Golden Gate
YiOu in second place, which she held for all of the race.
Golden Gate
The open men's team had their strongest showing of the season, with 4 young guys and one Tim O'Rourke racing the four-mile loop. Unfortunately, our paperwork wasn't all in order, so we were not able to score a full team. Team captain Sean Pont led the way, with a 20th place finish after surging in the second lap to pass a substantial portion of the field. Jason Karbelk, who recently ran a 2:36 at the San Francisco Marathon, finished close behind but was disqualified either for doping or not having a PAUSATF card -- I can't remember which. Jose Anguiano continued his PA race streak -- he has raced in every cross country meet so far, and has put down solid times at each. We look forward to seeing him at our next competition. John Bretan battled it out after running the first mile way too fast. Said Bretan the day after during our 18 mile long run: "pacing is for sissies".
Of course, the most inspiring performance came from Tim O'Rourke, who won the Master's division and still had enough in his legs to go around the loop two more times. Truly heroic. Thank you Tim! -- Sean P.
Golden Gate
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Brad O'Brien and Wayne Best at finish.
After a beautiful morning drive down 101 I hit a light fog on the Golden Gate. This fog burned off just before the start of the masters race. Unfortunately, the fog clouding Tim Wallen's hamstring did not clear. Tim showed up to the race hoping his hamstring injury would feel better, but he made the hard choice not to run. The race itself started with Cliff Lentz weaving across the first 200 yards like a drunken sailor. The was some confusion where the first turn was. After the first mile of the 4 mile race Brad O'Brien was leading the chase pack. He held this lead until 400 yards from the finish when Wayne Best made an incredible move to pass Brad for 3 strides (note the author's bias). Brad had plenty left in the tank to regain the lead of the chase pack and fend off two additional challengers at the finish. Brad's finish was great to watch, but the play of the day goes to Tim O'Rourke for running so fast he was dropped down from the seniors to be scored for the masters team. That is not the amazing part because he almost always gets dropped down to the masters. The amazing part was he raced the course again in the open division with the expectation Tamalpa would not be able to field an open team without an additional runner. Nice job Tim. In his 2nd race for Tamalpa, Jake Furber had a solid performance. Dave Bronstein, Alan Reynolds, and Jeff Rosenthal rounded out the masters top 7. Thank you masters for racing and I hope to see more masters in attendance at the next race. -- Wayne B.
Shoreline
Despite all-day rainfall in Marin Co, the weather was dry at race time in Mountain View and the XC course was perfect. Karen Steele and Judy Rabinowitz ran PR's and looked amazing. Linda Gill looked fantastic also, just coming back from injury. Some tough competition, yet the three of them brought home win number 5 for the senior women! We go into Championships in the lead. --Christina L.
Willow Hills
Warming up at Willow Hills, Folsom. Key season team scorers are (Lto R) Tammy Gonzales, Judy Rabinowitz, Karen Steele
The senior women showed their best quick-step on the hard-pack and dust of Willow Hills. Sleep deprivation and travel didn't stop these gals for the team win! Karen Steele and Judy Rabinowitz shined, placing first and second. Close behind was Tammy Gonzales and Christina Lachman. Senior ladies have waltzed to the top of the leader board in season standings. --Christina L.
Presidio
Typical foggy San Fran weather and perfect temp for running. The new course goes over a lot of the previous .... sandy, hilly, out and back. Tammy Gonzales was charging and led the senior women to the win! Backing her up and scoring for the team was Christina Lachman (co-captain) and Adele Ho. Other co-captain Mary Wells was present to cheer on the troops! -- Christina L.
Garin Park
Our Senior Women ran hard at Garin Regional Park in Hayward.... the day was starting to get hot (so glad we ran first!). It's an exposed very hilly course with great views of the bay below. Karen Steele led our team to the win, with Judy Rabinowitz, Tammy Gonzales and Adele Ho close behind. Way to go! -- Adele H. & Christina L.
Golden Gate
L to R: Chris Kennedy, Marlene Capra, Christina Lachman, Tammy Gonzales, Judy Rabinowitz, Adele Ho. Not pictured: Karen Steele was too quick to capture.
Perfectly cool morning for running. As the fog was lifting, the Senior Women 50-59 continued another strong showing. Christine Kennedy (our age group winner three times in a row) and Karen Steele continued their stellar performances taking first and third. And with Judy Rabinowitz' strong debut for the xc season, the team took second place in a competitive field. Supported by rapidly improving Tammy Gonzalez,( just graduated to Senior status this summer). Followed by strong showings for Christina Lachman (on the mend), Marlene Capra (newbie and training hard) and Adele Ho (our consistent one). It was a great day for all! -- Christina L.
Shoreline & Folsom
Not so many gopher holes at these courses, but surely there were enough rocks and sticker weeds to trip up inattentive runners. At Shoreline, they even planted a concrete curb and steel poles into the course. Luckily, our contingent stayed awake to the hazards. We fielded what appears to be two more second-place teams, finishing just behind West Valley J&S in our continuing see-saw with the senior guys who run everything that says PA Grand Prix. Our regular gang of Bruce Benter, Art Marthinsen, and Lynn Walker have run everything XC this year, and continue to move up in overall standings. We also had Tom O'Reilly playing catch-up, and Brad Bryon running skinny with his usual cheer at Folsom. Then, we had Ken Grebenstein and Ed Corral at Shoreline chasing after any lagging open guys, who had a 1-minute head-start. Go Tamalpa.--Tom O.
Garin Park
Garin Park was somewhat warm, but it didn't really effect the running. Our small team of Bruce Benter (7th Senior), Joe Schieffer, Ken Grebenstein, Lynn Walker and Art Marthinsen took on the gopher holes, the fire roads and the rolling hills and recorded some good times. Our goal is to field a team at every race this season. -- Art M.
Golden Gate
Perfect weather for running in the park, maybe a little warm, but the fog burned off before the Masters' race. Good turnout by those who have avoided injuries. Tim O'Rourke led the division again, holding fast to his overall 1st place in both Road and Cross Country. Bruce Benter continues at top of his game, followed by Brad Bryon, Brian McCurdy, and Joe Schieffer for the A team, then Bill Neer, Lynn Walker, and Ken Grebenstein, plus Merv Giocommini to fill out a full B team. Tim also ran in the open team, but he appeared to take his time with that race, as is wise. -- Tom O.
Empire
Race day presented ideal conditions, thirty degrees cooler than the '09 edition. Ken Grebenstein's return to the xc wars and Greg Nacco's senior xc debut highlighted anorther impressive showing of eleven M50-59 Tamalpans toeing the line. This time, the seniors picked up the team win, besting second place host Empire. In order across the line were O'Rourke (division win number two), Nacco, Byron, Benter, Brian Purcell, Ed Corral (welcome Ed), Brian McCurdy, Grebenstein, Neer, Mathinsen and Walker. -- Tim O.
Santa Cruz
The xc season got off to a foggy start, with an impressive showing of seven senior guy Tamalpans making the long, early morning drive. On the downhill second half of the out and back course, Tim O'Rourke, glasses steamed by the fog, confirmed his road runner status by tripping over a berm and executing a barrel roll. Nevertheless rumbled and stumbled to the individual senior division win, followed by excellent performances by Bruce Benter, Brad Byron, Joe Schieffer (welcome Joe), Bill (carpool master) Neer, and journalists Art Mathinsen and Lynn Walker. For team scoring purposes, Tim and Bruce dropped down to allow the masters to pick up the win, with seniors maintaining second place behind WVJS. -- Tim O.
Jim Flanigan and Jim Myers ran the Santa Cruz Challenge and we dropped down Hans Schmid from the Veterans to fill out a scoring Super Senior Team. We took second place to the WVJS at Santa Cruz. At the Empire Open, Jim and Jim ran again and were joined by Don Porteous, Bob Knox and Frank Ruona and we were able to prevail and take first place at that race. After the first two Cross Country races, we are tied for first place with the WVJS. We had our best showing yet for the 2010 Cross Country season at the Golden Gate Park Open on 9/11/10. Seven Super Senior men raced for Tamalpa and Don Porteous won a sprint to the finish with John Yamagata of the WVJS and took first place for the 60+ men. Len Goldman, Frank Ruona, Mike Holland, Jim Flanigan, Jim Myers and Doug Butt all joined Don at the race. Unfortunately we fell just short of the WVJS at this one and took another second place. -- Frank R.
Folsom
The vets won the Willow Hills Cross County Race at Folsom to tie WVJS for total points at 72 a piece. It helped to have Hans back home from his "safari" in Europe! By the way, we had a great time to and from Folsom on the Tamalpa Special piloted by Tim O'Rourke with refreshments provided by Gordon Abbott and pumpkin bread baked by Edda Stickle. Coming up this weekend at 9:45am is the Shoreline Open, a 4.6 mile loop around a former garbage dump which also includes a golf course. Last but not least is the super turnout of the Veterans Team at the Humboldt Half this past weekend. Hard to believe but we had nine Veterans who journeyed into the redwood trees for this race. Vet reps included Hans Schmid who won the age division followed by Russ Kiernan, Bernie Hollander, Don Hillebrandt, Elmo Shropshire, Merv Giacomini, Phil Phythian, Jim Kambur and Sam H. Hope some of our other Tamalpa teams noticed our turnout. -- Sam H.
Golden Gate
Despite the best efforts from Russ, Bernie, Elmo and Merv, the Veterans Team dropped one to the WVJS but not to worry, we still lead them by 1.5 points! The cross country series still has eight races to go with the Annual Garin Park XC Challenge 5K coming up this Saturday, September 25th. Race time is 10:00AM. By the way, Russ holds the Garin Park XC Veterans course record with a 23:28! -- Sam H.
Empire
The Veteran Team did it again, their second XC win making it two out of two with amazing Hans Schmid again leading the way. Hans not only led the Veterans but his time, 23:56, was better than any Super Senior. A good supporting cast of Veterans at the Empire XC Open included Russ, Bernie, Darryl, Elmo, Phil and Sam. -- Sam H.
Santa Cruz
The Veteran Team had four members show up at Santa Cruz and got their first win of the 2010 Cross Country season with Hans Schmid taking first, Russ second and Bernie and Sam taking 4th and 5th place. With the cross country scoring system, we were able to give up Hans to the Senior team and still win over the WVJS! -- Sam H.
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