By Rick Platt
The 23rd annual Carter's Grove Challenge 8 Mile Run was won last Saturday by
38-year-old Rob Hinkle of Newport News, a William and Mary chemistry professor,
and by 13-year-old Aurora Scott of Portsmouth. There were 223 finishers in the
longer Peninsula Track Club Grand Prix race, and an additional 70 in the 5K
run and walk.
Scott won by almost four minutes with a remarkable time of 50:44 (6:21 pace
per mile) for the hilly eight mile course from the Carter's Grove Plantation
to the Golden Horseshoe Golf Course. Second and third were Jennifer Quarles,
31, of Williamsburg (54:40) and Christy Prillaman, 36, of Newport News (55:12).
Prillaman, a Williamsburg oncologist, had won both the 2001 (55:42) and 2002
(55:30) versions of Carter's Grove, and was faster this year. Quarles improved
almost five minutes from 59:26 (fourth place in 2002) to her 54:40 this year.
Two years ago, an 11-year-old Aurora Scott challenged Prillaman early, before
finishing second in 56:18. After winning the 5K last year (in 19:47, second
overall only to her brother Justin), Aurora ran one of the best times ever at
Carter's Grove, not too far off Lorraine Hochella's course record (in the 49's)
and other winning times by Claudia Kasen (50:06 in 1992) and Monica Allard (50:34
in 1994). Scott led this year from the start.
On the men's side a four-man pack developed early, with Hinkle, Bill Graham,
Jim Estes and Jim Bates. Bates dropped back after two miles, then Estes lost
contact by three. Hinkle pulled away from Graham around four miles to win in
46:20. Following were Graham (47:15), Estes (47:55) and Bates (48:44).
While Hinkle and Bates are frequent competitors in Peninsula Track Club and
Colonial Road Runners races, Graham, 41, and Estes, 37, both of Yorktown, are
relative unknowns. Both are returning from long layoffs from the sport.
Bill Graham was quite well known on the Peninsula in the late 1970s, but had
not been seen since then. A 1979 graduate of Tabb High, he was the Virginia
state AA champion at the two-mile distance his senior year, and improved to
a national-class 9:03 for two miles later that season at a high-school all-star
track meet in Atlanta. His mile PR was 4:21.8. At Tabb he was coached by Steve
Deutsch and George Coulter.
While not recruited, Graham was a walk-on at Stanford University, where he improved
to superb times of 28:54 for 10,000 meters and 13:55 for 5,000 meters, both
at the Stanford Invite track meet. He qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships
in the 10,000 both his sophomore and junior years, and the 5,000 his senior
year, but Stanford did not send him to any of those NCAA meets. His senior year,
Graham had a hard-to-heal stress fracture of the navicular bone in the foot,
so did not have any serious competition after graduating (1983, with a degree
in mathematical sciences), either on the track or the roads. Running was just
for fitness, with an occasional California road race for fun.
After graduating, Graham stayed in the Bay area, and worked with computers for
Stanford's Institute for Mathemical Studies and Social Sciences for a decade,
then went to the IBM-Almaden Research Center, and finally to a startup company,
Kenamea, before returning to Yorktown in January of this year. After seeing
an ad on cable TV, Graham is now coaching outdoor track at Grafton High.
After a five-year layoff from running from 1997-2002, he started back up last
April to maintain health and fitness, and slowly built back to 50 miles per
week. Carter's Grove was just his third race back, after a half marathon in
San Francisco last July (1:22) and a track meet this March at VCU. A half marathon
at Hampton Coliseum (April 26) and a future marathon are planned. With his talent,
a sub-16:00 5K is possible, which would make Graham one of the best Masters
runners in Virginia.
Also with a long layoff was Jim Estes, a Master Sgt. at Langley Air Force Base.
In January, 2000, Estes was on a pre-dawn run in Germany on a base trail, hit
a patch of ice, slipped off the trail, and broke both his left tibia and fibula.
"The only thing holding my foot on was the sock," said Estes. The
cast was not set in a neutral position, so his ligaments shortened and his range
of motion was restricted. Ironically, Estes had been in the best shape of his
life at that time. He ran track and cross country in high school (class of 1984,
Niagara Falls, N.Y.), but gave up the sport his senior year, and didn't run
for five years. Having joined the Air Force at age 18, Estes said he "got
fat" (as much as 180 pounds on a 5-6 frame), before deciding to return
to running (he's now a fit 130-135 pounds). Since becoming an avid roadracer
in 1989, Estes has completed 25 marathons around the world (including London,
Rotterdam, Paris, New York and Boston), with a PR of 2:43:29 (in 1999), to go
with a 10K best of 33:19 and a 5K best of 15:45.
After a transfer to Langley in the summer of 2000 (his background as a jet engine
mechanic has him in the propulsion division), Estes turned to cycling due to
his ankle injury, and has competed in races from 20-80 miles for James River
Velo Sports in 2001 and 2002. It wasn't until last fall that he could run more
than once or twice a week, but he was up to 40 miles a week before last November's
Yorktown Battlefield 10 Miler (where he finished third in 1:02:37). Since then
his only running races have been the Anheuser-Busch Colonial Half Marathon in
February (1:22:07) and the Fort Eustis 10K in March (36:57). Like Graham, Estes
is planning on running the half marathon at Hampton Coliseum.
Race director Mark Gettys (assisted by Tom Gillman and Steve Flanary) reported
that this year's Carter's Grove race raised $6,400 for the United Way of Greater
Williamsburg, thanks in part to sponsorship by BB&T, Wal-Mart, the Williamsburg
Community Hospital, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Although the future
status of Carter's Grove and the Country Road are unknown at this time, area
runners are hopeful that the 24th annual race will occur next April for this
very popular and scenic event.
Two weeks earlier area runners competed in two 10K races, the Fort Eustis 10K
(with 182 entrants) and the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond (with 8,500
entrants). The top three men at Fort Eustis were Louis Padilla of Virginia Beach
(36:15), Jim Bates of Hampton (36:35) and James Estes of Yorktown (36:57). Linda
Sawvell of Newport News won for the women in 40:55 over Julia Smith of Tappahannock
(42:09) and Barbara Mathewson of Virginia Beach (42:44).
At Monument Avenue, Peninsula runners in the top ten of their age groups were
Rick Platt (1st, 50-54, 36:30), Peter Bartos (9th, 40-44, 40:03), James Wetherington
(1st, 55-59, 43:00), Irene Bierie (6th, women 35-39, 45:19) and Pauline Ely
(7th, women 60-64, 1:05:35).
The following week, two Peninsula runners placed high at the Cherry Blossom
10 Miler in Washington, D.C. Kristine Wilson, 29, of Newport News was 22nd overall
in the women's division in a PR 1:01:50. Bill Bustin, 46, of Yorktown was second
in the men's 45-49 division in 59:12.