Armadillo Run had its share of big surprises

The 20th annual Armadillo Run in Oldsmar was full of excitement -- most of it welcome, some not.

Defending men's winner Tony Teats blasted through the first mile in 4 minutes, 53 seconds, leaving the 10K field behind to contest second and third place in the March 23 race.

Teats, 25, fresh off a big win at last month's Gasparilla, warmed up by walking three blocks from his grandparents' home just off the scenic course.

"That's about the pace -- averaging 5:05 per mile -- that I wanted to run this morning," said Teats, a Tampa accountant who finished in 31:36. "There was a breeze out there; it felt good. I feel ready for the Cherry Blossom (April 7) 10-miler in Washington, D.C. I'm looking forward to it, hoping to break 50 minutes."

Brad Millett of Crystal River was a distant second in 34:14, followed by Steve Wilcox (35:31) of St. Petersburg, Andy Scavelli (35:52) of Palm Harbor and St. Petersburg's Terry Fluke (36:15), who won the masters division.

There was an upset in the women's 10K. Vicki Stum, 31, of Clearwater won the race.

The previous weekend, the Bardmoor Elementary School first-grade teacher finished third behind Heather Gollnick of Wisconsin and Judy Maguire of Clearwater in the Unicorn Classic 5K at Largo Central Park.

That distance, 5K, has been Stum's favorite. She finished second in last month's Gasparilla 5K (18:21) then posted a time of 18:26 at the Unicorn race.

At Oldsmar, Stum, running her first 10K, went through the mile in 6:08 with Gollnick. Maguire was leading, but Stum caught her at 21/2 miles.

"We ran together encouraging each other until about the 5K point when Judy urged me to go on," said Stum, a former Atlantic 10 Conference cross-country meet winner at the University of West Virginia. "I still felt good so I decided to run ahead hoping I wasn't making a big mistake that I'd pay for later."

Stum, coached by Mel Mella of the West Florida Y Runners Club, never faltered, finishing in 37:22, a 6:01 per-mile pace, with Maguire again finishing second (38:02) and Gollnick third in 38:49.

And just like a Super Bowl MVP, Stum announced after the race that she was going to Disney World, and she did just that for three days.

Boston-bound Lisa Valentine (39:41) finished fourth, followed by Forerunners teammate Mary Ann Protz, 45, of St. Petersburg, in 40:02. Age-group highlights include coach Joe Burgasser, 63, finishing second in the 50-plus division behind Jim Keppeler, with Duncan Cameron, 59, earning third in 39:46.

St. Petersburg's Annette Frisch not only won her 60-64 age division in 51:17, she was third among all women 50 and over.

UNWELCOME MISSTEPS: As sometimes happens in road-race and cross-country events, the lead runners in the concurrent 5K ran off course.

According to Dean Redfern of Lutz, 20 to 25 lead runners were misdirected by a police officer standing near parade-related traffic cones just past the 2-mile mark. Redfern said most ran about an extra half-mile before rejoining the field on the correct course.

The same thing happened, he said, at a 5K race at Tampa's Al Lopez Park earlier this month.

Redfern, 47, had run 19:33 at the Gasparilla 5K, but Saturday's miscue cost him a top-3 place in both the masters division and his 45-49 age division.

Everett McDowell, who mapped out the course and handled the timing for the Rotary Club, said the course was clearly marked with chalked arrows at designated turning points.

Running on Shore Drive, the lead runners turned right on Lafayette Boulevard where there was no arrow rather than continuing straight to Washington Avenue, where there was a turn arrow.

"We had a lead vehicle for the 10K runners but none for the 5K people as in past years," McDowell said. "Next year, we'll try to at least get someone on a bicycle out there to guide them in after they make the U-turn on Shore Drive."

Carlos Carrasquillo of Spring Hill was credited with the win in 20:29. Ironically, he's the same runner who was leading at Oldsmar last year when he inadvertently ran off course, running short of a full 5K, but was credited with the win anyway.

The women's 5K results were accurate and a surprise win for Karen Gately, 45, of Largo, who ran 21:07 to hold off Vicky Greenwood (21:16) of New Port Richey and Lisa Kothe (21:17) of Clearwater.

"Lisa beat me the week before at Unicorn," Gately said. "She was very supportive of me in the race. I never knew I was leading the women's field till near the end when people kept yelling, "You're first,' and I realized they were talking to me."

ARMADILLO NOTES: St. Petersburg's Kyle Groh, who won his age division in the 5K, may be an Olympian in 15 or 20 years. Although he won the 9-and-under division by nearly 15 minutes, his time of 22:48 was actually slower than the 21:40 he posted at the Festival of Light at Fort Myers last month. That time, according to the USATF's Road Running Information Center, is better than the top boys 7-year-old time posted in 2001. For national age and age-group records, go to www.usaldr.org.

Walt Davin, 60, of St. Petersburg, fresh off an age-group, bronze-medal finish (3:38) at the Las Vegas Marathon, finished second (47:24) in the 10K.

Jim Burgasser, sixth in the 10K, was coming off a second-place finish at the Shamrock 10K at Brandon the previous weekend. There he ran 36:45, 25 seconds slower than at Oldsmar.

TEAM IN TRAINING: Palm Harbor's Michele Barrentine is training in earnest for June's Mayor's Midnight Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska. She'll run her first 26.2-miler as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, a program in which each person is paired with a patient, receives professional coaching, and raises $5,000 for the charity. Barrentine is a 1982 graduate of Countryside High and a social worker at Mease Hospital in Dunedin.

CHERRY BLOSSOM CLASSIC: Although six Gasparilla Cup winners earned expense-paid trips to Washington for the mega 10-miler, only one -- Teats -- will actually make the trip, reports Gasparilla director Susan Harmeling. The others either have commitments or are injured.

Terry Fluke, who won the Masters Cup, was offered the amount of money it would have cost for the trip, as were the other non-travelers. He donated it to the cross country programs of Eckerd College and the University of Tampa.

FINISH LINES: Clearwater's Jim Larson won age-group (65-69) gold medals in last week's Good Life Games in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter events. He ran 5:46 in the 1,500, finishing second in the 50-plus division by a mere two seconds.

John and Natalie Paul of St. Petersburg were father/daughter age-group winners at Saturday's Nutrition Run 5K in St. Pete Beach.

East Lake High grad Jodi Heyens is running the 800 for the Florida Gators this spring. A freshman, she finished eighth at state last year for the Eagles.

Human Kinetics Publishers has just released the Marathon Runner's Handbook, written by Bruce Fordyce, and Programmed to Run, a biomechanical and psychological system for peak running efficiency, by Thomas S. Miller. For information, visit www.humankinetics.com.

It will be April in Paris for St. Petersburg's Marjorie and Steve Wilcox. They entered the city's annual marathon April 7. It will be Marjorie's first, though Steve has run both the Chicago and Boston marathons well under 3 hours. Forerunners teammate Emery Jewell, 76, will run Boston on April 15.

The Festival of States 5K will be held in downtown St. Petersburg on April 9 at 6:15 p.m. For information, call 898-3654.

The Seminole Stampede is set for April 13 at Walsingham Park. A 5K and 10K start at 8:10 a.m. For an entry form, call 392-3245 days. The Beach to Bayou 5K in Tarpon Springs also will be held that Saturday. It starts at 8 a.m. For details, call 942-5048.

Next year's Gulf Beaches Marathon will move to early February to accommodate Gasparilla and the Hops Marathon, which will be January 4 and 5. Last January's event drew a record field of 1,593 runners, reports director Chris Lauber.

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