Volte Rolls A Shiny Quarter at Texas10 Katy

Our team of 25 had a quality day on Sunday at the inaugural Texas10 Katy despite threatening rain and lightning and oppressive humidity.

And what a great looking team it is!

With likely the second or third highest number of finishers in the 10-mile race, Volte may either remain in third alone or slip into a tie with the Cypress Running Club in the Texas 10 Series’ Ten Gallon Gup competition.

Based on our second-highest number of finishers at Texas10 Huntsville in April, we obtained 9 points, which left us in third place behind Huntsville’s Seven Hills Running Club (19) and TWRC (15).  Seven Hills and TWRC should both capture five points apiece, leaving them in the top two positions.

Cypress Running Club, which entered Sunday’s race two points behind us with seven (7), will likely obtain 10 points from Sunday as a result of their “hometown” showing.

Individually though, Volte took home nine (9) awards – four in the 10-miler and five in the 5-miler, including Ken Rieger’s overall win in 30:33.

It was the second straight Texas 10 Series race that a Volte runner won a 5-mile division.

Carrie Hyde, who missed out one spot on an age-group award on Sunday in the 10-mile race, won the 5-mile race in Huntsville as part of her build-up for this past May’s Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon.

Ellen Kurtz-Hammond, who dropped down to the 5-mile race, was eighth overall in 44:03, making her the fastest masters female - other than Hyde – to run a Texas 10 Series five-mile race so far.  She won the 55-59 age group as a result of the effort.

Sandra Jones smiling on the way in to a 5-mile age group win!

One spot behind Kurtz-Hammond was Sandra Jones, who stopped the clock in 44:04 to win the 40-44 age group while Cassidy Grado won the 15-19 division in 1:02:32.

Trina Jones rounded out our 5-mile hardware haul by finishing third in the 45-49 division with a time of 48 minutes even – 37 seconds better than teammate Llana Bingham.

Like Bingham, Darrell Jones was one spot out of the hardware, finishing fourth in the 40-44 division by posting a time of 48:42.

Two weeks after recording a 22-minute personal best 4:47:37 at the US Air Force Marathon near Dayton, Ohio, Gabby Brockett notched a recovery run time of 59:21 while daughter and mother, Faith Sanders and Mary Carter, rounded out our team’s efforts in the 5-mile race with respective marks of 53:44 and 1:00:18.

While Brian Jackson led us with a 30-34 age group winning, 10th place overall time of 1:08:24, Mayra Caamano followed up on her fourth place overall showing in Huntsville with a sixth place overall performance and 35-39 age-group win that included a nearly two-minute time improvement from April.

Caamano, behind South Coast Endurance’s Erika Park by a minute and 21 seconds at the halfway point, rocketed past her on the second loop to record a 6-second win over Park narrowing the gap between the two runners in the Series’ Armadillo Cup competition to three (3) points.

Geri Henry won her 65-69 age group for the third straight Texas 10 Series race with a 1:47:13 performance and she will join The Woodlands Running Club’s Stephen Smith as the only other runner to have 25 points in the competition entering the last two Texas 10 Series races of 2013.

After winning her own age group in the 5-mile race, Cassidy helped her
mom, Tammy, cap off a third-place age group performance in the 10-mile race.

Tammy Grado was Volte’s only other age group winner, placing third in the 45-49 division in 1:36:41.  She was one of five team members who ran on Sunday while prepping for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in two weeks.  Amber Brock led the way in 1:35:25, followed by Lauren Hoffart (1:41:47), Eileen Flynn (2:05:11) and Maresca Marisol (2:05:36).

The rest of our ladies included Hyde, who also missed an age group award by one spot like Curtis with a time of 1:27:43, Katie Jackson (1:38:48) and Amanda Williams (1:57:21).

In the middle of Rocky Raccoon 100-mile training, Curtis Hooper was one spot away from hardware with a fourth-place 40-44 age group and 17th overall time of 1:12:59.

Our Group Coach Rich Cooper dialed it in from the 410 area code for a solid finish!

Randy Smith bettered his Texas10 Huntsville by almost two minutes with a 1:18:45 effort while Group Coach Rich Cooper and Jon Yarborough, sporting bib number 316 as in "John 3:16", finished in 1:35:48 and 1:38:03, respectively.