Sometimes I Get a Good Feeling

There were a good number of races this weekend, and we had some pretty awesome results, but I'll be completely honest: they are basically unimportant to me.  Psyche!  But seriously, the results from yesterday's New York City Marathon were beyond insane and captivated us yesterday.

First, on Saturday, Vince Collins and Dustin Meeker took the Downs Park 5 Miler by storm, finishing 1st and 2nd in 25:52 and 25:56, respectively.  Dustin was the two-time defending champion, and was looking to three-peat, and earn his third ham.  Vince must have been really hungry, as the pair ran together until a half mile to go, when Vince turned on the afterburners.  For Dusty, he would have to settle for a 15 second PR.  Andrew Jacobson finished 5th in 28:29.

New Becky Parks really likes small, probably inaccurate 5k races where she has a chance for the overall win.  This time she finished 3rd (1st F) in 20:05, at the Run for Red 5k in Sparks.

Up in NJ, at fabled Holmdel Park, Alyssa Godesky tore into the State Championship cross country course, running a new 5k PR of 21:00.  That was a minute beating of her previous 5k best, and this is far from a road, or fast course.  I would say it's at least a minute or more slower than what you'd run on the road.  This blazing fast run earned Alyssa this week's NOS Award. 

In Indianapolis, Michael Rady ran the Monumental Marathon, recording a 3:37:20, which was an 8 minute PR!

On Sunday, Greg Danger Jubb won the ClusterF Rockville 5k in 15:58, with Louis Foudos in 5th at 17:58.  In the 10k, Dan Miranda wasn't able to get the win, but managed to record a new personal best of 34:27 in his 3rd place effort.

At the Inland Trail Half Marathon in Ohio, Terence Baptiste got one of the best victories of his career, winning in 1:18:50.  The time wasn't far off his personal best, and I'm sure the win was a great reward.

Dave Ploskonka ran the Fire on the Mountain 50k, which had been postponed from last weekend due to inclement weather.  It sounds like the trails were in pretty bad shape, but Dave made it through, albeit way slower than he thought it would take.

Then it was all about NYC, and if you were following the Twitter feed, you'd know it was a busy day!  A lot of people to follow along the way, and it basically shut down my phone at one point!  I was disappointed I couldn't upload any pics, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.  Since I'd like to follow up on last week's great interviews with everyone, I will probably have something on the blog later this week as a little recap of everyone's race.  But for now, here's how it went:

Patrick O'Rourke finished up at 2:45:53.  Going into the race he was looking to run 2:40 or better, and based on his workouts and races, it seemed reasonable.  He hit the half in 1:20:06, but the miles started creeping up into the mid 6s, and it was just too much.  But the held on and that's a great finish.

Brennan Feldhausen is always able to keep things in perspective, and he'll bounce back from Sunday.  The plan was to come through the half in 1:20-1:21 (he was 1:20:23) and then pick it up from there.  He knew he was capable of averaging 6:00/mi, and he had done everything right.  But after 20, the onset of a migraine began to derail his race.  By 23, he was not looking good.  With a mile to go, it was taking every ounce of energy for him to run straight lines, his vision was gone.  But Brennan is a champion (much like the Green Bay Packers) and if a 2:47:21 is the worst day he's going to have, that's a pretty good bad day.

Diane Heiser ran the distance race of her life, and one of the best marathon performances we've ever seen.  After last year's Chicago Marathon, we weren't sure if we'd see Diane run a marathon again, so I was surprised to hear she had signed up for NYC this year.  Diane is one of the fastest runners around, but we had no idea what she was really capable of at the distance.  She blazed through the half in 1:25 and change, and we thought it was really fast.  Would she, could she hold up over the second half?  Answer: a resounding yes.  Diane finished 34th among all women, a remarkable accomplishment in a race this large, and was the 9th American woman to cross the line.  Her 2:53:46 is the 4th fastest time anyone from our group has ever run, behind Chrissie (2:44 and 2:52) and Mary Bertram (2:49).  It also puts her in a position to give serious thought to running another marathon or two in the next couple of years, perhaps in time for 2016...

Joel Gladfelter has had an up and down kind of year.  He ran a terrific 2:51 marathon in Miami back in January - at the time a 17 minute PR - but then spent the rest of the spring recovering from a foot injury.  He was locked into NYC, but wasn't able to start his training cycle when he was targeting.  He made adjustments, changed on the fly, and consulted with his trusted advisors on how to best prepare for the race.  He wanted to run faster than his Miami time, but could he?  Was it a reasonable goal?  In the weeks leading up to NYC, he scaled back his ambition and thought, let me just have a good race, and let the chips fall where they may.  This worked out in his favor, as he ran 1:26:40 through the half, and finished at 2:55:32.  He was pretty pumped.  This would previously have been a 13 minute PR.

Carly Page's expectations were high, and I think I can say for all of us that we expected her to be great yesterday.  Her previous marathon was an awesome debut - a 3:12 at Mohawk Hudson River Marathon last year.  She felt like she could be under 3:05, and maybe get close to 3 hours.  She went out smart, trying to run 7:00/mi, and was running great.  After the half, she felt good enough to push it, running some miles in the 6:40s.  But soon that great feeling seceded from her body, and she was working hard to maintain miles above 7.  She got herself across the line in 3:04:04, which means her half splits were 1:31:52-1:32:12, which is unbelievable. 

Suzanne Hurst wasn't sure what to expect.  Her training left her feeling like maybe a 3:15, 3:20 was the best she could do, but her racer's instinct and competitiveness told her to go for it.  She ran about 10 or 11 miles with Carly, before sliding of pace a little.  After a 1:33 half, she was going to have to get tough to hold on, and ultimately made it home in 3:13:17.  I think this is a great result for Suzanne.  She ran 3:10 at Boston this year, and this time back that result up well.

Spence Green was running on what I presume was a targeted pace, coming through the half in just over 1:25.  Spence is no stranger to low to mid 2:50 marathons, and we didn't think that pace was going to cause a problem, but apparently Sunday was not his day.  Having been there, I know what that feels like.  His last few miles were a death march, and I'm sure he was quite happy to be finished when he crossed the line.

Nina Hartman ran 3:18:13, which is not what she was hoping to run.  It looked like she was setting herself up for a 3:10 race, which is within her realm of abilities, but the back half was definitely tough.  I haven't caught up with Nina yet, but for now, she has earned herself a little bit of time off.  The good news: it's still 4 minutes faster than she ran at Cleveland Marathon earlier this year!

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week could be no other than Diane, whose remarkable time will surely stand as one of the best performances of 2011.  And like I said in the email, when you have the advisement of Chrissie, herself a great performer at NYC, we shouldn't have expected anything less!  Great work Diane, and all NYC runners!

A big extra special shout to all of our great spectators, who took trains, buses, and cars to get up to watch; who crashed on floors, couches, and aerobeds; who stayed in...Newark.  Here is a list of those who were out there supporting: Amy Horst, Christa Wagner, Andy Olson, Conrad Laskowski, Jen Koshy, Sara Spears (omitted in the email - oops!), Ed Aramayo, Arjun Majumdar, Melissa Majumdar, Erin Feldhausen, Ruth Swedler, Meg McNew, Alyssa Godesky, and Ben Ingram!