The Final Countdown

To 21224's new Chipotle!

Following tomorrow night's track session, Pat and I will be bailing on the abhorrently crowded Charles Village Chipotle (CVC) and will be instead heading down our way to the new Canton Can Company Chipotle (hereafter referred to as C4).  Speaking of tomorrow's track workout, in honor of the "Strides of March", the workout is going to be 15x200, so really just 200 on, 200 off type thing.  It will be a low key workout for those who raced this past weekend, and for those just getting back onto the track.

Yesterday was a tremendous day of racing.  Yet again we had some amazing individual performances, including what I believe to be SIX 5k PRs set at Shamrock, out of 18 runners.  More impressively, we had 9 in the top 21 of the race (3902 finishers) and each of those 9 was under 17 minutes.  Dustin Meeker paved the way, finishing in a new PR (by 12 seconds) of 15:33, and, more importantly, earned the ignominious distinction of being first-man-out-of-the-money in 4th place.  Ed Aramayo had high hopes going into this race, looking to not only rock his PR (15:36) but possibly compete for the win.  With an abundance of extremely talented GRC guys in the field, it was by no means an easy task, but after a solid indoor season he felt confident.  After a hot first mile (something in the 4:35 range) a gap grew and Ed came across the line in 5th, in 15:40.  A great time for most, but left Ed feeling a little disappointed. 

Following that group was young Alex Waldt, who took 14th in 16:36, and then the six-pack that included Pat McLoughlin (15th, 16:42), Seth Tibbitts (17th, 16:47), Tom Stott (18th, 16:48), Mike Mashner (19th, 16:51), Brennan Feldhausen (20th, 16:53) and Kris Simms (as Joel Gladfelter, 21st, 16:56).  Let's see: 9 second PR for Pat, 28 second PR for Seth, 3 second PR for Tom, 26 second PR for Zero.  Kris ran an inspiring race, as if the pyramids he once helped build were lifted from his shoulders.  Decades of suffering led to this day of glory, where for those 3.1 miles, he was free.  It was at Shamrock 2008 where Kris first broke the 17 minute barrier, and exactly one month to the day before he turns 39, once again willed his body to do the same.

In 29th place, Joel Hollywood Brusewitz ran a 17:32.  I was impressed by this because I really didn't know if he had even been running.  The next runner I know has not been running much, instead he's been struggling with a chronic foot injury for almost the entire last year - but Jake Marren still came out and put his best foot forward, running 18:05 for 37th.  Almost right behind him was Diane Heiser, our speed demon with a lab coat, who recorded a great win over perennial powerhouse, and defending champ, Sherry Stick.  Diane's time (18:13) was just off her PCPR (post-collegiate PR) and showed that she is working her way back into great form.  Thomas Stewart was hoping for a better day than he had, but still managed to put down an 18:27, which is pretty excellent for a guy who just turned 50.  Meg DiGregorio was just after him, in 18:34, and finished 3rd for women, earning herself some extra money to put towards a map of the city.

Some of the other notables were Tall Matt Augustin (19:09), David Lee (19:20), Mike Niebrzydowski (19:37) and Kelly Meier, who ran a PR of 21:27 (22nd F). 

There were a few other highlights from the weekend, including Garrett Ash's 17th place (27:01) DC Shamrock 8k (great pic of him rocking the maroon FRRS singlet on the Washington Running Report); Alyssa Godesky broke into competitive short-distance duathloning, finishing 2nd in the St. Patrick's Duathlon (2.5mi run/14mi bike/2.5mi run); Matty Blaze and Tink (I realized I keep calling her Twink in the email, I think I'm thinking of Twink Caplan) each ran well at the NB Indoor National Championship, finishing 8th and 16th, respectively in their divisions of the Mile; and Julia Webb ran a 10:25.3 in a 2-person heat of the 3000m steeplechase in a meet in Melbourne, VIC, Australia. 

It was a difficult decision for Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, as another 6 PRs, a 2nd place finish in the duathlon and some all-around great efforts were up for consideration, but, the PDAW and Charlie Sheen have one thing in common, "Winning," and therefore the honor goes to Diane Heiser.