Thursday, April 19, 2012

Downhill Mayhem!

Jubb, DiGregorio, earn wins at Westminster's Main Street Mile

Westminster, MD - Greg "Danger" Jubb became a member of the Sub-4 club, as he covered 5,280 feet in 3:59.14 at Wednesday's Main Street Mile. Of course, that doesn't take into account the 144 foot of net elevation drop from start to finish, but hey, who's counting? It was a great battle up front, with the top 3 (Jubb, Ed Aramayo, Chris Snyder) running faster than Ed's winning time (4:05) from a year ago. Initial reports suggested Jubb had indeed eclipsed the 4 minute barrier, but results at the awards indicated a 4:00. When the official, chip-timed results were published, times had been adjusted and Greg indeed had broken 4. For runner-up Ed Aramayo, his 4:01.26 was a full 3 seconds faster than last year, and Chris Snyder was right behind at 4:03.91.

The conditions could not have been more dangerous for a fast, downhill race. Showers throughout the day, including through the race, dampened the road, creating terribly slick conditions. The painted lines and manhole covers were going to be particularly dodgy. As the crew of 28 of us made our way to the top of the hill for the start, just minutes ahead of the gun, there was a realization that it could be a dicey run. In fact, as the started yelled GO, a guy in a red shirt lost contact with the ground, and laid himself out in front of myself, Brennan, and Jubb. From there, I was now supremely conscious of what could happen, and I took it a bit easier on the downhill. It didn't seem to affect the hordes of people screaming down the opening hill, however, who opened a massive gap on the field. I was 100m behind just 200m into the race.

As the leaders passed the quarter mile in 56/57, and then half mile in 1:55/56, the road tilts ever-so-slightly back up, just enough to take some of the momentum out of the legs. It then drops back from 3/4 to the finish. The top 3 guys finished and had enough time to look behind and greet 1st-loser, Brian Godsey (4:08). We put 9 in the top 10, and occupied half of the top 50 spots. Expectedly, man ran lifetime bests for the distance, which, given the slick road conditions, was very impressive. Arjun Majumdar (4:15) ran 7 seconds faster than last year, while Kris Simms, in his first race as a 40 year old, claimed top Masters, and an 8 second PR. Brennan Feldhausen was 14 seconds faster than 2011, and Mike Mashner ran an amazing 4:32. Seth Tibbitts, as Andy Sovonick, ran just a split second slower than Kris, at 4:27. Tim Burns came through at 4:20.

In the women's race, it came as little surprise that Meg D got the win, running 4:50 - 15 seconds faster than last year. But, I was certainly caught off guard by just how fast the other girls ran. Carly Page, Meg McNew, and Christa Wagner went 2-4, and were all under 5:00! Alyssa Godesky, who ran 5:36 last year, cut 21 seconds out of that, as she ran 5:15 this year. Amy Horst, in her first race in quite some time after injury, ran a 5:26, and Lillian Pinault ran an amazing 5:34. Patty Stott smashed it, running 6:12, and then Amy "Flash" Flashenberg, who didn't think she'd run under 7:30 (even though I said she'd run 6:30), ran a 6:20. Truly awesome!

Terry Decker broke the 5 minute barrier as well (4:57), while Sam Wollner ran 5:11 and PJ Anderer ran 5:14. Aaron Tripp wasn't far back at 5:21. Everyone ran really, really well. In fact, only two ran slower than they did last year (me and Pat).

Our last finisher was Conrad Laskowski, who finished in exactly 100th position. This was the first, and I expect only, time that we'll see that happen. Conrad ran 6:21, citing that he was doing a slightly-slower-than-marathon effort. He did 76xMile, running up and down the hill at that same pace. Psyche, but seriously, thanks Conrad for taking up the lantern rouge.

Unlike last year, when perhaps only Alyssa got her post-race ice cream sandwich, many more of us beelined it to the fire house to collect our prizes. Despite temps in the upper 40s and rain, it still tasted good. Others continued their workouts on the McDaniel track, and then the lot of us went over to O'Lordan's Irish Pub for some dinner. A great tradition continues. Congrats to all on the fast times! Thanks to the Westminster Road Runners Club for once again putting on a great event.

*Just remember, these can't count as World Records because it's a point-to-point race with a net elevation decrease > 3%. I'm sure if the road had been dry, we could have seen a real attempt at the record.

4 comments:

Charlie Ban said...

Good luck with that record attempt, you might be better off in Wheeling over Memorial Day weekend: http://runhigh.com/.2003%20Results%20A/R052303AB.html

BG said...

Wow; I just posted a dumb comment saying that Casey Batey could run 3:45 in the 1500m, so a 7sec difference from his downhill mile was similar to Ed's 5-6sec difference the past two years, but then I realized it's in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION. That puts Jubb and Cheese in the high 3:40s if they ran in WV. Damn.

RM said...

Thanks for posting Charlie! Dustin has mentioned that race before, it may have to be a late add to the schedule! 3:39 is ridic. But all in all, the race seems less competitive than Westminster, more by virtue of the fact we rolled 26 deep. We should seriously, seriously consider this, if not this year, next. There is also Loudoun Street Mile in Winchester on Memorial Day, which Brennan/Alyssa/Ben/Kendra/I did last year. Not QUITE as downhill, but still downhill. Moise Joseph ran 4:05, he's legit.

Charlie Ban said...

I'm planning on going to the Loudon Street Mile, despite having the turnover of a sloth, just for the hell of it. Ogden really hasn't had any depth pretty much since 2003. I did it in 2004 but didn't bring enough water on the bus up the hill. They pretty much leave you at the top for an hour before the race starts. The races the next day aren't reliably deep, either,and if someone can make a two-day double out of if, you can pick up some cash and get a ridiculously fast mile time to boot