Bay Cafe 5k Wrap-Up

The Bay Cafe 5k serves as the perfect venue to host a championship event, and that's exactly what it was - Maryland State 5k Championship. We were treated to a near repeat of the amazing weather of last year. Temps in the morning were cool, picking up as it approached race time to something in the 70s; after the race it warmed up to the high 80s, thanks to the blazing sun. With very little breeze and a stellar field assembled, it was going to be a fast day. Last year's first and second finishers were noticeably absent this year, which opened the door for Kipchirchir, who has been on a tear lately, to get the win. The Ethiopian from DC, Ezkyas Sisay, showed up after a 14:50 5k win just two days prior in Gaithersburg. He sat on the heels of young Kipchirchir for 2 miles, before making a strong move to the front. With 3/4 of a mile to go, Kip said he was willing to accept defeat if this guy was able to hold onto this intense pace. Fortunately for Kip, and Team TWSS/Falls Road, the east African was unable to hold on and backed off to nearly a crawl, which allowed Kip to put 6 seconds into him over the last little bit to earn the well-fought win in 14:44.

On the women's side, the alleged 18 year old from Ethiopia owned the race from the gun, going wire to wire in a very fast time of 16:31 (after a 16:51 effort in her win from Saturday at the same race as Sisay). The bigger news was our girl Chrissie, who shattered her previous 5k best by 30 seconds and ran a staggeringly amazing 17:22. With that fine showing Chrissie is well on her way to run sub 2:47 at NYC in 2 months.

The placement results are on the side of the page, so you can see where everyone finished. Nice to see a) so many people racing, b) some little packs that formed and c) nearly everyone having a season best or even a PR. Then there were even a few of us (Kris, Mellow Mike and Mike Zero) who ran later in the day at Fed Hill Runners.

Some other results from the weekend include Dave Berdan's 25th place performance at US 20k Championships, Spider's 3rd place at the NCR 20 Miler (and Travis' 19th), and Jim Adams, who ran the Save A Limb Trail Race/clusterf*** that he didn't even get his name mentioned in the results for some reason.

So it was a really great weekend for all, great to see the results when they count, and it's an awesome start to the fall racing season. Sad to see "summer" on its way out, but we have a lot to look forward to - Philly Distance Run, Bull Run Reunion Run, Baltimore Marathon, Marine Corps, NYC, etc.

Another event this Saturday - XC meet at Oregon Ridge. Dr. J is the coach now at Towson and has invited us to come, if you are interested in racing just let me know, otherwise I think it would be a good event to go up to in the morning and watch. Holler.