Grand Blanc man hoping for masterful performance

FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Thursday, August 21, 2003
By Bill Khan
JOURNAL SPORTS WRITER

Not all of the elite runners who will toe the starting line in the Crim 10-mile road race Saturday will be coming from the far reaches of the globe

One of the most-accomplished runners in the field will get to sleep in his own bed Friday night, hop in his car Saturday morning and make a 15-minute drive to downtown Flint.

Mike Scannell of Grand Blanc is not only the premier runner in the Flint area, he's also among the best masters runners in the United States.

Scannell, 41, was ranked fifth in the country and 32nd in the world among 40-and-over runners last year, despite a scary jet ski accident that kept him from racing during the summer.

Whether those credentials can get him a piece of the Crim masters prize money Saturday remains to be seen. The Crim's ability to attract world-class runners extends to the masters ranks. Andrew Masai of Kenya has been the Crim masters champion the last three years and was ranked No. 1 in the world in 2002.

If the Crim wasn't so close to home, Scannell might not even be running the race. He's gearing up for the Twin Cities Marathon on Oct. 5 in Minnesota, his first marathon in 11 years. His training and focus is to reach a peak by Twin Cities and run the marathon at a pace of 5:30 per mile, or 2 hours, 24 minutes.

"The Crim is a local race and I want to support it," said Scannell, a former Arizona State runner who moved to Grand Blanc three years ago.

"I'm going to run 5:30 pace there, within seconds. I'll run 54:55. I don't know if I'll be one of the top masters or not. Two Kenyan guys always run sub-50. If Eddy (Hellebuyck) shows up, he'll run around 51. Somebody would be a fool to come in with those three guys coming in, but there may be somebody else."

The Crim has prize money for the top five men and women masters runners. The payouts are $1,200 for first place, $900 for second, $500 for third, $150 for fourth and $100 for fifth. Scannell's goal pace would have made him the sixth-place master in last year's Crim.

Masai will be back to defend his title. Hellebuyck, last year's Crim runner-up, isn't expected to race Saturday, but American Dennis Simonaitis is. Simonaitis was ranked No. 2 behind Hellebuyck among U.S. masters last year, No. 13 in the world. Phil Bedford of Midland, who usually runs the Crim, was No. 3 in the country, No. 21 in the world.

Scannell's ranking last year was based on only two performances 16 days apart in May 2002: a 1:21:38 25-kilometer time and a 14:54 5K effort.

Any serious racing after that was postponed until the fall after he was nearly killed during an accident on Lake Havasu in Arizona in June 2002. The jet ski he was riding was run over by a 24-foot boat. He sustained cracked ribs and didn't run for eight weeks, but felt fortunate to be alive.

Scannell gave it a go in the Crim two months later, but pulled out just before the six-mile mark. Instead of turning right on Miller Road, he turned left and headed back downtown, stopping at the eight-mile mark to watch the leaders go by.

"I wanted to go out there, but unfortunately my back was still getting numb and it just didn't work out for me," Scannell said. "I broke a couple ribs. My back was getting numb and it would go down into my hips. It lasted for eight months. It was wicked, it was terrible. But I'm fine now."

Yes, he is. Scannell has bounced back from the injury to have an outstanding 2003 season.

He is the top masters runner in Michigan, running two 31:21 10K's, a 14:52.6 5K on the track and a 15:08 5K on the road at the Flushing Evening race. His time in Flushing is the fastest by any runner of any age in the Flint area this year by a whopping 57 seconds.

Out of 15 races, he has failed to win the masters division only once, placing fourth at the River Bank Run 25K in Grand Rapids.

"I've had a great year, a fantastic year," he said.

A year he hopes to punctuate with a strong performance at Twin Cities. His last marathon was the 1992 U.S. Olympic trials in Columbus, Ohio. He beat Bill Rodgers in a marathon in the 1980s when he was supposed to run the first half as a pace runner - a "rabbit," in running parlance.

"This is kind of an experiment for me at this stage," Scannell said. "My mileage isn't real high, but I've been racing at a decent level, so I'm going to go over there to see how a marathon treats me.

"I really enjoy running 5K's now. I don't know if it's because I don't want to hurt as bad or as long. But the marathon does have a mystique about it. You can never fake a marathon."

On the women's side, the ageless Tatiana Pozdnyakova of the Ukraine returns in hopes of winning a seventh masters championship. No other masters runner has won more than three. On the open side, Catherine Ndereba of Kenya owns a record six titles.

Pozdnyakova, 48, had the fastest times in the world last year when her results were age-graded using a World Assocation of Veteran Athletes handicapping system. Her 16:17 5K time age-graded to a 14:37, 17 seconds under the actual women's world record. Her 33:28 10K was calculated as the equivalent of a 30:14 for an open runner, 15 seconds under the world mark.

She will be challenged by the only masters woman to beat her in the last seven Crims, Russian Ramilia Burangulova. Burangulova won the 2001 Crim masters title in 55:29, beating Pozdynakova by a 1:52 margin, but didn't defend her championship last year.