Here’s Jay’s report on the 1-mile race walk at the Dartmouth Relays:

The Dartmouth Relays is a 2-day meet in Hanover, NH that includes track and field events for high school, college, open, and masters competitors. The 1-mile racewalks were on Sunday, and were “open” events (since there usually aren’t enough competitors to break it down further.)

The indoor track is completely flat, and is 8 laps/mile, The turns are not too sharp, but the straights are quite short. The women went off first, at 8:30 a.m.. Lauren Forges (age 21, with MRW) won easily in 7:29.91.

The men’s field was even smaller, with 7 competitors, ranging in age from 11 to 69. In the men’s race, 4 of the starters were from the New England Walkers (with two from New Hampshire). The men’s race was won by Evan Vincent (age 17 from MRW) in 7:21.45. I had never raced at 1-mile before (my shortest race prior to this was at 5K), so I was curious to see what I could do. I spent most of the race trying to chase down little Spencer Dunn. Every time I came up on his shoulder, he found another gear and surged ahead. We did that 3 times. Eventually, I started to get a bit sloppy, and got a warning paddle for a bent knee. So I focused a bit more on my form, and am sure I slowed down a bit in the process. I should have surged again in the last lap, but we were going along, and all of a sudden it was over. I didn’t really have a game plan going into the race, and that probably hurt me in the long run. The mile is not a race in which you can make it up as you go along! Still, it was a good race, a great experience, and good to be able to watch some talented female racewalkers, and to compete against some very good male racewalkers.

Here are the results of the Dartmouth Relays 1-mile race walk on January 10, 2010:

Women
  1. Lauren Forges (21)          Maine Race Walkers       7:29.91
  2. Abby Dunn (15)              Maine Race Walkers       7:50.50
  3. Maryanne Daniel (51)        Connecticut Racewalkers  7:50.79
  4. Amanda Johnson (20)         Lindsey Wilson College   8:02.11
  5. Jenny Thuotte ()            Maine Race Walkers       8:10.65
  6. Nicole Court-Menendez (15)  Maine Race Walkers       8:53.87
  7. Emily Reed (16)             Maine Race Walkers       8:54.84
  8. Courtney Williams (16)      Maine Race Walkers       9:08.57
  9. Abby Lochala (15)           Maine Race Walkers      10:03.88
 10. Lorrie Wilkes (59)          New England Walkers     13:28.05

Men
  1. Evan Vincent (17)           Maine Race Walkers       7:21.45
  2. Larry Epstein (50)          New England Walkers      8:56.58
  3. Richard McElvery (52)       New England Walkers      9:17.01
  4. Spencer Dunn (11)           Maine Race Walkers       9:41.39
  5. Jay Diener (61)             New England Walkers      9:46.14
  6. Thomas Knatt (69)           New England Walkers     10:08.30
  -- Douglas Johnson             Kentucky Racewalkers        (DQ)
  -- Fairfield Bonsail           Maine Race Walkers         (DNS)

Women's race judges:  Ron Daniel, Elizabeth  Dunn, Tom Eastler, 
  Michael Forgues and Thomas Knatt.

Men's race judges:  Ron Daniel, Maryanne Daniel, 
  Elizabeth Dunn, Tom Eastler, Michael Forgues and Tom Menendez.

Because no US masters age group standards had been established at this distance before, these finishers are now (pending certification) the US age group record holders for the 1-mile race walk: Maryann Daniel, Lorrie Wilkes, Larry Epstein, Jay Diener, Thomas Knatt.

Congratulations to NEW member, Larry Epstein, Tom Knatt and Lorrie Wilkes for their age group victories! — Jay Diener

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