Brooklyn, We Go Hard

The Brooklyn Half Marathon was held over the weekend, and in his third time competing in it, Kevin McGrath can't quite catch a break.  The first year it was held in August, and was, predictably hot and humid.  He wilted like a bad banana in the conditions.  Last year they moved it to May, to capitalize on perhaps fairer weather.  It wasn't bad, and as such he ran a PR.  This year, same weekend, old result.  Conditions were oppressively humid and as my family apparently doesn't fare well in that, both he and my little sister struggled.  But, he got to eat hot dogs after, so I think he was happy.

In Maryland, conditions were better than decent for the first time EVER on Preakness weekend, and the results show that!  Dave Berdan took 5th at the Germantown 5 Miler, a very competitive event, in 25:27.  At the Making Tracks for Celiac 5k/10k, Tom Stott finished 2nd behind our favorite Moroccan, and Dame Patty Sweeney was 39th for women.  In the 10k, Chris Nowakowski ran a solid 34:05 for 2nd place.  At the BRRC Women's Distance Festival 5k, Denise Knickman stomped everybody and won handily in 19:25.  In the triathlon world, Terry Decker competed in the Jackrabbit Jerseyman Half Iron event (40th, 5:26:27) and Chris Scott went 2:31:21 at the Memphis in May Triathlon - in lightning and torrential rain!

Sunday's main event was the Columbia Triathlon, and in a surprise move, the weather powers-that-be decided to make it a nice day.  Go figure.  We had some really impressive performances, including Ben Ingram's first ever tri (you can read his write-up on his blog to experience the terror of an open water swim first hand).  Ben struggled in the swim, but once he got through it, he crushed the bike, which may have crushed his legs a little for the run, but all in all he finished in 2:25:40, a great first effort.  Pat McLoughlin was looking to redeem his 2010 effort, and on the heels of a 19:30 swim (amazing time), he pulled about 4 minutes from his bike split last year, and went onto run an awesome 37:50 on the grueling 10k course to finish in 2:09:26.  Unfortunately he got dinged for "drafting" (a lady pro, who started 10 minutes prior to our wave) and was handed a 2 minute penalty - so his official time was 2:11:26.  But we all know how fast he went.  Brian Benda had one of the top swims of the day, and used a great bike split and solid run effort to finish 23rd in 2:06:40.  Ben Winterroth, just two weeks removed from his Ironman St. George, decided to race, and race he did.  A great swim followed by what I believe to be the fastest amateur bike split of the day (1:02:33, unreal) led to a vastly improved run, and a 2:05:51 overall time to finish 21st overall.  Incredible.  David Lee had an exciting finish to his race, where 2nd through 5th in the 35-39 age group finished within 10 seconds of one another.  David was on the short end of the stick, finishing 5th, but says that after a few more TNTs he'll make it up to 2nd.  Dr. Rodney Taylor wasn't sure if he was even going to compete, but was out there anyway and went just under 3 hours again. 

For the ladies, Courtney Busch had an expectedly quick swim, and rode and ran her way to a 2:35 for 45th F overall, while Alyssa Godesky had a personal best swim, followed by a bike split that was 4.5 minutes faster than last time she raced there, and then ran to a 2:29:34 course best and 25th place overall. 

All great efforts, and we had some terrific support out there from Jackie McLoughlin, Kendra Ingram, Carly Page and Josh Caprio, Brennan, Arjun, Sara J. Spears, Eileen, Zero and none other than our boy, Terence Baptiste who was just in town for like 10 minutes. 

The Purple Drink Athlete of the Week this week went to Ben Ingram for really his incredibly fast bike split, but for also making it through a harrowing swim.