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Bachman Valley Half Marathon, 23 September 2007
188 runners registered; 171 participants; 163 finishers

Werner, Conklin Win Bachman Valley Half-Marathon, Kartalia Sets Record for Masters.

On a sparklingly sunny but slightly warm day, Kent Werner from Howard County and Sue Conklin from Westminster captured first place finishes from a record field at the 25th annual Bachman Valley Half-Marathon.

Even though the pre-race bathroom lines were long for the field of roughly 175 runners, the race started on time, and from the beginning Werner grabbed the lead and held it. At the one mile mark his time of 5:31 placed him five seconds ahead of masters runners Steve Kartalia and Michael Woodman. Trailing them were a group which included Jim Lancaster, Doug Kuderna, Victor Cretella, and the WRRC's version of the Energizer bunny, Karsten Brown.

At the five mile mark, midway through the section of unpaved road on (really) Old Fridinger Mill Road, Werner, in 28:33, and Kartalia, in 28:39, had separated themselves from the rest of the field, with Woodman, Lancaster, and Kuderna completing the top five.

During the next five miles, the gap between Werner and Kartalia increased by a few seconds, while the gap between them and the rest of the field increased by several minutes. The only big change in the rankings occurred after Sean Allen--McDaniel college's top cross-country runner, who had run 27:17 for 8 kilometers the day before--decided to ignore his coach's directions to run the race as a training run and began to pass numerous runners during the second half of the race.

During the last few miles Werner felt pushed by Kartalia to the extent that he set a pr in winning the race in 1:14:33, while Kartalia felt pulled by Werner to the extent that he set a master's record in finishing second in 1:15:05. In his three entries in the race since becoming a masters runner, Kartalia has finished second twice and third once, while breaking the masters record in both 2005 and 2007. The jury is still out on whether his living on the course, between miles 6 and 7 on the first loop and miles 12 and 13 on the second loop, constitutes an unfair home course advantage.

Woodman, over three minutes behind Kartalia and a minute and a half ahead of Jim Lancaster, ran exceedingly well by himself for the last two-thirds of the race to finish third, with Lancaster fourth and Sean Allen fifth. Rumor has it that Allen, after running faster than he was supposed to in the face, cut the McDaniel cross-country team's practice on Monday, Rob Kelvey, who finished tenth overall, won the 19 and under age category, while his father, Bill Kelvey, won the 50-59 age category. Ronnie Wong, known as an exceptional ultra-distance and multi-day runner, finished first in the 60 and over category.

Melinda Coen, 6:45, was the first female to pass the one mile mark, with Sue Conklin, Karen Young, Dorothy Beckett, and Kristin Mears trailing her. At the five mile mark Coen's time of 36:43 gave her a nearly thirty second lead over Conklin, Beckett, and Young, with Mears a minute behind and Frederick resident Suzanne Lewis two minutes behind.

During the long straightaway of Fridinger Mill and Old Bachmans Valley Roads, Conklin assumed the lead from Coen and gradually widened it. The 1994 graduate of Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, who was inducted into the college's athletic Hall of Fame in 2005, primarily because of her efforts in women's basketball, finished 27th overall, with a time more than ten minutes better than her initial effort last year, when she finished fourth in the female division.

She finished more than four and a half minutes ahead of Young, who caught Coen in the last mile. Beckett finished fourth as the first master runner, with Mears in fifth.

Finishing ninth and tenth were Allison and Ashley Baker, who interestingly enough were wearing race numbers 10 and 9, respectively. As has been the case in a large number of races in the last year, the sisters ran together until the finish line was in sight before making their final move. This time it was Allison's turn to win the sibling sprint. Ashley's major contribution to the race was bringing her cross-country team from Walkersville with her to serve as talented water stop people. The WRRC has now adopted her team as their favorite to win the state meet at Hereford in November.

Thanks also are given to Mr. John Myers, owner of Bachman Valley Farms, who for nearly twenty years has allowed us to use his facilities for the start and finish areas, much needed restrooms, and off-road parking. Without these facilities the race would be much different.

Overall and Master's age-group results

Results for all finishers