Monday, November 17, 2008

11/15 Results

This weekend had it all - from pouring rain to 80 degree temps, to wind and then all the way back down to a blustery (and chilly) November day.

Fortunately those racing had some decent weather on Saturday morning, albeit wet. Brennan headed up to the random Crossroads at 95 Challenge, a unique mixture of road and "cross country". He raced to a fantastic 2nd place finish and picked up quite a bit of dollars in the process. There was also an OJ sighting, who seems to be progressing with his stealth training well.

Down at the MCRRC/Pacers XC Invite in Derwood, we had the opportunity to race on the course that will be used for February's USATF XC Championships. It is quite challenging. Nary a flat section on the course, and it became particularly hard with all the mud out there. Denise got things started at 8am by winning the women's masters heat in a time of 34:25. In the men's masters, Dave Berardi ran an awesome 30:45. That's a serious time and this was with a heavily wrapped hamstring. We had nobody in the women's open, but in the men's open our boy Chris "Saki" Nowakowski made an appearance, running 30:30, followed by Tom Stott in 32:40. Yours truly somehow made it through the race, which was a personal victory for me, in 35:17. Of course my body still feels broken and I'll probably get it checked this week if I can but I'm pretty sure I've got a stress fracture going in my ankle.

So I'll be at Monday night, and I'll try and stop by Wednesdays but I probably won't be really running with you guys for a while, fortunately you've all been doing a great job organizing yourselves so just keep that up.

Onto the big weekend race - SunTrust Richmond Marathon. At first I wasn't able to find results for him, but we had a 20 mile split time so we figured he had to have finished, and sure enough he did. Kyle Smits picked up 6th place in 2:34:37, so a few minute improvement from Baltimore and he now sits atop the TWSS Top Times for the marathon. This effort earned Kyle his first Purple Drink Athlete of the Week of 2008. Phebe Ko also raced, taking 2nd F in 2:46:57.

There's one more big weekend coming up - JFK 50 on Saturday (Alyssa) and Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday (Claire, Jen, Will, Chrissie and Tank). I'll be up in PA pretty much from Friday on.

The schedule for the week is pretty much the same, of course we finished up Tuesday Night Track last week but you can feel free to keep meeting - all I would ask is that if you change times or something you let people know and invite the group to meet. It'll probably be quite small but some people actually like track practice.

13 comments:

Jen said...

For those of you going, when are you heading up to Philly? Friday or Saturday?

Christy said...

Thursday.

Matt said...

I'll actually be at the Philly Marathon as well, but not racing - I'm going to be running with my sister for the last 18-20 miles.

Anyways, I'm going to be up there Saturday afternoon.

RM said...

"I'm going to be running with my sister for the last 18-20 miles."

So you mean basically the whole race. Haha.

Matt said...

One more thing on the Philly Marathon...

My sister is bringing along a good portion of her running club (Cambridge Running club). This is like their "destination" race of the year.

Anyways - Not sure if you guys have plans for Saturday night before the race, but I will be joining them at the Spaghetti Warehouse (1026 Spring Garden St) at 6:30 for the pre-race meal. Anyone from TTWSS is more than welcome to meet us there...

Jen said...

Being a city that Travel & Leisure magazine has called "The City with the Ugliest People" two years in a row, I would never wish this place to be a "destination" marathon on any other running club out there.

As for Spaghetti Warehouse, I don't think Alyssa, Melissa, Brennan or I will be able to make it as that will be cutting it very close as to when we get into town after the JFK 50 Miler.

RM said...

Here's my official stance on Philadelphia:

I once absolutely hated this place, because I had not one, not two but three terrible experiences here. Normally this is enough for me to never go to a place again, but because the races that are held here are among the biggest, best and most competitive in the country, I came back. I now appreciate it for that reason (fast races) and it's architecture, how the city is laid out, the size and historical significance.

I do not, however, like most of the people. BUT I will say that the few times I've gone out here in the last year or so I have seen some of the freaking hottest girls I've ever seen in my life.

This does not mean I want to live here or will ever support their shitty teams (college or pro) but I will no longer go there begrudgingly.

On that note, I may make it there to Spaghetti. I'll hit you up Matt.

Ben said...

I'm not sure if Kendra is actually going to run anything on sunday - but, i'll be up there - my parents are coming into town and we're going to see my aunt & uncle in philly.

jen - don't you have to pick up your packet by 7pm on saturday? if you guys are going to be cutting it close i don't mind picking up your stuff - i think you just need to give me the hard copy of your confirmation with your signature.

And finally - i'm planning on running 16 on sunday - so, if anybody running between 6:30-7:30 pace wants company let me know.

RM said...

Ben, is Kendra signed up for a race? So everyone knows, all events have been sold out for quite some time (I received a few emails today from people who were not aware of that) - so if you haven't registered for anything, don't show up on Sunday thinking you can!

Ben said...

she is signed up for the half - but, her training has fallen off a little. they might let her switch to the 8k - but, she doesn't have confirmation yet. either way, i'm going to pick up her stuff on sat. so she at least gets a really expensive t-shirt out of it.

RM said...

Cool - well let's chat this week about your plans for that day/evening. I'm planning on being in Philadelphia most of the day, Terps have a big game at 7:45 and I'm going out Saturday night.

Also for anyone who is interested, I'm probably gonna meet up with my little sister at Deer Park in Newark on the way home from the race.

Jen said...

Ben: Thanks for the offer, but I guess I am no longer going to JFK. Alyssa has banned me from the race bc she is afraid my sexiness will distract her during her run.

Matt: As I will be with Ryan, I may go to Spaghetti Warehouse too.

alyssa said...

You have to have a certain body fat percentage for me to allow you to spend 8 hours in the cold watching me run the day before you're running a marathon. That's alyssatard rule #46.