Unlike the days when she qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials Women's Marathon in 1988 and 1992, Terry Adams of South Lake Tahoe says only runs for fun these days. Even more so, she enjoys teaching others about the benefits of running or jogging.
"That's all history. I'm really not racing now," said Schmidt, who works as an instructor at Lake Tahoe Community College.
"I have a beginning and intermediate jogging class at the college - we like to call it dynamic running - and I put on running clinics at Bently (in Gardnerville), so I'm having a lot of fun getting other people into it," she added.
Saturday morning, Adams showed she can still has some speed and strength left in her 44-year-old legs when she ran to a women's masters 8K course record time of 31 minutes, 58 seconds at the annual Carson Nugget Nevada Day Classic. Adams finished as the first woman and seventh overall in the race, plus she eclipsed the previous course record of 32:42 set by Ellen Lucas in 2002. The overall women's course record of 28:29 was set by Sarah Piccolo in 1998.
"I race occasionally to keep Ellen on her toes," Adams said with a laugh.
Running on a hilly course, which includes a mile-long climb up Winnie Lane, was no laughing matter on a frigid morning.
"I worked very hard today," said Adams, who was a standout at the University of Nevada in the 1980s. "It was cold and that's not an easy course, so I'm pleased to see I'm still hanging in there."
Reno's Fred Zalokar, 44, emerged as the overall 8K winner in the race with a 28:16 clocking. Zalokar's time was well off the course record of 26:35 set by Brett Long in 2002, but did approach the men's masters record of 27:59 set by Miguel Tibaduiza in 1998. The versatile Zalokar showed speed in winning the Truckee Firecracker Mile in 4:35 this summer, and the strength to have won the Silver State 50K in 2003 as well as the Antarctica Marathon in 2001.
Armando Ruiz, 49, of Carson City finished second overall in a time of 29:00 that marked a personal record for the Nevada Day Classic course.
John Osterzan finished third in 30:17, followed by Philip Schlager (30:23), Kevin Brunson (32:25) and Sean Crom (32:36) to round out the top six. Of interest, Crom won the 100K national championship in 1991 and was named as UltraRunning Magazine's North American Runner of the Year in 1989.
Amy Bottenberg of Carson City finished as the second woman in 32:27.
The 2-mile run through Carson City's Historical District was won by Philip Flanders in a time of 11:10 that 14 seconds off the course record set by Jayson Sheetz in 1998. Mike Keck was second in 11:25 and Ryan Turner third in 11:31. Turner, a senior at Carson High School, was 24th at the Northern 4A Regional Cross Country Championships on Thursday.
While Lucas lost her masters 8K record, the former Douglas High cross country coach emerged as the overall first-place woman in 13:02. Janine Stone of Carson City was the second woman in 13:25 and Sara Mangiaracina of Minden was third in 14:08.
Lynda Henricksen was first overall in the 2-mile walk (22:09), ahead of Michael Polish (22:10), John Timmons (22:27) and Cy Ryan (22:31).
More than 250 runners and walkers were registered, according to race director Tim Tetz.
"The numbers are up - we had more people pre-registered this year than we had total participants last year - which is fantastic because this is the No. 1 fundraiser for our Special Olympics," Tetz said. "We just have a lot of fun with this race, and it's a great way to start Nevada Day."
Contact Dave Price at dprice@nevadaappeal.com or call 881-1220.
