Heart
of America Marathon
Labor Day 
Columbia, Missouri
RON CHISOLM BECOMES A FOUR-TIME WINNER OF THE HEART OF AMERICA MARATHON AND ANDREA McGEHEE BECOMES A TWO-TIME WINNER
For both of them they are winners each time they participate in HOA. Chisolm was here in '96, '99 and '00 and he won each
time. McGehee was here only once before, in 1999, but she was
winner of the female contingent that year.
Chisolm's margin of victory in '96 was 16:28, the widest margin other than a 20-minute margin in 1962 when there were only 11 finishers. In '04 Chisolm's margin was 15:47. Clearly he dominated the '04 race just as he did in '96. Chisolm, in '96, ran the third fastest HOA on record, 2:30:43, just 1:28 off Dennis Hinkamp's time of 2:29:15 set in 1978. This year Chisolm had designs on the record, planning to hit half-way in 1:13.
For the first nine miles he was on record pace, but between 9
and 12 he dropped off that pace and got to halfway in 1:16:51. Realizing at that point that he would not get the record he eased off and enjoyed the trip in. Still he steadily increased his margin over LARRY HENNIER, in his first HOA, doubling the gap from halfway to the finish. The top seven places were established by three miles, with the only big change being CHRIS COOK going from third. (which he held for almost 18 miles) to his ultimate 7th place finlsh. Chris was the first Columbian to finish. TONY HAHN, 3rd, had a remarkable performance at age 51. He was here in 1986 in his only other HOA, a kid of 33 years running a 3:15:07. Now, at 51, he. improves by 17:26, (9.23%) to win the Dave Schulte Award for best improvement over a previous HOA. Not only that he has the second best time ever for a 50+ age. Alex Ratelle was in at 2:54:40 in 1975, at age 50.
ANDREA McGEHEE ran, and won, her only other HOA in 1999 with a time of 3:21:26. This year she improves that time by 23 seconds. The top four places were set by 3 miles with McGehee, BECKY LOWRANCE and SRANNAN PARSLEY being within five minutes the entire distance. McGehee was up two to five minutes over Lowrance at each 3_mile checkpoint while Parsley was only one to two minutes farther back. MARGY TONNIES was the fourth place runner, but was never really close to the top three. However, she was the first Columbia female finisher.
BRANDT JACKSON is the grandsqn of Murrel Jackson who was a charter member of CTC and who ran HOA in 1968 and '69 at age
50 & 51 with a PB of 4:46:41. Back in those days we had no
50 year olds running HOA except for the speedy veterinarian, William Andberg, of Anoka,MN. Brandt beat his granddad's time, but not by much, and he is a young fellow. It was truly inspiring to note the great support Brandt had from many family members, including his grandmother, Ruby, who was also a charter member of CTC. Another example of what HOA is all about.
DAVID DOBKOWSKI ran his 19th HOA, only the fourth time over three hours. In fact this was his slowest time ever--but then, as he has done so often, he ran the Tupelo Marathon the previous day (in 3:02+), so he basically did what he wanted to do--have fun.
GERALD GLASS had an amazing performance. He has three age records (ages 60, 61, 62), but had missed the last three HOAs because of serious health problems. However, he wanted to give it one more go, so here he is at age 66 setting another age record, by over an hour! Glass now has the top four times for anyone over age 60.
RICK ROEBER, Lee's Summit, had run HOA twice before, but he had never run it in his bare feet, as he did this year--in fact no one else has ever been crazy enough to attempt this course bare-footed. He handled the rock and gravel portions ok and fortunately, with a fairly cool day he did not have hot asphalt to contend with.
HAJIME NISHI, our first runner ever from any place in the Far East, from Tokyo, Japan was 112th at 5:29:51. However, to him, this was a "good" marathon because he had so many photo oppor¬tunities enabling him to relax and take the time to take photos. Flat, urban, boring marathons are "bad" ones for him; even though he goes under four hours he doesn't have many scenes to photo¬graph; that isn't fun and it disappoints him, fast time notwith¬standing. Nishi considers himself a missionary for the environ¬ment. HOA was his 358th marathon. He ran 44 marathons in 2003 and ran 7 marathons on 7 continents (including Antartica) in 7 months which put him in the Guinness Book of Records. He has run a marathon in all 50 states and DC and in 65 different countries. He critiques each of the marathons he runs for convenience and safety considerations. He publishes the "Ecomarathon Data Book" which is a comprehensive guide to all the marathons he has run. See www.ecomarathon.org
AGE RECORDS:
MALE
Age Previous:
43 Ron Chisolm 2:40:14 Gerald Holtmeyer 2:46:40 '00
51 Tony Hahn 2:57:21 Dennis Simmons 3:17:52 '95
66 Gerald Glass 3:29:02 George Stump 4:29:59 '03
72 Lou Joline 4:10:30 Howard Calkin 4:24:37 '83
FEMALE
27 Shannan Parsle 3:26:36 Angela Zook 3:34:28 '85
43 Jane Ball 4:10:35 Laura Weber 4:36:08 '02
47 Becky Lowrance 3:24:37 Sal Flinn 4:09:16 '98
56 Karen Cummins 4:02:25 Dee Ann Aydelott 4:47:21 '99
THE WEATHER: It was great. For the second year in a row we had light rain at the start, but within 30 minutes it had stopped. The consequences were continued cloudiness, little wind, temp¬eratures at 65-67 throughout the morning, humidity: low 80s.
VOLUNTEERS: Again, great support from a host of volunteers. Special kudos to Josh Johnson and his crew of Hickman HS cross¬country runners (and friends) who took care of all the Aid Stations.
The timers: Whitney & Marge Hicks, David Lang, Richard & Kristen Harris, Terzah Ewing, Dan Beacker, Don &
Beth Granberg, Don Waltman, Richard & Leona Nistendirk, Steve
& Zane Kullman.
The Finish: Ben Londeree, Dick Hessler,
Nancy Lohmar, Chelsea Gordon, Jennifer Thoma, Peggy Horner,
Tom Allen, Krista White, Leslie Schneider, Jim Crosby.
Finish Line Aid Station: Dick & Anne Hessler.
Iceman: Steve S-F
Course Monitors: Bonnard Moseley, Bill Sappington, Bob Humphreys, Joe Love, Debbie Karwoski, Oscar Chavez & family, Newell Kitchen & daughter, Richard Boggs.
Medical support:
Dr. Jill Murphey, Mike Bryant, Norm Stebbins, Tom Lafontaine.
Driver of the Joe Machens Ford Pickup: Marion Harlan.
The Website: Kurt Kennett.
2000 cups donated by Pepsi-Cola.
Boone Co. Fire Protection District Personnel were on the course.
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