On Saturday morning, 29 April 2017, for the 40th year in a row athletes converged on Thomasville, Georgia for the annual Rose City Run. This time nearly 400 athletes made the ten-kilometer tour of the Thomasville streets, and this time the fastest runner was
Chris Haynes of Tallahassee, who won the race in 32:57.
Ann Centner of Blakely, Georgia was the top woman, running 40:56 and placing eighth overall.
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Chris Haynes |
As in the 39 previous Aprils, the athletes gathered on Broad Street for the start of the race. Just as in many of those Aprils, race director Dr. Jim Story informed the competitors, “When the gun fires, you go. If the gun doesn’t fire, you go anyway.” The gun fired. The runners went.
Dustin Reynolds, a senior on the Seminole High cross-country team, bolted to the front of the pack. He was stalked by two Tallahassee runners,
Chris Haynes and Leon High senior
Matt Cashin. Just two weeks earlier, Haynes had run a 15:43 for 5K, placing second at the Palace Saloon Run. Cashin had races even more recently, going 9:38 in the 3200 two days previously at the FHSAA 3A Region 1 track meet. The two runners weren’t strangers.
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Chris Haynes & Matt Cashin |
“He’s our assistant coach at Leon,” said Cashin. “We’ve been training a lot together.”
Haynes and Cashin, coach and athlete, soon overtook Reynolds.
“He was still with us at the mile,” recalled Cashin.
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Mickey Moore |
But not much longer. By the uphill climb near Cherokee Lake during the second mile, Reynolds was already half a minute behind Haynes and Cashin. Soon after that Haynes took over completely.
“Right before the two-mile mark is where we started splitting,” said Cashin.
After that Haynes was alone with the heat, humidity, and hills, ultimately building up a lead of more than half a kilometer--not that he ever looked back to check.
“I thought Matt was closer,” said Haynes. “If he had been with me when I crested Heartbreak he could have gone right by me, because I was toast.”
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Ann Centner |
The Rose City Run’s Heartbreak Hill, though, is less than half a mile from the finish line, and no one was close to Haynes. He was home with the win in 32:57.Cashin took second in 34:51.
Mickey Moore of Tallahassee was the top master runner in the race, taking third overall in 38:05.
Dustin Reynolds was fourth in 38:16 and Perry, Florida master runner
Michael Rhodes was fifth in 39:02.
Haynes did his collegiate running at the University of North Florida. Women’s champ
Ann Centner, on the other hand, was a University of Georgia distance runner. The former Bulldog was ahead of the rest of the women’s field almost immediately after the start of the Rose City Run.
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Ann Centner & Katie Sack |
“I have trouble with going out too fast,” said Centner. “I have to work on that.”
Poor pacing didn't have any dire competitive consequences for Centner that morning, though, as attested by Tallahassee runner
Katie Sack, who spent the entire race chasing Centner.
“I closed in a little between three and four miles,” said Sack. “But that was it.”
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Alyssa Terry |
Centner ran home in 40:56 for the women’s title. Sack was the women’s runner-up and eleventh overall in 41:44.
Alyssa Terry of Tallahassee was third in the women's standings and 26th overall in 44:52. Leon High junior Cynthia Paterson was the fourth woman and 43rd overall in 47:30. The top woman master and fifth female finisher was Tallahassee realtor
Nancy Stedman, 46th overall in 48:01.
Neither
Chris Haynes nor
Ann Centner had raced Rose City before. There were some veterans of past Rose City Runs in the field, but few if any who were at the first race in 1978. But even as the faces in the race have changed, much else about Rose City has stayed the same. The runners have covered the same course for 40 Aprils, the band still plays on the fourth mile, and the Big Oak still provides shade during the awards presentations. And in spite of testimony to the contrary, Heartbreak Hill hasn’t got any steeper in the last 40 years. Thomasville’s Rose City Run has had a good first 40 years, and I hope it’s not asking too much to wish for at least 40 more.
Top Ten Men, 2017 Rose City Run 10K
- 32:57, Christopher Haynes (M, 24) Tallahassee, FL
- 34:51, Matthew Cashin (M, 17) Tallahassee, FL
- 38:05, Mickey Moore (M, 47) Tallahassee, FL
- 38:16, Dustin Reynolds (M, 18) Brinson, GA
- 39:02, Michael Rhodes (M, 48) Perry, FL
- 39:12, Travis Parks (M, 22)
- 40:31, Joseph Ashebo (M, 15)
- 41:01, Tim Unger (M, 57) Tallahassee, FL
- 41:39, Tad David (M, 48)
- 41:53, Duane Evans (M, 49)
Top Ten Women, 2017 Rose City Run 10K
- 40:56, Ann Centner (F, 25)
- 41:44, Katie Sack (F, 25) Tallahassee, FL
- 44:52, Alyssa Terry (F, 23)
- 47:30, Cynthia Paterson (F, 17) Tallahassee, FL
- 48:01, Nancy Stedman (F, 55) Tallahassee, FL
- 48:56, Christina Linton (F, 36)
- 49:38, Rosalie White (F, 22)
- 50:26, Jennifer Douglas (F, 43) Thomasville, GA
- 50:55, Courtney Krick (F, 30) Santa Rosa Beach, FL
- 51:04, Angie Cipriani (F, 18) Thomasville, GA
40 years of Rose City Run 10K champions, 1978 - 2017 |
Date | Men | Women | Finishers |
29 April 1978 | 31:25, Gary Slayton | 36:45, Janice Hochstein | |
28 April 1979 | 31:47, Mike Rasper | 37:49, Janice Hochstein | |
26 April 1980 | 31:18, George West | 38:14, Colleen Joiner | |
25 April 1981 | 30:21, Mabry McCray | 40:26, Nicole Batchelder | |
1982 | 30:33, Ernie McKee | 38:31, Nicole Batchelder | |
1983 | 30:47, Noel Shuman | 34:57, Darien Andreu | |
1984 | 33:05, Gary Slayton | 37:51, Barbara Balzer | |
27 April 1985 | 32:36, Rick Miller | 37:41, Barbara Balzer | |
26 April 1986 | 32:05, Rick Miller | 37:35, Janice Hochstein | |
1987 | 29:57, Herb Wills | 37:39, Karen MacHarg | |
1988 | 31:55, Jessie Close | 37:59, Karen MacHarg | |
1989 | 31:39, Jessie Close | 36:49, Karen MacHarg | |
1990 | 31:56, Jessie Close | 37:04, Karen MacHarg | |
1991 | 31:15, Jessie Close | 38:33, Vikki Saga | |
1992 | 33:04, Trent Smith | 37:48, Vikki Saga | |
24 April 1993 | 31:28, Gary Droze | 38:24, Vikki Saga | |
23 April 1994 | 30:19, Robin Rogers | 37:37, Lisa Herman | |
29 April 1995 | 31:52, Jessie Close | 35:37, Suzanne Rigg | |
27 Aprl 1996 | 32:18, Jessie Close | 39:37, Carrie Weyant | |
26 April 1997 | 32:29, Brian Erb | 36:40, Sarah Docter-Williams | |
25 April 1998 | 31:58, Alan Black | 36:07, Sarah Docter-Williams | |
24 April 1999 | 32:21, Alan Black | 37:14, Sarah Docter-Williams | |
29 April 2000 | 34:15, Sean Daniels | 35:20, Anna Pichrtova | |
28 April 2001 | 32:05, Paul Spangler | 36:22, Sarah Docter-Williams | |
27 April 2002 | 30:53, Alan Black | 39:35, Jane Johnson | |
26 April 2003 | 31:58, Matt Kalinski | 41:53, Julie Carico | |
25 April 2004 | 33:44, Jessie Close | 39:52, Kate Remillard | |
23 April 2005 | 33:44, Jessie Close | 37:08, Sarah Docter-Williams | |
29 April 2006 | 34:32, Jessie Close | 38:38, Barbara Jarnagin | |
28 April 2007 | 31:21, Alan Black | 39:02, Sheryl Rosen | |
26 April 2008 | 33:10, Malcolm Campbell | 37:40, Donna Garcia | |
25 April 2009 | 32:34, Nathaniel Haskins | 41:38, Mary Anne Grayson | |
24 April 2010 | 32:51, Chris Lake | 37:42, Amy Hines | |
23 April 2011 | 32:46, Chris Lake | 38:58, Donna Garcia | |
28 April 2012 | 32:51, Chris Lake | 36:51, Sheryl Rosen | |
27 April 2013 | 32:52, Will Stanford | 37:08, Sheryl Rosen | |
26 April 2014 | 33:21, Chris Lake | 38:58, Amy Hines | |
25 April 2015 | 32:04, Nathan Haskins | 41:32, Beth Sweeny | |
23 April 2016 | 34:37, Roger Schmidt | 38:11, Ani Veltcheva | 358 |
29 April 2017 | 32:57, Christopher Haynes | 40:56, Ann Centner | 392 |
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