Jim Bates (52) of Hampton, VA is the oldest runner to ever win the men's overall title in a CRR event.

Three newcomers to the Colonial Road Runners road racing scene, Jonathan Weiss, Michael Soberick, and Pat Eden, had noteworthy performances at last Saturday's Ford's Colony Run for Shelter, while three "old-timers", Jennifer Quarles, Linda Kidder, and Debbie McLaughlin, largely absent from CRR races this past year, dominated the overall women's division.

The CRR Grand Prix event, organized by and benefiting Housing Partnerships, included an 8K loop course along St. Andrews, Ford's Colony, and Blackheath roads, while the 5K walk and 5K fun run were an out-and-back from D.J. Montague Elementary School to the FC Swim and Tennis Club. There were 120 total finishers.

Jim Bates (52) of Hampton was the overall winner of the 8K in 29:27, holding off a challenge by William and Mary sophomore Jonathan Weiss (19) of Williamsburg. Bates had the solo lead after an early challenge by Michael Gibino in the opening half mile and ran alone most of the rest of the way for the 4.97- miles. Weiss closed to within a few strides around four miles on the hills of Blackheath, but Bates surged back for the win, and is now the oldest runner (at age 52 years, two months) to ever win the men's overall title in a CRR event. Steve Chantry won the men's division of the 2006 Governor's Land 5K Run at 51 years, 11 months (although women's winner Aurora Scott was ahead of him in that race in a CRR all-time record 16:37, the only time a female has been the outright winner of a CRR event). Weiss was 14 seconds behind Bates in 29:41, while 2003 Walsingham graduate Michael Soberick (23) of Hayes was another 16 seconds back, but breaking the 30-minute barrier with a 29:57.

For the women, four-time CRR Grand Prix women's champion (2003- 06) Jennifer Quarles (36) of Williamsburg returned to the winners circle with a 33:04, well ahead of Linda Kidder (51) of Williamsburg (35:39) and Debbie McLaughlin (42) of Vienna (36:02). After a full year's absence from racing (due to two stress fractures in her left foot, one in the spring of '07, one in the fall, Quarles is happy to be back to training up to 45-60 miles per week. She was third at the Queens Lake 5K (in 19:55) on April 12, her first race since winning the Yorktown Victory Run 8 Miler, March 24, 2007.

Kidder goes long stretches without racing, but competed every Saturday in April, starting with a age-group second at the April 5th Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10K (44:47), then a women's 50-54 race record 21:26 at Queens Lake, a third-place overall 21:21 at the Walsingham Academy 5K, and Saturday's overall second place at Ford's Colony (again setting a race record for women 50-54). McLaughlin moved from Williamsburg to Northern Virginia last July, but she and her husband have kept their home in Windsor Forest and Debbie plans to visit often to race (although her husband will be assigned soon to Mexico City for a couple years). Her only other road race in 2008 was a 21:15 and an overall win at the MAD 5K at James Madison High School in Vienna.

Weiss and Soberick have similar running backgrounds, with PRs of 4:45 (1,600 meters) and 17:15 (5K cross country) for Soberick, and 4:48 (1,600) and 17:17 (cross country) for Weiss. Soberick graduated in 2003 from Walsingham, where he ran track four years and cross country for three. His 3,200-meter PR was 10:33. At UNC-Wilmington he tried cross country his freshman year, but did not finish the season due to injury (shin). He stopped competing in November of '03, and did not race again until Queens Lake a couple weeks ago, where he was ninth overall in 18:32. His motivation to return came from being an assistant track coach at Walsingham (distance runners) and workouts with head Walsingham coach Mark Tompkins. At UNC- Wilmington, where he got a B.S. in Marine Biology, he spent time on the water, competing in collegiate sailing for three years. On tap now is 10 weeks of teaching sailing in the British Virgin Islands, starting May 19th, then law school in the fall (hopefully at W&M).

Weiss is a sophomore biology major at W&M, and ran track and cross country at Langley High in McLean. He also had PRs of 53 seconds for the 4 x 400-meter relay, and 2:03 in the open 800 meters. He tried workouts with the W&M-based Team Blitz, but has been mostly working out on his own, or with college friends, until recently joining the CRR group for Wednesday- afternoon interval workouts at Walsingham. In races, he ran 1:27:28 at last September's Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon, then a 1:23:02 at February's Anheuser-Busch Colonial Half, as well as a 37:27 at the Monument Avenue 10K and as fast as 17:40's in campus 5K races.

The 5K race walk was won by Steven Shapiro (54) of Hampton (28:28), ahead of George Fenigsohn (60) of Poquoson (31:52), and by Cindy Steger (48) of Williamsburg (36:57) ahead of Ann Manciagli (72) of Williamsburg (38:14). The 5K fun run was won by Audrey Kroll (25) of Williamsburg, an employee of the Ford's Colony Golf Course clubhouse restaurant, who won in 25:17 ahead of Laura Obie (30) of Williamsburg (26:07).

Besides Kidder's Ford's Colony age-group record in the 8K, the other record set Saturday was by Pat Eden (77) of Williamsburg in the 5K walk. Eden broke her own all-time CRR 5K record for women 75-and-over with a time of 46:05, a sub-15:00 pace. The previous record was 48:34 by Eden at the 2007 Heritage Humane Society 5K at Ford's Colony, and before that Eden's 52:15 at the '07 York River State Park 5K, her first CRR event. Prior to her three all-time marks, the CRR record for women 75-and-over was 57:35 by Anna Zeleny of Lewes, DE at the 2000 HHS 5K at Ford's Colony. Eden and her husband Jack have owned a condominium at Campus Court on South Henry Street (across from the W&M law school) for the past 12 years, while still maintaining a residence in Potomac, MD. Their son Scott received his graduate degree in finance from W&M, and lives with his wife in Williamsburg. Eden, who celebrated her 77th birthday the day before the Ford's Colony race, was encouraged to enter CRR races by Manciagli, one of the CRR's leading racewalkers.

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