The official start of summer was on June 20. Two days later, the season struck with a vengeance on the first weekend of summer, with hot sun and hot temperatures for the two area road races on wide-open unshaded courses, the Timberneck 5K at Machicomoco State Park in Hayes, and the Chesty Puller 10K and 11K in West Point.
Although the temperatures weren’t as bad in Southeastern Virginia as they were with record-setting highs up and down the East coast, the first really hot heat wave of summer made for uncomfortable racing. Both races were part of history. The Timberneck race was a benefit for the preservation and restoration of the Timberneck House (built in 1793) by the Fairfield Foundation, responsible for other historic Virginia sites, including the nearby Rosewell. The second annual race was a Peninsula Track Club Grand Prix event, a Hampton Roads Super Grand Prix event, and this year’s test of the “Best of 757,” an annual race selected among the PTC, Colonial Road Runners and Tidewater Striders.
Last year’s “Best of 757” race was the CRR’s Weighted Angels 5K on the USATF-certified Landfall at Jamestown course. The Machicomoco State Park, on the York River, is the second newest state park in Virginia. This year’s 5K course was also recently USATF certified, by CRR vice president Dave Anderson.
The Chesty Puller Twin Bridge race was in honor of the most-decorated Marine in American history, Louis Burwell “Chesty” Puller (1898-1971), who started serving our country in 1918, retired in 1955 as a Lieutenant General, and was born in West Point and died in Hampton, while buried in the Christ Church Cemetery. He was a distant cousin of U.S. Army General George S. Patton. Puller was noted for going the extra distance, so the West Point race is both a 10K, but also an 11K for “going the extra distance” for those who choose to extend the race an extra 10%.
The top three men overall at Machicomoco were Jonathan Torres, 34, of Newport News (18:07), Timothy Suhr, 53, of Williamsburg (18:47) and Toby Worm, 51, of Smithfield (19:10). The top three Masters (40-and-over men) were Kelvin Anderson, 63, of Newport News (20:05), David Anderson, 54, of Williamsburg (21:16), and William Huff, 53, of Williamsburg (22:00). Also making the top 10 overall were Brian Fries, 36, of Yorktown (21:07) and Braxton Lee, 14, of Quinton (21:49).
Finishing fifth overall, and first for the women was Svitlana Honcharova, 26, of Williamsburg (20:51), followed by Ann Strait, 64, of Irvington (24:17) and Julie Hicks, 48, of Virginia Beach (25:17). The fastest Masters women were Connie Glueck, 60, of Williamsburg (25:34), Christine Schaffner, 61, of Yorktown (28:24), and Susan Hagel, 51, of Norfolk (29:14).
Honcharova broke her own women’s Timberneck course record, improving from 21:34 last year to her 20:51 last Saturday. The men’s course record remains 16:55 by Tidewater Striders president Thomas Hicks, 51, of Virginia Beach, the 2023 winner.
Deneen Venters, 60, of Newport News (38:15) and Eric Dawnkaski, 58, of Williamsburg (40:51) were the race walk winners, a division emphasized for this race (awards going five deep) by race director Rick Webb of Yorktown, a board member of the PTC, and also the race walking chairman for the PTC.
As compiled by Dale Abrahamson for the PTC, the age graded runners above 70% were Kelvin Anderson (81.14%), Strait (80.08%), Suhr (79.68%), Worm (76.83%), Glueck (72.34%), Abrahamson, 75, of Yorktown (25:57, 72.23%), Torres (71.69%), David Anderson (70.96%), Jim Duffy, 72, of Poquoson (25:14, 70.90%) and Honcharova (70.66%).
Both women’s winner Honcharova and men’s runnerup Suhr had similar things to say about the race and the heat. Via text message from her Facebook post, Honcharova wrote “This morning I ran Timberneck 5K at Machicomoco State Park. I placed 1st overall for women and I was overall 5th [including the men]. Also I set a record and I won a raffle dozen donuts. The weather was so hot and hot for a race today but I finished strong.”
Suhr emailed, “Timberneck was really really hot and really in the wide open. Zero shade! Tough 5K with all the heat and direct sun but it really wasn’t terrible because there was a slight breeze and only for about the last mile was the struggle. Didn’t even know that this young state park was there, but it is very pretty. There are some good views of the [York] river. And it seems that the roadway was designed for a 5K because it was a perfect 5K going around the loop road of the state park. Great race, great people, they had amazing door prizes and there were so many that almost everyone got one.”
Third-place Worm emailed, “I enjoy the Timberneck 5K. The state park has great facilities and a mostly flat road loop that makes a 5K easy to set up and run. It’s a great course if you’re working on a tan! Not much shade, and we happened to have an 80+ morning for the race. Last year was much cooler, but hey, the weather is unpredictable. It’s a part of racing. My race strategy was to go out slower and enjoy the course. That didn’t last long though. We had a nice headwind for the first mile and that seemed to keep me running cool and fast. I passed a few folks and was closing in on Suhr when we made a turn and lost the wind. The heat hit me like a ton of bricks and I struggled a bit for miles 2 and 3. Still, finishing 3rd to Tim and Jonathan is great!”
The Chesty Puller race is more of a participatory race for those wanting to honor the most-decorated soldier, and the majority of 10K entrants continued on to make an 11K. For the men in the 11K (153 finishers), the winner was Alec Daniel, 21, of Gloucester (43:41), followed by Jack Strumke, 14, of Toano (47:44). For the women the top two were Isabella Strumke, 10, of Toano (48:15) and Julia Henby, 30, of Providence Forge (48:37).
Jack and Isabella’s father Todd, emailed, “This was our first time doing this race so it was a little confusing regarding the 10K vs. 11K races. To make it even more confusing, as Jack approached the finish line I was urging him to finish strong but thankfully he was smart enough to know that he actually had to pass the finish line and then do one more 1K lap around the neighborhood before being finished. In doing the research on this race before I signed Jack and Isabella up, I learned that the majority of runners do the 11k. This actually makes perfect sense and is incredibly appropriate. The Marine Corps is huge on teaching young recruits (Marines in boot camp) about the incredible history of the Marine Corps and the first Marine they learn about is Chesty Puller, the most decorated and famous Marine of all.”
“Anytime you are doing anything in the Marine Corps such as pull-ups or sit-ups, another Marine will inevitably yell out as a Marine thinks they are reaching their physical limits…”One More For Chesty Puller!!” …and somehow the Marine will find the toughness to do just one more. As you may remember, this is essentially why I started my kids running in the first place…so that when they think they have reached their physical or mental limits they will know that they are not even close and have a lot more left to give…one more for Chesty Puller. Apparently a lot of folks who ran in this event know about Chesty Puller because the 10K had 63 runners while 153 ran one more for Chesty Puller (11K).”
It was already in the upper 70s at the 7:30 a.m. race start, and reached 79 during the race. The race is tough because runners cross over two bridges to the opposite side and quickly turn back, essentially four substantial bridges and hills. Chesty Puller would be proud of the toughness of the course. And of course, he would do the extra 10%.
Rick Platt is president of Colonial Road Runners.
