Yesterday Was Thursday

After a brief disappearance from YouTube, Rebecca Black's mesmerizing hit "Friday" is back up!

With that said, I realized I never put up results from last weekend, so before THIS weekend begins, I'll do a quick run-through.

Claire Lears ran the Turkey Track Trail Marathon in Colorado, in preparation for this August's GoreTex TransRockies Run.  Unfortunately, errbody got lost, so the route was unexpectedly shortened to about 23 and change miles.  Claire is here for the weekend, FYI, for anyone looking to catch up with her!

In it's typical fashion, Sunday's weather proved quite difficult to compete in.  One person who apparently found no issue with the conditions was Dave Berdan, who ran a 35:04 at the revised Survivor 7 Mile race.  It established a new "course record" but not the race record, so no word on whether they'll break him off with a CR bonus.  Tim Parker finished 11th with a 43:23, and then it was Megan DiGregorio coming in 3rd (it was 3rd, not 2nd, like I mentioned in the email) in 44:51.  Denise Knickman was one spot back in 45:33.  Sam Wollner, in what was definitely his first race since starting TNTs with us, but potentially his first open road race ever, ran 47:44.  And Alix Brusewitz ran 1:07:22 in her first race with her new last name.

In the 4 Miler, Ed Aramayo ran slightly slower than tempo pace to finish 2nd in 23:14 and Kris Simms finished unofficially 3rd. 

Dave Berardi finished 7th in 17:09 at Damien's Run 5k, and at the shortened Lawyer's Have Heart 5k, Chris Benassi ran 17:12 for 13th, and Meg McNew was 10th in 19:11.  Normally that event is a 10k, but apparently those weeny lawyers decided it was "too hot" to go another 3.1.

Matt "Spree" Cornwell, who has not raced since Broad Street 2008, won his comeback race at Druid Hill Park.  The event was the low key Metro Delta Torchbearer 5k, and Matt dominated this small event, winning by a huge margin in 17:44.  We hope this is a good sign for things to come, after all, Matt's been through it all in the past few years!

That brought us to the weekend's big event, Eagleman.  Known as a flat and fast course in the half ironman circuit, it's also one of the most unkind.  The heat, humidity and wind all pack a powerful punch out there, relentlessly draining competitors of electrolytes and reducing even the most fit athletes to crawling.  The water was too warm for wetsuits, so swim times were a little slower than they would have been normally - but conditions in the water were not bad (and therefore I conclude that I believe the course was slightly long).  The winds were noticeably weaker on the bike, although they are always there in some capacity.  The run was...hot.  But everybody did pretty well, with Spider Sillery coming from Tennessee to lead all of our athletes in 4:31:23.  When Spider doesn't have a good run, it gives some kind of indication of the day.  He has had the fastest amateur run of the day the past two years there, but this year he struggled.  Pat McLoughlin was next through in 4:37:42.  He used a good swim and a terrific bike (8 minutes faster than he rode last year) to launch him to the solid finish.  His brother, Tommy, went 4:48:49.  David Lee showed that TNT is working, as he ran a 1:41 - probably the best relative run of any of us, and overall his performance was amazing as he finished at 4:43:06.  Alyssa Godesky, our sole female competitor, had a 5:19 EM course best from 2009 (wetsuits were allowed, conditions were good), but was looking to get down near 5 hours.  She had a good swim and a terrific bike split (<2:34, something like 12 minutes faster than her last time there), and then ran consistent splits on her way to a 5:05:25 finish.  She was 7th in her age group and thanks to some rolling down, earned a spot to the Half Ironman World Championships, to be held September 11th in Las Vegas.  John Eisenhardt, off of very little training, looked tired at the end but came through in 5:11:49.  Brian Benda, much like myself, struggled to keep upright on the run, as he had a great swim and bike, but finished up at 5:13:48. 

It was a tough day, but everyone got through it and a big shout out to Carly Page, Jen Koshy and Ed Aramayo, who made the long drive to come watch us!

While there were some tremendous performances, I felt that David Lee's best exemplified a Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, so he earned his first ever PDAW. 

Big ups to all our folks competing at tomorrow's Baltimore 10 Miler.  May your feet be swift.  Additionally, as a reminder, New Becky Parks is going to be leaving for San Fran after the race to "find herself" for the summer (or whatever, ha!) and will be going out tomorrow night to celebrate.  Text "NBP" to 83446 for details.  Additionally, the Big Cheese aka Grand Queso will be running in ALASKA tomorrow following his friend's wedding today, so that story should be good.