BRUCE'S COMMENTS, ETC.
Bruce developing his strong upper
body on this hi-tech "ABS" machine
Charlottesville, Virginia Ten Mile Run: 1 April 2000
Bruce Langenkamp 60:19 1 AG
Bruce was the 1st Morris County Strider and 23rd place of almost 2000 finishers. Who else would be down in Virginia.
Betty and I went to Virginia to visit our friends and, while there, my friend Don and I ran in the ten mile run. The local newspaper covered the race and, to our delight, you can pick me out of the crowd in the photo of the race start.
I had run the race last year and had a time of 61:12 for 30th place overall and 2nd in the late-forties age group. I was determined to do better this year as a 50-year-old; especially since they keep fastest times for each age. The web shows for a 50 year-old, the fastest time had been 61:24. Unfortunately, they also keep age group records and the 50 - 54 age record is 59:09. Well, I broke one time record anyway.
The course is a hilly rolling one with almost no flat sections. Between the 3 and 4 mile marks there is a three quarter mile long gradual downhill that really felt great. Unfortunately, what goes down must come up, and around the 8 mile mark was the uphill climb that never seemed to end. I knew, from having run last year, that it was mostly uphill in the last couple of miles, so I tried to run fast in the beginning to make up for having to run slowly at the end. But, it didn't quite work and I was about 20 seconds slower than the time to break an hour. As I was struggling down the final stretch to the finish, the announcer read the race number from my shirt and told the crowd, "Here comes Bruce Langenkamp from Wharton, NJ - the first 50 year old." We had to wait forever for the awards ceremony and even then there were major mistakes - like when they said the first woman to finish was a 60 year old. She came up and told them she had not run that fast. Then numerous people had to take their trophies back to the stage to exchange them for the proper ones. You don't know how good we have it here in NJ, until you run a race someplace like in Virginia. Luckily, my trophy was correct - a small engraved pewter loving cup - (very nice) which probably will not be at the Summer Series prize table for a few Summers yet.
Last Update: 04 Jun 2001
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