Stanford Runners Make Strong Showing in San Francisco Race


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stanford Running Club
January 31, 2003


STANFORD -- Early last Sunday morning, hours before Super Bowl festivities
picked up in San Diego, twelve members of the Stanford Running Club
took on an athletic challenge of their own. The scored no touchdowns
and caught no interceptions, but together they ran for over 180,000
yards in one of San Francisco's major road races.


The Home Depot San Francisco Half Marathon and 5k drew over 4,000
runners, providing a competitive environment for Running Club members
to challenge their abilities. Indeed, Stanford runners placed near
the top of both races. Sophomore Adam Sciambi placed just 31st among
3,381 half-marathoners with a time of 1:21:02 -- just 6:11 per mile in
the 13.1 mile race.. He was followed soon after by sophomore Dan
Anthony, who came in 49th at 1:22:18. In the 5k, freshman Patrick
Ward came in 6th with a time of 17:10, winning his age group.


The course took runners through Golden Gate Park and around the
Panhandle, with the half marathon running next to the ocean for
several miles. "The weather was good and the course was fast, except
for three miles of coastal head wind from mile 9 to mile 12," remarked
Sciambi. "Ouch."


"I thought the race went very well and we had a good showing of runners
form the club," said senior Eloy Avila, Running Club president. Other
Running Club members echoed this sentiment. Graduate Student Charis
Quay had never run as far as 13 miles before she ran the Half
Marathon, and still placed in the top 20% of all women who entered.
She said, "It was a very good race -- nice weather, flat, lots of water,
injury-free and I ran much faster than I thought I would! I hadn't done a
race since college and had almost forgotten how fun it can be."


The Running Club meets several times a week to go running in and
around campus, and the training has paid off. "It was my best road
race, thanks to the ability to prepare with a good night's rest and
good teammates, and also the great training that I get with the Club.
It's weird to wake up one day and find yourself in best shape, because
we push hard unconsiously every day," said Anthony. The Running Club
often functions as a team for races. The Club organized the trip to
the race, with all the runners sharing a van to and from the event.
"The 5k guys were awesome too -- they waited around for an hour to cheer
us half-marathoners on," said Sciambi.


Some runners are training for the Napa Valley Marathon, which takes
place March 2, and last Sunday's race was an important milestone. "It
was a nice progress indicator for the Napa marathon where I am sure we
will have some impressive times as well," said Avila.


The Stanford Running Club is an informal group welcoming runners of
all levels to join us and share a love of running in a low-pressure,
flexible environment. The Running Club thanks Stanford Club Sports
for financial support.


Press contact: Ben Cowan, ben.cowan (at) stanford.edu
President: Eloy Avila, eavila@stanford.edu
Financial Officer/
Webmaster: Adam Sciambi, sciambi (at) stanford.edu
Web Page: http://www.stanford.edu/group/runningclub/


Appendix: Running Club results summary. More information can be
obtained from the race page, http://www.pamakids.org/


Place/
Name Class Time Place Div. Pace
---------------------------------------------------------------------
5k: (917 entries)


Patrick Ward fr 17:10 6 1 5:31
Jason Detwiler grad 17:51 11 8 5:44
Pratap Ranade jr 17:59 14 10 5:47
Joshua Ruderman fr 18:55 31 4 6:05
Justin Kuczynski jr 19:07 36 21 6:09


Half Marathon: (3381 entries)


Adam Sciambi so 1:21:02 31 4 6:11
Dan Anthony so 1:22:18 49 6 6:16
Eloy Avila sr 1:25:40 97 9 6:32
Ben Cowan grad 1:26:38 116 10 6:36
Nicholas Miyake fr 1:26:50 117 4 6:37
Lukasz Fidkowski grad 1:37:04 401 15 7:24
Charis Quay grad 1:49:37 1086 28 8:22
(254/1598 women)