Sunday, May 4, 2008

BIG Weekend

This weekend is what excites me about running - seeing so many amazing performances by the crew in various places. It's why we do this, why we work so hard every day, and we can't forget that without goals, there's no reason to be out there.

Our friend in Frederick started the day at 6:30 am. Zero rocked a 1:25:54 on post-Boston legs, while cousin Emily ran a 5min PR, almost coming in under 2 hours. In the marathon, Dave Ploskonka completed his 3rd in 6 weeks, while Jen Koshy joined the club with her first marathon.

Eric Benjamin took 11th at the Devilman Sprint Tri, and was first "fat" guy, according to the results page (He left me a message on my phone that I thought said he was second in the category).

Ryan Schmidt took 3rd at the Celiacs 5k in Baltimore. Another great DuBurns Arena course!

Finally, up to Philly. The weekend was admittedly tense at times. We watched my lil sis race at UDel, then got some lunch before heading up to the City of Brotherly Love. It was a parking lot on 95 and took us forever to get there from Delaware. Then we got to the expo, got our stuff, saw some slammin' girls, the usual. Next it took us about 45 minutes to eke our way 3 miles to our hotel. There was some homosexual event going on which seemed to be sashaying into the streets. Hotel was dope, Loews Hotel on Market. I highly recommend it. Also because there were the hottest girls I've ever seen in my life there. Not sure if they were there for a wedding or the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation event, but d-d-d-damn. We then walked around like tards for a while, trying to find a place to eat, before settling at the Contintental on 18th and Chestnut. I've been there before, lots of hot girls (notice the theme of the weekend?). We waited and waited and waited and finally just ordered at our little seats on a couch. Food was very tasty and very reasonably priced I felt.

Went to sleep and got up early, looked outside and it was overcast and cool. The morning drive 3 miles to park was terrible, as was the line to get on the subway, then standing on the crowded train for 25 minutes to get to the start. Future reference, if we could have done it, we should have parked overnight. Of course there was a Phillies game on Saturday and we couldn't. The start line was cool, very downhill start to the race, not enough toilets, yada yada. Found the whole posse prior to the start, and then bang! It took Justin and I 7 seconds to cross the mat. We thought we were pretty close to the front, but out of nowhere springs LT, Kris and Scotty! Spree was up there, Kip was on the front line, Sean was there, it was cool. Justin and I came through in a blazing 5:22 first mile. That probably spelled the end of my day right there, even though it felt totally comfortable. I slipped to 5:38 and then 5:48. Justin kept rolling under 5:40.

Around 7 miles or something, Terence came up on me, and we tried to run together the rest of the way. It got tough around City Hall (mile 6) and I just wasn't able to recover. I was pleased that I was still managing under 6s (barely, last 4 were 5:58, 6:05, 5:54, 5:54) but I felt like death. Finished and was very glad to be done. Of course our bus (mine and T's) somehow ended up in Jersey, so all our clothes came about 45 minutes late and we were freezing. Terence spoke ebonics to the bus driver and it was all good.

So in the aftermath of the race, we sorted everyone's results out, and I was more than impressed. PRs all around, and not just "post-collegiate" PRs, I'm talking some real-deal actual PRs. Chris's 51:12 was 3 or 4 minutes faster. Sean, an amazing race. SPREE, you ran out of your gourd man, that was awesome! Terence and Kris more than made up for Cherry Blossom and Stott dropped crazy time too. And the girls slayed it as well, with Steph making her way to the top of the top times list, and Sara Spears taking 7 minutes off her CB time, and Eve taking 4 minutes off her Club Challenge time.

BUT, as I mentioned in the email, there was only one person the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week could go to. He spent Saturday with his parents and kids (while the wife was at home eating bon-bons) in museums. He wakes up Sunday, early, and takes 2 minutes off his C-Ville 10 time, running a ridiculous 56:19 and then had to go to a Touch-It Museum (no joke) with the kids. So congrats Justin, you are well-deserving.

Then we sat in more traffic, got to Newark, DE, again for lunch and checked out the sorostitutes.

In late-breaking race news, Spider won the Ashland 10k today while Jim did it as a training run. BRRC doesn't post their results til mid-week usually so thanks to Jim for emailing.

Great job everyone, really great to see the squad in full effect with some Falls Road jerseys! Thanks to Chrissie, Donna and Patty for cheering us on today as well, and for the support at Frederick by Melissa, Arjun, OJ and anyone else I might be missing. It's what helps us run fast!

8 comments:

THE KRIS said...

first, i love when people leave comments anonymously. second, did this person just blast ryan's language, then turn around and call us all dickheads? well, he (or she) has certainly set the language bar a bit higher than i'm able to reach. nice work.

Terence aka LT said...

We may be a lot of things, but we are NOT DICKHEADs. "I stand behind it. I guarantee it. They know that even if they don't know me anymore than they know the chairman of General Mills."

RM said...

As this seems to be a serious post from an anonymous user, I'll address each of the points individually.

We are a group of friends, most of whom live in the city and happen to train together on a frequent basis. As you'll see, the name of the team is That's What She Said, not Falls Road Racing. If we decide to wear Falls Road singlets when we race, that's our choice, and we do so as advertising for a person who does much more than anyone for the running community in Baltimore. In no way do we wish to put FRRS in a negative light, so I'll change some of the wording on the blog to reflect that this is our venture.

Secondly, in reference to any language that may be offensive, this is my blog, not yours, and I will allow it. If there has ever been a problem, we always take care of it in person, never over the internet. Since we're all friends anyway, I don't think we've ever had a problem.

It is your choice to read our blog, and I've allowed you to post a comment. It ends there. You are not required to run with us.

If this is in fact not a serious post, then I'll put it behind us, but if it is a serious post and you have an issue, then feel free to email me at skeetmeister@gmail.com to discuss.

a said...

If you please, Penisheads or Phallushead is the preferred nomenclature. Dickheads is misandrist (anti-male) language which doesn't reflect the spirit of this group and as such will not be tolerated.

There are many points in anonymous post that I would contest. But I'll restrict myself to just one

I think the claim that our group is xenophobic is flat out not true. Our group includes runners from a diverse set of cultural, economic, social and racial backgrounds. Any jokes we may make about one another reflect the fact that we are friends who are comfortable around one another. I will not resort to counting the number of different groups represented but we are clearly more embracing of our differences than many Baltimore institutions.

That being said I still don't trust the white man. But that's not racist - that's just a good understanding of world history. Anyone want a blanket?

Recognize,
a

Jake Marren said...

Xenophobic? Did we start with the dirka-dirka Muhammad jokes again? Oh well, if you haven't seen it watch Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Get ready for a cock-meat sandwich. Once again RM, I think it may be time to lock up our baby. The eco-feminist-anti-humor-nazi's are watching.

kipchirchir said...

Dear anonymous,

Sorry to hear you are offended. Please dont include Falls Road in this. This is TTWSS b'nez. I wouldnt be friends with everyone here if they werent who they are and talked the way they talked and said whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. Take sometime to relax ... dont be so uptight. And thanks for calling us dickheads, you hypocrite. Seems like you may fit in very well? Sorry, we are stacked though.

gladfelter said...

Yeah, everything they all said anonymous

cornwell said...

TROLL ALERT

The cat is out of the bag. My real name is Richard Matthew Cornwell.

DICK Cornwell

I am so offended

Spree