Male Runner of the Year

Our Gulf Winds Track Club Male Runner of the Year is….Miss Columbia!

Hi. My name is Mike Burns and I’ve been asked to announce our 2015 GWTC Runner of the Year. I suspect I did such a bad job last year that Mandy thought I needed the practice. I’ll also do my best not to break anything up here either (look at Vince for an uncomfortable amount of time).Before we bring our young and handsome Miss Columbia up here, Mandy says I need to kill about 3 and a half minutes (that’s pretty long for me).

Our GWTC Male Runner of the Year Annual Award has demonstrated, met, and exceeded the standards described in the award which states:

In naming its Runners of the Year, Gulf Winds Track Club seeks to honor those who, besides achieving outstanding times in the past year at various distances in local, regional, and national events, have served as models for all of us in their competitive spirit, their continuing devotion tothe sport, and their support and encouragement of their fellow runners, both individually and as members of Gulf Winds.

Notable accomplishments of our winner include some outstanding times at various local race distances in the past year as shown in the Table 1 below (hold up piece of paper and ensure no one has time to look). All finishes have been top 5 except one which was 6th place and that one was the Palace Saloon 5K…you know…the one with the handsome race director and over 65 score of runners. I’m sure I saw you there.

Our winner salted in five 1st place finishes and he ran sub 5 minute mile in Tallahassee one month followed by a 2:40:58 marathon in Berlin the next month. Although the award description doesn’t include international races, we’ll just call it Berlin Ohio to keep within spec.

Our winner also coached six navy ROTC midshipman who participated in the Navy Challenge. Each participant ran the 2015 Bowlegs 5K to establish a baseline. He produced a three tiered training plan for the different levels of runners and provided consultation upon requested to each middie. The middies then all raced the 2015 Palace Saloon 5K as the goal race and showed such improvement that other middies were looking to the six for running advice. Besides providing thiscoaching, and running the race, he emceed the Palace event so the handsome race director could ensure the taps were working properly.

Our winner is also leading the GWTC Tallahassee Marathon and ½ Marathon Training Group including determining weekly courses, distances, and assisting in providing water and nutrition drops as well as on course support. I know this because I’m one of the participants!Please join me in congratulating not Miss Columbia but Roger Schmidt as your 2015 GWTC Male Runner of the Year.