1999 Mt Goat
Saturday, April 24th

Clark, outruns the field
Mountain Goat course offers little resistance

By Lindsay Kramer

After building his legs on the mountain ranges of North Carolina, Brian Clark found the hills of Syracuse's Mountain Goat Run to be nothing more than speed bumps that didn't work Saturday morning.

Clark made his first appearance in the 10-mile Goat a memorable one by chewing up both the course and the competition with a winning time of 54 minutes, 27 seconds. That was 1:12 better than runner-up Ken McPherson, who led the first half of the race before fading.

Clark, a graduate student at Syracuse University, ran the course like a master even though he said he'd never been in a competition longer than 10 kilometers. Apparently his jaunts up and around mountainside roads during his undergraduate days at Western Carolina have forged lungs that can handle much more.

"It still hurts the same, but you look at it (the hills) and think, 'That's nothing,' " Clark

said. "It wasn't as tough as I thought."

Charlene Lyford took the drama out of the women's half of the race with an even more dominant performance. The 33-year-old runner from Greene won that competition in 1:00:15, well ahead of second-place finisher Mary Beth Romagnoli's 1:02:20.

The victory was Lyford's first in four Mountain Goats and fulfilled a dream she's had since high school. Lyford has the speed to now fantasize about much more - her time of 2:44 in a marathon last October earned her a spot in February's United States trials for the 2000 Olympics.

Lyford started Saturday with a first-mile split of 5:36 - roughly nine seconds faster than she planned - to relegate everyone else to running for second.

"I stayed pretty strong the whole race, which is what I wanted to do," she said. "I knew if I could stay around an hour or an hour and a minute, I'd do OK."

Clark and Lyford tamed a field 753 entrants, although several of the top runners from Goat races past skipped this year's event.

While Lyford's rabbit strategy worked, McPherson's flopped. He was confident after winning two other races this spring - a half marathon and a 15K - and thought he could break the field with a quick start.

He was half right. By the five-mile mark, McPherson had a seemingly comfortable 75-meter lead over Clark and Richard Brown, who were vying for the second spot.

Clark wasn't sure what he had left. He didn't know the course and was given a scouting report by Brown, a former Henninger runner and Mountain Goat veteran. Clark's hip was sore from a fall earlier this week and he hadn't done enough speed work this season to turn his race into a sprint.

But Clark's strategy was to divide the Goat into two five-mile races and had the kick to conquer the second half. He left Brown after the halfway point and caught McPherson a little past six miles. Around seven, near Manley Field House, Clark turned Comstock Avenue into his personal dragstrip and peeled well ahead of McPherson, who had nothing left with which to counter.

"I was trying to be conservative going out," Clark said. "I knew Ken had got out really fast. I knew it may hurt him in the long run. I started feeling good there (seven miles). That's where you start to think, 'There's only three miles left, two miles left.' "

McPherson, also a Goat rookie, could only think about what went wrong. As he crossed the finish line, he uttered "Back to the drawing board" in reference to his failed strategy.

"All I can say is it (the course) definitely ripped my legs apart," McPherson said. "I didn't race smart. It wasn't a well-thought out plan of attack."

While an unhappy McPherson was mentally re-running the race, Lyford, who should have been more tired than anybody, looked fresh enough to actually pull a Goat doubleheader. She was a little antsy waiting around for her first-place award, which was understandable considering her disdain for idle time.

Saturday, for instance, she awoke at 3:30 a.m. and did 2 hours worth of chores on her dairy farm before driving 90 minutes to the race. Then she turned a torturous course into a personal diversion from real work.

"This part of the day is my day off," she said with a smile. "I've always been on the go like that. I try to get enough rest to make up for my busy time."

Sunday, April 25, 1999

Training Runs
Meet at the downtown YMCA on Montgomery Street

Runner faces unfamiliar route  Liverpool's Ken McPherson will compete in his first Mountain Goat Run.
By Lindsay Kramer

If you go  What: Mountain Goat
Run When: 9:15 a.m. Saturday Where: Starts at Armory Square Distance: 10
miles. There is also a 5-kilometer race beginning at 8:30 a.m. Registration
fee: $20 for Goat, $15 for 5K through today at YMCA; $25 for Goat and $20
for 5K on race day. Prize money: For Goat, top five men's and women's
finishers get $300, $200, $100, $75 and $50, respectively. Entries: More
than 800 for Goat

Ken McPherson is becoming a quick study of long-distance
running this spring. Put in the miles, go out and conquer a course.  The
draining, 10-mile Mountain Goat race is McPherson's next measuring stick. He
has never run the course, but will line up as one of its favorites Saturday.
The Mountain Goat features lung-searing hills, but McPherson is showing
marked disdain for new challenges this season.  McPherson, a Liverpool
resident, has entered two races this spring, both at distances he'd never
run before. He won a 15-kilometer run in Chenango Forks in 50 minutes, 23
seconds and finished first in a half-marathon at Cornell in 1:12:51. Those
are paces that figure to put him near the front of the Goat pack, despite
his unfamiliarity with the course.  "I've got a good streak going,"
McPherson said. "I hope to keep it up. It all comes down to preparation. I
don't take any distance lightly."  This could be a year of turnover and a
chance for new faces to do well in both the men's and women's races in the
Mountain Goat. As of Thursday, several of the area's top men and women
runners had yet to register, although that can be done as late as the
morning of the event. Among those not signed up for the race are last year's
men's winner, Keith Stopen, and women's winner, Tanya Heard.  "It kind of
calms the nerves a little bit. I shouldn't be getting my butt kicked out
there," McPherson said.  "You like to see the same faces, but you like to
see new faces as well," said Mary Beth Romagnoli, a Manlius runner who has
competed in the Mountain Goat before and should be one of the women's
favorites this year. "I'm just going to go out and see who's there and stick
with the leading women."  The race could be competitive but a little slower
than usual. Unless a few burners show up, McPherson said it will be
difficult for the men's winner to approach Stopen's winning time of last
year, 51:39.  "I'm positive this race won't be as fast as previous races,"
he said. "Without those (previous favorites), I don't figure it's going to
be a race taken out exceptionally fast."  McPherson, who is a Binghamton
native, will continue to push his personal boundaries in the Mountain Goat.
He ran at SUNY-Binghamton, but was usually a miler. After graduating from
that school last spring, he decided that he'd be better suited in the longer
distances.  McPherson, who turns 24 on race day, said he doesn't have the
speed of a top miler. But success in longer races usually comes down to
stamina, and stamina comes down to logging miles.  That's a variable he can
control. McPherson said he's always liked cross-country running and handles
hills well. He said he's now running about 65-70 miles per week.  "I think
it (moving up in distance) has been a good choice," McPherson said. "Because
I work hard, it will allow me to do better in the longer stuff. The longer
the race gets, the less you have to rely on natural talent and the more you
have to rely on hard work."  Friday, April 23, 1999 Back