Valentine's hard work pays off in Boston

Preparation and proper pacing are the keys to a successful marathon.

That is what running the 26.2-mile distance has taught Tierra Verde's Lisa Valentine, who posted a time of 2 hours, 50 minutes and 31 seconds for 29th among 5,000-plus women in the 106th Boston Marathon. Valentine was the eighth American, and the 41-year-old mother of five finished seventh in her age division. It was her best performance there in three attempts.

In January, Valentine won the women's division of the Florida Gulf Beaches Marathon in a laid-back time of 3:02:21. Her best is a 2:47:47 victory in the 1999 Tucson Marathon.

"Although it took me 33 seconds to get to the starting line from the second corral, the miles clicked off for me very comfortably," Valentine said of the Boston race.

"I fell into a 6:10 per mile pace during the early downhill miles. My hill training at Saint Leo, San Antonio and in garage ramps in St. Pete with my Forerunners' teammates enabled me to run strong on the Newton hills.

"In preparation for a hilly marathon, you have to pay your dues," she said. "I held my own on the hills and paced myself. At Mile 22, I came up on Christy (Phillips) and urged her to go with me. She said she couldn't because it just wasn't her day. I felt sad for her as I went on."

Valentine said her next major goal is December's California International Marathon, in which she hopes to break 2:48 and return to the Olympic Trials, set for St. Louis in 2004.

The only disappointment for Valentine in Boston was the inability of her women's team to recapture the title it had won three times in the past six years.

"The BAA (Boston Athletic Association) women beat us fair and square," said Valentine, hedging somewhat on whether the team's members started ahead without the necessary qualifying times for their corral assignment.

An official of the sponsoring BAA made the pen assignments. The field of 17,000 runners is sorted into 17 pens of 1,000 each based on qualifying performances. The scoring is based on gross time, including the time it takes to reach the starting line. Computer chip time measures the time from the starting line to the finish line.

The Forerunners' scoring was rounded out with Phillips running 2:53:59 and Laure Blume 3:04:39. They placed 13th and 42nd among American women. Teammate Mary Ann Protz, 45, was 60th in 3:05:40. She paced the club's masters squad, which included Denise Skinner (3:15:20) and Debra Colbert (3:34:36).

BOSTON NOTES: Palm Harbor's Andy Scavelli had the fastest area time (2:48:01), just ahead of training partner Michael Weiss (2:52:16) of Oldsmar. ... Coach Joe Burgasser of the Forerunners ran a swift 2:55:47, good for second place among 250 men in the 60-69 division. ... Tampa's Emery Jewell, 76, ran for 6 minutes, 46 seconds before reaching the starting line. He finished in 4:43:42. ... Dunn Neugebauer of Dunedin inadvertently was omitted from the results published April 16. Starting from the seventh pen, he finished in 3:08:29, a 10-minute improvement over his Chicago Marathon qualifying performance. ... Odessa's Roz Randall (4:00:30) completed her 18th consecutive Boston.

DID YOU KNOW? The 99th Top Sports Story of the Century, as compiled by the Times, was Rosie Ruiz's infamous "win" in 1980 at Boston when she started at about Mile 25. She was disqualified after a week-long investigation.

The only marathoner among the Associated Press Top 100 Athletes of the Century was Czechoslovakia's Emil Zatopek, who captured Olympic gold in Helsinki in 1952 after winning the 5K and 10K track events.

DRAFT DAY DASH 5K: St. Petersburg's Steve Wilcox recovered from the April 7 Paris Marathon (2:59:37) in good enough condition to take second in last Saturday's race in Tampa.

In the 5K from Al Lopez Park, Wilcox ran 16:30, finishing just behind Eric Hall's 16:06.

Vicki Stum of Clearwater logged a personal-record 18:05 to win the women's division and place ninth overall in a field of 1,100.

"The key for me was resting my body, legs and mind the week before," said Stum, 31, a first-grade teacher at Bardmoor Elementary School.

"My next goal is to break 18 minutes, which I may do at either the May 3 Spartan Sprint or the May 11 Hog Hustle in Dunedin," she said.

Pinellas women placed second and third in the Dash. Palm Harbor's Kit Van Allan (19:06) and Largo's Dianne Cayll-Skiles (19:34) followed Stum.

RUN IN THE PARK: At Seminole, the brother/sister duo of Kyle (6:12) and Laureen Groh (6:30) of St. Petersburg finished 1-2 in the mile in a field of 63. What is more amazing is that Kyle is 7 and Laureen 13. However, Kyle is nationally ranked with the fastest 5K time (21:40) for his age. Other winners in the ninth annual event staged by the Seminole Chamber of Commerce include Brian Bradbury (38:12) and Largo's Donna Nesslar (39:31) in the 10K, and Wesley Chapel's Dror Vaknin (15:14) and Brandon's Jessica Forrester (18:57) in the 5K. A total of 350 runners participated.

MORE NEWS: Dwayne Jenkins (23:13) and St. Petersburg's Erin Lynch (28:51) were the winners in the April 14 Flatwoods Four (miles) cross country race in Tampa on April 14.

Gasparilla winner Tony Teats of Oldsmar will run the May 11 Hog Hustle in Dunedin, along with Beach to Bayou women's winner Judy Maguire of Team Dianetics.

All finishers in Beach to Bayou received colorful American eagle T-shirts designed by American artist Ken Hogle of Dunedin. Top-five age-group winners received personalized lithographs by Hogle.

Former Boca Ceiga and Florida Gators runner Dan Clark completed the Paris Marathon in 3:40. Marjorie Wilcox, the wife of Steve, cruised home in 4:03.

Times Turkey Trot director Skip Rogers has the May 5 Vancouver Marathon on his schedule. Dunedin's Dick Buckley will do the half marathon there.

QUARTERLY RANKINGS: These rankings reflect the best overall performances for the three-month period with an emphasis on February's Gasparilla 15K, in which nearly all the top runners competed.

MEN -- 1. Tony Teats, 2. Steve Wilcox, 3. Jeff Delie, 4. Jim Burgasser, 5. Tom Adamich, 6. Brian Scott, 7. Terry Fluke, 8. David Meri, 9. Michael Weiss, 10. Andy Scavelli. Masters -- 1. Victor Yeager, 2. Royston Dillon, 3. Joe Burgasser, 4. Jim Muench, 5. Jim Keppeler.

WOMEN -- 1. Christy Phillips, 2. Judy Maguire, 3. Vicki Stum, 4. Laure Blume, 5. Lisa Valentine, 6. Kathleen Kaye, 7. Carol Glasscock, 8. Donna Nesslar, 9. Mary Ann Protz, 10. Jacki Waller. Masters -- 1. Kim Donaldson, 2. Dianne Cayll-Skiles, 3. Amy McClenathan, 4. Mary Delie, 5. Annette Frisch.

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