Cruel Summer

It's hot. It's cold. It's hot. It's cold.

Just when we thought summer was behind us, it kicked up again! After a cool Saturday morning, Sunday was warmer and much more humid. The Fantastic Ladies Day that was the Parks Half Marathon made the most of the conditions, and the unexpectedly challenging course. Megan DiGregorio paved the way in 4th at 1:25:25, and Meg McNew was just behind in 5th at 1:25:49. Carly Page had a strong 10 miles but had to fight the last 3, ultimately finishing in 9th at 1:28:30. Alyssa Godesky ran a season best - although all her other halves were after riding 56 miles - of 1:33:43. Julie Wolfe ran an open PR of 1:34:40. So a good day all around for the girls down in Bethesda.

Cory Donovan ran a half in Harrisburg, running 1:28:01, which I'm pretty sure has to be a PR for him. His watch might beg to differ (he had 1:27:30) but whatever, that's a good day! 4 weeks out from Chicago Marathon he's looking good for a solid race there.

Nick Klastava had the race of his life and probably the race of the year so far for our group. I'm not sure if Nick's run a marathon before or not, but if he has his 2:55:16 had to have blown out whatever previous best he'd run. He finished 26th at the Lehigh Valley Marathon. Shout to Dan Miranda, who was registered, knew he didn't have it in him to race due to some travel limiting his running over the past few weeks, and instead ran with Nick. Dave Ploskonka also raced with the sole goal of qualifying for Boston, and he ran 2:58:29 - his fastest time in quite some time.

We had double winners on Saturday at the Jessica Meredith Jacobsen Memorial 5k, with Steve Febish (16:46) and Meg D (19:28). Meg needs to stop racing twice each weekend!

Dave Berardi was 4th at the Police Pace 5k in 18:12, and Graham Peck ran a controlled 55:09 for 2nd at the Ithaca 10 Miler.

Christa Wagner was super speedy at the Run to Remember 5k, where she took 2nd in 20:25. You see kids, multisport training DOES make you fast! Denise Knickman was 3rd in 20:40.

Shout to Collin Anderson who ran the Downhill Dash 8k on Saturday (just a short while after a sub 18 minute 5k in another race). He ran 24:53 or something in the 8k, which featured a zillion feet of descent. But, as he noted, if he had been flat at sea level it probably would have been in the 27:xx range. The winner ran 20:44. Yowza!

In other overlooked races, Becky Parks was 7th at the Crystal Springs Invite, her first XC meet of the season. 6km in 24:40.

Then there was Ben Ingram at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships aka just call it the Half Ironman World Champs. In its 3rd (and last) year in Las Vegas, Ben said the course was every bit as difficult as advertised, and that the competition is no joke! They did have a little good fortune in that it rained, so while that made the bike a little tougher, it was at least a little cooler. Ben ran a 1:23 off the bike to finish 274th in the world at 4:46:34.

From earlier in the week, Kevin McGrath ran the Pier House 5k in exactly the same time (23:18) as he's been running, so I guess consistency is good! And at the Ravens Run 5k on Wednesday, Joel Gladfelter ran out-of-his-mind fast. He finished 3rd in 16:40. That's the first time Joel has broken 17 minutes, and he crushed it! We're hoping the course is legit, of course, and based on the other times it looks to be. Either way, it's fast. He said he's never felt that wasted immediately after the run so I don't think he could have squeezed another ounce out of himself. Timbo Slice Parker ran 17:52.

Awesome start to the almost-fall! Nick Klastava easily earned the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, and a NOS Award was given to Joel Gladfelter.