McClenathan's success continues in Ybor City

The winners of Friday night's Run For The Shelter 5K in Ybor City were coming off victories the previous weekend in the Run With The Nuns 5K in St.Petersburg.

Tampa's Mike Greiwe, 24, was the male winner of both events. St.Petersburg's Amy McClenathan, 43, was the female champion.

Three weeks ago, Greiwe placed 12th at Gasparilla. McClenathan was the 22nd woman. McClenathan, a Forerunners Club member, held back during the early going of the Run For The Shelter to let the front-runners return to her.

"I don't go out hard in the first mile," McClenathan said. "It hurts to go out too fast. I try to run an even pace at about 6 minutes a mile."

She went on to win in 18 minutes, 43 seconds -- 6:02 per mile, well up on runner-up Geri Laverty, 34, of St.Petersburg (19:49). McClenathan said she never had run the Ybor City course before, although she's been in different races there.

"It was cool and comfortable," McClenathan said, "although I wore tights, a long-sleeve shirt and gloves."

McClenathan has Sunday's Ocala Marathon on her schedule. But she doesn't expect it to be an all-out effort, such as her approach for the Nov.3 New York City Marathon. There, she finished in 3:09:51.

In her 20-something marathon Sunday, McClenathan plans to run with training partners Steve Kilpatrick and Jonathan Dunford. McClenathan said a performance in 3:15 would be a realistic goal considering her training is in the 55 miles per-week range.

MORE OCALA: St.Petersburg's Kim Donaldson, 41, a three-time Ocala winner, will toe the line Sunday in search of a grand slam. She's coming off a victory (3:01:18) in the Jan.5 Hops Marathon. She won the 2001 Jacksonville Marathon and is the defending champ at Ocala. Last year, Donaldson was seventh among 236 with a winning 3:10:03.

Gainesville's Conor Holt won the 2002 men's division in "Florida's Most Scenic Marathon." St.Petersburg's Jim Burgasser was the runner-up.

RUN FOR SHELTER: Clearwater's Barbara Eckes, 47, finished 13th (21:34) among women in Ybor City. Kathy Gruber, 51, Indian Rocks Beach, was 19th, 22:03. Greiwe won in 15:40 by a wide margin over Germany's Dick Bodel, Tampa's Bob Skaggs and Matt Umholtz, a Osceola High and USF graduate. Greiwe was a standout at Plant High and Notre Dame. He's a USF medical student. Clearwater's Bob Villacres was the first Pinellas finisher in fifth, 16:25. David Putnam, 44, of Belleair Bluffs, took the masters title with a seventh-place performance (17:17).

RUN FOR THE REC: On Jan.18, the inaugural Town of Belleair race attracted 200-plus runners age 8-80. The athletes in their 40s dominated.

Paul Hough, 45, Tampa, ran away from his competitors, winning in 17:04. The victory wasn't that surprising since he dominated his age group at Gasparilla earlier this month (35th overall, 53:59) and captured the Tampa Bay Masters Cup. That earned the Air Force colonel and comptroller at Central Command at MacDill AFB a berth in April's Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in Washington. Dunedin's Victor Yeager, 42, overtook Putnam for second at Belleair in the masters sweep. Belleair's Charles Lasley (80-and-over) was first.

On the women's side, Judy Maguire of the Dianetics Running Team had to hold off 15-year-old Melissa Kotchman of Indian Rocks Christian School. Maguire, 44, prevailed by 12 seconds in 18:52. It was a good day for Dianetics, as 12 of 19 competing members placed among the top three in their divisions.

LAST WEEKEND: There was $15,000 in prize money on the line in the Naples Daily News Half Marathon. The big guns were there, including defending champion Rod DeHaven of Wisconsin -- America's lone 2000 Olympic marathon representative. DeHaven achieved one goal in Naples, breaking 1:15 in the 13.1-mile event. But he was 11 seconds behind winner Kenyan Elly Rono (1:04:36). Notable area performances included Much Mazano's 1:10:22 for second place, Steve Wilcox, fourth, 1:14:51; Chris Zucker (55-59), second; Joe Burgasser (60-64), first, 1:30:42; Jim Larson (65-69), first, 1:39:51; and Howard Rubin (70-plus), fourth.

In the women's division, Gasparilla winner Amy Yoder Begley, a winter resident of Temple Terrace, found her rhythm in the longer distance for a 1:13:39 victory. She was well ahead of Gainesville snowbirds Irina Bogacheva (1:15:35) and Lisa Vaill (1:16:26). The other top area runners were Lisa Valentine (40-44), second, 1:24:14; and Dianne Cayll-Skiles (40-44), fourth, 1:28:33; Barb Cote (54-55), fourth, 1:48:56; and Ginger Herring (60-64), first, 2:14:41.

FINISH LINES: Gasparilla winner Ronnie Holassie will compete Sunday in the Miami Tropical Marathon. The two-time Olympic marathoner for Trinidad and Tobago will try to improve on his marathon best (2:13:01) and win $10,000.

The Jan.12 Disney Marathon closed out early with a cap of 16,000 runners. However, only 9,411 finished. The others were no-shows or dropouts. Florida Running editor Lorraine Evans said many who sign up for the event are novices attracted to the theme parks. The entrants start training for it late as part of fund-raising projects, Evans said. Many of them don't show up, and others are turned off by cold temperatures.

Joe Burgasser is cited in the March issue of Running Times as the nation's No.2 runner, 60-64, for 2002 based on his age-group win (58:23) at Gasparilla, a 1:24:10 in the Naples Half Marathon and 2:55:55 at Boston. He also ran 18:14 for 5K in last year's Festival of States in St.Petersburg. The performance was faster than the time of the magazine's top 60-64 runner, Doug Goodhue of Michigan, who has a 19:16 certified-best 5K.

Spring Hill's Al Treichel, who won the 70-74 division at Gasparilla this year by 4 minutes, received honorable-mention recognition from the publication. Among women, Debra Wagner of Fort Myers finished first, 50-54. American marathon record-holder (2:21:21) Joan Samuelson of Maine was second, 45-49.

CORRECTION: Karen Alexeev finished second in her 50-54 age group in the Disney Marathon. Another position was listed in the previous column.

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