Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993 TAG: 9308220094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hollie Slusser and some Radford University running teammates, however, spent last week there with a taxing workout schedule that made use of land and water. Saturday, six of them did extra-credit work, stopping off in Salem to enter the city's 19th annual Distance Run at Longwood Park.
Slusser won the women's 5-kilometer in 21 minutes, 22 seconds. After what she had been through at Smith Mountain Lake, Saturday's run was almost a vacation.
"In a way," she said, "except for the soreness."
Slusser was among 370 who registered for the race, run through downtown Salem on a slightly breezy, cool-but-warming morning. About 170 ran the 10-kilometer race, won with 25 seconds to spare by former Virginia Tech runner Travis Walter in 33:01. Travis' brother Brian, a former Hokie who is training for marathons, won the 5K in 15:44 - 50 seconds in the lead. Trish Menkart of Christiansburg won the women's 10K by 10 seconds in 42:14.
Brian Walter said the Salem race was convenient.
"I kind of was just coming down to see my father. He was running, so I just jumped in the 5K," Walter said.
Slusser, a 20-year-old Christiansburg High School graduate, didn't know she had won and almost didn't know where she was going.
"My coach was right behind me, yelling at me the whole way," she said. "I've never run this course, so I didn't know where the finish line was."
Mick Stewart's Smith Mountain Lake workout included two-a-day runs, a 5-mile run up a mountain and a couple of sets of "water running," which Slusser described as wading into the lake waist-deep and running in place for about 40 minutes at a time.
"It's a ritual," said Slusser, who said she ran either No. 1 or 2 for the Highlanders' cross country team this year.
However, she didn't show up in Salem to trounce the field.
"We really weren't going for time today. Today was a workout," she said.
The 10K was a workout for Menkart, too, although it helps that the mother of a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old trains with a jogging buggy.
"It makes it easier," she said. "I feel better than I normally feel."
Menkart, owner of Charley's restaurant in Christiansburg, said she started running five years ago for fun.
"I just want to try to get my best times, to see how I'm doing," she said. "I was pleased [today], I guess. It was good enough."
by CNB