That's Not My Name

Well, May came and went, and, outside of my overly lengthy Alumni Mile recap, I just didn't get around to getting weekly recaps posted. Now that we're into June it seems silly to try and do individual ones, so I'm just going to recap the weeks in this post.

The first weekend of May was indeed a busy one. Besides the renowned Alumni Mile, it's the traditional weekend for Broad Street up in Philly (fastest 10 mile course in the US) as well as Frederick Half, Flying Pig in Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh Marathon.

Over the years, Mike Mashner's nickname has caused some confusion. When Mike started running with us in 2007, we already had a few other Mikes, so we needed a way to distinguish them. We started calling Mike "New Mike" - which reminded us of New Coke, and then Coke Zero, and voila - we had Mike Zero. Or just Zero. Or simply Z. So no, his last name is not actually Zero. Mike has not finished an open marathon since Boston 2009, when he ran 2:55, which was a 7 minute PR at the time. Over the next few years his training focused primarily on Ironman, and in the past few years attempts at the distance were repelled by plaguing injuries. One year it was a DNF halfway into Philly Marathon; the next was a DNS. Heading into this year, with the Achilles/calf injury still nagging, Z made the switch to Hoka and - no joke - things started to get better. His weeks rarely exceed 40 miles, in fact many were under 30, but he's always done well in spite of lower volume. His 1:22:20ish half marathon tune-up in late March was enough to let him know he was ready for a marathon a month later. Tracking his progress during the race, his execution was fantastic. Splits were all incredibly consistent, and he ended up nearly even-splitting his way to a 2:45:39 for 31st overall. A huge PR and one of the best races we've ever seen! It was more than enough to earn him that week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.

In the not-too-distant-past, Broad Street was the shit. Point to point and net downhill, it's the site of the fastest 10 mile race ever run in the US. It is a huge participation race, but you used to be able to register the day before the race, entry fee was cheap, and it was a fun event. Then they decided they would put a cap on participants and that somehow caused the race to begin selling out. Entry fee increased. I think the organization just isn't as committed to bringing the same firepower as Cherry Blossom is, because winning times for the past few years have been in the 47s. I think the race was pretty stingy with their prize money, if I recall correctly. Anyway, still a fast race, and Nick Klastava ran a solid 57:12 (which may have suffered from a few second clock to chip discrepancy and actually been closer to 57:02). New Haven resident, Christy Ramsey, was 10th F in 57:31.

Out in Frederick, Dave Berdan finished 3rd in 1:10:37, while Nicole Wilson also finished 3rd in 1:23:58.

The following weekend was mostly a bunch of rinky dink races. But they randomly had money, and the Pecks exploited the shit out of them. First up was the Run For Their Lives 5k, where Graham Peck took top prize ahead of Chris Beck, and Kaylyn Peck took 2nd ahead of Justine DiGregorio in 3rd. Cha-ching. Then the Pecks drove the couple of miles across the valley for the St. John's Run in the Valley 5k, where Graham took 2nd to a foreign talent who somehow found out about this very small event, and Megan DiGregorio won ahead of Kaylyn. Dolla dolla bills y'all.

Dave Berdan was 5th at the Delaware Half Marathon in 1:13:52. But our PDAW this week went to Jeff Rumbaugh.

The third weekend in May also features a bunch of events, and we had a lot of folks racing. At the Brooklyn Half, Jason Farber ran a sizzling 1:14:08 and Terence Baptiste finished up at 1:19:26. Jeff Rumbaugh won the Firefighters 5k in Tampa, and took home an actual (heavy) fireman helmet as his prize.

Chrissie Ramsey came to town for the weekend and popped off an impressive 28:29 to win the Germantown 5 Miler on a hot and humid morning. On Sunday, Brian Benda ripped a 2:07:52 to finish 4th at the Columbia Triathlon. Suzanne Hurst put her triathlon legs back on and went faster than her previous Olympic distance best by 8 minutes. Conrad Laskowski and Amy Flashenberg competed in their first ever triathlon at Cascade Lake, while seasoned triathlon veteran Christa Wagner ran a faster run split than the overall winner. Graham and Meg D each came away with wins at the Dirty German 50k in Pennypack Park (PA). Graham kept his PR streak alive (has PR'd in a race every spring/fall since he was 12) which was particularly impressive given a) how warm it was that day and b) he was at a wedding on the Eastern Shore until well after midnight the night before.

That week's PDAW went to Brian Benda.

Then it was onto Memorial Day Weekend, and we couldn't have asked for nicer weather. Cool mornings with low humidity meant fast racing. Conrad and Dustin Meeker went 1-2 in the MCVETs 5k in 15:09/15:12, and Meg D led a string of Falls Road finishers with Amy Horst in 2nd, Justine in 4th and Christa in 5th. In the 10k, Graham took out another win while Nicole W also notched the victory. Also, the tunes at the finish were bumpin'.

Erik T. Orberg ran a PR 1:12:22 to finish 4th at the Buffalo Half Marathon, and in the marathon, Carly Page didn't have her best day, but still managed a 10th place 3:17:09.

Ben and Kendra Ingram ran Bolder Boulder 10k again on Memorial Day, and Sean Caskey and Steve Febish went 2-3 at the Special Ops 5k here in town. Our PDAW went to Erik this week.

Since May did have 5 weekends I'll do a separate post for this past weekend. Also, I'm pretty surprised I hadn't used this blog post title before, considering the song came out in 2006 I think.