Springtime 2010 - Coming Up Rosen and Lake

 

Herb Wills, April 2010.

 

33 minutes and nine seconds after the starting siren sounded at the Leon County Courthouse around 8:15am on 27 March 2010, Chris Lake crossed the finish line on Suwanee Street as Tallahassee's Springtime 10K champion. A little over five minutes later Sheryl Rosen had the women's title, finishing 17th overall in 38:23. The men's competition and the women's competition unfolded quite differently, however.

For the men, Chris Lake took the lead early. By two kilometers, where the course starts to climb out of the Franklin Boulevard flood plain, it was already starting to look like the rest of the field was going to have to settle for second or hope that Lake tripped and fell. Vince Molosky led the pursuit as the runners followed Lake up Lafayette Street and into the hills of Myers Park. Halfway through the ten kilometer race, Lake was only farther ahead. Molosky, however, had lost the second position to Nate Kaiser, and the third spot to Stephen Cox. Daniel Lee was not far behind in fifth. At eight kilometers it was still Lake, Kaiser, Cox, Molosky, and Lee. Those positions held almost to the end. Lake crossed the line first, 130 meters ahead of Kaiser's 33:35. Cox held on for third in 33:44. Lee, however, made up a ten-second deficit in the last 400 meters to nip Molosky for fourth, 34:03 to 34:04. In the master men's competition Jay Wallace got away from Tony Guillen in the Myers Park hills to prevail 35:09 (7th overall) to 36:16 (8th overall).

Where the men's leader at two kilometers had been virtually alone, the women's leader at that spot had plenty of company. 2009 Springtime 10K champion Lisa Johnson, Sheryl Rosen, Shannon Coates, and Kristen Hagen were running in a group so close together that it would have been a difficult choice to pick a single one of them as the leader. Early in the sixth kilometer as the runners passed Myers Park for the second time, Kristen Hagen had a slight lead over Shannon Coates and Sheryl Rosen with Lisa Johnson just a few more steps back. But for Rosen, the longer the race the stronger the run. Over the last four kilometers she moved ahead and built a 50-meter lead, prevailing 38:23 to 38:35 over Coates, who finished 20th overall. Hagen was the third woman in at 38:39 (21st overall) and Johnson was fourth at 38:52 (23rd overall). Among the women masters, Tallahassee's Jane Johnson prevailed over Thomasville's Mary Anne Grayson, 42:25 to 42:41.


686 athletes completed the associated Publix 5K, which was won by Etienne Mazimpaka in 19:14. The top woman in the 5K was Katherine Lindsay, who finished 20th overall in 21:58. The one-mile run for children was won by thirteen-year old J. P. Piotrowski in 6:08; the fastest girl in that race was nine-year old Katherine Resavage, fifth overall at 6:54.


Ordering better weather for running would have been difficult. The morning dawned cool and clear with minimal wind. This was in contrast to an uncharacteristically cool and wet winter which kept the plants from blooming early, so that the azaleas, dogwoods, and other blossoms were out along the course for the runners to view. In spite of the fine conditions, no runner in the field succeeded in collecting either the $500 bounty for a winning men's time under 30:00, or the $500 bounty for a winning women's time under 35:00. Maybe next year. Nevertheless, many runners did come out to take advantage of the weather. All together, there were 1,672 finishers in the three races--perhaps not the largest Springtime event in history, but certainly the largest in many, many years