Race notebook: Glass senior Malloy captures Four Miler

Spurred on by a large contingent of E.C. Glass cross country teammates lining Langhorne Road, Hilltoppers senior Paul Malloy won Saturday’s Four Miler, reaching the main entrance to Randolph College in 23 minutes, 25 seconds.

Liberty University redshirt freshman Spencer Jackson was runner-up in 23:47 after trying to keep pace with one of his coaches, 10 Miler winner David Cheeromei.

“It was a lot faster than I wanted to go out,” said Jackson, who ran the first mile in 5:13, far off Cheeromei’s 4:20 pace. “Cheeromei just went flying and I thought I had to, too. He went too fast.”

Porche Pugh, 21, of Lynchburg was the women’s Four Miler winner, placing 19th overall in 27:04.

Amherst Middle School eighth grader Daniel Fitzgerald defended his title in the Amazing Mile Children’s Run in his last year of eligibility in the race.

“Next year, I’ll probably run the Four Miler,” said Fitzgerald, 13, who is the sixth runner on Amherst High’s cross country team.

He finished in a time of 5 minutes, 26 seconds, a few seconds slower than his winning time from last year, in part because he sprained his ankle a week ago while playing a game of Hide-and-Seek around his house.

RC professor can’t catch coach Cat

Randolph College physics professor Peter Sheldon, who also serves as Catherine Phillips’ assistant coach on the men’s and women’s cross country team, stayed with the third-place woman (24th in 1:04:19) for a while before finishing 28th in 1:06:24.

“Last year, we ran together and I ran a lot faster,” said Sheldon, who may have bonked a bit after running full speed along Riverside Road to impress the Randolph College student spectators, and stay ahead of the 16 WildCat team members running in the Four Miler race that ended at RC.

“It wasn’t my day,” he added. “Last year, Cat ran 64 minutes and I was at 65 and this year she was ran 65 and I ran 67.”

Both runners are in training for the Nov. 15 Richmond Marathon and were thrilled to run with women’s winner Joan Benoit Samuelson.

“That was great getting to run with her for the first three miles,” said Sheldon, who turned 40 last year. “It was inspirational. I want to be running as fast as she is when I’m her age.”

Horton back on the streets

Liberty University ultramarathon man David Horton ran his first Virginia 10 Miler in 15 years, on the dawn of one of his infamous middle-of-the-night training runs prior to the 8 a.m. race.

“This is hard, especially after running 17 miles last night,” said Horton, who is preparing to run his first Mountain Masochist 50-mile Trail Run since winning the inaugural race 25 years ago on Nov.1, after handing over the direction of that race to Clark Zealand earlier this year. “Seventeen of us, many my own students, ran over Sharp Top, Flat Top and Harkening Hill last night. I went to bed at 3:30 a.m.”

Horton said Samuelson’s appearance generated new enthusiasm in the race community.

“It’s a great thing to see the race come back,” he said “Joan is a great spokesperson for running. She’s so humble. She’s a women’s version of Bill Rodgers.”

Pastor keeps his kids running

Marc Jantomoso, pastor of River Rock Church in Forest, entered five of his seven children in the Amazing Mile Children’s Run with a sixth, 13-year-old Justin, finishing 13th overall and first in his age division in 26:40 on his first try at the Four Miler.

Nehemiah, 5, won the 5-and-under division of the Children’s Run, winning a $50 gift certificate to Toys “R” Us. Elijah, 9, also took second in his age division while Noah, 12, Charis, 11, and Sophia, 7, also competed in the Children’s Run.

“I just did crowd control,” Jantomoso said, adding he has helped his children with their training. “We run together and do a lot of walking … since the time they were born, in jogger strollers.”

Race numbers keep climbing

There were more than 1,600 participants in Saturday’s 10 Miler, Four Miler and Amazing Mile Children’s Run, with 20 to 25 percent more entries in the 10 Miler and Amazing Mile and 40 to 45 percent more in the Four Miler.

“It’s good to bring the race back onto the national stage, and to reach out to promote our community … and show off the great city of Lynchburg,” said second-year race director Jeff Fedorko.

He said improved entertainment, with five live bands stationed along the course, helped bring out more runners and spectators.

“The bands were here early, at 6:30 a.m., setting up,” he said. “They’re probably used to setting up at 6:30 at night.”

There were hundreds of supporters along the course, with members of the YMCA stationed near The Farm Basket, Glass’ cross country team along Langhorne Road, including coach Danny Boyers who was stationed at the three-mile mark, Randolph College students at the Four Miler finish line, and Lynchburg College’s men’s lacrosse team at the five-mile mark inside Riverside Park, where 10 Miler runners did a loop to turn back toward the finish line at Glass.

LC men’s lacrosse coach Steve Koudelka ran alongside his 5-year-old daughter Holly in the Amazing Mile race before meeting up with the 55 members of his program at Riverside Park.

Angels Race promoter a fan of 10 Miler

Geb Broman of Forest, who works with his brother in law Tim Groover to organize the Angels Race Triathlon in Lynchburg each spring, was impressed with Saturday’s turnout.

“Jeff (Fedorko) has done such a nice job bringing the race back,” he said. “We try to make the Angels Race be a good community event and so is this.”

Broman ran his first 10 Miler as part of the 12-member color guard organized by Steve Bozeman, one week after they ran together in the Big Lick Triathlon at Smith Mountain Lake. He carried the Army National Guard flag and sported a red Areva shirt.

New 9-11 flag shows its colors

Pete Page ran with a new 9-11 flag, which is being introduced as the war on terrorism’s equivalent to the POW flag for the Vietnam War that Bozeman served in.

After debuting the 9-11 flag in the color guard, replicas of it were presented to Cheeromie and Samuelson, the men’s and women’s 10 Miler winners.

Bozeman’s color guard, a running, chanting troop that finished in near unison in 1:42:44 with flags raised high, ran as a group in its eighth consecutive 10 Miler, featuring three new veterans of the war in Iraq.

WSET reporter Jeremy Mills, who returned from active duty in Baghdad with the Virginia National Guard, carried that flag in his first 10 Miler, surviving the climb from The Farm Basket with encouragement from the other veterans. Also, former Jefferson Forest student athletes Chip and Eddie Eldridge, who both serve in the Army’s Special Forces, joined the race for the final leg of the race. Chip, who lost a leg below the knee from an exploding IED in Afghanistan, ran with the help of a prosthetic leg that allowed him to stay in the Army.

Three ironmen complete 35th

Bill Fastabend of Lynchburg, Jim Montgomery of Florida and Bill Draper of New Jersey each finished their 35th consecutive 10 Miler on Saturday, though all three were a bit slower than in the past.

“It went better than I thought it would,” said Fastabend, who pulled a calf muscle during a training run on Wednesday and didn’t quite meet his goal of finishing in under 100 minutes, settling for a time of 1:48:21. “I held up for the first four and a half miles (without pain). I’m just glad to have this one behind me. My first goal was to try to beat 100 minutes and my second goal was to finish. I was pleased with my time.

“We’ll all be back next year, I’m sure,” he added.

Montgomery, 74, made his annual 700-mile trek on Friday from Daytona Beach, Fla., spending the night in his car parked close to the starting line before the race.

He crossed the finish line somewhere “between two and three hours,” but he did finish. “My legs were pretty tight,” he said of his slower than usual time, possibly due to sleeping in his car the night before.

What brings the Illinois native back to Lynchburg every year?

“This is a nice city and it’s a chance to see my buddies again,” said Montgomery, who turned 40 the year of the first 10 Miler in 1974, which he ran to get in shape for marathons.

Montgomery had a run-in with Samuelson during the 100th anniversary of the Boston Marathon back in 1996, where he actually caught her as she tripped over a group of men kneeling at a table during the Wheaties Breakfast of Champions on the Saturday before the race.

He met and told her about the incident on Saturday and she vaguely remembered it and thanked him 12 years later.

Riverside Runners wins team race

Jeff Harrington, Matt Richards, Chris Gassler, Darrell Wargo and Rebecca Parsons won the Open Team competition, representing Riverside Runners, owned by Fedorko.

Randolph College’s men’s and women’s teams, meanwhile, finished first and second, respectively, in the Four Miler’s Open Team competition. Teams from Genworth Financial, the title sponsor of the Virginia 10 Miler, and B&W Company, placed first and second in the Four Miler’s Corporate Team standings.

Areva defended its 10 Miler Corporate Team title with a combined time of 3:07:40 from its top three finishers, beating out the Genworth Running Blues (3:26:53).