While normalcy remained fleeting, PDC athletes proved incredibly adaptable and capable in a variety of distances and venues this year. Although competitions took a few months to return to the calendar in any regular pattern, the team still returned over 200 race performances up and down the state of. California, across the United States, and beyond.
Matt Leach took fourth at the British Olympic Trials 10,000m race, and finished ninth overall at the Virgin Money London Marathon.
PC: Rob Schanz
On the Track: Trail to the Trials
With a few new meets popping up on the west coast, the team had several opportunities to improve personal bests this spring, including Chris Olley, Josh Sealand, Matt Leach, Zach Swenson, and Steven Grolle all breaking through for lifetime bests over 1500m. Leach and Maya Weigel both built upon 5000m improvements of 13:46 and 15:42 respectively, as they each focused on the 10,000m at the US and British Olympic Trials. For the third time, Leach had the opportunity to represent Great Britain in the European 10,000m Cup (held concurrently to the Olympic Trials race), where the team won silver for the second year running and he finished an outstanding fourth among British athletes within the Trials, less than a second off his lifetime best. Late June weather in Eugene posed an incredibly difficult challenge to fast times, but Weigel, seeded 41st coming in, managed to finish 26th overall in her first Olympic trials experience, and will look to improve on her 32:14 qualifier clocking in the upcoming years. At the same hour across the pond, Leach doubled back to join Olley in the British 5000m trials race, where Chris finished a competitive 10th place.
Matt Lenehan was the top American in Berlin and hit 2:17:03 at CIM
PC: Rob Schanz
All Roads Lead to the Majors
Road races were some of the first events back on the local schedule, with Amy (Schnittger) Schanz and Jason Intravaia notching victories from the mile to the half marathon at the Spring Forward return to racing series in Sacramento. Trevor Halsted and Christine Hoffman earned wins at the PAUSATF’s first Grand Prix race of the year (Freedom Fest 5K in Morgan Hill), and Intravaia continued his strong road form through the summer, winning the America’s Finest City Half Marathon, and taking second in a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium spots at the inaugural Alameda 10 Miler. Matt Lenehan, third in that race, but at 50:15 under the previous club record, next moved on to the BMW Berlin Marathon, where although not a day for fast times, he finished as the top US runner in the entire field. Leach, with a time of 48:08 at Alameda (3rd best at that distance among all British athletes in 2021), also tuned up for the Virgin Money London Marathon where his 2:15:31 broke his marathon personal best by over 2 minutes and brought home 9th place. In addition to being the third British athlete across the line in that event, his placement among the top 10 overall finishers at a World Marathon Major meets the qualifying standard for the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Leach rounds out 2021 among the top 10 nationally at three distances (10,000m, 10 mile, marathon).
PDC fielded athletes at all five major marathons this fall, with Tom Tayeri making waves as the 55+ age group champion in New York (by over 10 minutes), and a 7th place overall at the WMM age group championships in London, a few weeks prior. After a personal best 2:39 effort in the virtual marathon this spring, Tayeri has spent the entire year at or near the top of the global rankings for athletes in his division.
Not one to be content with a single marathon performance over the fall, Lenehan also returned to the race course for the California International Marathon, where he earned 13th place overall, 3rd among Pacific Association athletes, and a new lifetime best of 2:17:02, a time which would qualify him for the 2024 Olympic Trials if he had run is three weeks later. Jen Vucinich, who competed at Chicago and wasn’t able to capitalize on some excellent fitness, finally got her pay off at CIM, where she ran a 12 minute personal best to finish in 2:45:07.
A victorious Gayer, Aneno, Weigel, Hoffmann, Matuszczak, Mathieu, and Schanz at the PAUSATF Cross Country Championships
PC: Rob Schanz
Cross Country: Women’s Team Returns to the Top of the Pacific Association
For the ninth time in 11 years, the PDC women won the Pacific Association USATF Championships. Maya Weigel, our 10th individual titlist, led scorers Weronika Matuszczak (3rd), Amy Schanz (4th), Susan Aneno (10th), and Jeannette Mathieu (14th) across the line. The men, featuring scorers Leach, Lenehan, Halsted, Greg Billington, and Miles Smith, were a strong second place. Season-long PAUSATF Grand Prix standouts included Halsted, who finished runner-up with two individual wins, Hoffman, who was seventh on the women’s side, Schanz, who earned two podium finishes and 4th place at the championships, and Maya Weigel, who became our top USATF Club Nationals finisher since 2007 with a 5th place result in Tallahassee. Smith punctuated his first post-collegiate season to lead the men’s team to a 12th place finish (of over 30 teams) with 53rd place, closely followed by Halsted in 56th.
For those who enjoy the hills in particular, Cody Goodwin made an impact as the runner-up finisher in the scenic, but incredibly difficult TransRockies Run, a 6 day, 120+ mile effort in Colorado. He also won the Bishop High Sierras Ultra 20 Mile in May. Vitor Rodrigues, competing along with Sarah Gayer became our first PDC member to earn a black shirt in 19th place at the fabled Dipsea Race, an effort he fit in between two successive marathon personal bests in London and at CIM.
What’s on tap for 2022?
With the opening of the US Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying window on Jan 1, that will become the long term focus for several athletes, including Mara Olson, our top finisher in 2020 who was forced to drop due to injury from a PR paced CIM in the final miles. The track season promises to offer a number of opportunities both here in California as well as in other locations across the country. Several athletes will be headed to the Chevron Houston Marathon/ Aramco Houston Half Marathon in January to test their winter-time fitness, and cross country season promises to be as competitive as ever with Club Nationals set for Golden Gate Park in 2022.
Last September, we embarked on our second annual Miles for Meals campaign, benefitting Second Harvest Food Bank. Over seven days, the team ran nearly 2000 miles and raised over $7000, totals we will hope to build on next year.
This May, we will debut a new event, an Evening with PDC, where we will feature a conversation with long-time pro and local product Sara Hall. We hope that you will consider joining us as we celebrate 15 years of PDC and will follow us on the competitive journey ahead.