Awards Night 2012

We held our 6th Annual Awards Night (#TWSSAwards) on Sunday, for the first time after Celtic Solstice since the first year. As usual we had a big crowd out to the festivities and plenty of food - although it looked like the 8 pizzas I picked up went pretty quick. I reduced my order from 10 to 8 because I didn't want to bring any leftovers home, and we probably could have used another pie.

2012 was another banner year for the members of our team. Countless PRs, 60 wins, and immeasurable amounts of fun. As always, be sure to check out the link to the 2012 Spreadsheet on the right hand side for all the year's results, top ten lists, wins, PDAWs, attendance, etc!

Our 2012 MVPs probably came as little surprise to anyone - Conrad Laskowski and Megan DiGregorio. Conrad kicked off the year by literally running circles around me at the Charleston Marathon. He then went onto win Club Challenge, finish 2nd at the prestigious Leap Day 4k, finish 2nd in 15:09 at Shamrock 5k, and then run a 2:36 marathon at Virginia Beach. Somewhere in there he ran a 4:29 indoor mile. Following his 2nd marathon in 2 months he took a somewhat forced hiatus, but when he reemerged in the fall he crushed, getting stronger with each run and winning the Downs Park 5M (25:30) and running a 1:09:10 half marathon in Philly. He was also our first finisher at USATF Club XC in 33:11.

Meg D also excelled at two marathons this year, her first two, to be exact. After finishing 2nd at Club Challenge, she won the Shamrock 5k in a PR of 17:35, before going onto win her first ever marathon in 2:59 (NJ Marathon). Meg continued to race well through the summer, and in the fall was preparing to run the NYC Marathon. Some achilles problems limited her training, but when NYC was canceled she decided to give Richmond a go, and even split her way to a 3:01:50. She also won the Westminster Main Street Mile and was our wins leader for the year.

Our Coach's Awards went to Carly Page and Dustin Meeker. Carly stepped up in a major way as one of the primary organizers of the ladies contingent, but also ran some excellent races. An 18:26 5k, a 39:33 10k, and a 4:57 mile were among her accolades. She managed all this while completing her PhD, which is pretty incredible. Dustin is a leader by example. He sets the tone to work hard and commit to a plan, and under his wing he had many followers this year who went onto accomplish great things. He was also the driving force behind our USATF Club XC team, and one of the captains at Club Challenge this year.

Performances of the Year, as always, were tough to decide. There were some truly incredible performances, and any one of them would have been deserving. The Top Male Performance went to Ed Aramayo's 3:56.99 1500m at the Loyola/Hopkins Meet way back in April. Ed had an amazing stretch of track racing this year, getting under 2 minutes in the 800 (1:58) and 4 minutes in the 1500, but really pulled out the stops at the 33rd St Track when he broke 3:57. Among the other performances considered were Conrad's 15:09 5k, Brennan's 32:59 10k, Dusty's 51:53 10 mile, and Steve's 1:12:51 half.

For the Women, the award went to Christa Wagner's 39:42 Pike's Peek 10k. Christa was a contender for the MVP award, as she set personal bests in every distance she ran. But it was her 10k that stood out among all of them. I ran with her in that race and she executed her race plan to perfection. The other performances that were nominated were: Carly's 4:57 Westminster Mile, Meg McNew's 18:01 5k, Sara B's 1:08:17 Club Challenge, and Meg D's 2:59:44 Marathon win.

I'll add a tab to the spreadsheet with all the awards, but here were a few of the highlights:

Brita Grothe Best Ass Award: Chrissie Ramsey. Chrissie started the petition to reclaim her title last year, and was disappointed when she didn't win. She made sure to work really hard for 2012 to fend off the challengers.

David Letterman Top Ten Award: Brennan Feldhausen. Brennan appears in the Top 10 of all but two road events. The 5 Mile category (which he didn't run and honestly is redundant since I have 8k) and 10 miles. Truly remarkable considering how little he ran this year, largely due to the Orioles' success.

Newcomers of the Year: Tim Burns and Sara Breedlove.

Did I have a Comeback of the Year Award? I can't remember. Shoot, I like that one.