JRunners Results from the Celebrate Israel Run 4M on 6/5/2011

On a day that was officially 59 degrees, 72% humid, 5MPH windy and mostly cloudy, but really was 80 degrees, 95% humid, 0MPH windy and mostly sunny, 36 - count 'em, twice chai! - JRunners toed the line at the Celebrate Israel Run 4-miler. It was the largest JRunners participation in a non-JRunners race ever! Those 36 were comprised of 30 men and 6 women. What an awesome turnout!

The crowd was slightly smaller than usual (5,177), so most of us got over the start line pretty quickly and bolted through the gates in pursuit of glory and JRunners pride. The nearly-unanimous feedback upon arriving at the finish line was that the first two miles were pretty brisk for everyone, but the sun and the hills came out at mile 3, forcing some breaks and water stops. Nevertheless, the JRunners pack featured 6 sub-7:00 mile runners and 8 between 7:00-8:00. JRunners is not just getting bigger, it's getting faster!

The panache performance podium pack perched as phollows:

Pancer, Joseph, M41, 26:11, 6:33
Karlin, Michael, M39, 26:45, 6:42
Katz, Matt, M33, 27:16, 6:49

Age group winners were:

0-20: Bressler, Yaakov, M18, 27:40, 6:55
21-30: Pupko, Yisroel, M28, 32:56, 8:14
31-40: Bodek, Martin M36, 27:29, 6:53
41-50: Friedman, Israel, M42, 27:48, 6:57
51-60: Gross, Jerome, M53, 37:28, 9:22

Awards were handed out at the bustling JRunners booth in middle of the Central Park mall. The recipients were as follows:

The Frank the Tank Kickin' Us Old School Award: Joseph Pancer - Yossi recently changed his Facebook profile picture to that of his 2:39 finish at the Boston Marathon sometime in the last millenium. Perhaps he was motivating himself to recapture his youth. Recapture that he did! He taught the rest of us 35 punks a hard lesson by beating the next best competitor by 34 seconds. Great show, Yossi!

The Cotton Eyed Joe Where Did You Come From? Award: Michael Karlin - Michael was visiting from Bethesda, MD, and ironically finished his race at Bethesda Fountain with a super solid silver medal performance. Welcome Michael! Nice to have you join us! Stay for a while, it's nice in New York. If you don't, hey, you can get the corollary Where Did You Go? Award.

The Gunnery Sergeant Hartman Proper Motivation Award: Matt Katz - apparently, Matt woke up about 7 minutes before the race and was sleepily cruising along when he spotted Martin Bodek ahead of him and had this general conversation:

Matt: "Bodie! I'm gonna kill you!"
Bodie: "Oh, you got me, g'head!"
Matt: "I can't let you beat me! See you later!"
Bodie: "[inventive invective]"
Runner next to Bodie: "Oh, don't worry, he'll poop out."
Bodie: "I don't think he will!"

Then further down the course, Yossi Pancer spotted Matt ahead of him. Since Yossi was in middle of conducting a clinic, he blew past Matt who let out an audible "OMG" when marveling at Yossi's high-octane burst. Still, Matt took the bronze with yet another super-consistent run in a string of many.

The Rodeo Cowboy Stay on that Bull Award: Martin Bodek - Martin beat his 4M PR by 8 seconds. He finished mile 1 - which included Cat Hill - in 6:21. Without the hill, he thinks he could have done the mile in 6:05-6:10. For short races, he is now employing the Kenyan go-till-you-blow style of running, in which he goes as fast as he can, as hard as he can do it, until he just about unravels, recovers via hydration and deep breathing, and finishes strong. It's helped him PR in 9 of the 11 races he's run this year.

The Frank Sinatra The Best is Yet to Come Award: Yaakov Bresler - Yaakov is a young 18-year old whippersnapper wunderkind with a stride so beautiful, he doesn't even know it. He also doesn't realize how much power he produces from his super-fit body. JRunners predicts great things from Yaakov. He's built for it, made for it, looks the part, is a gamer, and if he sticks with it, will show us all how this is done. Yaakov, whatever you do in terms of diet, exercise, training etc. do NOT change your stride. You hear? It's perfect.

The Runited Airlines 8-Mile High Club: Avi Saperstein - Avi, new to the JRunners scene and improving quickly, got under 8 minutes per mile for a race for the first time in his career. Avi is an example of the recent trend of quickly (pun intended) improving runners. There are brand new sub-8 and sub-7 accomplishees (that a word?) galore. Avi can join the sub-7 club soon, and SOMEbody's gonna join the sub-6:00 club soon.

The Emerson, Lake and Palmer We're so Glad You Could Attend Award: Isaac Galena - Isaac, of Bangitout.com fame, has run much in parallel with us, but decided to run as part of our team. We're glad to have you aboard Isaac! You've got to see our show, it's a dynamo! Or at least, y'know, it's bangin'.

The Steve Prefontaine (Literal) Guts Award: Chesky Rand - It was so hot out there, that Chesky nearly lost his lunch at the finish line, and he had only just eaten breakfast! He did manage to hold it down though. Not only that, but he completely demolished his 4M PR by 1:30! NYRR was so impressed with his performance, that two days after the race they subtracted 1 whole second from his finishing time.

The NJRA Most Improved Player Award: David Balassiano - David's first run ever was the JRunners Chanukah 5K. It took him 43 minutes for a pace of 13:50 per mile. At the Celebrate Israel Run he completed the course in 39:44 minute for a 9:56 pace; a whopping 4 minute per mile improvement in just half a year. At this rate, he'll clobber the Kenyans by the beginning of 2012.

As for the ladies' performances, I could not secure permission to reveal their finishing times. As a man who got once got bonked over the head with a purse because I dared call a woman "ma'am," I know better than to speak of women, even complimentary, without permission. I'm a little batty sometimes, but I'm not suicidal.

Martin Bodek,
Beat Reporter, JRunners.org
63 days left, don't make me beg: http://www.jrunnersrelay.org/my/thebodie