Five Janes went to El Toro Airfield to run the USATF Road Mile this past weekend posting some fast pre-season times. Emily Field was the first Janes to cross the line in 5:05 with Cami , Tania, Adrienne and Kirsten right behind, all coming under 5:20. Emily was third in the open division and Tania placed second in the Masters Elite picking up some cash. The Janes continued scoring points for the Southern California Grand Prix by running this race and are currently in third place for the team standings.

Next up Santa Monica 5000M on September 12th. See you there!

A few of brave Janes will be heading down to El Toro Airfield this upcoming Sunday, August 29th, to race in the USATF Road Mile Championships. Barbara Parker, Tania Fischer, Kirsten Leetch and Emily Field as well as Baby Janes, Cami Chapus and Lyndsey Mull, will be running in the Elite USATF Women’s division at 8:40 am. The course is USATF sanctioned and there will be 1/4 mile splits given on this point to point course that has a 37 foot drop in elevation from start to finish. Should be a fast race!

For more information about the race, click here.

A few of the Janes roughed it last week in beautiful Hawaii for a week long summer running camp and get together. Tania Fischer, Kelle Taylor, Amanda Rondash and Sissel Berntsen-Heber stayed in Amanda’s family vacation home along with their kids. Days were filled with long runs, yoga, boat rides and hikes in the hills.

The former British Olympian Zola Budd shown here with Erika inset photo. Photo taken by Tom Coat.

Erika Aklufi couldn’t get enough racing on Saturday where she ran in the USATF Club Nationals 5k, so she ran in the Keep L.A. Running 10k this past Sunday, finishing in first woman (sixth overall) in a stellar time of 34:50 that was also a course record bettering the race record of 35:43 by almost a minute. She bolted to the lead and won it running wire to wire.

Erika beat out former British Olympian and distance star, Zola Budd (now Pieterse) who ran second in a time of 36:41, her fastest 10k time in years. Zola, now 44 years old, lives and trains in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with her husband and three children and evidently now wears shoes when she races. Erika was thrilled to meet the quiet and gracious legend.

For complete results, click here.

For a story on the race on the Keep LA Running website, click here.

With the team of Erika Aklufi and Kirsten Leetch running in the 5000 meters at San Francisco State at the USATF Club Track Nationals, the team scored enough to land the Janes in 10th place by the end of the meet. After running in first throughout the race and creating the pace, Erika was outkicked in the final 100 meters by Club Northwest’s Rose Wetzel to finish in second in a time of 16:40.50 to Rose’s time of 16:37.45. After hanging onto the pack of Erika and Rose through a little over two miles, Kirsten dropped off and finished in fifth running a season best of 16:59.19.

Norfolk Real Deal Track Club from Norfolk, Virginia finished in first place for the women scoring 160 points.

For complete results, click here.

For the USATF club track nationals photos, click here.