5th Annual One Mile Bang – Sun., Aug. 9, 2015
Well, we made it – 5 years now of putting on the One Mile Bang! What the 5th Annual version of the race lacked in quantity, it produced much in quality. We had our male course record broken, and had other notable performances as well. The weather was sunny, warm, clear skies, no wind, about 68 degrees – perfect for fast times.
Before the start, the race director, yours truly, explained how the event is for raising funds and awareness for City Team Ministries, an organization in San Jose who help the homeless and also have several recovery centers for those who need it. When that got a very large and raucous applause, I felt very touched and humbled by the response. I gave mention to all our sponsors and volunteers who help put on the event, and then a special treat.
My brother, Mike Bang, had flown in from Minnesota just for this race, to help out and to run in it for the first time. He sang our country’s National Anthem right before the start, and it was very inspiring.
Moments later, the gun (or, in our case, the air horn) went off, and the race was on. Taking off like a rocket was Jason Marpole-Bird, with Lenin Huaman following close behind. The two hit the 1/4 – Mile mark at about 61 seconds. From there, Jason gradually pulled away, building a large lead by the ¾ – Mile mark. All downhill from there, Jason finished in a course record time of 4:14.0, breaking the previous record by 4 seconds! That previous record was held by J.T. Sullivan, who ran 4:18 in 2012. Coincidentally, both ran under Dena Day Evans of the Strava Team.
Huaman, though he dropped off from the lead, still came though in 2nd overall with a fine time of 4:24. Huaman (back then he went by Zapata) was the event’s first Male Overall Champion, and this was his first attempt at “defending” his title, which he won back in 2010. He didn’t repeat, but did take a whopping 7 seconds off his best time on the course, whereas his winning time that year was 4:31.9. Our course record has come down steadily almost every year since then.
On the women’s side, Kris Paason’s course record of 4:48 set in 2012, was not in jeopardy, but the top overall Female winner this year was Diane Heiser, and she ran a great time of 5:00.4! Diane also runs on the Strava team, based in Palo Alto. Not sure what they are feeding them up there on the peninsula, but it sure gets some fast results – ☺
Jonathan Kimura took 3rd overall male with a time of 5:03. On the women’s side, 2nd overall female was local runner Agnieska Koscielniak of Los Gatos, who ran 6:26.4. Top Master’s Male was won by Jeff Hongo at 5:17.6.
I’d like to thank everyone who ran in our event this year, and also all our volunteers who helped make the race possible. Please tell all your friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors, teammates, etc. about our race, and we hope to really make the 6th Annual One Mile Bang in 2016 even more exciting and special. Cheers to all and happy running!
– Scott Bang