Sunday, November 7, 2010

Kern, Ryan 'Choc' Up Chocolate Wins

Charlie Kern of Elmhurst and Suzanne Ryan of West Chicago managed to stay ahead of the big field on Saturday and won the expanded third annualk Hot Chocolate 15K. The race, which had 12,364 official finishers, was on a new course (about 9.3 miles) that started in Grant Park and went south and back, including some stone path on portions of the trail. Kern, 41, one of the best coaches in the country (my opinion) won in 50:50, easily bested runner-up Josh Yelsey, 27, of Chicago, who ran a 51:13. Third place went to Jeff Thomas, 30, of Chicago, in 52:43. Ryan, 36, of West Chicago, won the women's race in 57:29, also easily triumphing over second-place Vidthya Abraham, 25, of Chicago, who ran a 59:01. Third went to Kristen Herrman, 24, of Ann Arbor, MI, in 59:43. In the 5K, which as 12,702 fun-loviong, chocolate-loving finishers, victory went to Jeff Hojnacki, 36, of Chicago, in 16:11, and Pamela Staton, 23, of Ingleside, in 18:06. Second and third men were Anton Sella, 26, of Chicago, in 16:21, and Eric Lesch, 34, of Chicago, in 16:32. Second and third women were Ashley Ralph, 22, of Chicago, in 18:29, and Meg Sullivan, 31, of Downers Grove, in 18:42. From what I've heard, it was not easy to run fast in the two Hot Chocolate races. It was a very crowded race, better suited for social running than PRs. Did you run? What did you think? By the way, Ryan was the women's winner on Sunday in the Hot Cider Hustle 8-mile in Wheaton with a time of 50:03. Not a bad weekend when you win the Hot Chocolate and Hot Cider!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Bob, Charlie is a great coach. He is also one of the top master runnes in the country It is to bad that Elmhurst as a community did nothing in preventing the way York adm. treated him.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob! I enjoyed the race, but race organizers gave second to someone named Ashley Ralph and I think they made a mistake. From their records, Ashley started 7 minutes after the gun and ran an 18:29. The fact that she has not had any top finishes in other races and did not have an "A" Corral bib makes me suspect something is not right with the results. I'm (almost) prepared to drop the issue, but it's frustrating with this chip technology sometimes! Ashley and I will have to face off at another race I guess :) Meg

Anonymous said...

Also- Kristen Hermann (3rd place in 15K) was a male. Third place was actually Sanya Syrstad, an AWESOME master's runner in the Chicago area!!

Bob Richards said...

Other than all that, they got their results perfect! Way to go, Meg and Sanya. I saw Sanya at a 10K race up in Door County. She won and took off. I don't blame her. It was cold and wet.

Ashley Ralph said...

I just found this post but I wanted to let Meg know that I did NOT get 2nd place and I told the race people after they posted the results that this was incorrect. I finished somewhere in the 24's so no clue how they messed that up. I asked them to change it but they never did so hopefully you see this Meg and know you really got 2nd!