September 14 - GTC Monthly Meeting
Capri's Italian Restaurant @ 115 Pelham Road
6:00 pm
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September 18 - BMW Performance Classic 2 miler
BMW Performance Center - Greer
CS Race Director: Robert Morse
Register: https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greer/BMWPerformanceClassic

• GTC Corporate Shield

October 10 - GE Cross Country Race 6K
GE Campus
CS Race Director: Emily Headley
Register:  https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greenville/GECrossCountryRace

• GTC Corporate Shield

October 24th Spinx Run Fest 5K,10K,Half-Marathon and Marathon
Race Director:  [email protected]
Register or Volunteer: https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greenville/SpinxRunFest

• GTC Running Series

Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Jack Mastandrea repeated his victory from 2024 as he won the Edouard Michelin Memorial 5K with a time of 14:26 on Saturday morning. He was 13 seconds off his course record of 14:13 (2024) over the rolling hills near the Michelin campus. The weather at the start was 74-degrees with 92% humidity with a dew point of 71.5%. 

Jack was followed by his training partners and teammates with Jason Weitzel in second (14:40), Noah Fisher in third (14:49) and 2024 Paris Olympian Eduardo Garcia (15:09) in fourth. It was the third consecutive runner-up finish for Weitzel after winning with  a course record of 14:15 in 2023. ​

Oliva Durant of Pelzer won the women's title with a time of 18:13. She was followed by Ansley Prescott of Donalds in 18:36. Greer's Madison Roush was third at 19:30. 

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August 8 - Edouard Michelin Memorial 5K 
Michelin Campus - Donaldson Center
CS Race Director: Brian Ilcheson
Register:   https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greenville/EdouardMichelinMemorial5k

• GTC Running Series
• GTC Corporate Shield

September 18 - BMW Performance Classic 2 miler
BMW Performance Center - Greer
CS Race Director: Robert Morse
Register: https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greer/BMWPerformanceClassic

• GTC Corporate Shield

October 10 - GE Cross Country Race 6K
GE Campus
CS Race Director: Emily Headley
Register:  https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greenville/GECrossCountryRace

• GTC Corporate Shield

October 24th Spinx Run Fest 5K,10K,20K and Marathon
Race Director:  [email protected]
Register or Volunteer: https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greenville/SpinxRunFest

• GTC Running Series

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GTC: You have been a regular competitor in Greenville area races for many years. When was your first race here?

Eric: My first race in Greenville was the 1996 Paris Mountain Road Race.  My dad often trained on the course and ran the race many times back in the 1980s.  When I was in middle school, I would join him on runs around Furman, or as I got older, up Paris Mountain.  We discussed his running routes, pacing, strategies, and old personal best times at various distances along the way.  I paid close attention to his personal best times and wanted to beat them all.  I especially wanted to beat his best Paris Mountain Road Race time which was 1:25. After my freshman year of running cross country at Travelers Rest High School, I signed up for the 20K.  It was my first official road race in Greenville.  It was an intimidating challenge, considering I’d never run more than 6 miles at the time.  This race was twice that distance with a 1,000-foot climb at the beginning.  I was dead at mile 3.  It took all I had not to walk, and I finished the race in 1:45.  I said I would never run it again.

GTC: Which are your favorite races nationally and locally?

​Eric: My favorite local race is the Paris Mountain Road Race! I've run the race 16 more times since I said I'd never run it again.  I also really enjoy running the Anderson Midnight Flight 5K, Take Flight 5K, Green Valley 10 Mile, Reedy River 10K, All-comers track meets, and the Downville Mile.  Nationally, I have run the Boston Marathon three times.  It's special because of the traditions that go with it, but running it also gets me up to visit my sister in Worcester, MA.  

​GTC: Favorite workout?

​​Eric: I love the Progression run because the workout fits in naturally to the rhythm of my body.  I get the warmup, the gradual increasing speed, and then the fast finish.  It just feels right.  I mostly run on feel so if it feels right, I'm going to enjoy it.  I also like an interval ladder on the track for speed work.  This type of workout follows the progression run concept.  I start with 100m strides, do some 200m reps, then go up to 400m, 600m, 800m, before going back down to each distance.  I typically choose a pace for the intervals that matches my goal race pace for an upcoming event.

​GTC: We’ve seen you running the mile at past GTC All Comers meets and also know you have run marathons. What is your favorite racing distance?

​​Eric: I'm a lot more competitive for my age at shorter race distances.  If I had to pick one distance as my favorite, I'd say the mile. The mile is that distance that everyone can relate to.  Most people run it at some point in PE at school growing up. In 5th grade, my PE teacher organized several 1-mile fun runs to celebrate various holidays during the school year.  Those early impressionable experiences had a lasting impact on me.  I've loved the mile ever since.  I'm proud to say I have run 82 sub-5-minute miles since I started running. 

​GTC: You have run the New York City and the Boston Marathons. What are your marathon plans for the future?

My recent marathon goal is to run the big 3 US major marathons all in a row.  I did NY and Boston. I just have Chicago left, which I'm training for right now to be ready to run it in October.  I don't have firm marathon planned for after Chicago, but I'm thinking about some fun ideas for marathon #20.

​GTC: Which marathon was your favorite?

​​Eric: I signed up for the 2009 Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon with every intention of smashing my dad’s best marathon time.  I needed to run about 6:50/mile to beat my dad.  On race day I ran a 6:48 pace, clocking a 2:58 to set a new family record.  My dad and family were at the finish line, making it incredibly special.  Of course, my dad claimed that I was much younger than he was when he ran his best marathon time (28 vs 34).  I decided that when I turned 34, I was going to run the same marathon he did at the same age and beat his time again.  So, when I was 34 in 2015, I went to Huntsville, AL to run the Rocket City Marathon where he ran his best time in 1980.  It didn't go well. I ran on a hamstring injury and didn't get close to beating his time.  I also struggled with that hamstring injury for 6 years afterwards.  I never gave up on beating his time again, though.  Finally, 10 years and 9 marathons later, I beat his time again and set a new marathon PR at the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon (2:56) at 43 years old.

​GTC: Where is your favorite location to train in the Greenville area?

​​Eric: I live in Travelers Rest so the Swamp Rabbit Trail, Furman, and Altamont Road are my favorite places to train. I also like to train on the great system of mountain trails we have in the upstate.  When I have more time, I'll go to Paris Mountain State Park, Table Rock, DuPont, or the Saluda Confluence to pound the dirt.  The trails slow me down and make me take it easy when I should be recovering.

GTC: Favorite training shoe?

​​Eric: My all-time favorite training shoe was the Asics GEL-Landreth from around 2008. Of course, Asics doesn't make it anymore as shoes are constantly updated or retired. I’ve never put on another pair of shoes that felt like it was as custom made for my foot like that one. These days I have a rotation of shoes for different types of training runs.  Right now, I do easy runs in the Adidas EVO SL, track intervals in the Saucony Endorphin Pro 4, tempo runs in the Adidas Adios Pro 3s, and long runs in the Adidas Adios Pro 4.  I'm not loyal to any brand.  I like what feels good on my feet when I try them on.

​GTC: Favorite racing shoe?

​​Eric: I like the Adidas Adios Pro 3 for the shorter races and the Nike Alphafly 3 for the Marathon.  The Pro 3 has a firmer, more stable feel for the shorter, faster races, which I like on courses with lots of turns at faster speeds.  The Alphafly 3 feels soft and bouncy, and my legs really need that support after mile 20 of a marathon.

​GTC: Do you train with other or mostly solo?

​​Eric: I run mostly solo, but I like to run with others on the weekend long runs.  I teach elementary PE so I welcome the quiet, solo runs after a loud day in the gym.  However, two-hour long runs on the weekend without some company start to get a little lonely.  I have a great group of guys in the Paris Mountain Running Club (Strava) to share some of those weekend miles with.  They are great for motivation, support, and most importantly, friendship.

​GTC: Training in am or pm?

​​Eric: As a teacher, I have to be at school around 7:00a.m., making AM training too early for me during the week.  Therefore, I train in the P.M .during the week and the A.M. on the weekends.  

Our monthly meetings at Capri's Italian restaurant will resume on Monday, August 3rd! The speaker this meeting will be the head track coach at Southside Christian, DeAnn Walpole. Let's start this month off right!

When: Monday, August 3rd at 6:00pm

​Where: Capri's Italian Restaurant on Pelham Road

GTC member Steven Pearce is ranked second among the Men's Masters, behind Simpsonville's Cole Atkins. 

The 16th edition of the Red, White and Blue Shoes 5K was conducted at Furman University on July 4th. Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Jack Mastandrea was the overall winner with a time of 15:06. The women's winner was Deanna Roberts of Raleigh, NC with a time of 17:21. The race was produced by the Greenville Track Club and the Furman University Cross Country/Track & Field staff with proceeds directed to funding that university athletic program. Registration sold out with 1200 entries. 

For complete results please see: 2026 RESULTS.

GTC: You have been very active in the Greenville Track Club over the past few years, including co-publishing the club newsletter and also directing the Santa Run in December. When did you become a club member and why?

BB: I first joined GTC back in the '80s, after I moved to Greenville from Toronto. Job changes moved us to Blythewood near Columbia, but many years later I rejoined GTC when my wife and I moved back to the Greenville area in 2018.
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You were the best running organization in town, and I have never regretted that decision. It's been the most important source of motivation in my continuing development as a runner. 

GTC: Tell us about how you began running. 

BB: My earliest memories are running for the sheer joy of the activity's unique mobility: floating over the ground, weaving and accelerating over the cobblestone streets of Racine, Wisconsin (when they weren't covered in snow and ice) while attempting to avoid traffic just for fun. More often I often ran for long distances to and from the city parks alongside friends riding their bikes, just because it seemed fun. There's a theme here. 

Later, I had some early successes in competition in the public schools system. An illness at 15 took me away from competition but I returned to running as a healthy hobby in my late 30's while raising a family. Think rubber galoshes (boots) in Denver's snowy streets. That continued during my years in Toronto (more cold weather), and again when I came to Greenville in 1981, when I first joined GTC. 

GTC: From some of your articles in the GTC newsletters you seem very interested in how to improve your running. What drives that curiosity?

BB: It is as much necessity as curiosity. After my teenage illness, – Bulbar Polio – I found it necessary to consciously direct my body to recover, and then to perform common activities such as walking and running. To this day the only completely "natural: or "unconscious" running I experience is after miles of sustainably performed running, and then sprinting all-out across a finish line. My most completely unconscious running occurs during that final sprint at the finish of a race!

GTC: As one of the elders, age-wise, in the club what do you attribute your enthusiasm for running to?
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BB: It is always an examination of how I might move on a given day. Practice brings the information about what I can or might do. Competition brings information about what I will do. I approach each practice as an almost always "limitless" activity in duration or mileage before I begin. Then I see what my body and mind will do. In contrast, competition is always precisely defined in distance, while an event's duration is defined by when I cross the finish line.
 
The competition also provides the psychological stimulus, while the psychological support is provided just by being among other   runners. There is always the positive stimulus of other people running alongside, ahead of or behind me. There's a certain inexpressible comfort in seeing them engaged as I am that day.
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After the start of any run, it is an examination of the limits I will experience: mostly breathing, but also through awareness of muscular stress or lack of it, a balance of forces on my physical body, the challenge to my perception of how to alter "the way" I run, and finally my will or capacity to persist and endure. Awareness of the changes in all of this is, I suspect, for me like watching a movie that I provide the plot and action for in real time. 

GTC: What excites you at this stage in life?

BB: Bringing positive changes into my life and the lives of others. 

GTC: We see you at many GTC events as a volunteer and/or a participant. What is your favorite running event in the Greenville area, besides the Santa Run?
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BB: I do so love the Paris Mountain 10 K. What a joyful grind! Beautiful neighborhoods, serious hills, and enough distance to wonder whether you've got enough in the tank this time. But GTC's series of sponsored races is so varied and rich I'm glad to be a part of all of them when I can. 

GTC: How did you become the co-race director for the Santa Run?
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BB: I ran it a few times before it captured me as a unique event. It was the combination of children with parents, teenagers dressed in animal costumes, and dogs with Santa kerchiefs that opened my eyes to its intrinsic value. Add the lovely residential venue, the gentle variations of elevation in the course, the season, and fun naturally happened.

I also saw how hard Jim Roberts worked to run the event. At that point in the calendar year we all need a little help. Knowing how much else he was responsible for at the time, I was seduced by sympathy into assisting. Again, no regrets. It's been a pleasure.

GTC: What is your favorite reason for running? 
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BB: It helps me remember how I ran before my teenage illness took away that fundamental joy. It tempers the grief I still feel recalling those years of recovery. Running offers, and often allows a welcome balance of that memory of joy in some meaningful and sustainable way. Underneath that very personal reason is a physical determination to do what the human body – my body – is made to do. 

GTC: What advice would you render to our GTC members?
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BB: Be fully conscious doing some form of physical movement. The example that often comes to mind is a simple but anatomically profound movement: take several breaths as you slowly curl each finger and thumb of one hand, one at a time, into its palm; watch and allow amazement to come at the incredible complexity of that movement, at that very moment fully under your mind's command. A miracle by any measure.

Expand that image nearly infinitely into the movement of your whole physical self as you run or jog or walk – and you realize that movement at any level, slow or fast, hard or easy, long or short, privately or competitively, is another of these miracles. It is an experience worth treasuring.

And for Pete's sake, show up!

Thanks to race director Tim Stewart and all of our great volunteers for conducting another great Sunrise 8K on Saturday. 

Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Ryan Drew won for the second consecutive year and also bested his course record from 2025 (23:54) with a time of 23:50. (for more details, see www.gtc-elite.org)

Thanks also go to sponsor Run In and First Baptist Church of Simpsonville. 

RESULTS.