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Harold Tucker 50K 1999 Results

Cocoa Beach FL
Jan. 2, 1999

 1. Tristan Fiedler     29  4:38:45
 2. Doug McCobb         29  4:44:34
 3. Matt Mahoney        43  5:12:37
 4. John Butterick      48  5:13:29
 5. James Simpson       57  5:32:12
 6. Ieg Nystrom         60  6:28:48
 7. Jim Sullivan        47  6:32:40
 8. Paul Morgan         57  7:23:48
 9. Angela Saldana (F)  71  7:56:27
12 starters

It was a nice day for the beach.  Bright sun, 80 F, a sticky salt air blowing
in from the ocean as surfers challenged the rough 3-4 foot chop and beachgoers
worked on their tans in thong bikinis on the wide, flat expanse of fine, hard
packed sand in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Nice day for a run too.  The Harold Tucker 50K (originally called the Space
Coast 50K) is in its 21'st year.  It is billed as the world's longest beach
run, though I have heard there is a 70 mile beach race in New Zealand.  The
starting data and time vary each year so that the race can start 3 hours
before low tide.

John Butterick and I unwittingly took the early lead as we discovered that the
two runners ahead of us were in the 2 x 25K relay division.  It did not seem
like a very fast pace, about 10 minute miles into a south wind.  John, I
discovered, ran lots of marathons, including 4 last month and 7 the month
before.  He ran the Atlanta, Missisippi, and Space Coast marathons all within
a single 4 day period, with times around 3:45.  Another runner, Ieg Nystrom
from Sweden, has run 499 marathons.

After several miles and a brief but stinging rainstorm, Doug McCobb and then
Tristan Fiedler caught up and we ran together leaving John behind.  We reached
the 15.5 mile turnaround in the lead in 2:29, then immediately picked it up to
about 8 minute miles with the wind at our backs.  This still did not seem
hard, as I was running barefoot now, having dropped off my aqua joggers at
mile 9 for the soft sand in the middle part of the race.  I would pick them up
at mile 22 for the hard packed sand to follow.

At 20 miles I let Tristan and Doug go, as my quads and calves were pretty
shot, and I had to alternate 1 minute running with 30 seconds walking for the
rest of the race.  The two leaders had really picked it up with the tailwind.
Tristan held an 8:20/mi second half pace to the finish with Doug close behind.

71 year old Angela Saldana was the only female finisher.  She had originally
planned to run the relay but couldn't find a partner.