Running in one of the strongest Masters fields ever assembled, Brian Pilcher (60) of Ross and Tom Bernhard (65) of Castro Valley took down the American Records in their respective age groups Sunday at the USATF Masters 5K Championships in Syracuse, NY. Pilcher bested the existing M60-64 record of 16:58, set by Tom McCormack on this same course in 2014, by running 16:38 (net) while Bernhard ran 17:31 (net) to eclipse Bill Borla’s 18:12 M65-69 mark set in 2005. This is Bernhard’s 4th pending M65-69 AR since turning 65 in July and Pilcher’s 1st since turning 60 in August. Pilcher also took the top Male age-grade award with a score of 95.90%. The Men’s field was so strong that Bernhard’s age grade of 94.98%, was only good enough for 4th. Fred Zalokar (56) of Reno dropped down in distance from his usual diet of Half and full Marathons to take 4th in the M55-59 division with a time of 17:15.
On the Women’s side of the ledger, Impala Racing Team members Dianne Anderson (70) of Danville won the gold in the F70-74 division with a time of 27:16, while Concord resident Jill Miller-Robinett (62) took 3rd in the F60-64 division running 21:53 and Jo Anne Rowland (68) also from Concord took 5th in the extremely competitive F65-69 division by running 23:47. As a team, Miller-Robinett, Roland, and Anderson team took 2nd place in the F60+ category.
2. 1:12:56 IMPALA RACING TEAM (24:19)
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21:53 Jill Miller-Robinett 62 Concord, CA
23:47 Jo Anne Rowland 68 Concord, CA
27:16 Dianne Anderson 70 Danville, CA
Runner’s World article on the race
Here is a link to an interview Bernhard did for a Syracuse TV station.
Paul Carlin’s, The Running Professor, recap of the race.