Color Droze and Guyas winners at the Monet 5K

It took eighteen months after the inaugural Monet 5K for Alliance Francaise de Tallahassee to hold the second annual race. Nevertheless, on Sunday morning, 20 November 2016, the athletes were on the Tallahassee, Florida campus of Florida State University for that event. Master runner Gary Droze, the Tallahassee Community College cross-country coach, won the race in 18:22, finishing close to 200 meters ahead of the next runner. Martha Bademan Guyas, women's champ at the 2015 Monet 5K, successfully defended her title, placing eighth overall in 23:50. 48 athletes finished the second annual race.

Martha Bademan Guyas and Gary Droze

The impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, the race's namesake, featured mostly flat landscapes--shorelines, gardens, and fields. If Monet was looking for a more alpine setting for his work, he could have used the Monet 5K course. The route was the challenging loop around Florida State University, a course that's used at least once almost every weekend for a campus race. The loop includes the highest spot on campus--Gallows Hill on Copland Street--and the lowest spot on campus--Budweiser Creek. There's a difference in elevation of about a hundred feet between those two points, and plenty of up-and-down running along the way. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Florida State students convince visiting friends to run campus races just to watch them struggle on the hills.


Gary Droze hadn't run the Monet 5K before, but he had run more than a few other races on the same course, enough that he was familiar with every up and down. 18:22 wasn't his fastest time on the course, but it was fast enough to get the win. Paul Guyas, another veteran of racing the loop around Florida State, was second in 19:08. Franz Roeder hadn't had as much experience on the course as the first two runners, but as a junior on the Lincoln High cross-country team he had plenty of practice running hills. Roeder was third in 20:07.


Martha Guyas's 23:50 was only one second different from the 23:49 she ran in 2015, but the result was much the same as she won the women's title in both races. Leon High french teacher Julia Sura was the fist woman master in the race, the second female finisher and eleventh overall in 25:55. Master runner Arsinoe Speliotopoulos was third in the women's standings and thirteenth overall in 29:50.


Top Ten Men, 2016 Monet 5K

1. 18:22, Gary Droze (M, 55)
2. 19:08, Paul Guyas (M, 39)
3. 20:07, Franz Roeder (M, 17)
4. 20:21, Philip Sura (M, 46)
5. 22:25, Michael LaBossiere (M, 50)
6. 22:41, George Hudson (M, 56)
7. 23:00, Felix Gaspar (M, 54)
8. 23:51, George Cucchi (M, 53)
9. 24:00, Ethan Williamson (M, 19)
10. 27:09, Eberhard Roeder (M, 49)

Top Ten Women, 2016 Monet 5K

1. 23:50, Martha Guyas (F, 32)
2. 25:55, Julia Sura (F, 45)
3. 29:50, Arsinoe Speliotopoulos (F, 56)
4. 30:57, Cindy Sheppard (F, 56)
5. 32:01, Chika Okoro (F, 36)
6. 32:02, Adrienne Ruhl (F, 36)
7. 34:43, Fran Bridges (F, 56)
8. 35:01, Jeanette Lehn (F, 33)
9. 37:39, Meggan McCarthy (F, 31)
10. 37:47, Pat Bruner (F, 58)

Monet 5K winners, 2015 - 2016
Date	Men	Women	Finishers
17 May 2015	19:13, Ryan Truchelut	23:49, Martha Bademan	80
20 November 2016	18:22, Gary Droze	23:50, Martha Guyas	48

Links

• Complete results of the 2016 Monet 5K at gulfwinds.org
  http://gulfwinds.org/raceresults/2016/Monet%202016.asp
  
  
• Fred Deckert's photos of the 2016 Monet 5K
  https://plus.google.com/photos/112560881455823075870/album/6355185316160629489
  
  
• 2015 story, “Truchelut and Bademan make an impression at the Monet 5K”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/05/monet-2015.html
  
  
• More upcoming races named after French impressionist painters on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
  
  

#1836