR races through the summer rankings period, and was well ahead at ERR, so is justifiably #1. But Gibson had the higher age grade, an 87.17% at Fallen Heroes, compared to 84.45% for Whitaker, and had a slightly better 10K equivalent (40:13 for Gibson to 40:30 for Whitaker). Gibson is up and down in his racing, due to the lingering effects of long COVID since last November. But when he's on, watch out!
Female Overall
Ida Oesteraas and Bethany Spector were close (10K equivalents of 37:44 and 37:55, respectively), but that will be the last time we see Spector ranked that high for a while, as she was four months pregnant, with her second child, at the end of the summer rankings period. Spector's third race was a winning and impressive 30:15 at the Yorktown Freedom Run 8K on Memorial Day. Two young runners made the top 10, Alyssa Pongracz of Peninsula Catholic, 16, with a 19:40 at Raising the Roof 5K, and this year's superstar find, Isabella Strumke, 9, only a fourth grader. Isabella's state record and age graded winning 41:04 (89.65%) at ERR was her next-to-last race at age 9, as she had her 10th birthday on September 18th, ending the first chapter of her athletic career. It will be exciting to see what she does in the 10-14 age group, and then in high school, although she is as good a wrestler (state champion) as she is a runner. Strumke ran slightly slower times in the summer (she doesn't like racing in the heat) but moved up 7 spots in the rankings (from 17th to 10th). There was a large gap in the rankings, from a 10K equivalent of 41:04 for Strumke in 10th, to a 10K equivalent of 43s for the next half dozen. Not in the rankings, since she's from the Richmond area (Henrico), but winning three summer races in Hampton Roads was Laura Labuschagne, winning Kingswood (17:52), Raising the Roof (16:47) and ERR (34:59). One-race wonders included Caroline Bauer (former Jamestown High runner now a sophomore at Florida) with a 29:37 “workout” at the Independence Day 8K in Yorktown and perennial high-ranker Ann Mazur, second at ERR. Number three ranked Sabrina Little ran two races, both 8Ks, and both holiday races, on the Yorktown Battlefield 8K loop course, Memorial Day and Independence Day. Emily Honeycutt at number four had a major 10K PR at ERR, a 38:38, and just behind Mazur.
Female Masters
The top four, Deelyn Robinson, Kari Tallent, Christine Fernandez and Megan Schulze, all had 10K equivalents in the 43s, and there was justification for any of them to be ranked number one. Robinson, age 57, had the slowest 10K equivalent of the four (43:55), but was ranked number one due to her win at ERR, the definitive summer race.
Female 60+
Joey Hallock didn't win the 60+ division this rankings period, but she's now 70 years old, a decade older than Becky Upton, the number one choice. They had similar 10K equivalents (50:44 for Upton and 51:01 for Hallock, with third-ranked Susan Sheets at 51:16). Hallock did break the Virginia state 5K record for women 70-74 over the Memorial Day weekend with a 24:59. Also breaking a state record (for women 75-79) was Betty Brothers, who has broken so many state records that she's lost count.
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.
