I'm the Boss, I Make the Jokes

Sorry it's a few days late now, I just didn't have the mental strenf the last few days.

Baltimore Marathon: There were big hopes for our boy Kyle as he approached his 3rd Baltimore Marathon, but unfortunately it did not seem like the best day to try and go under 2:30. With a warm start dilapidating into wind, rain and cooler temps, it became a test of survival. Many of the elite men dropped out somewhere in the third quarter (and coincidentally, harder sections) of the race. Kyle held his ground, finishing 20th overall and first Baltimore resident in 2:45. Lee DiPietro, 10th last year at 3:02:16, ran the exact same time this year and ended up 16th. Guess the elite women liked the weather, as the course record was utterly smashed. Denise Knickman finished one spot back at 3:05. Jackie Truncellito ran an amazing 3:09. And I should have made a bigger deal out of this one - Christine Trzcinski, chasing the elusive Boston Qualifier, ran a huge PR at 3:37:44. Awesome job Christine! Matt Castille was looking for a sub 3:10, and went out on pace but fell victim to rmcgrath style corporal punishment in the second half, finishing at 3:41. And our girl Alix Ruth finished her first marathon ever, going 5:09. Definitely a tough day, but at least she didn't quit when her body was telling her NOOOOO!!

Baltimore Half: Dave Berdan surprised me by running this one instead of the marathon, and finished 4th in 1:10:18. Dave Berardi finished 1 second faster than he ran last year, and then Steve Levin, who has been on a racing hiatus since about Club Challenge of last year, went just over 1:20. Chrissie was looking for a marathon pace half marathon, and while she chose the absolute hardest course to do it on, she went 1:21:37 and looked like she was jogging. Good signs for a few weeks from now. Tim Parker ran a course best at 1:23:46, and seems primed to hit an all-time PR at Richmond Half. My brother Kevin ran a 1:44, which was under his goal of 1:45 and he later found out he was given a d-tag without a magnetic strip! Beth Shepard ran a 5 minute PR and almost 16 minutes faster than her Baltimore Half last year, and wasn't done with that...

Baltimore Relay: I was definitely surprised to see Howard County there with a stacked team, and after Will texted me and said he was just a step or two behind them at the first hand-off, I was definitely concerned, knowing that their 3rd and 4th legs in particular are beastly runners. Jake did a great job on leg 2 to put some time into them (52 second lead at the next exchange) but then Brennan, who had been working through a pretty rough week of illness and work, had a tough day. Ben ran as best he could to finish strong, but the HoCo team took us to the house. For the ladies, it wasn't even close, as team Shorties on Your Left, composed of Melissa, Jen, Lauren and Nina built a 12 minute advantage over their next closest competitor. Their time of 3:02 was excellent. Of course they weren't recognized as the winners at the awards ceremony because of a timing glitch, but it's been fixed. Our co-ed team (well, technically running for UA but mostly comprised of us) of Dr. J, Mike Prada and Jeff Rumbaugh (and Michele, Dr. J's friend) easily won the co-ed division and was also 4th place team overall. Awesome. Other people raced on various teams and also did pretty sweet.

Ford Ironman World Championships: This is what every triathlete aspires to - the big dance on the big island. Scott Boylan was fortunate enough to have qualified via a great day at Louisville just six weeks ago, but by his own admission, 6 weeks is just not enough time to recover for another Ironman. Still, he was there, and he had a solid 4 hour run on what was a brutal day (I had a few friends run over 4 hours and they are not 55-59). Great job Scott!

Soulstice Sprint 6 miles: Claire, already onto her 2nd race at altitude in Flagstaff, and she's only been there like 3 weeks! This sounds like an awesome time, great post-race party and it seems like she's getting on pretty well there. Check out her new blog too, let's get her writing on it! http://clairebearstare.blogspot.com

Boo! For Life 10k: Eileen took 2nd here in a season best time, 38:10. The goody bags sounded...interesting. A lot of organic/green stuff.

Run for the Booty Half: It's not often that we see people doing two races on one weekend, especially not two half marathons. Beth Shepard did just that - driving nearly 5 hours, picking up a speeding ticket, getting very little rest and having just run a PR, she did the Run for the Booty Half in NC on Sunday morning. Her time of 2:18 would have equaled her previous PR! For her efforts, she has just earned her first ever Purple Drink Athlete of the Week award!

Vienna Night Run: BG raced to the same 15:32 that he raced to earlier this summer, taking 4th at this nighttime run.

So we've obviously also passed our Tuesday Night Track for the week, the workout was short and there were very few people there, but a hearty group of harriers nevertheless. 5x(400-300-200-100) was on tap and the times were blazing fast.

I also got a call today from a chick out in Arizona about putting on one of those Skirt Chaser 5k races in Baltimore. If you don't know about this, basically the girls get a 3 minute head start and the dudes try and chase them down. First to cross the line is the overall winner, regardless of gender. Here that would likely mean dudes would have to put down some pretty fast times - particularly if Chrissie ran! Then it's party time, so it's a lot of fun. Anyway that will be in May or June of next year.