Joanna Harper spent the past weekend at the USATF half marathon championships in Melbourne, Florida. Here’s her take on meeting some old and new friends and racing…
Joanna Harper
One of the things that I always love about these master’s races is the chance to spend time with other women from around the country. This time I got to race and socialize with two from Nebraska.
I had met Linda Barnhart twice before at Club Cross Country. She was friendly and warm on each occasion. I saw that she was entered and Saturday morning I found out we were both staying at the race hotel. So we made plans for lunch.
Over lunch I got to meet her teammates including Stacie Shaw. Both Stacie and Linda have similar backgrounds. They were both track stars when young but put their athletic ambitions on hold to raise families. Now that their kids are older, they have both returned to the sport they love.
They trained hard through the Nebraska winter for this race. Linda told me stories of doing mile repeats outside in 20 degree weather and running 65-70 miles per week on roads often covered with snow. They were both under strict orders from their coach not to go out too hard. In fact they had to promise to follow him for 10 miles before they could start racing.
I usually pace myself pretty well and this race was no exception. They had 100 meters or so on me at the mile, but I reeled them in by 6. I went right past them and thought that I had put them away. But around 10 miles a spectator yelled out go Nebraska just after I passed. I knew then that at least one of them was gaining on me.
By 11 miles Stacie had pulled even with me. I tried to go with her but I faded over the last hill on the course and she beat me by about 30 seconds. Linda suffered through some pretty bad cramps in the last miles and finished a couple of minutes behind me. We had the chance to rehash our races over lunch. While I love to race, I think it’s great to be friends with your competitors win or lose.
The other woman I’d like to tell you about is Vicky Crisp. I lived in Nashville in the late eighties and Vicky was one of the best-known runners in town at that time. My favorite story about her is that she ran a 22 minute 5K just 10 days before giving birth. All of the local women were amazed that someone who was nine months pregnant could do such a thing.
Well Vicky is still kicking butt twenty years later including mine. I hadn’t seen her since I left Nashville and I finally caught up with her at the awards ceremony. We talked about the runners that we both knew and she promised to pass on my best to everyone back in Nashville.
The morning after the race, several of us were up to see the last night time (4 AM) shuttle launch. Even from 30 miles away it was an awe inspiring sight. For me it put the cap on another fine weekend of master’s racing.
By Joanna Harper
Here are some results from Sunday’s race:
Top 3 Masters Women
1. Lori Kingsley (W43) 1:20:32
2. Marybeth Reader (W41) 1:21:54
3. Terri Rejimbal (W41) 1:23:46
The amazing Kathryn Martin won W55 in 1:27:49 and won the overall (men & women) best age-graded performance with her 94.23%.
Stacy Shaw 5th in W40 in 1:33:01.
Ceal Muldoon Walker won W45 in 1:27:44.
Linda Barnhart 3rd in W45 in 1:35:07.
Joanna Harper won W50 in 1:33:29.
Vicky Crisp 2nd in W55 in 1:31:20.
Nancy Rollins won W60 in 1:36:37.
Margie Stoll won W65 in 2:00:32.
Barbara Miller won W70 in 1:48:57.
Full results are at the USATF website .
