2011 Will Rogers 5K

Report by: Eric Barron

Road racing apparently means different things to different people. The person driving the pace car at the 2011 Will Rogers/Pacific Palisades 5K/10K had his focus on auto racing. Perhaps inspired that he was behind the wheel of a 2011 Indianapolis 500 pace car - a Camaro no less - he peeled out as the gun went off, leaving the air acrid with burned rubber for the first 150 meters or so. Of course, if the runners could brave the warm weather and killer hills, what's a little air pollution?

Almost 1,000 runners accepted the real challenge (that being the 10K), and Track Club LA made a strong showing among those. Bruce Reisenfeld led the way for the club with a top 10 finish and a silver medal in his age division. (Note, the club could have easily placed three in the top 10 had Mike Davies and Ankur Tarneja not been foolish enough to trash their quads on Mt. Baldy two days earlier.) A member who had not raced in several years took the club's next spot, followed shortly by Ron Paquette, who won his age division. Mike Branch rounded out the TCLA runners under 40 minutes.

Ginna Ladd and Susanne McNeil Eng led the TCLA women with gold medals in their respective age groups, and Tom Case grabbed a bronze when he finished in between those two. Brian Panosian felt sluggish, but still dipped under 7:00/mile pace. Marissa Tiamfook passed on the Village Runner race to take on the Palisades hills, and thoroughly met the challenge. Wenise Wong was coaxed up the switchbacks by Tyrone Black and Mike Mahurin. Kim Brettler followed almost a minute later, coaxing Noah Sheray along. Scott Allen happily achieved his stated goal of breaking 50 minutes. Anne-Marie Mowad broke 8:00/mile pace, despite a bad ankle. Robert Newmark was happy with his time, despite being on his feet for 8 hours the day before the race, and deserves applause regardless of his time (see below).

After finishing the 10K, Meg Kanatani expressed regrets for running 15 miles on Saturday. Jennifer Liu was seen both running and spectating on the course. Picking up another of her many age group gold medals, Sharon Yamato ran a good race (though as always wished she'd run faster). Christina Hopkins managed well her second time on this course. Finally, Chuck Husting finished his first 10K, and after meeting the challenge of this race, he can look forward to another personal best on another course.

Some ink will be spilled on the 5K. Mark Gieseker mirrored Bruce's efforts in the longer race by ensuring that TCLA had a finisher in the top 10 in this race as well as garnering his own age group silver medal. Efrain Velasco came oh-so-close to breaking 6:00/mile pace. Leslie Cohen won her age division with minutes to spare, and Clara Yoon looked strong crossing the line with Noel Velasco. David Schwartz continues to come back after a long-term injury, and Peter Keramidas comes back after a long European vacation. Improving his time from last year, Ron Hecker earned a silver medal in his age division, paced by Hoss Dubash and Ann Duarte. Susan Rendell was out running hard, though it is unknown whether she tried out her new “look, Ma, no shoes" look.

To the delight of many of the club runners, other members were vocal (and occasionally mobile) in their support, including Mike Berger, Jeff Brettler, Mike Davies, Peggy Enriquez (working her traditional spot in the finish chute), Jim Gidlow, Mark Harris, David Kent, Su-Yang Liu (coming back from a stress fracture), Stephanie Pogorelsky, Steve Reifman, Lydia Salinas, Jim Spear (rooting on his daughter Andrea, among others), Rasmus Tamstorf, Stephen Terry, Theresa Uhrig, Bram Weinkselbaum, and Bert Whitson (snapping pictures in lieu of sweating). The big payoff of this event comes afterward at Tori and Robert Newmark's extraordinary post-race party. Once again, Tori and Robert opened their home, refrigerator - and a catering oven or two - to club members. Moreover, thanks to the Newmarks, some past-TCLA'ers caught up with the happenings of the club, including Catherine Aguilar, Lawrence Spear, Rikako Takei, Jimmy Freeman, Cindy and Jeff Bernstein, Monica Hirschberger, and Terry Power.

A shout out to the TCLA'ers who trekked up to Santa Barbara for the Semana Nautica 15K: Carl Finer, Dean Goodman, Wayne Joness, and Adam Radly.