With the Terry Fox 5K no longer offering a team category, it
fell to the Fila 5K for Track Club LA to show its stuff as a team.
The going would be tough because the Track West team was sure to
show up in force as its sponsor, Fila, was also sponsoring the race.
It was nice, therefore, to see those TCLA members that came out to
race for the team title.
Rachid Akif succeeded in taking
sixteen seconds off his time from three weeks ago, and finished
in 14:55, only several seconds behind the first place finisher.
His first road race victory is sure to come soon. Running a strong
first mile up Avenue of the Stars, Mike Collins held on for third
in his division with a 16:43. Fourteen seconds behind him, the next
TCLA runner crossed the line, though he questions whether his new
racing flats made any difference. Rounding out the scoring for the
team, Robert Newmark came close to breaking six-minute pace with an
18:46, and Tim Peterson followed closely seven seconds behind.
TCLA's first woman, and second in her division, was Janie Lieberman,
who crossed the line in 19:23. Interestingly, both Kukuckas,
Mike and Ellen, each finished fourth in their divisions with a
21:01and 32:30, respectively. Finally, BaoKim Coleman ran a
nicely paced 22:28.
Ogie Espinosa also showed up ready to
run, but ended up spending most of his time looking for his car
keys (certainly more stressful than any race). In the end, the
TCLA'ers took second place in the team division, but can be proud
as they came close to matching Track West's performance.
