2006 Brentwood 10K

Report by: Eric Barron

After a slew of gray May mornings, Sunday offered sunny skies and warm weather for the 2006 Brentwood 5K/10K. Although this caused the slightly inclined course to be a little tougher than usual, the free Ben & Jerry cones made it well worth the effort.

The 5K featured deeper talent than in years past, but TCLA's leading runners all ran excellent races. Tom Gatyas was the club's highest standing runner in a tough division. He was followed shortly by Chris DeWitt, who improved almost a minute over last year's time, and Noel Velasco, who took second in his division. Next to cross the line for TCLA, Jimmy Freeman and Mike Branch ran significant personal bests. Also cracking 18 minutes were Eric Giovanola, Todd Patterson, and Larry Gessler. Max Crispi was the last for the club to break six-minute pace.

Peter Glassman picked up silver in his age group, and Dean Goodman ran home with gold in his division. Coming off of a bit of a training break, Wayne Joness followed his cooperative nose across the finish line in under 20 minutes. Lydia Salinas, TCLA's first woman, ran just over 20 minutes, but that was good enough for first in her age group. Not having raced in many moons, Sam Spencer got back into the competitive spirit, and his Westridge training partner, Mark Harris, followed a minute later. Jenny Takakura was one place shy in her division from taking the medal stand, but Sharon Yamato managed second in her age group (pit stop notwithstanding). Finally, Ron Hecker was in a tough division this year, and should be inspired to get back to medal status.

The 10K runners had to deal with a little more heat, but fair-haired Rasmus Tamstorf held on to lead TCLA. Jesus Liberato was second for the club, and Noel Velasco was third, earning his second medal of the day. Bruce Reisenfeld cruised through his race, whereas Gary McArdle worked hard for a personal best. David Kent probably would have been happy to have pushed Gary harder, but he held back to prepare for next week's marathon.

Clarence Smith ran hard, but not so hard that he did not have the energy to snap some nice photographs afterward (thanks, too, to Wayne for his pictures). Feeling bad but looking strong, Wenise Wong was seen slapping hands with her daughter as she (i.e., Wenise) circled the Boulevard. Shortly behind her, Michael Berger almost ran his best for the distance. Tim Petersen braved the long course on few workouts, and maybe this will inspire him to get back to the track. Scott Allen turned in a nice performance, while Jennifer Liu had a tough day. Finally, it was good to see Terry Power out on the course, even if has not had the time to get by the track.