On a cool summer day, 12 San Quentin 1000 Mile Club runners circled the quarter-mile course in the Lower Yard from 28 to 52-1/2 times. Nine half-marathon finishers and three other runners covered a shorter distance.
Eddie Herena led the August 12 race from the start with Stephen Liebb running comfortably in second place. Eddie looked comfortable with his young legs and seemed to be running quite easily at a sub-seven minutes per mile pace for the first seven miles. In the second half of the race, however, the pace slowed as the miles got more difficult.
Herena finished first in a strong 1:36:09. Liebb finished second in 1:37:29. Chris Schuhmacher, running one of his first S.Q. 1000 Mile Club races, ran a strong race as he added four miles to his previous longest run and finished third in 1:43:58.
Andrew Battle started 20 minutes after the rest of the field and was turned in a strong 1:44:52 performance to take fourth place. Larry Ford had an off day and struggled to finish in 1:52:45. Right behind Ford was Patrick Givens, who was finishing strong and almost caught Ford with his 1:52:52 finish.
Joey Mason ran a strong race and was able to dip under the two-hour mark with a fine 1:57:24. Bill Pillars started strong, but fought injury problems and gutted out a 2:03:15 finish. Coach Alton McSween was persistent and had help from a large group of 1000 Mile teammates on the last few laps as he hung in there for a 2:25:10.
John Neblett ran a strong 9.25 miles in 1:28:39 and Louis Hunter turned in 8.75 miles in 1:20:00. Newcomer John Santner started late and knocked out seven miles in 1:02:51.
A full marathon is scheduled in three months.
Supporting the race were Coach Frank Ruona, community volunteer Jill Friedman, club Chairman Steve Pascascio, Dee Whitaker (on hand despite being weakened by recent cancer treatment), Evert Spells and Danny Cox.
Assistant Coach Kevin Ruman ran about 10 miles at 8:00 per mile as a pacer for the group.
