The Asics Aggies hosted the Shoreline Open, a PAUSATF Cross Country Grand Prix event, Saturday, and then misplaced their manners, forgetting proper etiquette that traditionally allows guests to go first. Aggies won both men and women's races and took four of the nine contested divisional team victories. Tamalpa and Impalas each took a pair of team victories, with a consolation victory going to the West Valley Joggers and Striders. None of the other teams even received party favors at this 12th Annual edition of the event at Shoreline Park in Mountain View. Google the phrase "Shoreline Open" and the top results will probably come back with listings about Aggies running parties.
CORRECTION: West Valley Joggers and Striders took 2 team victories, and Tamalpa had the consolation victory.
Day on the Green at Shoreline. Or, no, wait a minute, this was a cross country race (photo by Carolynne Juarez).
The Aggies were in fine form throughout the well run, and popular event, providing an emcee and busting out tunes that screamed "party!" The Aggies retreated to their own private party at the conclusion of the meet. You've probably heard the Aggies described as party animals that also like to race hard. Today's event did nothing to refute that rumor.
Prior to the start of the women's race, the race announcer informed us that the second fastest time on the course had been run by the then 13 year-old Jordan Hasay, while she was in junior high school. True, Hasay's 17:03 had been the second fastest time on the course when she ran it, and was now the third fastest, according to past results posted on the PAUSATF web site. A search of those results show that Suzy Jones set the course record with a 16:56 in 1999, and Kara June had run 16:58 in 2008.
Linda Somers-Smith, the star of the Aggies women's team, came up from San Luis Obispo County to continue her amazing series of 2009 races. In today's race, Smith had serious competition throughout from Rachel Booth of Brooks Peninsula Distance Club. Booth had previously run at the Golden Gate Open, without putting serious pressure on Smith. Today Booth dogged Smith for the first half of the race, with Smith finally pulling away to an 8 second victory over the final hills. Smith finished in 17:01, missing the course record by just over a second, and missing a $1,000 award in the process. At least, this was the story told by the race announcer. PAUSATF archived results suggest Smith missed the course record by 5 seconds, in recording the third fastest time ever on the course. The race announcer's slight variation from the facts this morning was no doubt a result of something done during the playing of the Jimi Hendrix guitar version of the National Anthem.
Smith and Booth had surged to a thirty second lead on the rest of the field by the 2 mile mark of their 5 kilometer race. Kara June (Aggies), winner of the past two years at this event, with a small second pack of followers, closed that gap over the final mile, finishing only 15 seconds after Booth.
The Aggies women took three of the top four spots on the way to winning the Open team title for their third victory of the season, upsetting the top ranked Impalas.
I'd watch out for the kool-aid, and the gatorade, at an Aggies event (photo by Carolynne Juarez).
The Aggies men would outdo their female teammates. Aggies men won the Open, Masters and Seniors team titles. Aggie runner, Philip Reid, took the individual victory for the second straight year. Reid was nine seconds off his time of last year, in winning his second race of the 2009 Cross Country Grand Prix. Last year, Reid out sprinted David Torrence for the victory, with both finishing in identical 21:24 times. This year, Thomas Kloos (Transport Adidas), who already has a pair of victories in the Grand Prix, led a group of two Transport Adidas teammates and two Aggies runners through the half way mark. Reid, like Smith in the women's race, used the final set of hills to pull away from the others, flying on the final downhill section to finish ahead of two Transport Adidas runners, Kloos, and Austin Ramos. Aggie Jameson Mora was fourth and Chris Chavez of Transport Adidas was fifth.
The weather was cloudy during part of the meet, and at other times bright and sunny. The hills were unseasonably green after the recent rains. The race course is staged across the street from Google's World Headquarters, and across a parking lot from the Shoreline Amphitheatre. Sound checks coming from the Amphitheatre greeted the runners as they traversed the hills on the course.
Aggie-ville, population PARTY! (photo by Carolynne Juarez).
A total of about 335 runners completed the two races, an increase of about a hundred over last year's meet. This continues to be the trend at each cross country meet in 2009. If this approximately 50% increase in participation continues through to the PAUSATF Cross Country Championships, there may be as many as 600 runners competing in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on that day, Sunday, November 22.
There will be one more regular season event first, the "Johnny," at a new location in the Rodeo Valley area of the Marin Headlands. Free post race beer is certain to bring out the higher participation levels for this one, too, especially among the Aggies, those partying "Deltas" of Animal House!
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