Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Posting Videos to Facebook

Do you guys know how to do this?  Anyone?

Consider this weekend recap part deux, the non-Forget Towson edition.  Early Saturday morning up in Hampstead, the multisport season kicked off with the St. Patrick's Day Duathlon.  Alyssa Godesky finished 2nd here a year ago, just as she was beginning her year-long assault on triathlon.  This year she was the clear favorite, armed with a significantly faster run and strong bike.  But "green"horn Christa Wagner was going to give her a run for her money, on the runs, at least.  Alyssa and Christa ran together for most of the opening 5k, before Christa took off down a steep hill and entered T1 with a few second lead.  Alyssa breezed through transition and out onto the bike course, and her split had her up by 7 minutes as she entered T2.  Christa, meanwhile, rode a great race in her first racing effort on a bike, and maintained her position.  While Alyssa cruised to the win, Christa blitzed the 2nd run (2.5 miles) and finished 2nd in her first ever duathlon.  Christa had the fastest runs of the day.

Out in Fredneck, PJ Anderer doubled down on racing action, running the Francie's Family 5k in the morning, placing 7th in 20:51, and later in the day running the Forest of Needwood (twss) 5 Miler, where he finished 17th in 37:11. 

Down in Florida, it was Becky Parks vs the Snowbirds at the Lehigh 4 Miler.  Following Lehigh's miraculous win over Duke on Friday night, Becky validated the race's namesake by snatching the W in 25:13.

DC was overrun by Rock n Rollers on Saturday morning, but at least a handful of people were out there to race.  Unlike years past, when the event has typically been contested in temps in the mid 30s to low 40s, conditions were downright mild, as morning temperatures were already in the upper 50s.  Terrific if you're out for a stroll along the Mall, checking out Cherry Blossoms, but potentially tough for a hard run.  Dan Miranda never found his rhythm, and ended up disappointed with his 1:22:17.  The good news: he's got time to figure things out ahead of Boston, but always tough to not have the performance you expected to have.  And somehow the mystical powers of going into races undertained led Sara Spears to a new half PR of 1:51:33 - way to go S.!

Sunday was a day of big races: the NYC Half and Shamrock Marathon in VA Beach.  Up in New York, Sam Wollner gave chase to the big boys for as long as he could - but after about a quarter mile they were out of sight and he just focused on his race (psyche - he just ran his race the whole time!).  Sam's winter of running was rewarded with a minute PR, 1:31:48.  Sara Damiano also PR'd, but just a couple of seconds, but took it nonetheless.  She ran 1:41:01. 

Down in Virginia Beach it was the Race That Almost Wasn't.  When I saw Conrad Laskowski at UMBC on Saturday morning I thought "hmm, interesting, doesn't Conrad have a race in Virginia Beach tomorrow?" and sure enough, he did.  His plan was to drive down at night, and have his packet delivered to his hotel.  Only that option closed two days prior, and his hotel was not eligible for drop-off.  Thanks to Dave Ploskonka, indirectly, the potential race-ending-before-it-started crisis was avoided, and C-rad made it down in time to toe the line.  He was rewarded with a 7th place finish and a new PR of 2:36:58.  Dave, pacing the marathon, ran 3:14:55.  Denise Knickman was 9th among women in 3:09:02.

Great racing all around, and a great weekend of basketball too!  I would like to commend myself for being spot on with some of my picks.  Unfortunately, Sunday was a rough day, but the good news for me is that I get to stay up really late watching heart-gnawing games from tomorrow through Sunday again this week!

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week was awarded to Sam Wollner.  Sam has been working very hard and it shows - he's keeping up with a speedier group on Mondays, and has been having some amazing Tuesday track workouts.  Sam has fins for feet, but, like Ariel, is starting to find his legs.  And he didn't even have to give up his Voice.  Mondays, on NBC.

And we gave our NOS Award this week to Christa, who seriously hit that button hidden in her ashtray on Saturday!

Track last night - good workout, but surprised by the small turnout.  With 70 degrees and daylight, you'd have thought more people would have showed!  We did, however, see the return of Rodney "Stick" Timpson (now 47 years old), Jordan Orr, and JOEL BRUSEWITZ.

3 comments:

Melissa said...

Sam runs a minute PR and gets compared to The Little Mermaid??? So jealous.

RM said...

Hey, I didn't write the rules, I just follow them!

Sam said...

I won't say I deserve it. But, I'll take it!