By Rick Platt
In a race going back to 2015, four age group records were broken at last Saturday’s sixth annual Ice-aholics Freedom Run 8K. The Colonial Road Runners Grand Prix race was organized by race director Karen Schenck and her brother Dreux Elliott and the Ice-aholics Polar Plunge team and sponsored by Dominion Energy, which benefited the Special Olympics of Virginia.
The 8K and accompanying 5K started and finished at the Lois Hornsby Middle School on Jolly Pond Road in Williamsburg, and after a half mile, entered the scenic but hilly Freedom Park for out-and-back routes.
The first record, for men 25-29, was no surprise, as five-time CRR Grand Prix champion Roger Hopper, 29, of Chesapeake broke by nine seconds his mark of 27:01 from 2017, with a winning time of 26:52. The surprise for Hopper was his margin of victory over runner-up William Thompson, 28, of Williamsburg.
After many close races since the CRR resumed races in mid-June, all within a few seconds, Hopper had a 48-second winning margin Saturday over Thompson’s 27:40. With 12 races down in the 2020 CRR Grand Prix, three pre-pandemic and nine post-pandemic, Hopper leads 89 points to 80, with each having run nine CRR races.
With a maximum of 12 scoring races, Hopper has a commanding lead, but has to run three of the four remaining CRR races to guarantee his sixth title (Run for the Hills 10K on Oct. 17, FURever 8K on Oct. 24, Queens Lake 5K on Oct. 31 and Sleighbell 5K on Dec. 12).
The next two age group records, by Evan Clary, 19, of Williamsburg (men 15-19) and Jonathan Torres, 30, of Newport News (men 30-34) are by two runners who have generated their own rivalry this year. Clary broke by 12 seconds the previous men’s 15-19 record by 2020 Jamestown High grad Paul Glass, then 16, of Williamsburg (30:22 in 2017), with a third-place overall time of 30:10.
Fourth-place Torres (30:29) broke by more than a minute the previous men’s 30-34 record of 31:34 by Ryan Doupe, 31, of Newport News in 2017.
The remainder of the top 10 were Dillon Britt, 24, of Pendleton, N.C. (30:32), Logan St. John, 26, of Newport News (30:55), Chris Novakoski, 38, of Chesapeake (31:22, missing his own 35-39 age group record by just three seconds), Greg Lynn, 46, of Hayes (31:24), Isaac Lamprecht, 14, of New Kent (31:52, missing his 14-and-under mark by just five seconds) and Glenn Glass, 17, of Williamsburg (32:18).
Clary, a 2019 graduate of Warhill High, started running at age 13 to “get my energy out and clear my mind,” but his running took off the summer before his freshman year, when he “met some of the coolest guys to condition with before the XC season started. Guys like Spencer Conti, Hezekiah Hayes, and Nick Rodgers, all state championship level runners, really motivated me to push as hard as possible in the sport and I loved it, they were my idols. Not to mention Kameron Schaeffer, our head coach, who while young, had the persona of a veteran coach and brought us all together as a family. I can’t thank these guys enough for how they supported me; I’ll never forget the experience being one of the best of my life.”
Clary was part of the states team his sophomore year, and as a senior had current Warhill runner Cary Caldwell “who’s continuing to push me to be a stronger runner even after I’ve graduated. After taking almost a year off of running post-graduation to focus on my new career, I decided that I needed to regain that adrenaline rush of racing, and running in general.”
At the H.E.A.R.T. Run 5K on Aug. 1, on the Warhill Nature Trail course adjacent to the school, Caldwell and Clary went 1-2.
Clary’s high school best was 17:47, but his goal now is to break the 17-minute barrier. “However, time isn’t everything because there is nothing I love more in running than a close race with someone right on my shoulder pushing me the whole race.” That new rival is now Torres, and the two are currently in third (53 points, Torres) and fourth (44 points, Clary) overall in the 2020 CRR Grand Prix, with four races to go (Caldwell is fifth with 29 points).
Clary’s goal this year “is to be in the top 3 in points overall.” For the Ice-aholics race, he said, “This was by far the best, most fun race I’ve had in over a year.” Along with Britt, Clary and Torres ran together for more than three miles before Clary surged on a downhill, then uphill stretch to record a 38-second PR, from 30:48 to 30:10.
Clary is currently in the Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding as a patternmaker apprentice, correlating the foundry and their castings needed for aircraft carriers and submarines, just passing his one-year anniversary. On the side, Clary works “on my project car, a track-focused 05 Mustang that I take auto-crossing with a Chevy LS motor preparing to go in soon.”
For the women, four were below 40 minutes, race winner Megan Schulze, 38, of Glen Allen (34:38), Meaghan Gsell, 28, of Williamsburg (37:15), Karen Grabowski, 36, of Toano (37:44) and Cannon Jean, 15, of Williamsburg (38:24).
The final age group mark came from CRR treasurer Randy Hawthorne, 75, of Williamsburg, his time of 45:55 for 8K almost five minutes better than the previous men’s 75-79 mark of 50:51 by Ronald Kellum, 75, of Hampton last year. For Hawthorne, it was his second CRR age group mark in four races, having also broken the 75-79 record last month at the Powhatan Creek Trail 5K (27:58), the two age records his only ones ever with the CRR.
Through the years he was second one time in the CRR Grand Prix (for men 60-and-over), but excelled enough with the Peninsula Track Club (overall champion once, and men’s champion three times), along with his lifelong contributions to the CRR and to William and Mary track, that he was inducted into the Virginia Peninsula Road Racing Hall of Fame in 2015. Now in his best shape in years, the accountant credits the pandemic.
“With the coronavirus I have no social life, so I have to run more just to stay sane.” He doubled his weekly mileage from 12 to 23 miles, lost 22 pounds in the past year and is training harder with speedwork, both to the Capitol and back, and also in the College Woods.
Schenck has been directing both CRR and PTC races for decades. Her brother Dreux Elliott is the team captain for the Ice-aholics Polar Plunge Team that is the #1 fundraising team for the Special Olympics in the state of Virginia, with their Polar Plunge into the Virginia Beach Atlantic Ocean in early February.
There are currently 116 members on his all-volunteer team, and they have raised a total of $276,706 through the years for the 26,000 Special Olympics Virginia athletes.
There were 85 finishers combined in the 8K and 5K run and walk, and an additional 11 finishers in the one mile fun run/walk. The Freedom Park race is part of a two-race series, each sponsored by Dominion Energy, directed by Schenck and benefiting the Special Olympics.
The next race is the fourth annual Riverwatch on the Piankatank 5K Run, not only a PTC Grand Prix race, but a Hampton Roads Super Grand Prix race for 2020. It will take place at 2 p.m. Nov. 14 in Gloucester. Registration is at www.runsignup.com.
On an age graded basis, five were above the regional-class 70% level — Rick Samaha, 62, of Williamsburg (33:01, 79.56%), Hopper (77.98%), Thompson (75.72%), Lynn (72.93%), and Schulze (70.07%).
Surprisingly the accompanying 5K race itself had four above 70% — Sean Killeen, 55, of Richmond (20:58, 72.58%), men’s winner Johnathan Mummert, 15, of Yorktown (18:23, 72.35%), women’s winner Lydia Short, 11, of Toano (23:38, 71.09%) and men’s runner-up Lorenzo Short, 15, of Toano (18:58, 70.12%).
Platt is president of Colonial Road Runners.
