Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Young, Wild, and Free

Last week was a fun week: we held the first ever, and as far as we know, ONLY Leap Day 4k on the PLANET; we saw some amazing personal bests; we experienced a lot of rain, thunder, and lightning. 

At the RunningSkirts.com Albany (GA) Marathon, formerly the SNICKERS MARATHON Energy Bar Marathon, athletes were treated to tornado sirens blaring, instructing them to seek indoor shelter immediately.  And, like true runners, these warnings went unheeded, as Lisa Ievers cruised to an 8 minute PR and a 5th place finish (3:09:20).  Pete Mulligan was back to pacing duties, but instead of the 4:30 group, he now commands the 4:25 Boston group.  They ran through driving rain, thunder, and lightning (much like our Leap Day race), but Pete still brought them in on time.  Pete even wore a skirt to pay homage to the new race sponsor.


At the Columbia Last Chance Meet (seriously, is indoor OVER yet??) at the Armory, Greg Jubb was putting it all on the line.  His gaze fixated on breaking 4 by 2013, he showed he's better than ever, running an indoor PR of 4:06.96 to finish 18th.  Brian Leiter ran 4:07.17.  These times should strike fear in the heart of the Westminster Main Street Mile record...

It may not be quite an "ultra" but Dave Ploskonka loves his Seneca Greenway 50k.  This year, thanks to a lot of rain, the conditions were quite muddy, but Dave persevered, finishing 2nd.  Meg Harnett, a newcomer to the long distance game, also finished 2nd.

Sunday was Fantastic Lady Day as our ladies went out and smashed stereotypes.  Carly Page proved in her 2nd place at the B&A Trail Half that you CAN run fast in a skirt (interesting she and Pete had the same wardrobe).  Carly ran a great race, running 1:26:45, negative splitting and exacting revenge on her legs for a disappointing performance last week.  Alyssa Godesky showed that girls CAN behave like boys, as she hurled the second her feet crossed the line.  But, with a 6 minute PR (1:30:24) and 6th place finish, I'd say it was worth it.  Still, very gross.  And Nina "Van Winkle" Hartman illustrated that girls CAN oversleep and not show up to races, just like the guys!  Don't worry Nina, we've all done it!

Out on the Eastern Shore, Denise Knickman once again ran the Tim Kennard 10 Mile River Run, running one second faster than she did last weekend at Club Challenge.  Ms. Consistent.  The stars of the show were the Peck siblings, as Graham Peck ran an incredible 53:xx to win, and Kaylyn got the win easily ahead of Big D. 

Shouts to the posse of folks that showed up to the B&A Trail race to support: Joel, Christa, Dave, Becky, Meg H!

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week went to Carly Page, this very good result hopefully erases the frustration from Club Challenge. 

And our AutoZone In the Zone Award goes to Greg Jubb, who has been on a roll recently, running a 1:53 800 and <4:07 mile indoors.  Outdoor tracks beware!  Greg's also been killing it as co-host of the Runaround on ESPN radio, the ONLY radio show dedicated to our sport.  It's on Mondays from 5-6pm, and if you can't make it to a radio, you can listen online here: http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/station/espn-1300/

Some important notes:

1. See Justin's post below concerning helping out at a race in April.  It's on a Friday night at Lake Montebello.  If you can help, please let me know.

2. Outdoor season is just around the corner which means if you are planning on racing, start contacting the Meet Directors!  There are a few open race opportunities, including our own Forget Towson Invite (Saturday, 3/17), and a bunch of others in the spring before we get to the summer season. 

3. Track tonight - The longer race crew will be doing 6x1600, the shorter race crew will be doing 5x(800-400) I think. 

3 comments:

RM said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReFQoDQKuCk

Kris Simms stealthily posted this in the comments of the Club Challenge post, expecting that nobody would see it. I will bring it to the forefront. Video originally posted on RunningMaryland.com, at 1:38 you will see a highlight.

Dart said...

In his humble manner, Elf failed to mention that he was also in support of our runners down at B&A half marathon, and helped our teamates a tremendous amount. Nice teamwork Ryan.

Dart said...

Per Video: Remus is a treat