General

M55 world champion Don McGee eyes the sprint triple and relay double at Malaga worlds.

General June 26, 2018

GoFundMe raising tens of thousands of dollars for Malaga-goers

The race for Malaga is on. Not for medals. We’re talking moolah via social media. Masters tracksters globally have discovered crowdfunding sites — just as John Oleski suggested two years ago. GoFundMe appears to be the go-to site for age-groupers. World champion sprinters Emma McGowan ($1,380 raised so far) and Don McGee ($795) are making progress toward their September worlds goals. Newcomer Andrea Collier has $1,995 so far, Clinton Aurelien $225, Ty Brown $300 and Tony Williams $850. At least one is overpromising. John Wall ($1,675 of $3,000 goal) writes: “I am a two time Gold Medallist for Australia and…

General June 23, 2018

Now for something completely slower: Ken Stone outsnailing 6-year-old

The older I get, the faster they get — the young’ns I race in San Diego all-comers meets. In previous years, I reveled in smoking 10-year-olds. On Wednesday, at the Summer Nights Series meet at Cuyamaca College near my home, I had no problem with 6-year-old Jude Jefferson in Lane 8. (I was in Lane 7.) But over in lane 5 was Gregory Jefferson (his brother?). I saw him just ahead of me and tried to reel him in. But alas, he beat me 15.14 to 15.40 as fellow 64-year-old Mark Atherton got a masters PR in 15.02. (See results…

a young Jim Ryun never ran at Rock Chalk Park, but his events may be on masters menu at Kansas Relays.

General June 22, 2018

Kansas Relays aims to rejoin masters exhibition rotation in 2019

One of the country’s longest-standing meets is hoping to get masters events back on its schedule. The 92nd annual Kansas Relays will be held April 17-20, 2019, at the university’s recently built Rock Chalk Park. The meet features several high school, college and university races, a unique quadrathlon format for Division I schools, and appearances by a handful of professional athletes. Up until two years ago, it also had a few events for masters athletes. But the number of athletes over age 40 who would show up to run had been dwindling, causing the meet organizers to take those events…

Peter Taylor posed with middle-distance greats Nick Berra and Lorraine Jasper after a 2013 meet.

General June 16, 2018

Announcer Peter Taylor sent home after CT scan shows no sign of stroke

Good news from famed meet-announcer Peter Taylor. He’s at home in Fairfax, Virginia, after a brief medical scare. On Friday, we was getting set for outpatient surgery when the anesthesiologist noticed his mouth drooping on the left side. Fearing a stroke, they gave him a CT scan, his sister Phoebe told me. Later, Pete called me to report that it wasn’t a stroke but possibly a TIA — transient ischemic attack. Pete says they found an aneurysm in his carotid artery, but “not big enough” to be a threat. He’s has two strokes, including one in 2012. He was sent…

General June 10, 2018

Sonja Friend-Uhl takes Portland mile, but W60 Lesley Hinz has top mark

At least three world-class milers mixed it up Sunday at the Portland Track Festival at Lewis & Clark College, with W45 Sonja Friend-Uhl clocking a great 5:07.26. But video doesn’t reflect the results, which don’t list W50 Marilyn Arsenault of Canada and Kaitlyn Barthell (who ran stride-for-stride with Sonja the first two laps). Later, I learned that Kaitlyn, in her 20s, and Marilyn were entered as open runners, with times listed elsewhere. W50 Aeron Arlin Genet was credited with a great 5:19.84. But also impressive was W60 Lesley Hinz, fifth in 5:47.16. That’s less than 5 seconds off the listed…

Brenda Matthews (red), Linda Cohn (middle) and Pat Kelly (blue) battle in a 50.

General June 4, 2018

Pasadena Senior Games gave us chance to improve, qualify for ABQ 2019

Masters track is great cuz you can still improve year-to-year despite age. So I was thrilled to run the 50-meter dash Saturday in 8.31 at the Pasadena Senior Games (held at Cal State Los Angeles because Caltech’s track is said to be undergoing rehab). A year ago, I ran 8.56 at Caltech. So that makes up for my dropping out of the 100 after four steps (calf cramp, related to high jumping). Mastersrankings.com has results from the two-day meet (with javelin held at Occidental College because or artificial turf Sunday). Many entrants tried their feet at multiple events — since…

General May 30, 2018

Blessed chance to become a paid model, jump on mini-trampolines

Photographer Meredith Bless writes: “JumpSport (maker of fitness mini-trampolines) is shooting a photo and video project in June in San Diego and is looking for models to participate. It will be fun. Needed: two men and two women, aged 45 to 65. Need to be relatively fit but do not need to be buff. This is targeted toward regular people, not professional athletes. Pay: $100 per person. Each person will be needed for roughly 4 hours.” Selected models will be provided with a fitness trampoline to borrow and asked to practice a few simple routines (provided) prior to shooting. The…

General May 25, 2018

Will Anthony Famiglietti run sub-4 at 40? Milestone is goal of steeple Olympian

Anthony Famiglietti, a two-time Olympian with a mile PR of 3:55.71 (in 2006), turns 40 in five months. He’s gearing up by training hard, pitching a documentary and letting the world know he’s shooting for a sub-4. It’s a stretch. But you gotta admire the grit. See Martin Fritz Huber’s story in Outside. The former steepler’s “moonshot mile is perhaps an unusual way to confront the beast of senescence, but it makes a crazy kind of sense. When you’ve spent more than half your life constructing your identity around the fact that you can run faster than 99.99 percent of…

General May 20, 2018

Damien Leake looms as M65 WR man after 12.40 in 100 on May 6

Results are posted for the Southern California Striders Meet of Champions at Santa Ana College. The top mark was by Damien Leake, who at 65 clocked a legal 12.40 in the 100 — with the listed world record being 12.33 by Bill Collins at the 2017 Penn Relays. On Saturday, Damien responded to some queries. “I am hoping to take a real shot at Bill’s WR,” he said. “I was a little surprised at how close I was this early in the season, as I am a little ‘soft’ because I’ve been doing a lot more coaching than training this…

Hilmer Lodge Stadium at Mt. SAC was going to be 2020 Trials venue

General May 19, 2018

2020 Olympic Trials masters exhibitions where? USATF not sure

USATF is sweating bullets over whether anyone will bid for the 2020 Olympic Trials — important for masters because we get some exhibitions and major attention. As I reported a couple week ago, Mt. SAC lost the Trials gig because of a lawsuit cloud over it stadium project. But I also learned that Mt. SAC and USATF both had reason to be red-faced — the Walnut school for not informing Indy about pending lawsuits until two months after it won the meet and USATF for not checking court records. As my Times of San Diego story noted, USATF Deputy General…