Jim Goggin Helps Set American RecordIf you ran at W&M in the 1980s, then you will well remember Coach Jim Goggin who still lives in Williamsburg and teaches in James City County. An American record in the indoor 3,200-meter relay has now been added to the long list of accomplishments by the Colonial Road Runners. The quartet of Williamsburg runners--Rick Samaha, Danny Schlickenmeyer, Jim Goggin and Steve Chantry--ran 9:06.90 for the 4 x 800-meter relay last Saturday at the USATF National Masters Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, and smashed the previous U.S. club record of 9:20.1 for men 50-and-over by the Shore Athletic Club (NJ) in 1999. More
American Record for 4x800 for 50+ aged runners. Goggin's time was 2:21.
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Samaha led off the relay with a 2:16, despite first being boxed in, then having the leader tear his Achilles and fall down right in front of him after 400 meters, almost knocking Samaha down too. But Samaha, born in Boston at the nearby Chelsea Naval Station, passed off the baton in second place. Schlickenmeyer took over, trailed the leader for a couple laps, and took off, opening up a 30-yard lead with his 2:18 split. Goggin, a physical education teacher at Clara Byrd Baker Elementary School, ran a 2:22 split, and held the lead his entire leg, despite running with a strained hamstring.
Anchor leg Chantry felt he needed a 7:05 split after three legs, to be assured of the record, but Goggin came through in 6:56. Pete Taylor, the knowledgeable track announcer, had the crowd in a frenzy, cheering the orange-singlet clad CRR on to their record relay, saying the record was a certainty when multiple national indoor track champion Chantry took the baton. Chantry ran a 2:10.9 for both the national championship for men 50-59, and the national record. The second-place team, at 9:36, was the Genesee Valley Harriers (NY).
Chantry was no stranger to the national meet at the Reggie Lewis Center, but 2008 was the first time he brought CRR teammates for a relay. The focus from the start was breaking the national record, but the most difficult task was fielding a full team.
Samaha, 50, was a definite, as every five years or so, he shines like a supernova, first running national-class track times at age 35 and 36 (15:41.95 for the 5,000 meters at the Colonial Relays at age 36, along with 2:03.9 (800 meters) 4:13.34 (1,500 meters), 9:08.26 (3,000 meters) and 15:49 (5K roads), then running fast Masters (ages 40-and-over) times, and winning the CRR Grand Prix for Masters when he turned 40. With nearly a decade of regular training, but just occasional races, it was his 50th birthday March 6th that got him serious again, his first track racing since age 42.
Goggin, 54, with occasional injuries (which were determined by sports medicine experts Steve Cole and John Mitrovic, to be “all in his head”), has been a fixture on the CRR road racing scene for years, after first running 1:50.0 for the half mile at Boston College (he grew up in nearby Norwood), then getting down to a 2:30:59 at the 1982 Richmond Marathon after he moved to Williamsburg in 1976. At the USATF meet, three of his four sisters were in attendance, along with other relatives, and several old college friends.
But the key to the relay success was Schlickenmeyer, 50. While the CRR has a number of other strong 50+ runners, they were either longer-distance runners (declining the short 800-meter track distance), or were battling injuries, or just couldn’t make the trip to Boston. It was a chance encounter at the AA regional indoor high school track meet in February (actually held outdoors at York High), where Samaha (whose daughter Renee was running for Lafayette) was talking to Drew Mearns (parent of Colin Mearns of Jamestown High), asking about a possible fourth for the relay. Mearns (who has a strong track background itself) recommended Schlickenmeyer, whose son Joshua was running for Jamestown.
Schlickenmeyer ran a 49.2 for the open 440-yard run (and high 48’s on the mile relay) at Denbigh High (class of 1975), good enough for a track scholarship to VMI (class of ’79), coached by the legendary Wade Williams. Williams had a Peninsula hotline for the Keydets, which led to three Southern Conference and three Virginia state track championships while Schlickenmeyer was there. At VMI, he specialized in the 400 meters (47.8 PR) and the indoor 600 meters (a 1:11.7, second in the Southern Conference, which qualified him for the NCAA indoor championships). Then he hung up his competitive spikes for over 28 years, although he regularly trained, running up to 5-8 miles per day. First his family convinced him to run the inaugural Blue Talon Turkey Trot last Thanksgiving Day (son Joshua was third overall in 17:06 for the 2.97-mile event, while father Danny won the 50-59 age group in 18:19). The next race, and the first time he had been racing on the track since 1979, was last the USATF meet.
For Chantry, the relay was the third of four races for the weekend. Friday evening, he placed third overall (second U.S.) with a 9:32.32 for the 3,000 meters, rating 90.07% on the age-graded scale (90% is considered world-class), and trailing just Dave Cannon (WA) and Jerry Kooymans (Ontario). Then Saturday early afternoon, he ran 4:45.89 for a second place in the mile (again to Cannon), age-grading 91.22%. The relay was Saturday late afternoon. Then despite three previous races, he ran his best race of the weekend Sunday morning, a 2:08.12 and second in the 800 meters, behind James Morton (MA), but finally beating rival Cannon. Chantry, 53, age-graded 93.07% for the 800, his highest-ever rating on the roads or track. The 2:08.12 is slightly slower than the outdoor 2:08.06 he ran last summer at age 52, the mile and 800 meters were his best ever indoors as a 50+ runner.
The article was written by Rick Platt.
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