Tuesday, November 2, 2010

RM Classic 5k

The RM Classic 5k was held tonight, in lieu of the normal TNT workout. A larger than expected group of 9 competitors toed the line in the dark for the start of the twelve and a half lap race. Brisk, fall conditions were not great for spectating, but seemed to be good for racing. Temperature was in the mid 40s and there was no wind. Barf got out to an early lead, coming through 800m in 2:33, with a trailing pack of Dustin, Alex B, Mike Prada, Pat and Seth. Joel kept pressing, thinking he could maybe get under 5 for the first mile, but ultimately his body shut down and he came through just ahead of the pack in 5:23 or so.

Joel stayed out front for another lap, but Dustin led the charge and the group ran right through him. The peloton had come through 1600m in nearly 5:30, which was slow given the firepower in the group. Dustin was doing what seemed like the lion's share of the work on the front, setting a great tempo and leading the group through 3200m in 10:50. With two laps to go Dustin started cracking the whip. He broke away from the group, with Alex in hot pursuit. He ultimately held off the fast charging Alex and powered through the line in 16:38, with Alex right behind in 16:40.

In the battle for 3rd and 4th, Pat and Mike had run together most of the race, with Pat holding a small advantage going into the bell lap. Mike, however, used that old college speed to drop a 69 last lap and finish up at 16:47. Pat, meanwhile, ran a PR at 16:52 - 2 seconds faster than his Shamrock 5k time from earlier this year. Great job negative splitting, maybe that's the key!

Seth came through in 5th at 17:15, which he said is a post-high school PR. Jared Jaskot's best coming into the race was 19:30, so his 18:21 was a HUGE PR. Barf eventually finished up at 18:32. What's great about this performance is that he just raced on Saturday, and was only 30 seconds slower today despite running like a clown at the beginning.

In the competitive ladies' division, Diane grabbed the early lead over Denise and held it to the line. She came through 1600m in about 5:50, and for a second we thought maybe she'd take a stab at sub 18. She got stuck in no woman's land, though, and fought tough on her own, splitting 3200m in just about 12:00 and then finally finishing at 18:37. She's run 18:12 this year for 5k, but at last year's RM Memorial, she ran 19:12 or something. Denise, meanwhile, coming off a long layoff, ran a solid, even 19:27.

So 9 racers, nobody over 20, 4 under 17, some PRs - totally awesome.

The RM Memorial 5k was first held on September 12, 2009. A hearty group of athletes showed up at Goucher College's track on a moist Saturday morning. GRCers Karl Dusen and Mike Smith showed up, running some very fast times alongside Seattle-based Dentite, Kyle Smits, and Winchestertonville-based Ben Ingram. This year's event took a back seat to most of the big fall races, and as a result was thrown together fairly last minute, mostly to ensure we didn't break the chain. Next year's event will be planned with more time.

2 comments:

Dart said...

MacGruber...!!!

THE KRIS said...

how many races can say that close to 60% of the field went under 17 min? i think the 2011 RM Classic will be one of the nation's premier events.