PRT Men's Team Late Spring/Summer Wrap-up

June is usually a somewhat slow month for the PRT men's team, but it did feature two performances of note: Derek Bradley's 4th-place finish (15:31) at the very competitive Bonita 5000, which also put him second in the race-within-a-race SDUSATF 5K Championships; and Thomas Whitcomb's sub-1:10 half marathon at the San Diego Rock n Roll Half Marathon.

The last team-focus race of the men's spring season took place at the Scripps Ranch Old Pros 10K on July 4, at Lake Miramar. This is always a festive occasion, and usually features patriotic, Speedo-wearing daredevils sprinting the first 100 meters in a show of defiance and enthusiasm, before retreating into the pack when they have made their point. The PRT men went out a bit more cautiously, given the hot, humid conditions that slowed things down a bit on a normally very fast course. Three PRT men placed in the top ten and cracked 33 minutes (Dan Seidel, 4th, 32:43; Thomas Whitcomb, 5th, 32:50; and Patrick Baldwin, 6th, 32:56), while in total PRT accounted for 10 of the top 20 men's places. Among the Masters runners, Rob Verhees broke 34 minutes, good for 14th place overall, and Stephen Johnson took 24th in 35:09. The Men's Open team also had a good turnout, with
Andrew Corman, Chuck McKeown, Alex Phipps, Mike Christman, Luis De La Vega, and Mike Daly all finishing within the top 20.

The PRT Masters Team at Wild Duck 5K (photo credit: Robert Verhees)

After the typical mid-summer break that follows Scripps Ranch, the PRT men reconvened this past weekend to kick off the 2014 SDUSATF Dirt Dog XC Series. The first race of the morning was the Masters race, in which seven PRT men competed. Stephen Johnson took first (16:54), closely followed by PRT Men's Team Captain Brian Culley (17:03). They were followed by Greg McMillan (5th, 17:18), Jason Lewis (6th, 17:21), Sean Fader (9th, 17:39), Joel Bernard (11th, 18:06), and Gerard Reski (16th, 18:45)— a strong team showing. In the Open race, the PRT men faced tough competition from Milestone Track Club and San Diego Track Club, but ran well as a team, taking the sixth through ninth spots (Phipps, Seidel, Whitcomb, McKeown, all between 16:13-19).

No rest for the weary — the next Dirt Dog race is Saturday, August 30 — the Balboa Park 4-Miler

Women Post New PRs in Late Spring and Early Summer Racing

The women of New Balance Prado Racing Team have been busy training and posting new PRs. The late spring and early summer season have seen PRs in events ranging from the 5K to the Marathon!

Our first PR is over the longest distance, the marathon! Despite battling injury going into the race, Kristin Schleicher still managed to pull off not only the top overall female position but also notched a new Marathon PR of 3:01:34!

Julie Sawyer took a break from her Spring track season to run the Portland Rock and Roll Half Marathon and snagged 5^th place overall as well as cut down her Half Marathon PR by almost three minutes to 1:20:07.

New teammates Cortney Staruch and Bekki Miske wasted no time putting some fast times up on the board. Cortney raced both the Vista Strawberry 5K in 17:50 and the Bonita 5K in a PR of 17:28 (also good for second place overall), and Bekki competed in the Vista Strawberry 5K in 18:30 and the next week ran a PR of 18:09 (on a long course!).

Several PRT women decided to kick off the summer by competing in the San Diego Rock and Roll Half Marathon and Marathon. In the Half Marathon, every woman ran her fastest half marathon time ever to make for a very exciting day for the PRT women.  Hilary Corno ran a blazing 1:19:01. She was followed by Angela Moll in 1:22:14 and Darcy Davidson, who cut over a minute off her previous best time to run 1:22:57.

Additionally, Sara Sanchez braved the marathon to post a solid time of 3:10:23.

While many runners were taking a break from the Spring season, the PRT ladies had a strong showing at the Old Pro’s Scripps 10K on July 4^th. The women claimed four of the top ten positions, led by Hilary Corno in 36:11 good for second female overall. She was followed by Jenna Munguia who finsihed third in 36:23 in one of her first races back. Quite an impressive showing! Darcy Davidson (37:38) and Gina Merchant (39:51) rounded out the top ten finishes in 5^th and 7^th, respectively. Also competing for PRT was Kelcie Wiemann (40:48) who took a break from studying for the California Bar to lace up her racing flats!

Most recently, two of our women braved hot and muggy racing conditions at America’s Finest City Half Marathon. Despite less than ideal weather, both women toughed it out, with Caela competing in her first half marathon in several years, finishing with a time of 1:25:01, and Hilary Corno finishing in 1:21:04.

Now it’s time for the women to gear up for the Dirt Dog XC Series! Check back for updates on the team’s progress as well as other