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Bachman Valley Half Marathon, 24 September 2006
~135 runners registered; 107 finishers

Altieri Sets Record in 24th Running of BVHM

Running on a day which saw cloudy conditions, a pre-race rainbow, occasional showers, and unrelenting high humidity, Bea Marie Altieri maintained a sub 6:30 pace throughout to eclipse a thirteen year old record in the twenty-fourth running of the Bachman Valley Half-Marathon, held on September 24 and sponsored by the Westminster Road Runners.

Long known as a dominant runner in the Baltimore area before marrying and moving to Florida a number of years ago, Altieri showed that Florida's heat and humidity are worth something as she dominated the female portion of the one hundred twenty runner field from the start.

She spent most of the race running with the top male competitors, passing the one mile mark in 6:17, good at that point for a thirty-three second lead over Amelia Ingersol of Columbia, with local runners Karen Young and Chrissy Pennington a few seconds behind.

While there was little change in positioning during the next few miles, Altieri's lead at five miles was more than five minutes over Ingersol, and her time of 32:04, a 6:25 pace, indicated that Aileen Hannigan's time of 1:24:01, set in 1992, was in danger of being surpassed. At the finish line Altieri's sixth place overall finish and a time of 1:23:50 produced a new race record. Ingersol and third place Janeth Scott finished as the top two masters runners, with three other finishers in the top ten also being in the masters category.

Chrissy Pennington finished sixth as the first WRRC member, Lili Wang finished eight as the first runner in the 50-59 category, and Sandra Buck finished as the first runner in the 60 and over category.

Leading the field at the one mile mark were former winners and Westminster High School graduates Steve Kartalia and Mark Gilmore, who were joined by Scott Herrick, who recently moved to Mt. Airy, only a few miles from Westminster, after running at Bowdoin College in Maine. Their times of 5:35 gave them a five second margin over Westminster High School graduates Jason Grimm and WC Knight.

At the five mile mark Herrick's time of 28:38 placed him thirty seconds ahead of Kartalia and Gilmore, with Grimm, Knight, and George Altieri trailing by another ninety seconds. Although the combination of hills and humidity slowed everyone's pace, Herrick increased his lead over Gilmore to forty seconds by the eleven mile mark, with Kartalia another thirty seconds back.

Herrick finished with a forty-five second margin over Gilmore, with Kartalia finishing third, as the first masters runner, for the second year in a row. The top three times were all roughly three minutes slower than last year's, testimony to the effects of the humid conditions. Grimm finished fourth, with masters runner Altieri finishing fifth.

Moving up through the pack during the second loop of the race were Rob Kelvey, at 18 the youngest finisher in the top ten, and Phil Lang, the state RRCA representative. John Trujillo finished first in the 50-59 category, and noted ultramarathoner Ronnie Wong finished first in the 60 and over category.

Overall and Master's age-group results

Results for all finishers

Please email Beth Weisenborn (weisenbo@gmail.com) with corrections.