A Special Guest

The Summer Series is probably my favorite local race, of course it is six races and that makes it unique. Plus the handicap part of the event makes it a lot of fun. Runners who never see each other in races get to literally bump into each at these events.

When the clock counts down to 30 minutes, hundreds are streaming to the finish line. Young, old, slow, fast, male or female, everyone is trying to get to the line before the horde over takes them.

Before the race and after the race, this diverse group mingles much more at the summer series then any other race. Before the event, I got to a chance to a very special guest. Tyler Condie (photo) was sitting near the water tents with his family around him and his dog. He was there to support his sister Andi and it was good to see him.

Less then a month ago, Tyler was hit by a car at the Howlin at the Moon and he looked really good. he had scars on his knees and a steel rod in one but no casts or bandages. Amazing when one considers he was hit by a car going 40 plus miles and hour. I told him and his family (they are going back to Quatar), to please keep in touch and I fully expect him to run in another race in the near future.

Since I had no chance of improving my overall standing in the series, I decided to shoot the starts and the finish instead of running and shooting the event. While shooting, I got to talk to Coach Setzer (Ridgeview) and we spoke about my Bakersfield Distance Project club.

Fall practice for my youth team will begin very soon. More then likely, it will be on Tuesday and Thursdays before my running camp practices at Yokuts Park in the evenings. Plus we will meet with my running camp on Saturdays.

To join, you will need to join the USATF and be born in 1991 or earlier. Youth competitions typically take place in two-year age divisions. These age divisions provide young athletes the opportunity to compete with other athletes of similar ability. When you join please indicate that you are a member of the Bakersfield Distance Project (USATF Club # 46-0902.

We will be training for the qualifying cross country meets that are held in Novemeber. This year's National Championship will be held in Reno,CA. BDP athletes will also compete in their local school events and some local road races as well.

I also got to talk to Shafter's coaches and North's, both are looking forward to the upcoming season. Another coach that is really excited for the cross country season to start is CSUB's Robert Boyles who picked up a couple gals from Riverside and North High that should be great additions to an already strong vetern squad.

Top Series Times Were Posted in Race 5

As the series goes on fewer and fewer improve their times. Hence fewer finish before the 30 minute mark. In race five, only 48 of 172 (28%) returnees did. Where in race two, 129 of the 169 (76%) ran faster. Sandbagging the first race is part of the reason for the difference but the weather comes into play too. Hopefully the weather will be good for the last race and there will be a lot of PRs.

In race five, Michael McCarthy (Driller 08/San Jose State see photo) came in 16th overall with a 20:01/28:46 time and right behind him was local musician Jenny Gia (aka Jenny Angel) in a time of 30:41/28:46.9.

Not to far behind them was Robby Baker's (Ridgeview Sr, who has second best time in series this year) mom Danette, who came in 29th in a time of 32:41. She just held of what will be a preview of this year's cross country season. Tijerra Lynch (Ridgeview Jr) and Sarah Baker (Bakersfield Jr) came in 32 and 33rd.

These two are the defending league champs in their respective leagues in 2008 and are odds on favorites to repeat. They often go head to head in track invites and do the same in cross country invites.

Today, Tijerra ran 24:31/29:20 and Sarah ran 23:50/29:23 for the 5k but look for both of them to be going under 19 minutes perhaps by seasons end. Tijerra lead her team to a valley title (division 3) last year and looks to repeat and do better at state. Sarah is in the super tough division one but looks to snag one of the individual berths this year to state.

A couple others that got in before the 30 minute mark were Lina Nunez (CSUB) in 21:14/29:43, Robert Quintero (Golden Valley/BC) 17:29/29:51 and his former Bulldog teammate Cesar Mireles who had the fastest time of the series with his 16:25/29:41 clocking. David Bacus (recent 2:52 marathoner) ran 17:22/29:57 and a local running fixture here in town, Klaus Benamy-Hackel ran 23:27/29:53.

The fastest women's time of the day was recorded by CSUB's Judith Mata. She flew by me at the bottom of the bike path but her 18:56 might be off some. If her time is accurate, it is a really good time and is two minutes faster then former leader Brooklan Rosales. But with the often confusing start times and the heat, her time might be wrong. If it is dead on she is going to have a really good second season for the Roadrunners.

This 5th race brought out 25 new runners to the series and there were a number of current or former high school runners in their mist. Former Driller John Purcell ran 22:16, East High's Charlie Zaragoza ran 23:25, Monica Guzman (Garces Sr.) ran 23:56.

It was also good to see valley 4 x 400 champ Matt Turkington (Centennial Sr) having a go at the much longer distance with his girlfrien Jorey Braugton (Centennial Sr). He ran 31:40, she runs cross country for the Golden Hawks.

Last but not least, Andie and Chan Condie ran 24:24 and 2431 on their first time out on the course. Andie is 12 I believe and is looking forward to running some meets in Eygpt soon. Her father works in Quatar and the whole family has lived there for the past six years. His wife went to South High and they came back to Bakersfield for a month or so and boy did they have a visit.

After only being back in the states for a week or two, the family entered the Howlin at the Moon race. Andi, Dan and another daughter had a good race but their brother Tyler DNFed (did not finish). He ended up in the ER after getting hit by a car on Calloway. The good news is he is recovering from his injuries and will be joining his family back in Quater soon.

I had only known this family through a couple emails earlier this summer but now I have spoken to them at several of our local running events. They are a great family and have handled this accident with such grace and dignity. I hope to hear from them in the future and I beat tyler will be out there finishing that next race.

Home Playing Xbox ....

Few parents like saying that their 17 year old son is home playing xbox but I meet one that was real happy that his was. When I got an email from a concerned parent (and runner herself) a week ago about a kid getting hit by a car at the Howlin' at the Moon, I thought whoa I have a 17 year old son! It could be me at the hospital not knowing what to do or why it happen.

Well tonight, I meet the young man's dad and he had good news about his son. The boy was banged up but he was home playing xbox and should make a full recovery. What a relief to hear this news, when I first heard what happen and that he was in critical condition, I feared the worst.

It sounds like being young and being great shape saved the day. His little sister said her brother doesn't even touch fried foods. Because no one was at the intersection and other runners removed the glow sticks, the teen ended up crossing the street and got hit. The car was going fast and he almost got out of the way. One leg got over the front of the car but then the car hit him in the shin of the other leg and he landed on the windshield and then bounced over the car.

Then he bounced behind the car for a hundred yards or more. The driver never even hit the brakes before impact. Dad says his son was bummed out because he would of medaled in his age division right behind state champ Chris Schwartz, if he had not gone the wrong way. I told dad that the official results said "DNF" and his son definitely has one of the best "Did Not Finish" stories of all time.

Class: M 10k 15-19 - 10k Male 15-19 10k
1 392 MIRELES, Cesar 19 34:10.7 0
2 442 SCHWARTZ, Christopher 19 38:35.4 +4:24.7
3 433 SCLAFANI, Dustin 15 44:02.0 +9:51.3
4 417 LOCKWOOD, Bryson 16 47:28.4 +13:17.7
5 441 BEARD, Thomas 17 48:35.7 +14:25.0
6 443 RAMIREZ, Joel 15 1:18:33.9 +44:23.2
435 CONDIE, Tyler 17 DNF

It was nice to meet his dad and his little sister (photo) at the McFarland race tonight. We had emailed one another about his daughter (before the accident) but had not actually met before. It was doubly nice to see both of them out there running too.

In a few weeks, the family will be returning to Qatar (where dad works), which is good news because it means his son must be doing well. His daughter was excited about going back and was looking forward to a meet in Egypt. I asked how far it was and she said "Oh it is only a four hour plane ride!". I said "only four hours?" while shaking my head. But I guess it beats the 24 hour trip to Qatar.

So I am very glad I came to the race this evening, I only hope that if I am ever faced with such an incident, that I can handle it as well as the Condies have.