It's an age-old debate in Masters sprinting circles: Which region is the fastest? West Coast, East Coast or anywhere that Bill Collins lives in Texas?
This spring, the fight was joined anew with major Masters sprint races at the Penn Relays in April and the Modesto Relays in May.
While Penn contested a series of age-group races, Modesto (formally known as the California International Relays) held a couple with mixed ages -- 40s and 50s.
The verdict?
Modesto won for top-end speed -- with the help of better wind conditions. Aaron Thigpen, 43, ran yet another sub-11 in the 100 meters as an M40, beating Olympic finalist Jeff Williams 10.96 to 11.31. (In the open 200 meters, Aaron had a legal 22.47.) Last month, the fastest clocking at Penn was John Simpson of Texas, whose 11.31 was into a slight wind.
But Modesto had something Penn didn't -- a high-powered Masters hurdle race involving a clash of two world record holders. (That is thanks to the event organizing efforts of Joy Upshaw-Margerum, herself a record-holding Masters hurdler, and Greg Miller, the Modesto meet director.)
Karl Smith, who once held the M40 world record in the 110-meter hurdles at 13.96, handed a rare defeat to the man who succeeded him as record holder at Modesto Junior College in Northern California. Smith, 48, clocked an amazing 14.61 to edge 45-year-old David Ashford's 14.75. Five years ago, Ashford ran the race -- essentially the high school 110 hurdles -- in 13.73. Few preps run that fast.
Even more impressive was their ability to focus despite unsettling distractions that delayed the race and shuffled their lane assignments. According to comments posted on my masterstrack.com blog, Ashford was told he wasn't running in lane 5 as promised in the heat sheets available the day before. Instead, he was moved to lane 1. And Smith, who expected to be in lane 4, was shoved out to lane 9.
Smith wrote: "Moments before the race I was reassigned to the far outside lane 9 cramped up against the spectator wall. Being my first time going over the hurdles this year, luckily for me, this circumstance and my severely injured groin didn't stand in the way of good competition nor deter my focus."
But he paid respects to Ashford, new to the M45 age group, by writing: "David: I agree with you 14.41 is going, going GONE!!!"
In other Masters track news over the weekend, Aeron Arlin Genet, 41, of San Luis Obispo, Calif., made progress toward an Olympic Trials qualifying time Saturday when she ran the 1500 meter in 4:21.6, a season best and potential W40 American record, at the Oxy Invitational in Los Angeles. (That's equivalent to a 4:43 mile.) Her previous 2008 best was 4:24 at UCLA.
The "B" standard for the OT is 4:19.50 -- meaning that if she runs below that mark and is among the top 30 entrants, she has a spot in the Eugene Olympic Trials. Also at Oxy, Pete Magill, 47, of South Pasadena, Calif., clocked a quick 4:02.22. a tick off his season best. On the East Coast John Hinton at 46 went sub-4 for the third time this season, running the 1500 in 3:59.22 (worth a 4:18 mile) at the Taylor Cattle Farm Classic at Chapel Hill, N.C.
Here's how Pete described his outing on the letsrun.com message board:
"Another tough week for me. But revamping my training routine three weeks ago (as a response to diminishing returns -- and dead legs -- from my previous training routine) is starting to pay dividends. My legs finally felt good again in a 1500 yesterday. And though the time was virtually identical to what I ran last week, last week I felt crappy from the gun to the finish line, and this week the race felt smooth and easy the whole way (I just ran on the leaders until the last 100, then beat them in a kick to the finish).
"More importantly, I felt that undefinable "thing" we all feel when we can tell our legs are on the upswing -- and we know that we've got faster races ahead of us. You know, I think one of the most important things I've learned as a Masters athlete is to be flexible.
"It's always tough to leave behind a training routine that's brought success, but our bodies don't stay the same -- so neither can the routines. Of course, next week I'll probably be writing that my new routine has left me so injured that I can't walk ... but that's next week!"
Tags: Penn Modesto
