Today was the sixth annual Zippy 5K race in Golden Gate park notable for its fast collection of Pacific Division USATF running teams present. The race is named after San Francisco native Bill Griffiths's long running (syndicated starting in 1976) absurdist cartoon.
This year's winner was Steve Moreno, a three-time top 5 finisher. Moreno is a talented 28 year-old Oakland-based runner who's placed well in a number of recent difficult Bay Area races.
His greatest competition at Zippy would have come from previous winners like San Mateo's Peter Gilmore, but this amazing athlete was just coming off an incredible Boston Marathon finish (7th place, 2:14:45)--he was the fourth US man to cross the line. Another potential challenger would have been Minnesota's Chris Lundstrom (who finished a strong 16th at Boston); he has since moved back to his home state.
Steve Moreno recently ran a 2008 Olympic Marathon "A" standard qualifying time at the LA marathon, in 2:19:30 for 14th place.
Recent year's results show Moreno's steady rise:
2005 results:
1 Peter Gilmore 27 Menlo Park 14:44
2 Steve Moreno 27 Oakland 14:53
3 Richie Boulet 31 Oakland 14:59
2004 Results:
1 Chris Lundstrom 28 San Francisco 14:38
2 Corey Creasey 25 Berkeley 14:52
3 Steve Immel 27 Lincoln CA 14:55
4 Alfredo Vigueras 41 Woodland 14:56
5 Steve Moreno 26 Oakland CA 14:58
Continuing her unprecedented dominance of the women's circuit, Magdalena Lewy Boulet arrived first comfortably. She ran somewhere in the 16 minute range. Add this victory to her firsts in this year's OC Marathon, and 2005's Run To The Far Side 10K and 2nd in the Jamaba Juice 5K and PA USATF Championship XC.
Forward Ever's editor was able to manage a PR time of 18:22, for 93rd place.
As Zippy would say, "Are We Having Fun Yet?"
