It was an excellent day for a long run on Friday, August 27, as the extremely hot weather experienced earlier in the week moderated and it was a relatively cool day for the two-hour run. The San Quentin Thousand Mile Club had 16 runners start the run and 15 finishers.
As usual, early in the run Ronnie Goodman took the lead and set an aggressive pace. After a couple of miles, Abraham “Cuba” Yera fell into a smooth comfortable pace and ran right behind Ronnie for the early part of the run.
Foot Problems
Felix Lucero and Stephan Liebb also settled into a strong comfortable pace and ran together for much of the race following close behind Ronnie and “Cuba.” Unfortunately for Ronnie, he had foot problems, as he experienced severe pain in one of his toes, and he was reduced to running at a slow shuffle over the last portion of the run.
“Cuba” had no problems, as he showed that he is fully recovered from the knee operation he had earlier this year, and ran strong over the full two hours to cover an impressive 18 miles. Over the final 20 minutes of the run, Lucero picked up the pace and made a move on “Cuba,” but he had given up too much distance earlier in the run and he was still almost a mile behind “Cuba” as he covered 17.05 miles at the completion of the two hours.
Lucero looked strong as an ox at the end of the run and looked like he could have kept running at a strong pace for several more miles. Liebb hung close to Felix and finished with an impressive 16.80 miles for the two hours.
Mike Villanueva ran a strong pace the entire race and passed Goodman to finish with 15.80 miles. Hector Oropeza also ran at a strong steady pace and caught Goodman, and both of them finished with 15.60 miles
Larry Ford continued to show good strength in the long runs and seemed to be picking up the pace over the closing 20 minutes as he posted 14.75 miles. Malcolm Jones, running with his right arm in a sling, covered 13.65 miles. Richard Kingsbury ran steady for the entire race, covering 12.95 miles.
Right behind Kingsbury was Bill Pillars, who showed that he has been working hard to recover from his recent hernia operation and covered 12.80 miles. Joey Mason started his run early due to a schedule conflict and was able to cover 12.00 miles over the two-hour period. Mason had experienced problems with cramping in July when we did the Marathon, but was able to get through this run with no problems and had a good performance.
Very Little Training
Kimya Humphrey covered 11.80 miles. 65-year-old Walter Johnson, the oldest runner doing the run, covered 11.20 miles.
Joshua Allison and Erick Copeland ran the entire two hours with very little training and both covered 9.00 miles.
The run was supported by Community Partnerships Manager Laura Bowman Salzsieder, Coach Frank Ruona, community volunteers Jill Friedman and Diana Fitzpatrick, SQIMK Chairman Steve Pascascio, Evert Spells, Louis Hunter, Alton McSween and Dee Whitaker.
