The season so far this year has been great! The first Grand Prix race was the One Hour Postal race held at the Los Gatos High School on February 28, 2009. The weather was perfect for a one hour race, starting cloudy, but clearing quickly to a warm but not too hot, calm day.

There were 15 racers starting the race, including a guest racer, Andreas Gustafsson from Sweden. Andreas, who trains in San Diego, had come specifically to make a personal record in a 10000 m race, even though he would have to walk farther in order to walk for a whole hour and complete the race in order for the time to count. Hopefully the other racers enjoyed and were motivated by Andreas’ lapping them several times. He completed his 10000 m race in 41:53 minutes. Then, he completed the race for a total distance of 12,588 m, merely walking for the remaining time. Andreas’ next race was in Sweden on March 14, then in Dudince, Slovakia on March 28. According to Andreas’ blog (http://www.goandreas.com/news.html ), he won the 5K race on March 14, but was unable to finish the 50K race in Dudince. He had to drop out after 26K with cramps in his ham strings. Sorry, but Andreas says he will be back!

Back at the One Hour Postal, Nicolette Sorenson, female age 13, had a fine race with 10,344 meters; while JD Bhatia, male age 18, came in right behind Nicolette with 10,265 m. The top age graded competitor was James Beckett, age 70, with 9,600 m.

Wow, what a race.

The next PAUSATF grand prix race is to be held at the College of San Mateo on May 24, a 5000 m track race.

Respectfully submitted
Beth Price
April 3, 2009