Monday, December 10, 2012

Kentucky Rain

Kentucky Rain keeps pouring down
And up ahead's another town that I'll go walking through
With the rain in my shoes, searchin' for you
In the cold Kentucky rain
~ Elvis Presley

From the moment the #sausagewagon rolled out from Baltimore on Friday morning until the time it arrived back home Sunday night, there were only a few breaks from the rain. Fog and hard rain made driving conditions terse, and softened the ground up on the Lexington cross country course just enough to really make the race sting. At no point did the sun shine.

But that mattered not to the harriers who took to the USATF Club XC Championships on Saturday. 8 men represented Falls Road, and for some it was their first cross country race in over half a decade. Prior to the race we saw our buddy Alan Webb who flew out from Portland to run. Despite an untied shoe for 5 miles, he finished 7th just about 30 seconds back from the winner, Jake Riley, of Hansons Brooks.

For our guys, it was about running as hard as they could given their varying levels of fitness right now. Conrad Laskowski ran a super race, finishing 145th in 33:11. Dustin Meeker, Steve Febish, and Nate Brigham finished with 20 seconds of one another between 34:29 and 34:48. Dan Miranda made a great scoring 5th in 35:48. Brennan Feldhausen steadily moved up to finish in 36:06, and Tim Burns was not far behind in 36:43. Ed Aramayo will be quick to point out that he beat 28 people, as he finished up in 37:26.

In all, our team was 31st out of 42 teams, and we were very excited about that.

Dave Berardi ran the Master's race for the BWAC, finishing in 39:42, and Spider Sillery ran for Chattanooga Track Club, finishing 41st in 35:54. Great race for Spider!

There were a few other performances from the weekend, including Jason Farber's 2nd place finish (17:24) at the Jingle Bell 5k, and Liz Laseter's 8th place (30:20) at the Jingle All the Way 8k in DC. Lisa Ievers ran the Tashka 50k in Alabama, expecting to make it through one loop and call it a day. She felt good and pressed on, and while she was passed in the final 2 miles, she held on for 2nd, 3 minutes faster than her winning time there last year (5:05).

The Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, amazingly for the first time this year, went to Conrad Laskowski.

On a more somber note, we mourn for a fellow runner. Lauren Woodall Roady, who had competed for the Georgetown Running Company team in Saturday's race, was fatally struck by a fire truck in downtown Lexington on Saturday night. The loss is incomprehensible for her family, husband, friends, and all of her teammates. Through tragedy we are reminded to celebrate life, and that we should all live and love with passion.

1 comment:

Dart said...

It's pretty awesome that Fiscal Cliff got Labeled in this post