January has to be remembered for the 40th annual Gulf Winds Track Club 30K. The course on Old Centerville and Sunny Hill Roads is alway hilly, and for the 2017 race it was also sloppy with mud, but Stan Linton raced it in a winning 1:46:13--the fastest time at the event since 1994. Back then the race was run on a different course--flat, paved, and a bit short. Linton's mark was certainly the best since the race moved to the present course in 2006.
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| Stan Linton |
February is always noteworthy for the Tallahassee Marathon, but also for the Run For The Cookies 5K. At the 2017 Cookie Run, twelve-year-old Ani Veltcheva from Gainesville, Florida ran 17:35. At the end of the year, that still stood the best 5K run by a woman on the Tallahassee roads during 2017.
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| Ani Veltcheva |
In March, if you made it to the FSU Relays, you could have seen Lincoln High frosh Alyson Churchill win the girls' 3200-meter race in 10:23.81, which at the time was the season-leading mark for any girl in the United States.
In 2017 the Springtime 10K fell in April. Chris Haynes won the 42nd annual race in 32:51. Speedy Ani Veltcheva was back in Tallahassee, winning the women's division in 37:21, the top women's road 10K performance in town for the year.
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| Chris Haynes |
By May things are usually heating up in the Tallahassee area, but it’s always shady if not cool on the Blountstown Greenway course of the Catfish Crawl 5K. FSU student Matt McCurdy won that race in 17:23, while Kat Sack of Tallahassee turned a 19:46 for the women's course record.
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| Kat Sack |
In June, Florida State frosh Steven Cross won the men's 10,000-meters at the USATF Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships. That earned him a spot on the US Junior team, where he won the 10,000 at the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships.
Independence Day comes each July, and for Tallahassee distance runners that means the Firecracker 5K. Charlie Johnson won the 2017 Firecracker with a 16:48. Katie Sherron turned a 19:42 to take the women's title.
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| Charlie Johnson |
August is hot in Tallahassee. It’s even hotter on Saint George Island, and hotter still during the Saint Georgia Island Summer Sizzler 5K. 2017 marked the twentieth annual Sizzler, and it was scheduled to be the last. Ryan Slyter won that final race in 17:46, and Kat Sack was the first woman, placing eighth overall in 20:21.
During September there was a showdown between Ani Veltcheva and Katie Sherron in Indianhead Acres during Gulf Winds Track Club’s 36th annual Women's Distance Festival 5K. This time Sherron came out on top, running 18:13, while Veltcheva was second in 18:54. Charlie Johnson won the men's race in 16:28.
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| Katie Sherron and Ani Veltcheva |
Different athletes may remember different things about October, but don't expect anyone who ran the Pine Run 20K at Tall Timbers to forget that race anytime soon. Chris O'Kelley won the 2017 edition of the Pine Run, covering 12.4 rugged cross-country miles in 1:20:31. Sheryl Rosen was the women's winner in 1:31:59. Rosen is the only athlete to have Pine Run titles both on the Tall Timbers course and on the original course at Southlands Experimental Forest.
November in Tallahassee is always going to mean Turkey Trot, the largest running event in the city. More than 4,500 athletes finished one of the four Thanksgiving Day races at the 2017 Tallahassee Turkey Trot, but the 15K is the run that gets top billing. Anthony Malatesta of Milton won it this year with a 51:47. Katie Sherron was the top woman, ninth overall in 56:36.
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| Anthony Malatesta |
In December, Michael Phillips and Ana Wallace headed to San Diego, California for the 39th annual Foot Locker National Cross-Country Championships. Over the years, five other Tallahassee athletes had qualified for Foot Locker, but this was the first time that two had made the final in the same year. In fact, it was the only time that two runners from the same Florida school had qualified in the same year. Wallace had already won the girls’ state high school championship in her division during November, and Phillips had won the boys’ title for the second straight year. At Foot Locker, Phillips finished sixteenth out of 40 of the nation’s best in the high school boys’ 5K. Wallace took sixth in the high school girls’ 5K, the best showing ever by a Tallahassee girl.
Those are just a few recollections from each month of Tallahassee’s year in distance running. Stay tuned for twelve more months of memories.
Links
- January, “Fast times on a sloppy road for Linton and Sherron at the GWTC 30K”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/01/gwtc-30k-2017.html
- February, “McCurdy wins and Veltcheva goes 17:35 at Run For The Cookies”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/02/cookies-2017.html
- March, “Pottorff turns a US #4 9:03.44 and Churchill a US #1 10:23.81 at the FSU Relays”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/03/fsu-relays-3200m-2017.html
- April, “Haynes and Veltcheva are the young winners of an old race, the Springtime 10K”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/04/springtime-2017.html
- May, “McCurdy and Sack land victories in the Catfish Crawl 5K”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/05/catfish-2017.html
- June, “Sunshine state athletes Cross and Leverone are set for a hot national championship 10,000”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/06/usatf-jr-men-10k-2017-pre.html
- July, “Johnson and Sherron were the bomb at the Firecracker 5K”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/07/firecracker-2017.html
- August, “Slyter and Sack star in the last act of the Sizzler”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/08/sizzler-2017.html
- September, “Katie Sherron runs 18:13 in hilly Indianhead”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/09/wdf-2017.html
- December, “Ana Wallace and Michael Phillips were Florida's finest finishers at Foot Locker”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/12/foot-locker-nationals-2017.html
- Forge memories at these upcoming races on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
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