Saturday morning wasn’t over yet, but Johnson had already put in a full day in Tallahassee, Florida. He had just carried a load of signs and flags off the cross-country course at Apalachee Regional Park, trotting around the loop on foot. Before that he had already been around the course at full speed, winning Gulf Winds Track Club’s seventh annual Tannenbaum Trail 6K cross-country race in 20:19. Katie Sherron took the women’s title for the third time in the history of the event, placing fifth overall in 22:46.
 |
| Charlie Johnson |
A week before the Tannenbaum 6K, Apalachee Regional Park had been host to the USATF Junior Olympic Cross-Country National Championships. Seven weeks later the course would host the 2018 USATF Cross Country Championships. Looking even farther ahead, the 2021 NCAA Division I Cross-Country Championships were also coming to the park. But on Saturday morning, 16 December 2017, you didn’t have to be fighting for a national title to step onto the turf at ARPXC, because the Tannenbaum was open to anyone prepared to be on the starting line at 9:00 AM, willing to race six kilometers--just short of 3-3/4 miles. More than a hundred athletes took advantage of the opportunity to run on the championship course.
Halfway through the race, Charlie Johnson was leading those athletes. Matthew McCurdy, an alumnus of the Centre College cross-country team, was running in second, trailing Johnson by 40 meters. Vince Molosky, runner-up in the 2016 Tannenbaum 6K, held the third position. Neither McCurdy nor Molosky would get any closer, though. Johnson widened the gap during the second half of the race, leading by more than 100 meters at the five-kilometer mark. By the time he crossed the finish line in a winning 20:19, Johnson had expanded his lead to more than 200 meters. McCurdy took second in 21:15. Molosky placed third in 21:46--a mark almost identical to the the 21:47 he had run in the 2016 race. Carter Hay was the first master runner in the Tannenbaum, placing sixth overall in 22:47.
 |
| Katie Sherron |
Katie Sherron, the women’s champ, was a step ahead of Hay in 22:46. Sherron had been second in the women’s standings the previous year, finishing behind Alyson Churchill. The other two years that Sherron raced the Tannenbaum, though, she had come away with the women’s title, winning in both 2011 and 2015. She was clearly the victor in 2017, crossing the finish line nearly 400 meters ahead of the next woman.
Sheryl Rosen was the women’s runner-up, placing fourteenth overall in 24:34. The 2014 women's champ, Jillian Heddaeus, overtook Alyssa Langston during the second half of the 2017 race to take third in the women's standings and seventeenth overall in 25:50. Langston was the fourth woman and eighteenth overall in 26:06.
 |
| The leaders halfway through the race |
There was a tight race for the top woman master’s spot, with Kenya Rich, Laura Reina, and Angela Dempsey each still in contention on the homestretch. Rich edged Reina at the finish line, 28:16 to 28:17, with Dempsey a little farther back in 28:23. Rich was the eighth woman and 34th overall, Reina the ninth woman and 35th overall, and Dempsey the tenth woman and 37th overall.
112 athletes finished the 2017 Tannenbaum Trail 6K. Gulf Winds Track Club chip-timed the race.
Top Ten Men, Gulf Winds Track Club's 2017 Tannenbaum Trail 6K
- 20:19, Charlie Johnson (M, 38)
- 21:15, Matthew McCurdy (M, 23)
- 21:46, Vince Molosky (M, 38)
- 22:44, Ryan Truchelut (M, 32)
- 22:47, Carter Hay (M, 46)
- 23:03, Jim Haley (M, 38)
- 23:07, Matthew Rowan (M, 49)
- 23:17, Kurt Dietrich (M, 26)
- 23:30, Paul Guyas (M, 40)
- 23:38, Michael Nesius (M, 33)
Top Ten Women, Gulf Winds Track Club's 2017 Tannenbaum Trail 6K
- 22:46, Katie Sherron (F, 36)
- 24:34, Sheryl Rosen (F, 33)
- 25:50, Jillian Heddaeus (F, 34)
- 26:06, Alyssa Langston (F, 17)
- 27:07, Kristin Halley (F, 36)
- 27:39, Lilli Unger (F, 15)
- 28:03, Melissa Thompson (F, 33)
- 28:16, Kenya Rich (F, 45)
- 28:17, Laura Reina (F, 53)
- 28:23, Angela Dempsey (F, 49)
| Tannenbaum Trail 6K Champions, 2011 - 2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Men | Women | Finishers |
| 17 December 2011 | 19:49, Chris Lake | 25:33, Katie Showman | 173 |
| 15 December 2012 | 19:35, Kevin Sullivan | 21:56, Stefanie Slekis | 182 |
| 21 December 2013 | 20:51, Bryan Koon | 22:30, Jodie McGuff | 76 |
| 20 December 2014 | 20:17, Kyle Harris | 25:21, Jillian Heddaeus | 149 |
| 19 December 2015 | 20:36, Joseph Garcia | 23:30, Katie Sherron | 192 |
| 17 December 2016 | 20:30, Josh Andrews | 22:33, Alyson Churchill | 87 |
| 16 December 2017 | 20:19, Charlie Johnson | 22:46, Katie Sherron | 112 |
Links
- Complete results of Gulf Winds Track Club's 2017 Tannenbaum Trail 6K at gulfwinds.org
http://gulfwinds.org/raceresults/2017/Tannenbaum6K2017.html
- More photos of Gulf Winds Track Club's 2017 Tannenbaum Trail 6K
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10111080106484633.1073742330.5215641&type=1&l=f87fb20925
- Fred Deckert's photos of Gulf Winds Track Club's 2017 Tannenbaum Trail 6K
https://photos.app.goo.gl/brIVlnYXBLnpef3o1
- 2016 story, “Tannenbaum Trail titles for Josh Andrews and Alyson Churchill”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2016/12/tannenbaum-2016.html
- 2015 story, “Garcia and Sherron take the Tannenbaum”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/12/tannenbaum-2015.html
- 2014 story, “Berry College Viking Kyle Harris wins Tallahassee's Tannenbaum Trail 6K”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2014/12/tannenbaum-2014.html
- 2013 story, “Koon and McGuff traipse the Tannenbaum Trail”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2013/12/tannenbaum-2013.html
- 2012 story, “Sullivan and Slekis take Tannenbaum for Capital City Runners”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2012/12/tannenbaum-2012.html
- 2011 story, “Lake and Showman trail no one at Tannenbaum Trail 6K”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/12/tannenbaum-2011.html
- Find another upcoming race named after a tree on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
No comments:
Post a Comment