Champions are made in the Summer

The summer is now ending and fall is sneaking its way in, as Cross Country season has officially started for the Women's Prado Racing Team. The women have made their stance in the first race at the Wild Duck in Oceanside on August 25, 2012, at Guajome Park. The women dominated in the race, taking first place, without all of our women present. Marie Schaper came in at 18:00, followed by teammate Hilary Corno ( winner of the La Jolla Half Marathon 2012) at 18:14, as well as new teammate Mercy Ray at 19:07 in third. Kelcie Wiemann, 19:22, and Jordana Henderson, 19:35, rounded out the top five, with Becki McClintock close behind at 19:39.

Summer training has paid off as the PRT women let their presence be known. The hard work on the track and on the road during the blistering heat this summer was shown as these women have already had success in the first race.

Here are the results.

It was an awesome start to the season and the goal is to have continued success in the Dirt Dog series. Many of the women have begun to set goals for the season. Kristin Schleicher plans to continue running in the Dirt Dog series, but will also be training for the Cal International Marathon (CIM). Samantha Espindola is a new teammate who joined us last spring from USD. She also plans to prepare for a marathon, with a goal time of 2:50-3:00.

Other teammates are focused on getting through the Dirt Dog series and plan to have just as much as success as they did last year. The PRT women will be gearing up for the next race, the Balboa 4-miler, on September 1, 2012.

Strong Debut for PRT Open Men and Masters at Wild Duck 5k

The PRT Open Men's team took second at the Wild Duck 5k this past weekend, losing by only three spots to the GivingTree3/BSK squad. Dan Farmer and Alex Phipps took out the race in honest fashion, leading through approximately two miles and holding on for fourth and fifth place, respectively, both comfortably under sixteen minutes. Not far behind were your humble correspondent, Derek Bradley, and Andrew Corman (7-8-9, all around sixteen minutes). We also had strong races from Chuck McKeon (16:34), Steve Moxey (16:52), and Alec Fillmore (17:06). My general sense is that a few people ran quite a bit faster this year than last, which bodes well for the upcoming Dirt Dog series.

Brian Culley and Steve Johnson led the 40+ men's squad in the Masters race, coming in fourth and sixth (17:09; 17:20). The PRT Masters were second in the team competition behind the Jamul Toads.

Full results are at runprt.com.

This weekend is the Balboa 4-miler; register online here.