JRunners Celebrates Israel, Britain and the 1%

JRunners finished the month of May and started the month of June with a bang. At possibly the last Thursday organized race until the relay, Mordechai Ovits pulled off so many superlatives, it would be impossible to list them all. So naturally, I'm going to try. First of all, his PR progression is nothing short of astonishing. Check this out:

2009: 23:41
2010: 20:58
2011: 18:39
2012: 18:24

Secondly, he placed 78th out of 5,540 runners. Do y'all realize how ironic it is - wait, stop me if you've heard this one. I've repeated it a bit because I'm so full of myself, I fell in love with my own line - that in a Wall Street run, he placed among the top 1(.4)%? Okay, last time I use that. Just had to milk it one more time.

And yes, there were other runners as well, enough to daven Mincha if they so chose! Steven Weber wasn't available, so baby brother slotted into the standard near-the-top position. Michael, what's Steven been feeding you? Mark Sanders continued to RULE the Masters division (calling Yossi Pancer for some competition!), Eli Friedman set another PR. Michael Wilhelm and Chaim Tepler ran again. These guys must be done with their 9+1 by now, no?

Here are the results:

Mordechai Ovits 18:25 6:09 PR by 0:15
Michael Weber 21:16 7:05 Baby bro moving up
Mark Sanders 21:44 7:15
Eli Friedman 21:50 7:17 PR
Joe Herman 22:09 7:23
Michael Wilhelm 22:27 7:29
Chaim Tepler 22:57 7:39
Chesky Rosenblum 23:59 8:00
David Balassiano 26:07 8:43
Jacob Granek 29:00 9:40

Meanwhile, back home, Martin Bodek was seething that he missed the deadline for race signup. He'll be more diligent next year.

Over in Central Park at the same exact time, Ariel Kohane was honoring Her Majesty's Jubilee (I thought Yovel was 50 years, what gives?) at The Great British Run 6k. We can only assume he ran because he did sign up, but The Queen is apparently keeping the results a secret, so they are as follows:

Ariel Kohane ? ?

At the Celebrate Israel Run, 20 - count 'em 20! A near Non-JRunners race record! (The record is 36 at last year's Israel Race, according to the Bodek Sports Bureau) - JRunners showed up. Two JMaidelech were among them plus two father-son teams. Mordechai Ovits was out biking 75 miles, so Jason Lowe took the gold and Yossi Pancer - perhaps because I called him out - showed up to begin efforts towards retaking his Masters mastery. Steven Weber earned points yet again. In 9 races this year, he's earned 7 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze. Whoa. Brother Michael actually bested his per-mile performance at Wall Street, Sanders was solid yet again, Pupko got more apples, Friedman PRed twice in the weekend, must be that farmer's tan. Michael Wilhelm is now the first JRunner to run 10 races in 2012. He's on pace for 24. Yowza. Jonathan Pittinsky clobberified his PR by 2:16. The man is on a mission.

Here are the results, including all bib-switching that I know of:

Jason Lowe 25:49 6:28
Joseph Pancer 26:06 6:32
Steven Weber 26:12 6:33
Michael Weber 28:05 7:02 PR by :03
Mark Sanders 28:13 7:04
Yisroel Pupko 29:08 7:17 Apple of our eye
Eli Friedman 29:23 7:21 2nd PR of weekend
Chaim Tepler 29:39 7:25
Michael Wilhelm 30:08 7:32 1st to 10 races
Mark Izhak 31:57 8:00
Zacharia Sanders 32:43 8:11
Jonathan Pittinsky 32:50 8:13 PR by 2:16
Chesky Rosenblum 33:01 8:16
Miriam Wielgus 34:50 8:43
Chanan Feldman 35:41 8:56
Joseph Balassiano 38:21 9:36 Way to go, son!
David Balassiano 38:21 9:36 Way to go, dad!
Mark Lewis 38:39 9:40
Jacob Granek 38:55 9:44
Elaine Agassi 56:48 14:12

Meanwhile, back home, Martin Bodek has been freed of the shackles of the 9+1 program and is piling up mileage so he can score his first sub-4:00 marathon. He did 13.3 near home. He's giving up JOTY points to focus on that. Some sacrifices must be made.

Great job everyone! Next week, I'm doing 14-15 miles Sunday morning. What are you doing?

Martin Bodek,
Beat Reporter, JRunners.org