Congratulations Greg! Also Michael Arnstein runs on record pace through 32 miles but takes second in a heartbreaker when Crowther catches him in the last mile. That's gotta sting, but they both ran great races!
Congratulations Greg! Also Michael Arnstein runs on record pace through 32 miles but takes second in a heartbreaker when Crowther catches him in the last mile. That's gotta sting, but they both ran great races!
this was a good day for williams.
random quesions-
Closest finish in 50miler,anyone ever outleaned at the tape?
times AR, WR,USelite, etc?
What's impressive is that 50 miles is about what Greg trains in a week!
and he is has a young son to deal with!
He is a good guy and a good runner. Happy for him!
Good job professor Crowther!
Michael Arnstein is a low-fat raw vegan. He runs on bananas.
http://foodnsport.com/blog/articles/801010-Allstar-Michael-Arnstein.html
Closest 50 mile finish? I'd guess it had to be the 1971 US champs in Rocklin, Ca. when Bob Deines beat Skip Houk by a few seconds. I can't recall how few but I think it was five or less.
Three seconds and it was 1970, no '71.
A couple of corrections: Crowther passed Arnstein with about 3000 meters to go, and Arnstein was on record pace at least until he hit the final 8.5 miles, and maybe a little longer.
Arnstein ran in the 6:20's last year and comes back with an almost 30 min improvement--I think maybe I'll give that low fat vegan thing a try (just kidding...I'm a fatass and I love pancakes too much).
Scott Jurek finishes 11th...
Gotta wonder if he was holding something back, not familiar with the AT (Appalachian Trail) or if he just isn't what he used to be.
Juerk finished 10th, or at least was awarded the trophy for 10th. Hal Koerner took 4th and slashed about 15+ minutes from his previous best at JFK (great weather, but some stiff competition and obviously a lot of runners were fired up).
I think this race is a lot different than the type of ultras that both Jurek and Koerner excel at--the Appalachian Trail will absolutely chew you up if you make a single mistake in some parts--then you've basically got a marathon on the C&O Canal towpath (which is completely flat) and 8.5 miles of rolling hills on asphalt. If you've never run this race before, you are at a severe disadvantage, and Jurek's time would have gotten him about 6th or better in a less-competitive year (the top 7 all broke 6:10, which is usually good for at least 3rd).
Also, I saw Jurek after the race. He signed autographs, took pictures, and was completely honest about his own misgivings with his performance. He's a class act, and he's far from washed up. People used to say the same thing about Crowther.
I agree about the AT...it's pretty unforgiving. I have seen several 7 to 8 hour 50 mile guys just fall apart on the AT, both at JFK and other events held on the AT.
As soon as I saw the results, I chalked it up to not knowing the course
HRE wrote:
Closest 50 mile finish? I'd guess it had to be the 1971 US champs in Rocklin, Ca. when Bob Deines beat Skip Houk by a few seconds. I can't recall how few but I think it was five or less.
And another great ultra finish was Jim Garcia passing a Jan Vandendriessche in the final 20 yards of the 1999 Chancellor 100 km in Boston.
http://www.coolrunning.com/headline/99/chancelllor1010.htmlbacu wrote:
Michael Arnstein is a low-fat raw vegan. He runs on bananas.
http://foodnsport.com/blog/articles/801010-Allstar-Michael-Arnstein.html
Similar to "Diet & Salad", by Norman Walker.
While the AT part of the race can be tricky to keep pace on, it is not that technically difficult a trail for eastern mountains.
The board-flat 26 on the towpath can nuke your legs and make the last road portion a real ordeal.
OldManRunner wrote:
Scott Jurek finishes 11th...
Gotta wonder if he was holding something back, not familiar with the AT (Appalachian Trail) or if he just isn't what he used to be.
Jurek has had a sub-par year for sure (all relative of course as most would kill for his "bad" year.)
His DNF at WS100 and late fade in Mount Blanc race were particularly uncharacteristic. Maybe he is racing too much, but the notion that he has just lost something has to be considered. He was at the top for quite awhile and that is very tough to sustain in a sport that beats you up as badly as fast ultrarunning does. A legend no matter where his career goes from here though.
Not only did Greg come close the record, but fellow Seattlelite Devon Crosby-Helms broke the women's course record.
Greg is very deserving of this; he's a great runner, really tough, has a great sense of humor, and is an all-around nice guy. Great range too- he just took 5th at the PNTF XC champs less than two weeks ago, running 32:26 on a very hard course.
results are here:
http://www.jfk50mile.org/2009/raceday05.txt
on men's side, #2 and #4 performance of all time. (This was the 47th running of the event)
CR by 21 seconds on the women's side...
go longer wrote:
HRE wrote:Closest 50 mile finish? I'd guess it had to be the 1971 US champs in Rocklin, Ca. when Bob Deines beat Skip Houk by a few seconds. I can't recall how few but I think it was five or less.
And another great ultra finish was Jim Garcia passing a Jan Vandendriessche in the final 20 yards of the 1999 Chancellor 100 km in Boston.
http://www.coolrunning.com/headline/99/chancelllor1010.html
Oh yeah. I'd forgotten that one. You're right.