A record breaking 557 USATF Southern California runners posted scores in the 2012 Road Running Grand Prix series. Leading the way for the youth division are runners Chloe Arriaga (11) with 2551 points and returning 2011 champion Anthony Palazzo (15) with 2610 points. Youth runners were required to run 3 races for end-of-year awards, adults run five races.
Tania Fischer gets her third title as first place overall finisher, while Ken Ernst takes first place in the men’s division, each winning $500. Second place awards go to Jon Megeff and Erika Aklufi with a $250 prize. Third place: Rich Gust and Rosalva Bonilla winning $150. Fourth place: Gregory Keyes and Yayoi Liu winning $75, and fifth place kudos to Oliver Gallego and Linda Hodgson taking home $25.
“Most Valuable Runner” award (we just made that up) has to go to the indefatigable Thomas “Tom” Albright, 7th overall finisher, who ran no less than 10 (ten! yes! ten!) Grand Prix races this year, missing only the Semana Nautica 15 km. Tom ran the Magic Shoe 5K on Satuday, May 20, in 19:12, then ran the Pasadena Half Marathon on Sunday, May 21, in 1:36:11!
2012 was the year of the Cal Coast Track Club. It is hard to find the right superlative for Cal Coast; far from just beating the competition, they become something of a hurricane force, a road running Death Star. Cal Coast runners turned up in huge numbers at Grand Prix races, a sea of blue running singlets taking top prizes, age-group awards, and in the case of Peter Magill, setting a new American age-group record in the 5 km. 90 open/masters members of Cal Coast posted scores in the Grand Prix, with another 12 runners in the youth division, bringing the Cal Coast participation to 102 total! No wonder that five of the top ten finalists are Cal Coast runners! And Tom Albright – he’s a member of Cal Coast as well!
