Portland Track Festival

Kate Landau, shown at another race, kicked butt with the kiddies in the Portland 10K.

Records June 13, 2018

Kate Landau claims W40 American record 10K at Portland after health crises

Kate Landau is officially back. The silver medalist at the 1996 NCAA championships in the 10K was 19th in the elite 10,000 at last weekend’s Portland Track Festival. Her age isn’t noted, but her splits were — and a finishing time of 3:44:46.01. She’s 41. That means she shatters the listed W40 American record of 34:58.54 by Madelyn Noe-Schlentz in 2002. (The listed WR is 31:33.44 by Rio Olympian Jo Pavey of Great Britain, but Kenya’s Edith Masai ran 31:31.18 in 2007.) Kate’s historic run comes after a rollercoaster career that saw her fighting an eating disorder — anorexia —…

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…