SAC 60+ Men took 2nd in USATF National Half Marathon!!

Shore AC Results for the 2018 USATF National Half Marathon Road Race in Ann Arbor, MI

Race Date:  June 3, 2018           Results from USATF
SHORE AC TEAM RESULTS:
60+ MEN:
  2.    Shore Athletic Club A    4:35:11
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  1     RENO STIRRAT             64   1:26:44
  2     KEVIN DOLLARD            62   1:31:07
  3     SCOTT LINNELL            61   1:37:22
 (4)    PRZEMEK NOWICKI          73  (1:49:22)

SHORE AC INDIVIDUAL RESULT:​

        SUSAN STIRRAT            62   1:58:08

Ann Arbor Half Marathon: The Right Stuff​

Save the day against all odds: it's what heroes do.  Picture Tom Hanks in "Apollo 13".  Fate punches him and his crew in the gut, but he stays calm and pulls the team through.
Something similar happened with Shore AC's men's 60+ team at the USATF National Masters Half Marathon competition in Ann Arbor.  Key team memberKevin Dollard came down with a sudden gastrointestinal pain six days before the race.  The searing agony almost compelled him to stay home and not attend the race.  But with expert medical care, his condition stabilized enough that, by race day, the pain was gone.  Quite remarkably, there he was standing on the starting line.  And guess what?  Our hero ran a magnificent race!
Yet it would take much more than Kevins's 1:31:07 result to counter the efforts of the other outstanding teams in the men's 60+ category, namely Boulder, Ann Arbor and Genesee Valley.  Well, uh, correction: there was no countering Boulder.  That team is absolutely loaded with unbelievable talent.  They took first place by a mile.  But, as assessed by USATF Running Professor Paul Carlin, the other three teams were evenly matched, and it would be anyone's guess which would take second place behind Boulder.
Enter Shore AC superman Reno Stirrat.  Determined to fulfill his team front-runner role with fortitude and keep Ann Arbor's #1 guy Michael Young in sight, Reno pounded out a scorching 6:32 per mile average to cross in 1:26:44.  This heroic achievement put Reno 11th on the age grading list in this tremendously loaded national race.  Superb!
But a team's score is determined by its top three men, not its top two men.  It was estimated that Shore AC's #3 crewmate, Scott Linnell, had to deliver better than a 1:40:00 performance for Shore AC to vie for second place.  Scott started decently with a 7:00 per mile pace through 3 miles.  However, fatigue gradually overtook his body.  By Mile 9, Scott had slowed to a 7:45 pace.  Scott knew that such a pace wouldn't cut it.  There wasn't much energy left in his body, but Scott re-focused all of his remaining vim on picking up the pace.  It worked.  Scott's final time of 1:37:22 got the job done.
Septuagenarian Przemek Nowicki served as back-up runner for the M60+ team.  Przemek notched a solid 1:49:22 to improve on the 1:50:xx clocking that he recorded at the Polish National Half Marathon competition in mid-May.  Well done, Przemek!
Running individually in the Half Marathon, Susan Stirrat happily dipped under 2 hours with a 1:58:08 finish.  Brava, Susan!
This article would not be complete without recognizing another one of our heroes: Kevin's wife Denise.  We call her our "team mom" and for good reason.  Dee collected our warm-up clothes before the race, drove to two spectator points along the race route to cheer us on, and was waiting for us at the finish line with a bright smile that brought sunshine on a cloudy day.  Dee even researched restaurants and made reservations.  Thank you, Team Mom!!!
This article will be updated with age grading information when it becomes available.