Berbee Derby denouement
Group warm-up sessions precede the Berbee Derby (Photos by Joel P.)
Blame the tryptophan. I haven’t posted since before Thanksgiving, and I don’t have a better excuse. I will say now, however belatedly, I had a nice long weekend in the Madison/Mt. Horeb area, which saw its first semi-serious snowfall (and by that I mean barely an inch fell, and it was mostly gone 36 hours later) on Thanksgiving eve.
The snow relegated the rollerskis to the car, but at least the running shoes got some use.
Turkey Day dawned with pre-race jitters. For once the nervous Nellies were not my brother-in-law, Adam, and I. Rather, it was butterflies for my wife and sister, both of whom had trained to run the Berbee Derby as their first 10K. Starting and ending in Fitchburg, the road portion of the course was salted and clear, but the Capital City Trail (the second half of the route) remained icy, according to the announcers on site. With temps in the mid 20s and a chill wind blowing, it was sure to be a first time to remember for the girls.
Left to right, Dena (the author’s sister), her friend Liz and Noelle (the author’s spouse) displayed the right attitude at the race start.
Suffice it to say, they did fine, finishing the race at their respective paces. As their support crew and cheerleaders, we surprised them with words of encouragement hand-painted on our long-sleeve thermal underwear (pulled on over our coats, of course). They seemed pleased, both with their performances and our gesture.
And we were very proud of them.
Dena and Noelle had barely showered before they were scheming about running the 5K Jingle Bell Run in Madison in a couple weeks. Adam and I plan to run the Stevens Point YMCA Frostbite 10 Mile (there’s a five mile fun-run, too) a week earlier on Dec. 1.
Inspired by the ladies, Adam and I got out for a couple cold but invigorating runs over the weekend. And we, too, were thankful for the support of our families as we train and race year-round.
– Joel Patenaude
At the front of the 10K field, with less than a half mile to go, former UW-Madison runners Matthew Tegenkamp (735), Chris Solinsky (685) and their coach, Jerry Schumacher (641), were far and away in the lead. The 37-year-old Schumacher beat his young charges in 32:48, two seconds ahead of Tegenkamp, 25, and Solinsky, 22. (The top three were among 40 UW staff and alum who ran as “Team Lincoln’s Roadrunners” in memory of 4-month-old Lincoln Wilber, son of the UW’s assistant director of compliance, Benjy Wilber, and his wife, Erin. Lincoln died last September.)
While the trio led the team to victory, it wasn’t too difficult considering the talent they held in reserve. This year, Tegenkamp took ownership of the American 2-mile record (8:07) and finished fourth in the 5K at the 2007 World Outdoors Championships. Solinsky, whose 5K PR is 13:27.94, has five NCAA titles to his name. Tegenkamp and Solinsky – the first Badgers to run a sub 4-minute mile (they finished first and second in the same race) – graduated in 2005 and 2007 respectively and continue to train for the Olympics together in Madison under Schumacher’s direction.
Silent Sports columnist Tom Kaufman ran a very respectable 40:02 10k for third place in his age group.