That's What She Said

super(bowl) long run

2012-02-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

sunday, 2/5
patapsco rolling road pull-off
8:30am roll-out for a 15-mile get-up

sport your team colors
maybe tom will bring his baby football on the run and someone can get hurt playing with it during the run

let me know if we should expect you
discuss in comments if you're running further and starting early or late

roll tide

Exercise: The Wonder Drug

2012-01-31T22:13:00.000-05:00

Editor's note: the following is a post from Allison Brooks, a fresh-on-the-scene biomedical anthropologist. Through her studies, she has gotten into nutrition and natural health, and asked to do write a guest post on our blog to share her passion for the subject.

Exercise: The Wonder Drug

Although it was once discouraged during treatment for cancer, exercise is now highly recommended as a way for cancer patients to fight the effects commonly suffered during chemotherapy and radiation. Physical activities such as running, walking, swimming, and other forms of aerobic exercise have proven to give patients benefits that reach far beyond the physical. In addition, studies now show that cancer patients who exercise and remain physically fit have a lesser chance of recurrence. Included here are some of the benefits experienced when you exercise 150 minutes over the course of the week.

Mood Improvement

Depression and anxiety are naturally experienced after diagnosis and during treatment, especially when the cancer has a low life-expectancy rate. Negative emotions can be detrimental on overall health but it's hard to simply push feelings aside. Walking or running in the fresh air and sunshine can provide an important boost in mood by releasing negative feelings. As endorphins flow stress slips away and is replaced by feelings of calm and happiness.

Release of Stress

Stress is a common problem faced before and during cancer treatment. When a cancer patient feels unable to control what's going on in their body it can greatly impact the quality of their life. Many types of exercise help reduce stress. Swimming is an effective way to remain physically fit and is easy on the joints.

Improved Cardio Health

Sound cardiovascular health is important because it provides the body with energy. As a cancer patient deals with day-to-day activities it's common to experience fatigue. Participation in exercises such as biking or running improves cardio health and can get the patient outdoors and around other people.

Redirect Your Focus

It's natural to focus on illness when you're dealing with cancer but it's better for the body and mind to focus on wellness. Exercising helps patients to think about feeling better and getting better, rather than on cancer itself. This positive mindset is beneficial even after cancer treatment is complete.

The extensive studies conducted regarding the impact exercise has on cancer patients has served to prompt the medical society to rethink the stance they once held about physical activity. Instead of recommending that a cancer patient rest up and take it easy, physicians now recognize the importance of getting their patients involved in a physical fitness program they enjoy. The long-term benefits of reduced risk of cancer recurrence coupled with the beneficial ways in which it makes dealing with treatment easier makes exercise a vital part of every treatment plan.

Allison can be reached at naturallie23@gmail.com

Project 2012

2012-01-30T14:21:00.000-05:00

By now you have probably read the email, but as we are now a month out from Club Challenge, we have unveiled a new mission: Project 2012.

Project 2012 represents the goal for our team, which is to put at least 20 men under 60 minutes, and 12 women under 70 minutes. The team we have assembled appears to be the most talented we've ever fielded, and perhaps one of the strongest in Club Challenge history. However, the nature of Club Challenge is to never assume, and results are never given, but rather earned, on the streets of Columbia.

Looking back in the record books, you will see that only once in the history of Falls Road Running competing in the event has it put all of its male scoring members under an hour (2010). It is no coincidence that the team placed first among the male teams. The Howard County Striders are more than prepared to protect their turf, and I expect they will have a formidable team ready to go on February 26th.

For the women, I erroneously stated the only 4 count - instead, 6 women comprise a scoring team. This makes our task no easier, as there is less margin for error. One "off" day can mean the race, especially when the teams of Westminster RRC, Montgomery County, and the Striders, will all be gunning for us. Our women have a target on their back, and it will take a number of PR performances to capture the title again.

It is no secret that this race is very important to our group, and that our goal each year is to win it. And each year, the race gets faster and deeper. It is the most competitive race of its distance, pound for pound, in the area. By now, most of us have raced it at least once, but there will be a number of CC virgins competing this year. The important thing to remember is that every runner counts. In this cross-country style scored event, low score wins. Every runner you can push back from an opposing team is less points in their pocket, even if you're not one of the scorers for our team.

Our team is about as full as its going to get, I don't see too many names missing from the list, and based on who we have, the goal of Project 2012 appears to be something we can achieve, but far from easy. We will need some women to step up big, as well as some men who have not historically run fast there.

For those of you who feel that you are "too slow" and that you will hurt the team, that is absolutely FALSE! You cannot hurt the team, believe me, I do the hypothetical scoring scenarios for this race well in advance. It is, however, a great team event and a chance for you to bond with your other teammates over the challenging hills of the Columbia neighborhoods. Besides, you never know what you're capable of until you get out there and do it.

PROJECT 2012!

And now, a quick review of the races from over the weekend. Chris Snyder and Tim Burns each doubled in the Mile/800m at the Bucknell Bison Open Meet. Chris ran 4:29.96 and 2:01.28, while Tim ran 4:39.04 and 2:06.81. At the Hagerstown Community College Invite, Alex Battaglino, fresh off a birthday, ran a 4:35.88 mile to finish 3rd. And while we took a year off from the craziness of the Miami Marathon weekend, Emily Boss ran a 1:48:56 in the half. We hope you enjoyed the trip, Emily!

While these performances were all perfectly fine, I had to stray from the beaten path a bit for this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week. The lowly Towson Tigers Men's Basketball team had lost 41 straight games - an NCAA D-I record - that is, until Saturday. They were victorious by I think one basket, and snapped their supreme losing skid. All it takes is one, fellas. Great job, Towson, you are our PDAW for this week!

TWSS Volunteer Project

2012-01-27T10:18:00.003-05:00

As mentioned a couple weeks ago, we will be participating in a volunteer effort. The project that has been arranged is through Happy Helpers for the Homeless.

I have attempted to keep track of the people who have offered to help out. If you have not talked to me yet, it is not too late, just leave a comment or e-mail me!

Working with Happy Helpers is a 2-step process. On Saturday, sandwiches are made and packaged to get ready for distribution, as well as any other donations that have come in. On Sunday, at Our Daily Bread (in Baltimore City) they meet and distribute the food and other items. They do this every single weekend.

Our weekend with them is NEXT WEEKEND, February 4th & 5^th. The time commitment is:

Saturday - 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Sunday - 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

On Saturday the sandwiches are made at a location in Glen Burnie, so that is very close. (I'll be able to send directions and more details later).

According to my records, our volunteers are:

Saturday: Ryan, Carly, Tom, Patti, Joel, Christa, PJ(?)

Sunday: Ryan, Carly, NBP, Dustin, Brennan (I think you wanted Sunday?)

Meg McNew and Denise, if you are still interested let me know which day(s) you are available!

Please let me know ASAP if something has come up and you will not be able to make your day. It’s not a big deal, but I just want to have a proper count for Bobbi, the leader.

*Remember* this is Superbowl Sunday. We will be done in plenty of time before the game, just something to keep in mind. Additionally, if people can keep this in mind when scheduling/coordinating long runs next weekend that would be great!

The only thing they ask if we can bring would be for Saturday, and that is lunch meat. I don’t really eat cold cuts, so I don’t really know what that means, but I’ll get some clarification and send an e-mail out on Monday to let people know how this can be accomplished.

Sunday Long Run from Gilman

2012-01-26T11:09:00.003-05:00

A group of us are starting a long run from Gilman at 9:00 on Sunday morn. The pace will probably be around 7:00/mile for the first portion of the run and gradually increase to about 6:40. I intend to run 18 to 20 miles, but we can begin with a 12 or 13 mile loop if others are planning a shorter run. Please let me know if you plan to join us.

Sunday Long Run

2012-01-25T16:02:00.002-05:00

Sunday: 18 to 20 miles

Easy run, pace in the low 8min to high 7min and gradually progress to nothing faster than 7:00/mile. Avg around 7:30/mi.

Starting at 7am or (church around 10am-1pm) not until 1:30-ish. Right now I'm leaning toward the 1:30-ish start timeframe.

Begin and end at my apt downtown (Charles @ Saratoga St), but can run to/from wherever others may be to get required mileage.

Let me know if you have any interest is jumping in for any or all of the run. Post here, or email dart.1331@gmail.com

Get Faded

2012-01-23T10:21:00.000-05:00

There was more fading going on at Saturday's Terrapin Invitational at the PG Sports and Learning Complex than Kid and Play's haircuts...

The morning's first event was the 5000m, which saw Tristram Thomas take a brief stab at the lead, bringing the field through 1600m in 4:49, before slowing down to hit 3200 at 10:00, and ultimately finish 10th at 15:53.16.

The mile was up around noon, and Arjun Majumdar, racing in his first indoor race since March 2008, ran a fairly even split 4:46.28. In the next heat, Ed Aramayo was in a battle for position from the gun. He came through the half (809m) in 2:11.5, which had him in a good spot to challenge his 4:23 from last year's Terrapin Invite. Unfortunately, a brief mental lapse around the 3/4 mark saw his split slip a little, and he finished up at 4:28.62 for 12th. Chris Snyder, who ran a 4:40 1600 just two weeks ago at the PG Meet, apparently gets into shape real quick, as he finished 3rd in 4:21.76.

Later in the day, after I left, Greg Jubb took 3rd in the 800 with a 1:56.50, and Louis Foudos ran 2:06.50 for 35th. In the 3000m, Liz Laseter finished 4th in 10:34.31.

Somewhere on the ultra circuit, Dave Ploskonka finished 2nd at the winter edition of the Beast of Burden 100 miler. In the summer version of 2010, Dave won and ran a PR of 16h19m. This weekend, with a snow covered path, he ran 17h20m. The winner was an astounding 14h56m or something insane.

Out in sunny Carlsbad, California, Andy Gell ran the Carlsbad Half Marathon (a race we've been talking about going out to!) in 1:33:09 to finish 198th.

With a great race on Saturday, this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week honor is going to Chris Snyder. 20 seconds in two weeks? One way to assure yourself a PDAW is to set the bar low and then rise above it!

We had an awesome showing yesterday on the Club Challenge course - 22 people did some kind of workout, which was run in 26 degree temps. Very chilly in the hills of Columbia.

We're on the track tomorrow at 6:30 (warmup) and there will inevitably be a zillion different workouts so you can figure out what you want to do tomorrow. I know Dustin is doing 40 minute tempo starting at 5:40/mi and working down to 5:20/mi. He plans on arriving at 6:15 to do a 30 minute warmup and then starting his workout around 6:50pm. So if you usually work out with Dustin, plan accordingly. I am going to start getting back into running again, so I'll be starting with something light, perhaps 2-3 miles of 200 on/200 off a la Brennan's "workout" last week.

Seriously, are they Black Simon and Garfunkel?

Ball So Hard U.

2012-01-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

Pete was ordering singlets the other day and it needed a team name. And not like a "TWSS" team name, a team belonging to a school. I said why not use Ball So Hard University, they play in the Hip Hop North Conference. With the BSHU mantra on the forefront of Baltimore's mind this weekend, let's hope they cause New England to have a long winter!

We ordered some singlets. We should have them in time for Club Challenge. Speaking of Club Challenge...

This is me officially reminding Conrad, Nate, and Tristram, to sign up! We are almost full with our whopping 23 guys and 18 girls. Even Chrissie signed up! PS, I love that you signed up as Christy.

This is also a reminder about our workout scheduled for Sunday. This workout will take place regardless of the conditions, which I'm hearing may be less than stellar. Come prepared, dry clothes for post-run, towel, etc. Bring water bottles and I'll carry them in the car for you. In order to get the day moving, please be there prior to 9am, and warmed up and ready to run right at 9.

In addition to the challenge of Club Challenge, I challenge you to another challenge:

How many guys can we get under 60 minutes? And how many girls can we get under 70 minutes?

Howard County, as usual, is fielding a very strong team for both men and women, and Westminster RRC's women's team is always solid. Last year, our women's team was very strong and expects to be competitive again, while our men were outraced by HCS. In order to avoid that from happening again, I think we'll need to have all of our scorers (12) under 58:30. For the women (only 4 scorers, a truly unfavorable setup) we'll need to have them under 1:06, if not faster.

No matter the outcome, I am positive we'll have some great performances that will set the bar for the rest of the season! So let's get things started with Sunday's workout, and then a Ravens victory!

Houston: We Have A Problem

2012-01-19T10:36:00.000-05:00

By now we've all read Chrissie's recap of her Olympic Trials race, which was a great read, and created some of the highest volume of traffic to the blog in our history. Meg McNew was on hand and was able to grab a couple of photos, here's a good one:

Chrissie lettin' 'em know: I want that award this year!

Of course, Chrissie's race wasn't the only one going on, as 5 of us traveled down to haunted Charleston, SC, for the 2nd Annual Charleston Marathon and Shrimp & Grits 5k. The marathon went off at 8am, starting downtown and heading north into Terribletown. Conrad Laskowski and I started together, but it was quite evident that he was on good legs. And even though he could have easily walked away with the win there, he kept turning around and looping back to check in on me. So thoughtful, that C-Bag. He probably ran 30 miles on the day, but his official time was 3:00:01 for 10th place. I fell apart less bad than I usually do to run a 3:03:43 and finish 15th.

In the Shrimp and Grits 5k, which started up at the marathon finish line at 8:30, it was a clinic on How-To-Win, led by Ed Aramayo and Alyssa Godesky, featuring special guest, Andy Sovonick. Ed cruised to the win in 15:12, and Alyssa won in 19:05. Andy ran with Alyssa for 2 miles before dropping the hammer to run a 5 minute last mile (17:27, 7th). We assumed, correctly, that the course was short, and we confirmed it to be 3 miles. Even tacking on the extra 0.1, it was a great early season time for Ed, and a new PR, easily, by Alyssa.

Post-Crushing Butts, pre-Shrimp and Grits

As previously discussed, we will be holding the first of two Club Challenge course runs THIS Sunday, January 22nd, at Howard County Community College. Here is the pertinent information:

Sunday, January 22
HCCC, off of Little Patuxent River Parkway
RUNNING BY 9AM

What I mean by this is, on the starting line, ready to run, by 9am. If you need additional miles or warm up, arrive earlier. There is no guarantee that the Phys Ed building will be open, meaning no guarantee we will have bathrooms available, although last year I remember there being some port-o-pots around.

There are many people attending, and likely many different ideas for workouts. In merely offering a suggestion, last year for our first workout we did 3-4x2mi on the course, using the first 2 miles as a warmup, and then starting the workout at mile 2. Doing the suggested workout will either take you to mile 8 or the finish. A 2 mile cooldown puts you at 14. Dustin and Nate are going to be running longer, in the 17-18 range. Some may be running shorter. Whatever your flavor is, have at it. I will be going down as a course marshal, driving along the workout to make sure nobody gets lost. This also means I can carry water bottles and nutrition for those who would like to bring it along.

If you have any questions, just ask. For directions and course information, and also to REGISTER if you have not, I refer you to www.striders.net/races/rrca/2012

New York City Marathon

2012-01-18T17:22:00.001-05:00

The guaranteed entry standards are changing in 2013 and it will be tougher for those of us who are getting slower (that includes most of us). If you can meet the 2012 standards for guaranteed entry, but can’t meet the 2013 standards, you might want to think about entering this year. I know if I don’t do it this year, it will be age 45 before I have a chance at another guaranteed entry, and who knows if I’ll still be able to hit 2:58 by the time 45 roles around. To get the guaranteed entry to the 2012 race, the 2012 standards have to be met by January 31, 2012. (You don’t have much time if you haven’t already met them).

Age Marathon 1/2 Marathon
Current New Current New
18-39 2:55 2:45 1:23 1:19
40-44 3:10 2:50 1:30 1:23
45-49 3:10 2:58 1:30 1:25
50-54 3:30 3:06 1:40 1:29
55-59 3:30 3:14 1:40 1:33
60-64 3:45 3:24 1:48 1:39
65-69 3:45 3:35 1:48 1:42
70+ 4:00 3:46 1:55 1:48

Only a ___________ Drops Out of a Race

2012-01-16T11:34:00.008-05:00

It looks like I’m not going to London. Qualifying in the last six weeks with only two seconds to spare and entering the race with the highest seed number (F200) who could have possibly seen that coming?

Such ambitious dreams, such an underwhelming performance, so many friends and family supporting me both in person and from afar, it begs the questions: Why would I drop out of the most important race of my life and how do I feel about it? Because my body told me to, and pretty darn good.

To quote Linda Holmes in the funniest sports editorial I have ever read regarding UConn’s win over Butler in the 2011 NCAA men’s basketball championship:

It takes a series of hard-fought wins to even be in the position to put on that kind of unmemorable championship-game performance.

This is precisely how I feel about my experience. Like all but a few serious contenders, qualifying for and being part of the trials was the goal I was striving for. I was there first to enjoy the privilege of taking the line with all of the best runners in the USA and second, to see how competitive I could be within my ability range.

I have no regrets. I ran my race according to plan. I went out conservatively, progressed through the race and was catching up to and passing people from miles 8 through 20 where things started to fall apart. It turns out that when you only do one training run longer than 2 hours 15 minutes your body isn’t prepared for the last six miles of a marathon. Oops. And by “oops” I mean I really shouldn’t have gotten hit by that car and cost myself 5 months of preparation. I’ve made a personal note to be less cavalier with my training “plan” in 2016.

But still, why did I drop out? It was the Olympic Trials. So many friends and family members have supported me in getting here. Didn’t I owe it to them to at least walk/jog my way across the finish line? I did it because I know the difference between injury pain and “I’d sure like to not be doing this anymore” pain. Furthermore, I have the confidence that there will be other even more important races in my future. I wasn’t in contention for an Olympic team or even for placing in the top 10 for the USA Championships. I was out there for myself striving for a personal best. I have dreams of getting to that next level, but I’m not there yet, and staying healthy is an essential part of the process.

Of all of the decisions I’ve had to make in my life and especially in the past year, dropping out of the race was neither regrettable nor damning. I used to put so much pressure on myself to perform. I would run on stress fractures, under eat, and over train. I hated any sign of weakness or bodily suggestion that I was human. I more than occasionally sulked and cried after disappointing races (which was any race where I didn’t run a personal best) and on several occasions fell into serious episodes of depression. Over the years, I learned that I don’t need to torture myself with my “livelihood”. Now I trust that life itself will provide a healthy dose of suffering and never cease to blindside me with strange new catastrophes. Running has become my escape. If I perform well, that’s great, if I have a bad day, I still got outside, released some endorphins and likely spent time with some amazing people.

Saturday was one of those days. I may have exceeded my body’s physical threshold then exhausted my capacity for pain four miles too soon, but I still had the opportunity to toe the line with all of the best runners in the country and some of the best in the world. I’ll be back with a vengeance in 2016 and looking forward to what the next four years have in store.

Life is hard. Running should be fun.

Mebmerica

2012-01-14T12:27:00.003-05:00

www.mebmerica.com

Weekend Update

2012-01-13T18:46:00.000-05:00

Greetings from chilly and windy Charleston, South Carolina!

Tom Stott asked me to delete his post about a long run Sunday. He is no longer able to make it. But don't let that stop you from running if you were planning on it! Simply start a new post, or tweet at BMoreRunning and it'll show up on the blog.

The report from Houston is very good right now. Chrissie is all set up with her personalized water bottles and the conditions seem like they are going to be very conducive to a good race. There are 47 water tables at each aid station for the hundreds of athletes, and each aid station is a quarter mile long as a result! Chrissie also went to get Meb to sign her picture (the one of him passing her at NYC 2009 that was published in Runner's World) and he inadvertently handed off the picture...AND his race packet, including his bib. The two parted ways and quickly one of his entourage came back to retrieve the packet. Phew!

Chrissie's bib is #200. From what I understand, there MAY be runner tracking via www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com tomorrow, but I'm not totally sure. However, every running news outfit and their mother is on site, so if you follow any running Twitter feeds, I'm sure you'll see it. They started two new ones today, @USMenMarathon and @USWomenMarathon which are allegedly going to feed live splits. Of course, if you don't want to know results, don't go on Twitter or the Internet! And wait to watch highlights on NBC at 3pm.

GO CHRISSIE!

Meg's Picks - Playoff Edition

2012-01-11T12:12:00.000-05:00

With 4 great gridiron matchups on the slate for this weekend, we couldn't contain Meg to just one Pick of the Week. Here's her predictions for the NFL Playoffs Round 2:

Denver at New England

New England. Despite Tim Tebow's amazing winning OT drive to advance against the Steelers, Tim does not stand a chance against the team that crushed them in week 15 of the regular season. Also, Tom Brady is sexier than Tim Tebow - MM

Houston at Baltimore

Baltimore. They get to play a home game against a team that is in the playoffs for the first time in its history. I, Meg McNew, will personally be in Houston and would prefer that they experience the heartache of defeat - MM

New Orleans at San Francisco

49ers. New Orleans was the "team of destiny" a couple of years ago, and even though Drew Brees is a lights-out QB, the 49ers, named for the Gold Rush of the late 1840s that drove population into the SF/Bay Area, have really put themselves into the upper echelon of football - MM

NY Giants at Green Bay

Packers. How can you root against the team with the best record in football, and the defending World Champions? Pack beat the Giants in New Jersey in early December, and now the Giants will have to go to the frozen tundra that is Wisconsin. Discount Double Check! - MM

The expressed views above are entirely the thoughts and words of Meg McNew, nobody else.

A Story You've Probably Never Heard

2012-01-10T14:56:00.002-05:00

I took the link out of the title, read it here. Story courtesy of TrackFocus.com

I came across this first person account of a "race" that I doubt most people knew Steve Prefontaine ran, in Oregon, in 1974. It was a relay from Eugene to Corvallis simply called The Great Race, organized by fraternities from both Oregon and Oregon State as a fundraiser for Muscular Dystrophy. The relay was run in conjunction with the annual football game between the two schools, dubbed The Civil War, and was timed so that the race actually took a break on Friday, and resumed during the 2nd quarter of the game on Saturday for the last 4 miles. This way, the winning team(s) would come into the stadium during halftime.

Read the rest for yourself. The story is told by Steve Bence, a runner for the University of Oregon and lifelong Nike employee. Also playing a part in the story was Matt Centrowitz, Sr.

The story proves to illustrate that even for a runner with the accolades of Pre, the thrill is the joy of competing. A plastic trophy of insignificant value holds in it great memories like this one.

It kind of reminds me of this race we do every year in February...

Why do YOU compete?

A Place Called Kokomo

2012-01-09T10:42:00.001-05:00

In the Florida Keys, Arjun Majumdar ran the Miami-Key West Ragnar Relay with some friends. While we were here, suffering through spring-like temperatures, Arjun got to run 3 legs of varying distances, at high rates of speed, with friends, surrounded by quietly beautiful scenery.

This weekend also kicked off the indoor season for those athletes not averse to running fast around a small oval. Ed Aramayo traveled up to NYC's Armory for the Metro Coaches Invitational. Ed raced the 1000m, running 2:34.61 and finishing 3rd in his heat (10th overall). He therefore established a Team record for the distance. Later in the meet, he was tapped to run a leg of the 4x800m relay for Central Park Track Club, where he split 2:02. In the same meet, Alan Webb made his return to racing, finishing 2nd in the 800m.

At the PG Complex on Sunday, Tristram Thomas (4:32), Tim Burns (4:38), and newcomer Chris Snyder (4:40) ran the 1600m. Results may never show up for this one, as Potomac Valley Track Club no longer puts on these meets, but that was the report I received from TT. And they channeled their inner Spider Sillery, arriving just 5 minutes before the gun.

Dave Ploskonka clearly feels no need to sit on his laurels, as he headed to Texas for the highly competitive Bandera 100k. According to an ultra insider, Dave's 10h17m race and 11th place finish is "very, very good." I'll take it! Editor's note: I just found out that this event served as the 2012 USATF 100k Trail National Championship, so even cooler!

The BRRC was holding its Frozen Finger 5M on Saturday, but there were a few inconsistencies: 1) it wasn't 5 miles and 2) it was hardly frozen. With morning temps in the 50s, and a course change to a more cross-country style loop course at the Park School, it wasn't quite the event some were expecting, but I did hear that Denise Knickman took the win.

In a land Down Under, Kevin Frick started his year off with the Sydney Resolution Run 11k, running 50:20 for 29th place.

But the big result(s) of the weekend belonged to Pete Mulligan. A few of Pete's long run friends were going to do two marathons this weekend. The first was the Mississippi Blues Marathon in Jackson, MS, on Saturday. Pete described the course as "Baltimore from 16-22, except starting at mile 2 and not ending until 24"- in other words, very hilly! With temperatures well into the 70s, combined with the course profile, Pete's goal of getting under 4 was scaled back. He finished just over 4:08, and after a short break, hopped in the car for the 3.5 hour drive to Mobile, Alabama, for Sunday's First Light Marathon. While the course was pancake flat, with a marathon already in the legs, and the temperature hitting 76 degrees, Pete was not feeling it. Physically, he said, he was alright, but mentally it was a long day for him, as he finished in 4:12:35 for 135th place. But, for doing the double, Pete was rewarded with an EXTRA medal, and with his bib from Sunday's race, he earned a complimentary ticket to the GoDaddy.com Bowl, featuring Arkansas State and Northern Illinois.

With 52.4 miles of racing, 3 medals, 2 t-shirts, and a Bowl game appearance, Pete has earned the first Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.

This week is an exciting one as Chrissie Ramsey heads down to Houston for the 2012 US Olympic Trials Marathon. And the Houston Texans head here, to Baltimore, in the NFL Playoffs. I predict Houston is going to get blazed coming and going. Go Chrissie!

TRACK WORKOUT UPDATE: While it looks like the popular vote is to do a workout Tuesday, Ed and Arjun are going to look to Wednesday as their preferred day at the track. If you generally do your workouts with them, get in touch with Ed for details.

Brand Yourself on Nick Symmonds

2012-01-06T13:40:00.000-05:00

You may have seen the other day that multiple US 800m Champ and previous member of Olympic Teams, Nick Symmonds, has put his most valuable realty up for sale, to the highest bidder, of course. And ladies, before you get any ideas, I'm not talking about his package (Maggie Vessey has dibs on that).
I'm talking about his shoulder.

Yes, folks, now YOU can stamp your name on this hot commodity for the ENTIRE 2012 season, which includes highly visible meets such as the Prefontaine Classic, USA Olympic Trials, the Monaco Diamond League Meet, and, assuming he makes it, the Olympic Games in London. All you have to do is bid! If you are the winner, Symmonds will temporarily tattoo your Twitter username on his shoulder.

After a highly publicized battle between athletes and the USATF last month, during which athletes fought for their right to earn a living from sponsors, the USATF let up on their rigid rules a tad. And this is what resulted. Symmonds was probably THE most vocal athlete during the proceedings, and earned William Wallace status among the other athletes. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that he would be the first to do something like this.

He shared the link on his Twitter account (@nysmm800) and bidders were quick to the computer. The current bid sits at $1875 (50 bids), and with 8 days left in the bidding, it would be reasonable to expect this to go up. The question is, how much is this kind of exposure really worth?

The short answer: a lot more than $1875. People are probably looking at this as a novelty. Say Symmonds pulls in $3000 for this bid. Symmonds gets $3000. The winner will have their Twitter name tattooed on Symmonds' shoulder. In an average track meet, total exposure time for Symmonds is likely 5 minutes (2 minute race, pre/post-race interview, pre-race or pre-commercial promotions). While here in America, our track and field viewership might be a little smaller than the rest of the planet, particularly Europe, that still amounts to 5 minutes on national television (NBC, Universal Sports, ESPN). Not to mention the incredible amount of exposure he's going to receive for pulling this move to begin with. Symmonds is a well-spoken athlete, attractive, and likeable. The reporters gravitate to him. His energy is contagious. He doesn't even have to do well in the race, it doesn't matter.

If I were a company, a brand, any kind of marketer, I would be licking my chops to get a piece of this property. Think about it. Millions, if not a billion people, will be watching the Olympics. Smaller numbers will watch the other meets, but they are still big events. Every time the camera pans across his lane, you'll see the tattoo. The camera will focus on it. Then, every single person who is watching at home and has either their smartphone or laptop handy will go to that Twitter handle.

For whoever wins this bid, you better be prepared to give the world something good. I really hope some emo little girl doesn't win this and gain tens of thousands of followers.

Nate Brigham weighed in with his thoughts:

"I think it's sad an athlete feels like he has to go down this road to support himself. It's a shame that he's not sponsored better given the level of success he has achieved.

However, I do think it's brilliant. I think Twitter's simplicity and mobility are [its] greatest strengths, and the idea of putting a Twitter handle invites viewers to learn more. I know if I see a Twitter handle somewhere I wouldn't expect it, I search it. I wonder how the IAAF, USOC, and USATF will all try to outlaw this, as we've seen in the past, they're not about protecting athletes; they're about making money. If they're losing sponsorship/advertising dollars to individual athletes, this upsets their universe. Imagine McDonald's pulling some of their ads because all of the USA Olympic basketball team has temporary tattoos of @mcdonalds on their arms? Everyone would freak out! Symmonds is ahead of the curve on this, (90s reference coming here...) much like 'My So Called Life' was a show ahead of its time."

What do YOU think? Sound off in the comments section. Should we all chip in and get @BMoreRunning on his arm? And, more importantly, why isn't Maggie Vessey (@maggiekicks) doing this?? Her body is a hot commodity, too!

SUNDAY long run

2012-01-05T09:12:00.001-05:00

ah - two long run posts! no excuses for people not to make it to one of these! :)

patapsco - sunday morning - time slightly negotiable, but i'd rather just get out and do it earlier - 8:00, 8:30, 9:00am?

Editor's note: Dustin is unable to do a long run this weekend due to work obligation, and Nate is unsure if he's going to do a long run. And as I am out for the weekend, I promote Tom's long run at Patapsco. Tom, et al., use comments to determine final time, and for those thinking about attending, let Tom know you're going so he knows whether to expect you before he drives 45 minutes up here to come meet nobody to run.

Also, a 2012 challenge: GUN RD. If you run Gun Rd on any Patapsco run, send me your Gun Rd time and I'll keep it in a spreadsheet. We can have a challenge for who runs it the fastest (during an actual run) and who runs it the most. Remember, official timing is from the manhole cover just beyond the train tracks, and the manhole cover near the stop sign at the end of the road. Honor system.

Long Run

2012-01-04T19:52:00.000-05:00

For rather boring reasons that I would be more than happy to share with you later, I would like to do my long runs on Saturdays. I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in 16ish miles (7-8 minute pace) sometime Saturday morning, somewhere in/around Baltimore? If anyone is interested, post here or email me at [thekris.simms@gmail.com].

Club Challenge is OPEN

2012-01-04T15:57:00.000-05:00

Club Challenge has opened their registration (www.striders.net/races/rrca/2012/) so to avoid the issue of last year with registration closing, sign up early.

However, a warning: while we are happy to pick up the nominal entry fee for each runner for this event, if you do not show up, WE STILL GET CHARGED. So please, only sign up for this race if you are seriously going to do it. We historically have a very low no-show rate, and I know most of you wouldn't do that to me, but I have to say it. I WILL send a collections agency after you if you don't show up!

Party Like it's 2012

2012-01-04T12:23:00.000-05:00

Remember that song that came out at the end of 2010? Nikki Minaj was on it. Did their label just not realize that 2012 was a year away? Did not hear that song ONCE this year.

Anyway, there was a lot of running going on as we left 2011 and said hello to 2012:

Brennan Feldhausen ran the Run into the New Year 5k in Milwaukee, with his sisters in tow. He felt that the race distance was accurate, but the mile markers were not, as he hit 3 miles in 16:30, but didn't finish until 18:11. That's an RM style last 0.1.

In York, PA, Stacie Wentz, who seriously never races, ran the Double Deuce, a 2 mile run that starts at 11:45pm. She didn't get to the finish by midnight, but her unofficial time of 16:24 would be a team 2 Mile record (road)! But rules are rules and I need to see official times for it to be ratified. Stacie technically was the first race finisher of 2012 that means.

Collin Anderson did some 24 hour Run Through the Years in AZ, where he ran 100k and then called it a day. Then he texted "I ran 63 miles yesterday and now I'm rdrukn."

Our 2nd Annual NYE Run had a terrific showing of something like 15 or 17 people, I couldn't believe it! Meeting at 2pm from THE Washington Monument (yes, that's right, Baltimore had it first), we took a scenic trip along the Jones Falls, through Clipper Mill, up into Druid Hill Park and down through Hopkins.

The next morning was a whole new year, which meant clean slate Top 10 lists. Dan Miranda set a great early mark for the 5k, running 16:44 in a 3rd place effort at the Resolution Run 5k. Jack Flowers was 5th in 17:25, and Joel Gladfelter rounded out the top 10 in 18:30. On the ladies side, Christine Trzcinski took 3rd in 21:42, Emily Keyes ran 23:16, and Karen Menge, getting her 2012 goals cracking, 23:46.

At the BRRC Father Time Frolic 5 Miler (Prediction Run), Tristram Thomas unsuccessfully predicted that he would run 37:30. He got to the line, knew he was quick, jogged around a little, but still finished in 35:39. His miscue landed him in 41st place.

I found a few other results from 1/1/12, including Luke Belford's 5th place finish at the RASAC New Year's Day 10k (37:53) and results from the Winfield Mile, where Ryan Stasiowski won in 4:47.10 and Louis Foudos won some oreos, running 5:14.80.

Meanwhile, our Sunday Long Run group consisted of myself, Dusty, Nate, Seth, and Conrad, who drove up from Bethesda following a late night 007-themed party. Boss.

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week was for the 6-day week ending 12/31, and I took into account the voting that took place in the TWSS Christmas picture contest. It was a tie, 4 votes apiece, for Joel and Brennan, so the tiebreak went to Brennan for racing on Saturday. It was Brennan's first PDAW of 2011, and our last. This week will include races from 1/1.

Most impressive, perhaps, was the 18 person showing at the first track workout of the new year (it was 18, not 17, Tristram was right). With temperatures barely clipping 23 degrees, and a wind chill far, far below that, I was impressed by the showing. Truly, Winter Track Warriors.

Tristram and Tim Burns are looking to head down to PG on Sunday for a track meet. The BRRC Frozen Finger 5M is on Saturday. Sunday Long Run will be in effect, and I hear a group of girls will be going this week so there will be lots of people to run with!

Giving Back

2012-01-02T16:14:00.000-05:00

Hey friends! I have been wanting to organize something for quite some time now, and I'm finally get down to it. We all do a lot for the running community, but I think it would be neat if we also took some time to give back to the non-running community as well. I am currently looking into a few different options where we could volunteer as a group in Baltimore. It would be a one time thing (for now) so the time commitment would be pretty small and painless. But who knows, we may want to make it a regular thing! I'd look to do this during a February weekend if possible (not Club Challenge weekend).

Anyway, leave a comment or shoot me an email (alyssa dot godesky at gmail dot com) if you would like to be in the loop for this!!

The Hangover III

2011-12-30T15:51:00.000-05:00

Start the New Year off right with a Sunday long run. Several of us plan to depart Gilman at 11:00AM. If you are interested in forming a pace group, coordinate with others or post below. There has been talk of a group brunch after the run.

NYE Run

2011-12-30T13:23:00.000-05:00

We are looking at a 2pm start time for tomorrow's New Year's Eve run. Our tentative start location is going to be Mt. Vernon, with an anticipated 60-75 minute run at a relaxed, NYE pace. Check back in later for exact coordinates, but maybe we'll just say the Washington Monument for a meeting place as it's something everyone can find. If you're driving over, parking's not too bad in that vector. If you need a ride, let me know. Can also give a ride home to those running over most likely.

How Dusty Spent Christmas

2011-12-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

Please read the following, and then see the picture for Dustin's submission for the TWSS Christmas photo contest. The video he took was a very large file so he just sent the story and pic:

Tiltonsville, Ohio, is a small town located on the Ohio River, about 40 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Once part of the backbone of the American steel industry, this rust-belt town, just two miles from where I grew up, has seen better days. As you pass through through town, you'll notice a peculiar man-made hill in the center of a late-19th-century cemetery. A Native American cultural group that archaeologists have named the Adena constructed this earthen mound between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago. The Adena culture emerged about 1,000 BCE, when Native Americans in the eastern woodlands began creating pottery, which allowed them to grow and store crops and thus establish permanent settlements. Abandoning a nomadic lifestyle, the Adena were free to devote more time to art and religion and began building these elaborate burial mounds for their political and religious elite. Most of these earthworks fell victim to the farmers' plows in the 19th century. However, hundreds of mounds and other ceremonial earthworks have survived and dot the North American landscape from New York to Wisconsin.

So there it is: a small Ohio town without a stoplight can boast a Native American landmark that is older than both Santa and Jesus.

Your Mom Reads the Blog

2011-12-28T12:19:00.000-05:00

And I'm not even kidding.

What a GREAT showing of Winter Track Warriors last night, although, with mild weather conditions, it really wasn't too bad. Too people, Cheese and RM, even went shirtless. Many, many wet butts though.

This little post will contain a few tidbits of information. First and foremost, by virtue of racing on Christmas Day, notching a win, and setting a Course Record at the Biggest Christmas Day 5k in the US, Ed Aramayo was our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week. Ed won the Joyful 5k (untimed) in Minnesota in 16:30. The race could potentially be the only race run on Christmas Day anywhere. I guess you could say Ed was really "Joyful and Triumphant" - get it? That's a little O Come All Ye Faithful humor for you.

But the fun part of the day was watching the tweets come in with the hashtag #TWSSChristmas. It was a great way to keep us all connected over the weekend and see where everyone was, and what they were doing. As mentioned in the email, THIS week's PDAW is going to be awarded to the popular vote winner for the photo submission contest. The voting will be open until Saturday, and it will be the last PDAW of 2011. January 1 races will count towards the first full week of 2012.

Of course, I have received no votes yet, so I may have to take my 4 or 5 favorites and put them in a poll and see if that works better for voting. Otherwise I'll just have to do it myself. Sigh.

There will be a New Year's Day "Hangover" Run, this Sunday starting from Gilman. We have tentatively awarded a start time of 11am, so unless there is a compelling reason to adjust that time, we will stick to it with probably a 90 minute run (with optional 2 hour as Dusty/myself are going 2). This will enable anyone who watches NFL to get back in time for games. Apres run we will likely patronize a food establishment of some kind.

We haven't finalized plans for NYE Run, but will likely start in the more downishtown vicinity, afternoon, maybe an hour run or so. Chill.

Here is the link to the TWSS Christmas Photo Album, cast your votes!

TWSS Christmas 2011

On the Eve of Christmas

2011-12-21T22:49:00.000-05:00

Ed has apparently found the only race in America being held on Christmas Day, and it is the country's (and perhaps the world's) largest Christmas Day 5k: the Joyful 5k in St. Paul, MN. BUT, Ed has won enough accolades this year, and so we (and by we, I mean Brennan) came up with a great way to decide this week's PDAW.

We want YOU to submit a pic of yourself, your family, whatever, preferably via Twitpic, but of course not everyone is on Twitter, so email or text message will be accepted as well (to me, by end of day Sunday). Brennan's suggestion was to show where people are running, what kind of conditions - perhaps you had to run in the snow, or you're on a beach, or on a run with some high school friends. Maybe it's a picture of you and your child's first Christmas, or you and your family, or you dressed as Santa. It's your choice!

CREATIVITY is what we're looking for! If you're on Twitter include the hashtag #TWSSChristmas (you don't even have to include @BMoreRunning!) so it shows up below!

NOTE: As of 12/28 I have disabled the script so if you want to search for it, you have to do it ON Twitter.

Egg Nog Run

2011-12-20T17:59:00.000-05:00

Great, but long video, of an egg nog run or race in Provo. Guess this takes place of a beer mile. Not sure I would be up for this, but love the novel idea.

2012: Back to RACING

2011-12-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This is an open letter to all of our compatriots in racing. I hope the members of Howard County Striders, Georgetown Running Company, and anyone else who might read this blog, including, but not limited to Annapolis Striders, Baltimore Road Runners Club, RASAC, Westminster RRC, Montgomery County RRC, Potomac River Running, etc, read this message.

The response that we received from the recent post about the rising cost of race entry fees was emphatic. It seems that we aren't the only ones who are tired of paying for sub par events. All we need is a start/finish line, a distance, and a competitive field. Ed had started the discussion with members of GRC when he met them for a run recently, and also with Carlos, and after a few more emails got circulated, I was overwhelmed by the feedback.

The proposal is this:

1) Create a race series for the year, similar to a Grand Prix or the IAAF's Diamond League Meets.

2) Use pre-existing events that we know people will race already, and supplement by adding our own events, including track meets, cross country meets, and other road races.

3) Scoring tables could be figured out to rank individual leaders, but primarily this would be team-oriented. It would effectively add team competitions to races that don't already have them.

Most of all, the goal would be to enhance the quality of racing. Actually make races about the RACE. There are plenty of very fast events each year that are always going to be competitive, but outside of those, some of the races are either too low-key, or are huge clusters (like most "participation" races). If you want to be the best, you have to race against the best. Our ideas have included hosting track meets, rotating who hosts, as well as which events are held; cross country races; road events.

And really all it takes is coordinating efforts by establishing a schedule of races that would be part of a series. Races like Shamrock 5k, Cherry Blossom, Pike's Peek, of course would be on there, but then we'd look at including other races that can be agreed upon. We can make a calendar, and figure out which people will be there. We can establish a team captain for a given event, and as long as each team submits a roster prior to the event, then we can ensure fair scoring practices!

We also want to incorporate more social elements into the events as well. Sure, we're all rivals, but it's always fun to socialize and get to meet the people that push you to a great result. We need to bring racing back, and make it fun.

As always, comments and thoughts are welcomed and appreciated! And if you have other input, or would like to help and be a part of it, feel free to email me directly (rmcgrath732@gmail.com).

All We Do is Light it Up

2011-12-19T12:36:00.000-05:00

We were all there, or hopefully all read this morning's email, so rather than go through every single result from Celtic Solstice, I'll focus on the highlights:

Dave Berdan won his 5th Celtic Solstice, but it wasn't easy. Coming off the best fall racing season of his career, "The Teacher from Garrison Forest" was set to defend his title, but not if the rest of the deep field had their way. From the gun, HCS' Carlos Renjifo charged to the front of the race, and, joined by our own Tristram Thomas, the pair forged a small gap on Berdan. Dave admitted after the race that he was hurting, and contemplated just letting it go. But this is Celtic Solstice. This is Dave's race. You knew he wasn't going to race for 2nd or 3rd, he was going to go for the win. Coming off the Mansion Loop and into the Conservatory turnaround, Dave moved past Tristram and sat just a few strides back of Carlos. The race was now on, as Dave surged by Carlos to assume the lead, and he wasn't going to give it up. They hit the Reservoir Loop and Dave's confidence built with each stride, but neither Carlos, nor Tristram, was done just yet. With a quarter mile to go, runners turn down Wyman Park Drive towards the finish, and anything can happen on this downhill dash to the line. But Dave made sure he was going to keep his crown as he set a new Course Record (because it was a new, harder course) in 25:47, with Tristram moving past Carlos to finish 2nd in 26:00.

Dustin Meeker, third a year ago in 26:13, finished 4th this year in 26:14. Nate Brigham made his return to competitive racing, finishing 5th in 26:23. Running a big PR, with some encouragement from Conrad Laskowski, Dan Miranda finished in 9th at 27:01. Another one making moves was Seth Tibbitts, who received some pacing help from Alex Battaglino, as they finished at 27:22. That's over a minute faster than last year for Seth, so I expect some big things from him at CC this year! Rounding his fine 2011 out with another great Celtic Solstice performance was Tom Stott, who ran 29:16.

On the women's side, the race was all but determined as soon as Chrissie Ramsey made known she was running. This Olympic Trials Qualifier, and perennial contender for the Brita Grothe Best Ass Award, set not only the Course Record, but the Team 5 Mile Record, as she cruised to the win in 28:27. Second place went to Julia Webb, who as we all know is pregnant, showed that even soon-to-be-moms can still compete, as she ran a stellar 29:35. In non-Chrissie years, that kind of time is good enough to win. Denise Knickman was 6th, and first master, in 32:35, and one of the best performances of the day came from 8th place Christa Wagner, who ran 33:05. This is equivalent to her 2011 best 5k pace, for another two miles, on a very difficult course. Great job CW! Jackie Truncellito, Madeline "Tink" Dulac, and Melissa Tanner all finished within a few seconds of one another around 33:30, and then an off-season Meg McNew ran 35:03. Lillian Pinault had a great race as she ran a 35:42, which was 50 seconds faster than her best 5 mile time for the year. Another super performance came from Patty Sweeney-Stott, who learned on Saturday that in order to run fast, you should feel uncomfortable. She ran a 42:46, which is a big, BIG PR, for the woman who gave birth 6 weeks ago.

But as I mentioned in the email, the performance of the day, and the foregone conclusion for Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, went to Justin Gerbereux. Big Pappa has not raced in 2.5 years (Rockville 09 was his last). Fighting the back injury that nearly crippled him, and subsequent spine surgery, it was amazing and awesome to see him on the course on Saturday. And, flanked by two great members of Falls Road Brown, Kris Simms and Terence M. Baptiste, Justin ran a 32:11. That is insane. For their efforts, Kris and T, who coincidentally also like BBQ sauce, earned this week's KC Masterpiece Award. Christa Wagner earned a very well-deserved NOS Button Award.

It was the 12th year for Celtic Solstice, a race that Jim started with just over 100 people. It has now grown to 35 times that size, with over 3500 registered for Saturday's race. Most people do it for the premium. Some like the course. Some don't have anything else going on. Whatever the reason, big shoutout to Jim, Karen, Pete, Dan, all the Falls Road staffers, and anyone else who lent a hand in the past week (or couple of weeks) to put this event on. Now we just have to talk Jim out of trying to grow the race. It's too big! (that's what I hope she said?)

This week we have our HEADLAMP night tonight at FHR, and tomorrow there will be people going to the track for various workouts. Since this weekend is Christmas, after all, I don't necessarily expect anyone to be running around here, but if you DO stay in town, or are local, and want to get a run going, feel free to post on the blog. We will be back in action over New Year's weekend with some runs.

And a special tribute, to our GRC compatriot, and my friend, Jake "Red Fox" Klim, who announced over the weekend that he will be stepping down from his role as de facto captain of GRC's team... Jake was one of the first people I met when I arrived in 2005, in the faux parking lot at Patapsco following a run. Jake, by his own admission, was a run-of-the-mill athlete in college, who took his passion and commitment to an incredible level, putting himself in the mix with athletes of "higher pedigree." He has led by example, and with enthusiasm for the sport, and is largely responsible for the creation and cultivation of this amazing Georgetown Running team. No leadership effort of a group is truly individual, and I'm sure Jake would be quick to credit some of the other folks who have played a part in developing and organizing the group, but he has always served as the point man for competitive DC running. He knows everyone, is everywhere, and does it because he loves to run. Jake will continue to train and race with the team, so it's not like we won't get to see him (or continue to read his fox-fetish of a blog), but I just wanted to take a minute to recognize this great asset of Mid-Atlantice running. First Regis, now Klim...

And, in case you haven't read their 2011 Review blog, it's a good one! Complete with pictures, a few jabs at Baltimore, some spelling errors...but I digress. It is actually a good little read. Even if they did all of a sudden start having awards night too...haha

Gilman Sunday Run

2011-12-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

Great work out there today for those who raced and or helped, just giving an update on the run from Gilman tomorrow.

10am from the parking lot, starting loop is just under 13, here's a map for people interested in jumping in further down loop:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5221558

12th Annual Celtic Solstice

2011-12-17T11:17:00.000-05:00

Carlos Renjifo pushes the pace early, but Dave Berdan retains his crown. Dave and Brian Godsey are the only two to have won this event since 2005. Brian finished inside the top 10. Tristram Thomas, who went out with Carlos, yo-yo'd in the top 3 before making a final surger past Carlos to finish 2nd.

In the women's race, Chrissie Ramsey blazed to a 28:30ish and the win ahead of Julia Webb (and a half). Sherry Stick looked to be third.

Many terrific performances today, tons of PRs on what is a seriously difficult course now with the Mansion Loop in there. We saw our brother, Terence M. Baptiste, come home and help bring Justin Gerbereux across the line in 32 minutes - his first race in 2.5 years!

RESULTS ARE IN. I have posted our relevant results on the right hand side. Since this was a new course, it was automatic course records for Berdan and Chrissie, but for Chrissie, it was also a new TEAM record.

super sunday in the park

2011-12-17T11:14:00.000-05:00

hey guys and gals - well done in the hills of druid this morning

wanted to throw out a group run possibility for tomorrow at PATAPSCO -

couple things:
-T is in town AND cheese is going out tonight, so i'd be down for a late-morning/early afternoon run to appease people
-how does 12 noon sound okay? who is in?
-11-mile loop or slightly more - not too fast post-race of course, so let's get a big group out!

Awards Night Recap

2011-12-15T17:50:00.000-05:00

While Awards Night was the highlight of the weekend (and, the year, in my opinion), we did have some race performances that I should have highlighted:

Dave Ploskonka got his revenge on the Hellgate 100k, a race he withdrew from in 2009. The conditions were favorable, but this is a tough race. The race starts at 12:01am, which means the first 7 hours are run in complete darkness. The roads were tough enough to drive through the night, I couldn't imagine having run the trails. Dave moved up steadily through the field during the race, ultimately finishing 11th overall and 9th male in 13:11:16. Alyssa Godesky, meanwhile, was racing on the heels of an extremely successful, and long, triathlon season. Unsure of both her ultra fitness, and her trail running skills, she was not sure what to expect. After a pre-race dinner of Wendy's, her stomach was unsettled throughout the first half, and while she didn't look bad, she was uncomfortable. At the mile 42 point, Carly Page joined her for the remainder of the run, and the two laid waste to the competitors in close proximity. From the last aid station (7 miles to go) they passed 4 or 5 runners, including the woman who was in 4th, and put serious time into them. Alyssa's second straight fast finish earned her the "Coffee is for Closers" Award on Sunday night. It also landed her in 4th in 14:32:40.

In other trail racing news, Lisa Ievers tackled her a) first ever trail race and b) first run over a marathon in the Tashka 50k, somewhere in Georgia or Alabama or something. She took a few spills, and absorbed a pretty banged up ankle, but walked away with the W in 5:08:30, well ahead of the next female finisher. Not a bad first attempt!

Out in Washington State, US Club XC Nationals were going on, with men racing 10k and women racing 6k. Cool to see some names of old mixing it up again, along with some newer faces of the sport (including local, Matt Centrowitz, 4th in the men's race). GRC sent a team and had some solid performances. Former Baltimore resident, and dentist, Kyle Smits, ran 35:46 for 299th. Yikes. That would be a top 10 time in a lot of races around here! Julia Webb, expectant mother, ran 21:53 in her race.

The Annapolis Striders put on their Anniversary Run 15k, which PJ Anderer (this year's Ke$ha Award winner) finished 42nd in. And down in DC, Alex Waldt and Baltimore turncoat, Liz Laseter, placed 15th and 6th in their genders, respectively, in 28:25 and 31:01.

That led to this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week: Dave Ploskonka, and the NOS Button award went to Alyssa. Carly took home a very well-deserved KC Masterpiece Award.

Then it was onto the 5th Annual Awards Night. Major thanks to Jim, Karen and Pete for obviously all they already do, but particularly for them bringing alligator bits and turducken. It was a great feast! The attendance was great, and I was pretty proud of myself for being marginally better organized for this year. Here's a rundown of a few of our marquee awards:

MVP (M): Dustin Meeker
MVP (F): Denise Knickman

Most Improved (M): Pete Mulligan
Most Improved (F): Alyssa Godesky

Comeback of the Year (M): Kris Simms
Comeback of the Year (F): Chrissie Ramsey

Breakthrough Performer (M): Pat McLoughlin
Breakthrough Performer (F): Diane Heiser

Performance of the Year (M): Joel Gladfelter's 2:51:21 Miami Marathon (17 minute PR)
Performance of the Year (F): Chrissie Ramsey's 1:14:57 Philly Half (1:33 PR, qualifies for Olympic Trials)

And of course, we can't forget about the Brita Grothe Best Ass Award, which went to New Becky Parks, who also won some other awards, like the Ed Aramayo First Loser Award, and a few other awards involving whining.

Christmas Light Run

2011-12-15T14:56:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow we will be hosting our annual Christmas Light Run. The plan is to leave from the Babe Ruth statue at Camden Yards at 5:30 and run up Charles Street. Once we circle the Monument we will continue North (picking up Chrissie along the way) and work our way to Falls Rd. and head into Hamden to see the 34th St. lights. From there we'll work our way back and may even stop for a light show in the harbor. Round trip will be around 8ish miles...could be more, could be less - and you can join us along the way if you make arrangements.

The pace will be chill. Carols will be sung. Good times will be had. Let me/us know if we should be expecting you.

Merry Christmas.

Rollin' from Roland Park: Sunday Long Run

2011-12-15T08:24:00.000-05:00

A few of us have committed to a Sunday long run starting from Gilman's parking lot at 10:00. We will probably begin with a 12 or 13 mile loop, taking advantage of the surrounding hills. Those of us going longer will probably add a few miles after the initial loop. The pace will most likely be in the 7:00/mile range.

Tib Bits

2011-12-13T11:20:00.000-05:00

I will post an Awards Night/weekend recap, but first I wanted to get a few things up here:
1) Cherry Blossom: did you get in? If you didn't, let me know. I can't promise I can get you in, but if I'm able to, I will let you know.

2) Celtic Solstice post race soiree? Obviously we've got the actual post-race events to be at, including awards, whatever, but after that, we should get something going. If anyone has a suggestion, please make it in the comments. I open my house to gatherers, we could find a place to kick it and get lunch, whatever. Most importantly, TERENCE is going to be in town, so we obviously have to celebrate.

3) Tuesday Night Track aka Winter Track Warriors is on tonight, same bat time, same bat channel. 400s is what seems to be the plan, Tristram's workout is 4x(4x400).

sunday SUNday SUNDAY

2011-12-10T12:28:00.000-05:00

be there BE there BE THERE!

TRUCKASAURUS!

also - long run - where should we go? you know i like running in the mornings. say, 9am?

patapsco?

Saturday Long Run - Mt. Vernon

2011-12-09T12:29:00.000-05:00

Nate, Tristram and I are starting a long run from Mt. Vernon at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon. We are meeting at Charles and Monument. I am planning to run between 90 and 100 minutes (13-15 miles). Please feel free to join. Post any questions, and I'll try to respond by tomorrow morning.

I'll post more later

2011-12-09T11:51:00.001-05:00

I'll probably write up something on my blog and post that link here - but for now, I'll just say, stay safe. I put a few blurbs on my facebook - but I have no ability in facebook to comment to any thread or reply post or even type in the dialog box (have to type in word and paste). Idk why, maybe work applied a facebook filter to my computer???

Anyway, I'm safe, and okay - just mentally frazzled. Keep your guard up when you're out there running.

Light Friday Reading

2011-12-09T09:30:00.000-05:00

For your Friday reading enjoyment, two articles that I saw on the Twitter:

The first is about Erin O'Mara, who qualified for January's Olympic Trials by running a 2:43:55 at last weekend's California International Marathon. Pretty good, considering her first marathon, the 2006 Detroit Free Press Marathon, took her 4:08:08. A year later she dropped 46 minutes off. In marathon #4, she ran a 2:55. I'll let you read the rest! Oh, and for Ryan Schmidt, Ben Ingram, Nina Hartman, Andy Olson, and scores more - she's from Michigan.

The second is about Kara Goucher, who is running the tragically-long-titled Dodge Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon this weekend. She was originally slated to run the Las Vegas Half this past weekend, but her new coach wanted her to do the Miami race with training partners Shalane Flanagan and Lisa Uhl. The plan is to go in on super tired legs, on the heels of very high volume. Read how she's adapted to the new training regime.

Here's a great quote, from a question asking whether she and Shalane are friends: "When you're competing, you're competing. Everyone is wanting the same thing. Everybody wants to cross the line first. But that doesn't mean you can't help each other get to that point."

It's About To Go Down

2011-12-08T12:10:00.000-05:00

5th Annual AWARDS NIGHT is happening THIS coming Sunday, December 11th, from 5pm, at the Falls Road Running Store. It is one of my favorite nights of the year, a time when we get to praise our success and joke at our misfortunes (mostly mine). Who will bring home some of our favorite awards, such as the Terence Baptiste Lateness Award and the Most Outstanding Performer? Most importantly, which of our favorites will earn the most coveted award: The Brita Grothe Best Ass Award? Find out LIVE Sunday night! The Red Carpet event will be televised on E! starting at 4pm. We'll also be tweeting live with the hashtag #TWSSAwards so if you're watching Fuse TV you can see your tweets come up on the screen.

Here's what to expect, whether you're an Awards Night virgin, or a gristled veteran:

The store is open until 5pm, so you're welcome to arrive a little early, do some shopping, pick up your Celtic Solstice stuff. We'll probably kick things off with a brief meeting of sorts to discuss 2012, singlets, races, that kind of business. This should also allow for those going to/watching the Ravens game to get there. Then we'll get going with awards.

I expect about 40 people to come - so RSVP if you haven't already please!

I'll bring pizzas and sodas, but if you have dietary considerations, you may want to plan to bring something. I'm talking about you, gluten-free people. Eileen will probably prepare some incredibly elaborate-yet-seemingly-simple salad. People often ask, "what can I bring?" I would suggest perhaps a dessert type food, or something that goes well with pizza. However, if someone wants to volunteer to bring plates/napkins, and possibly a thing of plastic forks, that would be very cool. I just feel like I'll forget that, and I don't want to have to leave the BBQ to drive around Catonsville looking for them, only to get a traffic light violation ticket in the mail a month later...

Awards are usually wrapped up around 7pm, maybe just after. Also if you feel like bringing adult beverages, go ahead! Just be sure to drink responsibly.

And as usual, we will be doing Notecards again! This is where I urge you to update your contact info: email, address, and birthday if I don't already have it. And, of course, 2012 GOALS. These goals can be running related, personal related, whatever - the point is they are YOUR goals. Share with me only what you feel comfortable sharing. I like to know what everyone has planned for next year so we can help you achieve!

See you Sunday!

Following Up With...

2011-12-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

So I finally got around to getting some of the follow-up I wanted to do on our NYC Marathon runners. I'm not done yet, but in an effort to give you something to read today:

Post NYC - Suzanne Hurst

Post NYC - Diane Heiser

I'll get the others up here soon!

Running Economy

2011-12-06T12:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Baltimore-based Under Armour announced a partnership with the Tough Mudder "race" series for 2012, becoming its official clothing outfitter. As part of the deal, they will become the title sponsor of the London and Maryland events in the series, and will design a new obstacle for the course. Tough Mudder, and events like it, are big business right now, with seemingly every weekend warrior signing up, at an average cost of $90-155, for an event they just hope to finish. Muddy Buddy, Viking Race, Spartan Race - they're all the same. Complete a variety of obstacles over an inaccurately measured distance, get really dirty, brag to your friends.

If you've done one of these races, or talked to anyone who has, you quickly realize the target demographic is drastically different from that of your normal road race. I was on the sidelines at the recent Tough Mudder Tri State, held in Englishtown, NJ, where my sister was competing. The event spanned two days, and a reported 10,000 people each day may have competed in what was billed as a 12 mile course. The math is pretty simple: 10,000 x $130 = $1.3 million dollars on the take for the one day event, and that doesn't account for whatever the sponsors are kicking in. Then I thought about the costs that were involved. This event was held at Raceway Park in Englishtown, which has a lot of land. Course design is probably a challenge, and building it must take some time, but they don't have to close any roads, and I noticed only one police officer helping direct traffic into the lot. Oh, the parking lot - each car is charged $10 to park. Thousands of cars.

If you're a spectator, I forgot to add, you're expected to pay to watch. $15 per person if you do it in advance, a staggering $40 at the gate. For this you are given the honor of watching your family or friends get dirty. Out of sheer principle, this one really bothered me.

The biggest cost they must have is their insurance policy. One obstacle is running through a gauntlet of fire, so they have firefighters and professional pyros on hand to administer that one. They also electrocute you towards the end, and some of the things you jump off of are fairly high up, so even just falling the wrong way can lead to an injury.

When you sign up, you're assigned a start time, and the whole day is a series of waves in 15 minute increments. Some of the obstacles are tough, some just look annoying, but all are doable. Their slogan, "probably the toughest event on the planet," is far from true. Any event that 20,000 people on one weekend can "do" without any training is, by definition, not tough. But, to give credit where credit is due, it's still a tiring event, as most competitors were out there for 2.5 or more hours. And you still have to do some things like jump into a cold lake, which, in the middle of November, even with a warm day (it was over 70 degrees), is still enough to make me shiver.

I'm not their target, so I understandably don't understand the allure of the event. I can run 12 miles through a muddy forest and not pay anything for it, and get the same effect, but that's just me. But at the cost of $150 for the entry fee, you're looking at the same cost as to do, say, the Boston Marathon. And Boston surely has to be logistically more challenging to pull off. If you were to do one of these Obstacle Course races, what would you expect for your entry fee?

Shifting gears to the world of road racing, we've seen some very poorly executed races recently, notably the Annapolis Half Marathon and the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k. While both races were put on by experienced Race Directors, ultimately they still boiled down to first year races, and first year races inevitably have problems. These issues have a smaller impact with a manageable field of entrants, but when you have enormous fields, these problems are magnified to the level we've now seen. Again, it is my personal opinion, but I just don't understand the allure of a race that size for a 5k, at the National Harbor, and paying $45 for registration.

I would say that things we all expect, or at least hope for, when we do a race include: accurate measurement of race distance, a good course, an event that is fun and safe for all, and feeling like we got what we paid for.

As I scroll through the list of races members of our group have competed in this year, I am reminded of the number of inaccurately measured races, the complete clusters, and the races we swore we'd never do again. Compared to even just 5 years ago, there are so many more random races now. Everyone believes they can just hold a 5k and make money for their group, or for a cause. Courses are often limited by a number of factors, but it seems that most races are pretty "budget" but capitalizing on competitors' willingness to pay. I know how much it costs to put on a race in Patterson Park, or Druid Hill, and there is no reason that a 5k should cost $30 or more when they're not paying police or to close roads. And how are courses not measured right when they're on these closed roads?

It seems like there are only two kinds of races right now: the very small 5k, and the way-too-big race. Annapolis Half had 5,000 runners. That's about the size of the Annapolis 10 Miler currently, and AH was in its first year. For your $85 entry fee you received a pretty nice jacket, made in Pakistan, a little running hat and a nice medal at the end, and a pretty cool post-race party. If you were one of our top three, you also came away with some change in your pocket. The course was a little short, but besides that, most of the reviews were pretty positive. Hot Chocolate, not so much.

What is it about these races that are prompting so many to sign up? And why are some of these races so incredibly small? We have timed more than a handful of races now that thought they might get between 500 and 1000 people, only to have 150 or fewer show up on race day. Some have been as small as 50 people. RASAC puts on races in Bel Air/Harford County at a very low cost, and the area is booming with population growth, yet still only sees 20 people in some of their events. What gives?

Meanwhile, we have races like the ones Jim tries to put on. In an effort to keep some events downtown, like the Gobble Cobble race, the courses are kept mostly to the pedestrian paths around the Inner Harbor. Do you know what the police charge for the closing of just one road for an hour? $4500. I realize the City is broke, but they are putting themselves in an even worse position. By charging more, they hope to bring in more, but what they're really doing is forcing events to the County, where the fees are reasonable (or, non-existent). Would you rather have $0, or $5? Most of us would say $5.

So it's no wonder the events have to head out of the City. I suspect that Shamrock 5k in March benefits from the fact that the City puts on the St. Patrick's Parade that day and the roads are already closed, because there's no way CCR could charge only $30 at any point of registration for the race, even with 3,500 entrants, and make any money.

In most cases, Jim is able to cover costs for his races, and is always happy with that. Sometimes he loses money. To him, it's worth it to be able to put on fun events, particularly if he can keep any on City roads. Most everyone else has abandoned for the more fiscally beneficial City Parks or the County.

I cringe when I think about how much races cost, and, in a lot of cases, what you're getting for that entry fee seems to be less than years ago. When I first started doing Columbia Triathlon in 2001, it cost $75, and I registered for the May race in February. Now, it's $150, and sells out by October. It's the same course. You get the same things: same shirt, same water bottle, same blase post-race food. I feel like it has far outpaced inflation. Just a few years ago, Boston or New York were reasonable at $100-$150, now they are way higher, and the races sell out faster and faster.

Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do to stop it. We can't even hope to contain it. 47,000 people were fine with paying $200+ to run NYC. 100,000 were even fine with giving them $11 or whatever it is for the application fee just to be considered for the lottery. So 100 of us not doing their race isn't ever going to make a difference. Hot Chocolate will still go on. Races that we feel may not deserve to continue, will, while some races that we'd like to see continue, will end. MCVETS 5k/10k has got to be hanging on by a thread, and that's a great downtown race. For my money, I'll keep doing the races I have come to trust. I'll always complain about how much they cost, but I'd rather spend $150 and know what I'm getting, than $135 for a race that could be terrible.

The economy is allegedly so down, but racing is up. I know races cost money to put on, but I think they need to be more responsible. If you want to charge a premium, put on a premium event!

How has the rising cost of racing affected your decision to do particular races? What are some of your thoughts on how we can counteract? Is it better for us to hold more of our own races, like the RM Classic or Forget Towson 5000m, if we need to put on a 5k? I've always felt fast is about the field, not the course, and since we know a lot of fast people, we can always put together a good race. Sound off!

Party Rock

2011-12-05T14:21:00.000-05:00

That seemed to be the theme of the weekend, with Dallas "Run the Rock" Marathon and Las Vegas "Is This Really A" Marathon, or is it a party?

In local racing, Dan Miranda and Eileen Fleck took respective wins at the Jingle Bell 5k in Ellicott City. Dan ran 16:43, a good 40 seconds up on 2nd place, and Eileen ran 19:12. That's Eileen's 3rd 5k victory in a month, and a good end to her all season. For Dan, he it was also a nice little diversion from his last two weekends of racing long stuff.

At Brian's Run 5M, Chrissie Ramsey finished 4th in 28:51, which she said afterwards was the result of her racing stupidly. Obviously not a bad time, but slower than the average pace of her half from two weeks ago. Andy Thivierge, also two weeks off his own big race at Philly, slotted in at 37th in 31:14.

Then it was down to the National Harbor for the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k. Yes, we heard this was an absolutely feces expo, but we'll dismiss that for the time and just mention Christa Wagner's awesome 15k race. She finished 32nd in 1:03:03, which is under 6:50 pace, and a huge result for her.

In Palm Beach, Lee DiPietro returned to the site of some of her lifetimes palmares, as she finished 2nd at the Marathon of the Palms in 3:18:09. Apparently it was a challenging day down there, with wind over 20mph and temps in the mid 70s.

At Dallas White Rock Marathon, PJ Anderer rocked a 28 minute PR, running 3:35:38. His plan was to go out with the 3:30 group, but that plan was scratched when there WAS no 3:30 group, just a 3:25. He knew by going out with them it could be a suicide mission, but he threw caution to the wind (which there was a lot of in TX) and took off guns-a-blazing. Threw the half in 1:41:30, he was well ahead of pace until 17, when the 3:25 group caught and passed him. The last 5 miles were a grind, but he got it done, and was rewarded with a great new PR.

In nighttime action, David Lee took on the Las Vegas Marathon. This year's race started at 4pm, with the half starting at 5:30pm, and the newly designed course kept runners closer to the action, rather than taking them out to the desert. David started out hot, keeping the 3:10 goal in sight through the half, but around 20 he must have been feeling it, as his pace slowed. He was able to pull it back though, and finish at 3:23:43, a 1 minute PR for him.

Great job everyone, nice to see marathon season was extended by a week. And for our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week - PJ Anderer - it was a great end to a year he went into with no expectations!

Tomorrow some people will be hitting the track for various workouts. We are relabeling TNT as "WTW" or Winter Track Warriors for the time being. 6:30pm still the meeting time. Ed will be doing shorter stuff to get his turnover going ahead of his indoor race this weekend, while Tristram appears to be doing 1mi-3mi-1mi.

AWARDS NIGHT is Sunday, 5pm, Falls Road Running Store. If you haven't RSVP'd, please do so!

Weekend Long Run?

2011-12-02T17:48:00.000-05:00

Some of you are recovering, others hibernating, and others out of town - but if you are doing a long run this weekend, comment below and see if anyone else is interested in running with you.

Input Needed

2011-12-02T10:34:00.000-05:00

Time to make democracy work for YOU!

We need some input on the following things, you are welcome to put your thoughts in the comments, or shoot me an email:

1. Awards Night, Sunday, December 11th, at Falls Road Running Store. The past few years we have always held this event on this Sunday, at the Store, and we provide pizza and drinks and stuff. The Ravens play at 1pm that day (at home), I know the World Champion Packers play at 4:15. We usually hold this event at 5pm, when the store closes, and it lasts about 2 hours. I always try to accommodate the most number of people, but also realize that it's never going to work for everyone. Let me know whether you're able to make it or not so I have an accurate head count.

1a. On the subject of Awards Night, if you have any cool stories from your year of training or racing that you would like to remind me of, OR you have a story about one of your teammates that I should not forget, tell me! Additionally, if you want to nominate anyone for an award, do that too.

2. Singlets. We need to get new ones. We have tossed around a number of ideas, but we are looking to get something that is more unified. The ones we have now are a mish-mash of colors and brands. The things we need to discuss are what kind do we want to get, paying for them, design. So put on your thinking caps.

3. Weekend Long Runs Through Winter. It makes it much easier to get through the winter with scheduled long runs to look forward to. Obviously not all of us run the same distances, or speeds, but we are trying to come up with a meeting place each week, and then a route of 12-14 miles that everyone would know ahead of time, and then ways to add on for those who need to go longer. We'll probably organize one, maybe two trips down to Club Challenge course, and rotate a few other meeting spots.

4. CHERRY BLOSSOM lottery is open. This isn't typically a race any of us gets particularly pumped for, other than Zero (#8 straight!), but if you're planning on doing this one, let me know and maybe I'll enter a team if we have enough!

That Shhh Cray

2011-11-30T10:45:00.000-05:00

With all those Turkey Type Runs, Trots, Gobblers, and Gallops, there was a lot of racing going on from California to the New York island. Well, actually, more like Concord, NH, to Omaha, NE. And down to Outer Banks, and out to Chicago, and Connecticut to Corning.

Here's the local stuff first. The ringers came out of the woodwork for the Towson Turkey Trot, with some really quick times being put down. Our very own Steve Levin, absent from racing for what seems like years now, ran 17:29 for 11th. New Becky Parks, once again relegated to 4th, ran a 19:52. At the Falls Road Gobble Cobble 7k...4 mile...6k, Denise Knickman retained her title, while Dave Ploskonka finished 14th, and Michael Rady finished 30th. Christine Trzcsinki was 7th among women.

In PA, it was a Stott-Simms reunion at the Tel Hai Turkey Bowl 5k. Kris Simms, Tom Stott, Patty Sweeney-Stott, and it looks like even Haleigh Stott participated in the race. Results should be posted sooner or later. In Concord, NH, at the Galloping Gobbler 4 Mile, Nate Brigham took 3rd in 21:51. Down in the Outer Banks, Terry Decker (8th or 9th, 19:23) and Molly Eagen (25:07) ran the Gobbler 5k. Lisa Ievers once again ran the Pie and Glove 5k in Corning, NY, running 19:23.

In his first race as an Omaha resident, Ben Ingram made it clear he's here to compete, winning the Joslyn Castle Turkey Trot 5k in 16:30. As I have now been corrected by two huge nerds, I incorrectly referred to Warren Buffett as the Wizard of Omaha when he is really the Oracle of Omaha. So guess what Ben, see if any of us pays attention to your results from now on, if you didn't like my creative nickname.

Now that he lives in Seattle, chances are low that we'll ever see Kyle Smits again, but I remembered that he usually does the Pequots 5 Miler in Connecticut, where his wife's family is from, and I guessed right. He finished 7th in 27:23, and will be out at Club XC Nationals next weekend in Washington - so while none of us is running, GRC guys can look out for him!

At the Palatine Turkey Trot, Arjun Majumdar opted for the 2 mile race, and finished 7th in 10:50, thereby establishing a team 2 mile road record! Melissa Majurridar ran the 5 miler, and finished 16th in 37:12.

The NCR Trail Marathon and Relay took place on Saturday, and Dan Miranda ran 3:01:56 for 16th. A disappointing day for him, but at least took the sting out of the previous weekend's Philly attempt. He's written his thoughts about it on his blog. Kevin Frick ran 3:15:40 and Brian Benda finished at 3:36:53. In the relay, Jackie Truncellito was on the winning co-ed team, and 2nd place team overall, in 3:01:58. Emily Keyes was on the 6th place co-ed team in 3:31:18.

The last result from the weekend was Kevin McGrath, running the Navesink Challenge 15k in 1:16:00, a full 4.5 minutes faster than he ran last year after getting back from Chile!

I had awarded the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week to Ben for winning his first race in his new city, as it's his 4th city in 4 years. But now I'm regretting it. PSYCHE. Ben informed me, though, of some bad news: he and Kendra were going to come out for Celtic Solstice, but he's got to fly out here the weekend before that to take a final exam, and CS weekend flights were really expensive, so he will be unable to make it. So if you're around on the 10th, try to check Ben out as he may briefly come up to Baltimore during the afternoon before heading to the airport Sunday morning.

The Day Was a Fairytale

2011-11-26T16:09:00.000-05:00

Honey Badger Don't Care

And now for the recap on our second PDAW winner, Alyssa Godesky.

Part II: Alyssa Says Aloha to the Big Island

Alyssa, as we've always known her, is a tremendous endurance athlete, having competed in some of the biggest ultra marathons on the continent. She has also experienced success in the world of multisport, with finishes at Ironman Louisville 2009 and Ironman Wisconsin 2010. In 2009, she went under 12 hours, in spite of her negligible volume of swimming and cycling. A year later, with a hair more swimming under her belt, and much more cycling, she went faster, to the tune of an 11:36.

It was around this time that she began to think seriously about her goals and what she wanted to get out of the sport, and she decided to commit fully to triathlon - after one more January ultra. She got in touch with multiple-Ironman champion, Hillary Biscay, to coach her, and dedicated every day to doing the training necessary to realize her ultimate goal: qualify for the World Championships in Kona.

The work was far from easy, in fact, it was the hardest training she'd ever done. There were days when she surely would have preferred running alone in the woods for 6+ hours to the monster swim, bike, and run workouts Hillary was putting her through. But something crazy happened: she quickly saw results, running PRs in distances from the mile to the half marathon, and found herself on a number of triathlon podiums.

By the time the summer rolled around, she seemed fit and ready to go for Ironman Louisville. The training had been perfect, but on race day, something didn't connect right, and her race came apart at the seams on the run. It was disappointing, but the prospect of Ironman Arizona kept her in the game.

Training for one Ironman a year is tough. Training for another one, just 11 short weeks after the first, and having those weeks come in the fall, when the weather starts to make you not want to put in the long days, was going to be a real challenge. Ultimately, the work got done, and once again it was time to toe the invisible line in Tempe Town Lake for her 4th Ironman.

Ironman is a long, strange day. Like any race, there are times when you feel great, and times when you feel like you're going to die. You can have a great swim, feel terrible on the bike, but then have a great run. You can feel off from the start. You can feel better as the day goes on. Whatever the case, you have to know how to budget your energy for 8 (if you're a pro) to 17 (if you're the last finisher) hours.

Alyssa has written her own report(s) on her blog, which I'm sure many of you have read, but it's probably harder for her to realize just how her accomplishment measures up. Fortunately, while I can't personally race anything well myself, I can put words to performances.

Alyssa finished 21st out of amateur women, and 44th overall. Her time (10:45:51) was a 50 minute improvement over her Wisconsin time, with a 1:05:38 swim, 5:45 bike split and an astounding 3:47 marathon that was the fastest run of her 25-29 age group. In the age group, she finished 2nd. The bike split is particularly impressive considering she got a flat on the second loop, and lost about 10 minutes getting it fixed.

But most eye-popping was her run. If you ever get the chance to compete in an Ironman, you'll see that anybody can put down a good swim and ride, but to string together 26 and some change miles after all that, well that's a different story. Alyssa came into this race with an open marathon time of 3:31, from Marine Corps 2008. While she would agree that it's probably a "soft" PR now, it's still just 16 minutes faster than what she ran on Sunday off the bike. Her previous best Ironman run was 4:05 at Louisville 2009.

At Ironman events, you qualify for Kona solely based on your finishing place within your age group. In F25-29, there are generally never more than 2 slots, due to the small field size. It doesn't mean it's any less competitive, necessarily, and Alyssa knew what kind of times would usually place in the group. Her goal for the year was to go 10:45. Out of the water in 6th, and holding serve on the bike, that meant she had some serious work to do on the run. She went to it and was running low 8 minute pace for the first half, before slowing a little. But when she heard she was 3.5 minutes down on 2nd with 10k to go, she knew she was going to have to go faster. The good news was that the girl in front of her was fading hard, and Alyssa was still moving great. With Zero and Claire on course, they were able to count the time in between 2nd and Alyssa, and the gap was closing with every footfall.

With a mile to go, the lead was 20-30 seconds. Running on adrenaline, Alyssa hit her NOS button at just the right time, and blazed past the girl inside of a half mile before the finish, and held her off. She crossed the line and collapsed, every ounce of energy had been left on the course. Before the brought her to the med tent, she was able to find coach Hillary and let her know that "she got her" and, barring unforeseen circumstance, would pick up the 2nd of 2 Kona slots.

When the results were confirmed, Alyssa had qualified for the World Championship, and had done so by hitting her time goal of 10:45.

To qualify for Hawaii is an amazing feat. To do it by running someone down in the last half mile, now that's EARNING it. Truly awesome. And now, armed with speed and confidence, what will 2012 have in store for Alyssa?

It Just Got Serious

2011-11-25T22:15:00.000-05:00

As we all know by now, there were some amazing performances this past weekend. Two, in particular, sent shockwaves throughout the competitive racing circuit: Chrissie Ramsey's 1:14:57 Philadelphia Half Marathon, which qualified her for this January's US Olympic Trials, and Alyssa Godesky's 10:45:51 Ironman Arizona, which placed her 2nd 25-29 and earned her a trip to the Ford Ironman World Championships next October in Kona.

There were obviously other performances, but these two blew them all out of the water, and as such, they earned the dual Purple Drink Athletes of the Week.

But, to just gloss over the results would be an injustice to the hard work these two ladies have put in over the last few months (or years), and each deserves a little story, so here we go! Note: this will actually come in two posts, one tonight and one tomorrow, because they are somewhat lengthy.

Part I: Chrissie's Race to Space

Only a handful of people that qualify for the Olympic Trials are really there to compete for a spot on the Olympic Team, but as we would all agree, qualifying is an extraordinary feat. We know a number of people who have tried, but not many have succeeded. Chrissie changed that on Sunday as she blazed to a 1:33 second PR (1:16:30 Parks Half 2009 was her previous best). I asked her to give a little race recap, and so, in her own words:

"Coming off an accident and resulting injury last May, I took five months off to wallow in self-pity, let my bones and ego heal, and rehab some strained leg muscles. With full range of motion back in my legs and arms by early September, I recycled the empty bottles of wine that had accrued in my apartment, laced up my shoes, and set my sights on the Philadelphia Half Marathon on November 20th. I had only 10 weeks to train.

I started out with 3 weeks of base training, getting my weekly mileage up to 60+ and my long run to 2 hours, followed by 6 weeks of workouts, and 1 recovery week leading into the race. My primary goal was to get my fitness level back to where I had been before the accident, run a solid race, and go into the 2012 season feeling confident and ready to set some more ambitious goals.

Things changed in mid-October when I found myself hitting 5:30s for mile repeats and finishing out my progression runs at a 5:20/mile pace. I knew I had an OT qualifying time within my grasp, but I would need to have a near perfect race under ideal weather conditions to pull it off. A perfect race on a perfect day, I wasn't going to get my hopes up.

But, checking the weather report in the days leading up to the race, I was forced to admit that the universe doesn't hate me as much as I thought it did. The forecast called for temperatures in the upper forties to mid fifties, clear skies, and no wind: a perfect day for a race.

I usually try to avoid disappointments in life by setting my expectations low and taking Prozac. I err on the side of caution in my training. In longer races (10+ miles), I tend to start out conservatively for the first 1-3 miles and try to accelerate with each mile. I take days off when I'm sick, I stop workouts early if I'm too fatigued, and sometimes I skip my morning shake out run to sleep in. I undertrain. It works. While I've had my ups and downs, over the past 8 years since I started running I have seen consistent improvement, managed to avoid injury, and most importantly, I still get excited about running every day.

But it's been a crazy year so I decided to throw caution to the wind and challenge myself to qualify for Olympic Trials or crumble under the pressure. To have a shot at a sub 1:15:00 performance on a course with two major climbs in the second half of the race, I was going to need to go out aggressively trust my fitness, and not be afraid to take some risks early in the race.

Fortunately, the women's field was much stronger than in previous years (likely due to the upcoming OTs) and I was able to go out with a group running 5:35 pace through the first three miles. Over the next 3 miles, the pack started to string out, I settled into a 5:42/mi pace and moved into 7th place, where I would stay for the rest of the race.

I felt very comfortable as I went through the 10k in 35:08 (a 67 sec PR!) and started the first climb up 34th Street past the apartment where I used to live. I missed the mile 7 marker, but approaching mile 8 with an 11:32 split I got a surge of confidence knowing that I stayed on pace up the first hill.

In mile 8, I settled in again and prepared myself for the next climb. The fast pace early in the race started to catch up to me as I wound through Fairmont Park to the Japanese Gardens, willing myself to maintain the same effort and not even look at what I knew would be much slower splits. As I circled around the top of the hill and passed the clock at mile 10 reading 57:20, I knew it was my race to lose.

The fatigue was really settling into my legs. There was a slight reprieve as mile 11 was mostly downhill (5:32) as the course looped back down to the Schuylkill River. Just over two miles to go, all I had to do was make it up West River Drive. The task was too daunting. Instead I zeroed in on the two men about 20 yards in front of me and set out to bridge the gap - something to keep me focused on my pace but distracted from how much distance I still had to cover. Seemed to do the trick. I stayed on 5:45 pace with 1.1 miles to go. Winding up the hill from West River Drive and around the Philadelphia Art Museum the finish line came into sight. I saw the clock ticking up: 1:14:40, 1:14:41...if I was going to make it, I had to kick. With 2 seconds to spare I'm off to Houston!"

Big Start - Big Finish!!

2011-11-20T10:23:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: The Ladies Get it Done!!!

Big start to our day with the Philly Marathon & Half Marathon going on today as well out in Arizona with the Ironman. Here is a quick update:

CHRISSIE RAMSEY runs 1:14:57 to place 7th in the half and QUALIFIES for the OLYMPIC TRIALS!! (USA!!! [We got him!])

Alex Battaglino: 2:29:31 in the full.

Out in Arizona Alyssa & Ryan are out of the water. Per Zero who is on-site Ryan came out in 1:01:30ish and Alyssa was out in 1:05:36. Alyssa's coach (Hillary Biscay) tweeted that it appears to be a slow day in the water for all Age Groupers. Onto the bike they go...

UPDATE: ALYSSA GODESKY has a huge PR and completes the Arizona Ironman in 10:45:41 finishing 2nd in the 25-29 Age Group and punches her ticket to Kona!! According to Claire she moved into 2nd in the final mile of the 140.6 mile race.

Check out the tweets that many folks have provided throughout the day @BMoreRunning

Falls Road Sweeps Podium at Annapolis Half

2011-11-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

As we somewhat expected, our trifecta of Vince Collins, Tristram Thomas, and Dustin Meeker went 1-2-3 this morning at the Inaugural Annapolis Half Marathon, although reports on the course, not to mention a winning time of 1:06:45, indicate that the course was short - probably close to a mile.

In the women's race, I don't have the full story yet but looks like our women were just outside the money picture, with Meg DiGregorio finishing 4th, and Liz Lawton and Carly Page inside of the top 15.

I'll update this post later with the full story, but great job everyone!

Big Philly Style

2011-11-17T09:47:00.000-05:00

In advance of Sunday's Philadelphia Marathon, here's what you need to know about the race, and who to follow online!

Philly is viewed as a quick course, thanks to its relatively flat profile, competitive field, and friendly (albeit sometimes cold) weather. And this year, as it's one of the last opportunities to qualify for the 2012 US Olympic Marathon Trials, expect to see a number of very fast times at the top of the field, in both the marathon and half. From what I understand there are now over a dozen elite men entered in the race, all shooting for the OTQ time (< 2:19:00). If there is a cohesive, organized effort to run the required pace (5:18/mi), I feel like we could see more than a couple of guys punching their ticket to Houston. The last time Philly was the "Last Chance" meet was 2007, and we saw a number of women running under the "B" standard (< 2:46:00). That year, our very own Chrissie Ramsey ran a PR 2:52 and finished 17th. Most years that's good enough to be in the top 10, maybe even top 5. I would again expect a similar situation this year.

There are three events over the weekend, with the Rothman Institute 8k on Saturday, and the Marathon/Half Marathon on Sunday. The marathon and half start simultaneously and run the same course, until the half marathoners hit the finish and the marathoners have to keep going down the river to Manayunk. With a start time of 7am, the light is barely up through the buildings and the temperature is usually pretty brisk.

The course starts out running through the city a little bit, before heading over the bridge into University City, and the Zoo. There is little elevation change in the first 7 miles, but between 7 and 9 there are a couple of hills, before you drop again to mile 11. As the half marathoners come into the home stretch near the Art Museum, the marathon heads down Kelly Drive towards Manayunk (slightly downhill for a few miles) before heading back up the ever-so-slight uphill to the finish, again at the Art Museum.

Will Knox ran a very impressive marathon debut here, narrowly missing getting under 2:30 (by 25 seconds), and that remains our team's course best. I expect two people to be under that on Sunday.

Track Runners Online

Use the above link to track runners. They've made it quite convenient for you, as you can receive updates via Text, Email, Facebook or Twitter. And it's FREE (unlike some marathons we know). Huge plus, Philadelphia. Here's who we have running, in case you want to track:

Dave Berdan. Once again, Dave is going for it. After his PR 2:21:19 at Baltimore, he felt his fitness was still good, and his motivation was high, so why not give it another shot? The tough part for Dave was going to be recovering from the marathon, and the other races he had done, but maintain his fitness. He seems ready to go, and is excited to run fast.

Alex Battaglino. Alex was originally going to look to do the half, but after a bunch of his favored high mileage weeks, he felt he was strong enough to give the marathon a go. With a 1:07 half marathon PR and a good base, he is looking to put forth a solid effort in his second marathon.

Dan Miranda. Dan ran his PR here last year (2:44) and seems to be in shape to go well under that. His workouts lately have been great, and with a bunch of solid long runs in his legs, I expect Dan will set a new best for himself.

Andy Thivierge. Andy started coming to workouts this summer, so you've probably only met him if you've been to track, but is another great addition to the group. We didn't really discuss goals, or what he was in shape to do, but he seems quite fit.

Phil Turner. We usually see Philly Turnstyle once a year now, generally around Club Challenge. He let me know he's running this weekend and while his expectations are not high, he feels he has an outside shot of getting inside of his PR (2:46)

Terry Decker. Terry "Upper" Decker is ready to go, looks fit, and is shooting for the stars at Philly!

Jackie Truncellito. Our sole lady marathoner I believe, Jackie set her PR here a few years back, running a superb 2:58, just a few weeks after running under 3:10 at Baltimore. I would expect her to run somewhere in between the two.

Chrissie Ramsey (half). Chrissie is rounding herself back into the form of old, and decided it would be a good test of fitness for her to do the half. After winning the National Half earlier this year in just under 1:17, she could easily be under that time if all goes well.

Lillian Pinault (half). Lillian had a good 10 miler last month, but admitted that training hadn't been quite what she hoped since then. She is hoping to get under 1:40. I think she can do it.

Other locals:

I know some of our friends down at GRC are running, and I'm sure there are more but I believe Karl "The Duse is Loose" Dusen and Michelle "Forget Triathlons I'm a Runner" Miller are running. I would expect both to be in the legitimate hunt for that OTQ time.

As a reminder, the Olympic Trials time standards for men and women are:

Half: < 1:05:00 (men), < 1:15:00 (women)
Full: < 2:19:00 (men), < 2:37:00 (women "A"), < 2:46:00 (women "B")

The race starts at 7am, and because I'll be out on PST and have a little business of my own, I will not be able to update, sadly. Actually, I'll probably be able to shoot out some early time updates when I get up, but I'll likely miss all the finishes. If you want to shoot finish times up there, just append @BMoreRunning to your tweet and the person's name and time, and we'll see it on the right hand side!

To everyone racing: tear it up and if you're up for sending me your thoughts about your performance, feel free! When I'm done racing on Sunday I'll take a look at them and use it for Monday's email (which you should not expect until the afternoon)

Save Maryland XC and Track!

2011-11-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

Since this has wearing on me today, I'm going to keep putting the word out there for all to see.

In the event you were unaware, the University of Maryland is likely going to be cutting men's cross country and track and field, along with other programs, effective July 2012, due to budgetary concerns. The school's athletic department is operating in a huge deficit right now, and they have decided that the relatively minimal amounts to fund these teams is going to make some kind of difference in the long run.

If you've been following on Twitter or Facebook, you might have seen this today (probably by me) - but there is a group on FB "Save Maryland Men's XC/Track and Field" and the appropriate hashtag has been #saveumdxcandtrack. Whether you went to Maryland or not, or whether you ran in college or not, I'm sure you can at the very least empathize with those who will be affected. Running, for most of us, is a hobby. None of us expects to earn a living at it, we do it because we love to compete. At Maryland, that's all these kids are doing it for. They don't have scholarships, they are barely funded. They keep a skeleton crew for the cross country team, and the track team is among the smallest I've ever seen for a big university. But this is a team with a great history in track and field, and it would be extremely sad for me to see this team just vanish. It would be like a part of me, personally, never existed.

There's really not a whole lot we can do, unless anybody knows of any talent contests where the first prize is $57 million dollars, but helping spread the word is always appreciated.

I know we have a lot of Terp alums within our group, some of whom ran, such as myself, Denise, Bobby Van Allen, Conrad, Erik Westlund, Andy Gell, Mike Prada, Dan Miranda, Alex Waldt (who is there now), guys like Matt Adami, Matt Sanders, Adam Forgione, some of our GRC friends like Pat Reaves, Danielle Siebert (who coaches there currently), and I'm sure that list goes on. Many of us have gone to the UMD indoor and outdoor meets, including everybody's favorite, the MD Twilight Meet featuring the Alumni Mile. Some of you have accompanied me for runs at Greenbelt or from CP to DC, and dined at the Bagel Place afterwards.

That's all I wanted to say, I appreciate having the ability to do so in this forum. Keep the faith, keep running!

Now Make That ... Hammertime

2011-11-14T17:10:00.000-05:00

Kris Simms vividly recalls what it was like to be a member of the entourage of once-upon-a-time rapper, M.C. Hammer: "It was like we were living a dream, every day. You know the music videos you see today, with the rappers rappin' about blunts and bras, menage-a-trois, sex in expensive cars? Well, it was exactly like that, except in real life." Sadly, the million-dollars-a-day spending could only last so long. When the money ran out, so did Kris. He spent the next few years bouncing around the entertainment industry, finding moderate success as a professional wrestler, and being tossed an occasional role in a Disney movie. There was also good money in stunt appearances, as The Kris eerily resembles the President. He has been approached by one filmmaker, whose name rhymes with Skyler Berry, to re-make the Kevin Kline classic, "Dave." Except this would be called "Barry and Madea Go To Washington."

Kris' true passion, however, lies in the sport of footracing, and this past weekend, he tested himeslf by running the SunTrust Richmond Marathon. The last time Kris laced his sneaks up to run 26.2 was in the fall of 2008, when he ran the Marine Corps Marathon on a warm October morning, to the tune of a 3:02, which, at the time, was a PR. While on a ski trip that next January, in the middle of preparing for Boston, he had to have an emergency appendectomy, and poof, there went Boston. And for the next few years, the marathon just hasn't been a priority for Kris. Until NOW.

We knew he was in good shape, but the marathon is a crazy event. I followed his splits: 40:19 at 10k. 1:24:55 at the half. 2:09:40 at 20 miles. He was running an amazing race, but could he hold it over the last 10k? Cramping set in. The Kris stopped and worked it out. He fought on. In the end, the cramping would cost him time, but it wouldn't stop him from running a huge new PR - 2:53:40 - as he finished in 39th place. Truly amazing stuff!

Also in the race, Dave Ploskonka ran 3:46:17. At first, I saw his fast half split and thought maybe he was pacing a group and then decided to drop off, but apparently he ran the entire marathon course before the actual marathon, in reverse, for 52.4 miles (minimum) on the day.

Some of the other Saturday results included Tim Parker's 1:20:00/36th place finish in the half marathon at Richmond. Tim always runs well at Richmond, so it was no surprise to see him redeem his lackluster Baltimore performance. Julia Webb finished 4th among women in her 2nd fastest time ever, 1:20:17. I believe she negative split the race. Also on Saturday, in Georgia, Lisa Ievers ran a PR at the Soldier Half Marathon, finishing 3rd in 1:27:59. It was 4.5 minutes faster than her time there last year, and a really impressive result! At the Rosaryville 50k, Bob Harvey came twice...across the finish line (no inuendo there). I don't know why they have him listed twice, but he finished 9th in 4:26:34.

Sunday's big event was the Veteran's Day 10k down on Hains Point. As you can see it was largely the GRC Show, with their runners putting on a little How-To Clinic in West Potomac Park, but I was more than pleasantly surprised to see how well Tristram Thomas ran. Tristram is in great shape, as he prepares for this weekend's half in Annapolis, but to finish 5th in 31:50 was really great to see. It moved him to 8th on our all-time list, bumping off Ben Ingram. Ben traded leads with Alex Waldt in the last two miles of the race, before Alex managed to find that little bit extra in his legs at the end. They finished 21st and 20th, respectively, in 34:08 and 34:05. Liz Laseter, who was traded to GRC for perhaps a runner to be named later, if anyone ever moves from DC to Baltimore, ran a solid 39:27 in finishing 20th. David Lee, ahead of the Las Vegas Marathon, got under 40 (39:32) and Jon Miller ran a de factor PR (40:26). PJ Anderer...ran.

At the Metric Marathon in Columbia, Meg McNew ran with Kelly Meier, in Kelly's first run over 15 miles. She nailed it, as the pair crossed the line together in 2:12:28 (13th and 14th). Sara Damiano was 22nd in 2:14:46. In the 5k, Eileen Fleck did battle with New Becky Parks, as the duo went 1-2. Eileen took the W in 19:12 to Becky's new PR of 19:14. Great work ladies!

As mentioned in the email, it was a tough week for Purple Drink Athlete of the Week considerations, but in the end, it favored the huge marathon PR of Kris Simms, so congratulations buddy!

And there was an AutoZone In the Zone award winner this week - Tristram Thomas. He has been flying sky high lately and we hope to watch that continue this weekend!

Tomorrow will be the last official night of TNT. Gilman, 6:30pm, the usual. The guys doing Annapolis have their workout, and if anybody shows up who is running Philly this weekend you will be doing very light stuff. I myself will probably go out for the NP-Charles-ColdSpring-Roland loop run and then do some easy stuff on the track. Winter track will start up after the break - I think I am going to mandate a week off from track for EVERYONE next week so you can chill out in advance of Thanksgiving.

Still to come this week on the blog, a preview of this weekend's racing action and instructions on how to follow it all!

Wooking Pa Nub

2011-11-10T10:37:00.000-05:00

There are probably very few of us who will get that one!

Anyway I'm looking for YOUR New York City Marathon pics! I took a few on my phone but they mostly came out terrible. I'd like to put them together in a little album and then share them online, so only send me ones you're comfortable having others see. And don't worry, I'll give you credit for the photos!

Wanted: A Few Good Men

2011-11-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

Hopefully you got a chance to read the original post, if you didn't - you missed out!

I know what you're thinking: who WEARS this shirt?!

Justin is once again participating in No Shave November aka Movember, and word on the street is that he is finally healthy enough to start doing some jogging, and we expect to see him at Celtic Solstice. It will have been two and a half years since his last race, following major back surgery. Throw some support Justin's way!

Page 6: NYC Marathon Edition

2011-11-08T17:04:00.000-05:00

In case you were wondering how some of your favorite celebs performed on Sunday at the Marathon, you will ONLY be able to find it here! Consider this post the US Weekly version of Runner's World.

Lt. Andy Baldwin - 3:17:30. The Navy doc/Ironman Triathlete/ABC's The Bachelor is no stranger to marathons, and while I'm pretty sure this is not a PR (I think 3:06 from the California International Marathon a couple of years ago is), this is a solid time at NYC. Due to a Brennan-like timing chip malfunction, we have no splits, but this is the official time he was given. For now, we'll overlook the fact that he went to Duke, as he ran himself into the Top Celebrity position.

Ryan Sutter - 3:17:58. I have no business watching ABC's The Bachelorette, but even I know that Ryan won Trista Rehn's heart, and the pair have been together ever since. I feel like that was almost a decade ago now. Another triathlete, Ryan was getting some one-on-one instruction from pro triathlete, Chris Legh. We expected the battle between the two celeb studs to be close, but inside of 30 seconds is incredible! He went out in 1:36:37 at the half, so ran a 1:41 back half. Not too bad.

Apolo Ohno - 3:25:12. What's most impressive about Ohno's time is that he negative split the race. He hit the halfway in 1:44, so that's a really great race result. Who was training him to run that well? Certainly not the other Subway-sponsored Olympic athlete who isn't a runner...For a second I thought maybe he put on some rollerblades and glided through Central Park. Also interesting was the Subway commercial within an hour of the race congratulating Ohno on his "under 4 hour" marathon. Apparently 4 hours is a milestone?

Jennie Finch - 4:05:26. Finch started dead last, absolutely nobody started behind her. The goal was to pass as many runners as she could, and for each one she passed, Timex would donate $1 to her charity. She ended up passing 30,000 people! She was pretty close to even splitting the race, coming in just under 2:02 for the first half. And she's pretty hot.

Mark Messier - 4:14:27. The former New York Ranger captain and HOF hockey player, at 50 years of age, ran a solid race. Definitely an ambitious first half, clearly looked like he was trying to get under 4 hours. He could still put you in the boards.

Ethan Zohn - 4:20:46. This former Survivor/ongoing survivor of cancer/Amazing Race participant was running inspired on Sunday. He was recently re-diagnosed with cancer, this time in his chest, and certainly everyone hopes he can get through this as well. Ethan was a former professional soccer player and won the third season of Survivor.

Christy Turlington - 4:20:47. I have to say, this could potentially be the most impressive result of the day. First, she beat A.C. Slater. Second, Turlington is a former model (well, I suppose when are models ever not models?) so I don't picture her having run much. And lastly, she is a former smoker. I know this because I remember the commercials when I was growing up, I think her father had succumbed to lung cancer associated with negative effects of smoking, and she was quitting, too. This is a great run for her. 2:06 at the half.

Mario Lopez - 4:23:30. The Saved by the Bell/Pacific Blue/Extra (Extra) star surely made the ladies swoon out on course, not to mention our own Feldhausens had a brief brush with the Bayside beefcake on Monday morning, but he showed us all that his muscles, dimples, and former mullet were just that - for show! What he really could have used was some help from Zack. Remember that episode where Zack was on the track team, and they really wanted to beat Valley, and Zack was their best hope, running the mile, but he had a report due for a class with that cougar-ish teacher, and she wasn't going to let him compete unless he really did it, and so he went and talked to some Native American guy, and then he died, and Zack wasn't going to run, but then he appeared in Zack's dream, and then Zack woke up and was like "I have to run", and then he not only won the race and helped them beat Valley, but he did well on his report, and then he showed us all the thing that Chief Whateverhisnamewas gave him, and it said "Beat Valley"? Because I do.

Mya - 6:59:39. I thought the marathon had a 7 hour limit, maybe it's 8, but either way she was pushing that limit pretty hard! This lovely R&B singer was running for the North Shore Animal League I think. I can't imagine being out there that long, but it's cool that she did it. And she's also fine.

Edison Pena - DNF. The Chilean miner who made headlines last year as he ran during his underground ordeal was a national and international hero at NYC 2010. This year, he couldn't get it done, and had to drop out. I'm not sure what the allure was, as apparently he's struggled this year with some personal issues, but I guess he really wanted to go back. Kind of like Jack, in Lost, when he tries to crash again and get back to the Island. SPOILER ALERT: I still don't even really know what was going on. Were they dead the whole time? I just know that they were dead by the end. And I wasted 6 years of my life.

Rock and Roll

2011-11-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

If anyone in planning/or interested in doing one of the Rock and Roll Series races, they are offering a discount of $20 this Friday to celebrate 11-11-11. The link is in the title.

Sneaky Ben

2011-11-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

Ben Ingram thought he could get away with it, and he would have, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids...

Ben raced the Care2Cure HD 5k on Saturday morning in Winchester, winning the event in 16:26, about a hundred meters up on another VA resident (originally from Timonium), Jordan Chang. Funny how Ben neglected to mention this when we saw him. Unless he told everyone else and just not me.

Also being sneaky, although it's easier for her to do it, was Claire Lears, who raced a half marathon in Phoenix over the weekend. It was the Women's Running Magazine's Women's Half Marathon. Yep, that's the actual name. She ran a 1:38:41, which is really a great time for little Claire, and finished 63rd.

Sometimes I Get a Good Feeling

2011-11-07T12:29:00.000-05:00

There were a good number of races this weekend, and we had some pretty awesome results, but I'll be completely honest: they are basically unimportant to me. Psyche! But seriously, the results from yesterday's New York City Marathon were beyond insane and captivated us yesterday.

First, on Saturday, Vince Collins and Dustin Meeker took the Downs Park 5 Miler by storm, finishing 1st and 2nd in 25:52 and 25:56, respectively. Dustin was the two-time defending champion, and was looking to three-peat, and earn his third ham. Vince must have been really hungry, as the pair ran together until a half mile to go, when Vince turned on the afterburners. For Dusty, he would have to settle for a 15 second PR. Andrew Jacobson finished 5th in 28:29.

New Becky Parks really likes small, probably inaccurate 5k races where she has a chance for the overall win. This time she finished 3rd (1st F) in 20:05, at the Run for Red 5k in Sparks.

Up in NJ, at fabled Holmdel Park, Alyssa Godesky tore into the State Championship cross country course, running a new 5k PR of 21:00. That was a minute beating of her previous 5k best, and this is far from a road, or fast course. I would say it's at least a minute or more slower than what you'd run on the road. This blazing fast run earned Alyssa this week's NOS Award.

In Indianapolis, Michael Rady ran the Monumental Marathon, recording a 3:37:20, which was an 8 minute PR!

On Sunday, Greg Danger Jubb won the ClusterF Rockville 5k in 15:58, with Louis Foudos in 5th at 17:58. In the 10k, Dan Miranda wasn't able to get the win, but managed to record a new personal best of 34:27 in his 3rd place effort.

At the Inland Trail Half Marathon in Ohio, Terence Baptiste got one of the best victories of his career, winning in 1:18:50. The time wasn't far off his personal best, and I'm sure the win was a great reward.

Dave Ploskonka ran the Fire on the Mountain 50k, which had been postponed from last weekend due to inclement weather. It sounds like the trails were in pretty bad shape, but Dave made it through, albeit way slower than he thought it would take.

Then it was all about NYC, and if you were following the Twitter feed, you'd know it was a busy day! A lot of people to follow along the way, and it basically shut down my phone at one point! I was disappointed I couldn't upload any pics, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Since I'd like to follow up on last week's great interviews with everyone, I will probably have something on the blog later this week as a little recap of everyone's race. But for now, here's how it went:

Patrick O'Rourke finished up at 2:45:53. Going into the race he was looking to run 2:40 or better, and based on his workouts and races, it seemed reasonable. He hit the half in 1:20:06, but the miles started creeping up into the mid 6s, and it was just too much. But the held on and that's a great finish.

Brennan Feldhausen is always able to keep things in perspective, and he'll bounce back from Sunday. The plan was to come through the half in 1:20-1:21 (he was 1:20:23) and then pick it up from there. He knew he was capable of averaging 6:00/mi, and he had done everything right. But after 20, the onset of a migraine began to derail his race. By 23, he was not looking good. With a mile to go, it was taking every ounce of energy for him to run straight lines, his vision was gone. But Brennan is a champion (much like the Green Bay Packers) and if a 2:47:21 is the worst day he's going to have, that's a pretty good bad day.

Diane Heiser ran the distance race of her life, and one of the best marathon performances we've ever seen. After last year's Chicago Marathon, we weren't sure if we'd see Diane run a marathon again, so I was surprised to hear she had signed up for NYC this year. Diane is one of the fastest runners around, but we had no idea what she was really capable of at the distance. She blazed through the half in 1:25 and change, and we thought it was really fast. Would she, could she hold up over the second half? Answer: a resounding yes. Diane finished 34th among all women, a remarkable accomplishment in a race this large, and was the 9th American woman to cross the line. Her 2:53:46 is the 4th fastest time anyone from our group has ever run, behind Chrissie (2:44 and 2:52) and Mary Bertram (2:49). It also puts her in a position to give serious thought to running another marathon or two in the next couple of years, perhaps in time for 2016...

Joel Gladfelter has had an up and down kind of year. He ran a terrific 2:51 marathon in Miami back in January - at the time a 17 minute PR - but then spent the rest of the spring recovering from a foot injury. He was locked into NYC, but wasn't able to start his training cycle when he was targeting. He made adjustments, changed on the fly, and consulted with his trusted advisors on how to best prepare for the race. He wanted to run faster than his Miami time, but could he? Was it a reasonable goal? In the weeks leading up to NYC, he scaled back his ambition and thought, let me just have a good race, and let the chips fall where they may. This worked out in his favor, as he ran 1:26:40 through the half, and finished at 2:55:32. He was pretty pumped. This would previously have been a 13 minute PR.

Carly Page's expectations were high, and I think I can say for all of us that we expected her to be great yesterday. Her previous marathon was an awesome debut - a 3:12 at Mohawk Hudson River Marathon last year. She felt like she could be under 3:05, and maybe get close to 3 hours. She went out smart, trying to run 7:00/mi, and was running great. After the half, she felt good enough to push it, running some miles in the 6:40s. But soon that great feeling seceded from her body, and she was working hard to maintain miles above 7. She got herself across the line in 3:04:04, which means her half splits were 1:31:52-1:32:12, which is unbelievable.

Suzanne Hurst wasn't sure what to expect. Her training left her feeling like maybe a 3:15, 3:20 was the best she could do, but her racer's instinct and competitiveness told her to go for it. She ran about 10 or 11 miles with Carly, before sliding of pace a little. After a 1:33 half, she was going to have to get tough to hold on, and ultimately made it home in 3:13:17. I think this is a great result for Suzanne. She ran 3:10 at Boston this year, and this time back that result up well.

Spence Green was running on what I presume was a targeted pace, coming through the half in just over 1:25. Spence is no stranger to low to mid 2:50 marathons, and we didn't think that pace was going to cause a problem, but apparently Sunday was not his day. Having been there, I know what that feels like. His last few miles were a death march, and I'm sure he was quite happy to be finished when he crossed the line.

Nina Hartman ran 3:18:13, which is not what she was hoping to run. It looked like she was setting herself up for a 3:10 race, which is within her realm of abilities, but the back half was definitely tough. I haven't caught up with Nina yet, but for now, she has earned herself a little bit of time off. The good news: it's still 4 minutes faster than she ran at Cleveland Marathon earlier this year!

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week could be no other than Diane, whose remarkable time will surely stand as one of the best performances of 2011. And like I said in the email, when you have the advisement of Chrissie, herself a great performer at NYC, we shouldn't have expected anything less! Great work Diane, and all NYC runners!

A big extra special shout to all of our great spectators, who took trains, buses, and cars to get up to watch; who crashed on floors, couches, and aerobeds; who stayed in...Newark. Here is a list of those who were out there supporting: Amy Horst, Christa Wagner, Andy Olson, Conrad Laskowski, Jen Koshy, Sara Spears (omitted in the email - oops!), Ed Aramayo, Arjun Majumdar, Melissa Majumdar, Erin Feldhausen, Ruth Swedler, Meg McNew, Alyssa Godesky, and Ben Ingram!

Congrats Tom and Patty!

2011-11-03T18:06:00.000-04:00

Welcome the future of running! Haleigh Stone Stott was born yesterday. From the pics, she is quite the looker. Congrats to the happy family!

Inside the NYC Marathon

2011-11-03T10:39:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I reached out to a few of our NYC Marathon participants and asked them a couple of questions, ranging from training ideologies to goal times, and even asking how they got started running. Well, I finally received the answers back and figured out the formatting to make it easier to view, so here they are! Each person's name will link to a Google Doc with their responses. I will clean them up at some point and archive them, but for now these are their RAW answers, written in their own words!

Brennan Feldhausen

Joel Gladfelter

Carly Page

Suzanne Hurst

Diane Heiser

Nina Hartman

Enjoy getting to learn a little more about each of these runners, and what makes them tick! And don't forget to track them on race day, Sunday, November 6th!

(And if it anyone has trouble viewing, please let me know, a lot of times the stuff looks fine on my end because I am the administrator. Additionally, if it looks like any of the links was meant for another person, let me know that!)

Respect Your Elders

2011-11-01T15:38:00.000-04:00

Ben Ingram, left, circa 1874, in Michigan

Since late 2008 we have had many members of our group compete in marathons, producing many fine performances; it wasn't always this way. Pre-2008, most of us weren't as keen on marathoning. Just a few of the heartier souls did them in 2006 and 2007, including Kyle Smits and Dave Berdan's attempts at OTQ times, and Spider's unrelenting assault on the distance.

The 2007 New York City Marathon produced what is still one of the best performances from our group, and announced Ben Ingram onto the local running scene. Ben had moved to Baltimore earlier that year from Chicago, and was one of the first of us to have a banner day in a big race. On that day, Ben marched to the line in 2:37:09, finishing 72nd overall. As he came off a 1:11:43 at PDR a few weeks prior, we were all tremendously impressed.

Even more impressive was when, that winter, Ben allowed himself to slip so far out of shape that I put an insane amount of time into him at Club Challenge. I will keep that moment as one of boastful pride for as long as I live.

But what Ben really did on that day in New York was set the tone for years to come. No longer would our group accept mediocrity. Ben was one of the driving forces behind augmented training programs, and continues to stand as a source of leadership and guidance for many of us. Along with Jake Marren and Brennan Feldhausen, Ben got on board with the Jack Daniels' training formula and used it to great success, from distances of 10k up to the marathon.

As Ben continued to challenge himself, he took on large goals at Boston 2009, and Army Ten Miler later that year. He upped his own ante by competing in, and crushing, the JFK 50 Miler, and then re-visited the 10 mile distance with a terrific race at Cherry Blossom 2010. A disappointing lead-up to Chicago 2011 is probably the only blemish on his transcript, besides the aforementioned beatdown (by me) at Club Challenge. Even now, Ben continues to pursue more challenging events, as he has tackled the sport of triathlon this year, and pulled the trigger on signing up for Ironman Wisconsin 2012. Knowing Ben, I expect nothing less than meticulous discipline and focus as he prepares for that event. Of course, if he gets to Hawaii before I do, I may have to check myself into Arkham Asylum.

This little fluff piece isn't to boost Ben's ego, but rather to let him know how much he has meant to our group. Some of you may already know, but others may not, that Ben and his wife, Kendra, are moving to Omaha, Nebraska, in just two and a half weeks. Kendra accepted a great position with the Symphony there, and while we don't get to regularly see them now in Winchester, it is still nice to know he's not that far. I know a few of us have stopped by their place, and Brennan has gotten together to run with him a few times, meeting in the middle.

The good news is that the two of them will be coming to Baltimore to race the Celtic Solstice race on December 17th, so following that race it will be the Day of Ingram. As we get closer, we'll organize a social event for after the race. Whether you ran with Ben for a day or for years, or never ran with him at all, Ben has left an indelible mark in our Baltimore running history. For instance, the move of leaving the house quietly in the middle of the night during a fierce snowstorm, running 2 miles to Fells Point, getting caught, and then having to run back home - yeah, Ben invented that. The other move, when you drink a 40 and pass out wherever, probably because you're very old and very sleepy, that's just known as "The Ben" now.

Anyway, I apologize to Ben for blowing up his spot in the event that he wanted to let people know, but I feel like he might have left without saying anything. Show your love for Ben by sending me your favorite Ben story, or commenting below.

36th Marine Corps Marathon

2011-10-31T12:50:00.000-04:00

As the email I just sent detailed, our very own Emily Hurley ran one of the best races in our brief history, as she powered her way to a 10th place finish at yesterday's Marine Corps Marathon. Her time of 2:56:53 is beyond impressive, and bettered her 3:01:43 from the Boston Marathon earlier this year.

Emily was running inspired. On each of her shoulders she paid tribute to two of the people who she was running to honor. On one, her grandmother, who served in World War II as a Marine; the other, a high school friend who was killed in action earlier this year. At mile 18, after being fairly quiet for a few miles, she let us know what the words were all about, and at that moment I knew she was going to have a strong finish.

1:27 at the half, she was clicking off 6:40-6:45 per mile all the way to mile 20, when the pace crept up towards 7:00. And that's where the race gets really tough. The final 10k are a grind, not so much in physical difficulty but mentally. After crossing that terrible bridge into Virginia, you go out and back for a little while before the 2 mile shot into the finish along the highway, and, in the truest form of cruelty, a 200m straight shot uphill to the finish.

But Emily got it done, and we couldn't be more proud! 10th place at a race this big is a huge accomplishment. To run a near 5 minute PR is even more impressive. That now puts her 6th on our Top Ten Individual Marathon performance list for women.

This earned her the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, no question!

A very special shout out to one of GRC's finest, Andy Chicken Tender Sovonick. CTR was going to run with me for my long run, and ended up running 17 miles as we ran alongside Emily from Georgetown on. Andy obviously had never met Emily, and what was even greater was when I dropped, at mile 20, he was going to just cross the bridge and call it a day - but instead he ran with Emily through mile 26. A great display of sportsmanship earned him our KC Masterpiece Award for coming through in the clutch (easily).

Annapolis Half-Marathon

2011-10-31T09:22:00.000-04:00

Active's Schwaggle (stupid word) is hosting entries to the Annapolis Half Marathon. The race would only be $49 through this deal.

http://schwaggle.active.com/deal/3774/42-percent-off-the-annapolis-half-marathon/baltimore?cmp=24-4-68526-5

Nightmare Before Christmas

2011-10-29T17:52:00.000-04:00

If today's weather is any indication of what we're in store for this winter, wake me up in April!

But, hard weather breeds champions, and today we have seen four winners so far. Ed Aramayo won the Kids Peace Trick-or-Trot 5k in Canton, in an off-season time of 16:30. Andrew Beef Jaffe was third in the race at 17:10. Brennan Feldhausen was going to do the shorter walk with some co-workers, but opted instead to run and finished 17th in 22:58.

At the St. John's Run in the Valley 5k, we had legitimate SNOW. It was way worse in the County than it was here in the City. Colder, snowier. The race course was a scenic trip up and back on Belmont Road though, and the gentle rollers broke up the monotony. Enticed by my post/email from the other day, Eileen Fleck came out to claim her bounty, but was thwarted by even later-comer, Megan DiGregorio, who showed up super late and looked really tired. Meg D took the overall victory in 20:01, with Eileen at 20:22 in 2nd overall. Later, Lillian Pinault came through, walking with some friends. It was not the type of day I would have wanted to be out walking.

The race was in its first year, and race directors Paul and Kelly Ort did a fantastic job hosting the event. It's a shame about the weather, as it undoubtedly kept the numbers lower than they otherwise would have been. But, I would recommend this one for next year, as it's a good fall 5k to do.

At the Miles for Megan 5k in Towson area, Lee DiPietro won the women's race, and was third overall, in 21:53 (I suspect it was long). We haven't seen her name in results for a while, so it was great to see this one today!

Today is also Dave Ploskonka's birthday, and he celebrated by winning the Halloweeny 50k in spooky Burkittsville, MD (site of Blair Witch Project fame). Of course, it was a "fat ass" event so there aren't official results or anything, but according to the internet, Dave must have worn a costume. A great way to celebrate turning 30 today. His plans to run tomorrow's Fire on the Mountain 50k were washed, er, snowed, out, when they had to postpone until next weekend. This also impacted Meg D, Meg McNew, and Pete Mulligan, who were all slated to run tomorrow.

So that basically just leaves tomorrow's Marine Corps Marathon (#36thMCM if you're following Twitter), with Emily Hurley running that. I'll be down there, but will not have my phone on me so there won't be updates until after the race.

Side note: Remember how Skeleton Jack (Nightmare Before Christmas) lives in Halloweentown, but is all about Christmas? Well that's the opposite of me. I wish I lived in Halloweentown.

celtic solstice

2011-10-27T18:28:00.000-04:00

the solstice already has over 2000 people registered, so if you plan on racing this year, you might want to sign up soon. they're expecting to sell out before thanksgiving.

Weekend Races

2011-10-26T17:44:00.000-04:00

There are more than a couple of events this weekend, and I wanted to highlight some events of interest:

St. John's Run in the Valley 5k: we are timing this one, put on by Kelly Ort and her husband. It's an out and back race in the valley of Reisterstown. Scenic, no reason it shouldn't be a quick race. And, just announced by Kelly: CASH PRIZES for top 3 M/F. Yeah, that's right. Not huge money, but $75/50/25. Enough to cover entry fee, that's for sure. So if you're looking to sneak a super easy win and also grab some dollars, I would highly recommend this one. 9am start time, address is Butler Rd in Reisterstown.

KidsPeace 5k: this one is in Canton and as you may recall from last year was way short. This year I'm told it's the right distance, but who knows. It's also pretty hilly as it runs up to Patterson Park Pagoda and comes back to finish in the Square. But, it's a backyard race, so that's always fun, and there were prizes last year for top 3, but I don't know if it's money, or if it's back this year.

These are the two 5k races I would recommend looking into this weekend!

Berdan

2011-10-25T18:03:00.001-04:00

An interview with Baltimore's finest: http://workingrunner.blogspot.com/

Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

2011-10-25T09:28:00.000-04:00

I don't know how Brennan Feldhausen even found this event (Oktober Lauf Fest Half Marathon), but it gave out pretty much the sickest swag of all time. Not only was his finisher "medal" some kind of wood-whittled whistle, but his award for winning the event is this:

Pretty freaking sweet.

Races were limited this weekend, it seems as if nobody wants to put on races other than marathons in the fall. The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Hunt Valley was the day's big event, not only by size (reports of 32,000 were scaled back to 23,000) but also by virtue of being televised. So, at 8 o'clock in the morning, I was able to watch Dave Berdan get the victory (15:29ish) with a quickly-getting-into-shape Greg Jubb in 2nd about 20 seconds back. Also on TV I spotted Jake Marren, who is just happy to be running again (he ran 18:10), and Lillian Pinault, who finished with a PCPR of 20:35. Kelly Ort also ran, finishing 3rd in her age group. Of course, results will likely never get posted, because this race is not about results.

Just down the road about 2 miles, at Oregon Ridge Park, the Dustin Bauer Memorial "Run for Life" 5k took place. I thought the times seemed slow, and then was informed that it is a cross country run, up and down the hills of OR on the grass. The times then made sense. Rory Jenkins, former FRRS employee/lived in Alaska for a while, got the win in 17:30. Jon Miller finished 13th in 20:03 (I inadvertently credited him with the time of 12th place previously) and PJ Anderer ran 22:28 for 32nd, which he was pleased with the day after a 14 mile run.

Saturday was the Princeton Running Club Invitational (8k XC), where Alex Waldt the young helped his Maryland team to a 2nd place finish, as he finished 3rd in a time of 27:20. Great work dude!

This led to our decision for Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, and as he has been super impressive of late, not even just running fast or getting wins, but his on-air presence when being interviewed ALL THE TIME, this week's honor goes to Dave "the teacher from Garrison Forest" Berdan.

In other news, Meg McNew, with her NFL pick of the week Cleveland Browns, improved her record to 2-2. This week, she's upping the ante. Not only has she provided us with her pick (Kansas City Chiefs) but she has provided a line (-10). They play the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night.

NYC Announces Elite Field

2011-10-21T17:22:00.000-04:00

NYRR just announced its final list of elite competitors for the November 6th event. It is...insane. Both the men's and women's races should be hotly contested and very exciting to watch (unless you happen to be running the race, too).

Super Mike Wardian was profiled on the USATF site. I appreciate this quote: "I like to race anything, but I like to race against the best people. What matters to me is competition."

Competition is why we're out here. In the end, times are mostly arbitrary. Courses vary in difficulty, accuracy, and the day's conditions, but competition is constant. Now, most of us have time goals, and work towards them, but every once in a while don't forget: it's still a race. It may also be a little easier to race competitively against rivals you're familiar with than a random drawn from a race of 45,000 people, but you can always find a reason to compete against an individual. Race them because they're wearing headphones, or dressed as a superhero, or because you're tired of hearing them breathe. Try it this fall!

Old School Joint of the Day

2011-10-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

Dusty shared this excellent little story and photograph with me, and with his permission, I am posting here to share with you:

This past weekend at my friend's wedding, I spent significant time chatting about running with my WJU teammate, Matt Abel. Matt was a very accomplished runner in college, qualifying for DII Nationals in XC and amassing multiple all-conference and all-region honors. During our conversation, I mentioned that my club member, Dave Berdan, would attempt to qualify for the OTs on Saturday morn at the Baltimore marathon. Matt replied, "Dave Berdan? He ran for Elizabethtown. I outkicked him once. He ran great times as junior and senior." At this moment, I realized that I undoubtedly raced against Dave several times throughout my college career. In the recent past, I must have learned that Dave ran for E-town, but, for some reason, it didn't stick and I never pondered the fact that he and I would have competed in the same races. Perhaps I didn't commit it to memory because Dave would have been just one of many E-town runners who beat in XC, as they had a deep squad and I was merely a middle-of-the-pack runner for much of my XC career.

Once I realized that I had a raced Dave in college XC, I immediately visualized a photograph of me that a teammate had taken at the 2000 Davis and Elkins College Fall Festival Invite. At that moment, I knew I had to find the photograph and determine whether it was Dave. After digging through a box of photos, I located the image and cross referenced it with E-town XC images from 2000 to confirm that it was Dave. This photo hung on the wall of my dorm room for at least a year during college. I still remember my teammate leaving it for me on my dorm room door with a note.

Dusty side by side with Berdan

So here you have it, a great shot of Dustin from his freshman year of college, with Dave, obviously influenced by the great Slim Shady, in the year 2000.

The Dave Berdan Show

2011-10-18T15:20:00.000-04:00

(Link is in the title)

UPDATED 10/18: another little video

I didn't watch the coverage on WBAL from the marathon, but all reports were that it was definitely the Dave Berdan Show. Even after he was no longer in the lead, the announcers kept talking about "the teacher from Owings Mills". Pretty cool. It's not often that, in a race of this size and stature, a local is competing at that level.

By stature, of course I am referring to the $25,000 winner's bounty. That's a big chunk of change for any race, but particularly Baltimore. I mean, think how many cases of Boh and dozens of crabs you could purchase with that?

In terms of races, think about the big races: NYC, Chicago, Boston. Those cities aren't necessarily hotbeds for elite activity, but even if a bunch of real quick folks live in those places, the nature of those events is almost always going to preclude them from having a shot at a win. Your next tier races, which would be events like Philly, Los Angeles, Austin, just don't have the prize purses. In fact, I'd have to look it up, but I would wager that Baltimore now has to be one of the bigger payout marathons in the country.

The coolest part of the video is when Dave tosses his cup at a trash can - and it GOES IN!

Running through the Recession

2011-10-17T22:53:00.001-04:00

No sure if this is inspiring or depressing, but at least it's interesting.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/pm/2011/10/17/marketplace_cast1_20111017_64&starttime=00:17:02.0&endtime=00:22:48.0

Putting On For Our City

2011-10-17T13:49:00.000-04:00

Full disclosure: Since no fewer than 50 of us competed in some way at the Baltimore Running Festival this weekend, not everyone's story will be highlighted in this recap. You can see everyone's results on the side.

The 5k

Tristram Thomas won the 5k in 15:34, which was a 17 second improvement from his time last year, and a 17 second season best. It also moved him from 9th to 5th in our Top Ten All Time list. TT was disappointed the time wasn't faster, but put some of that on the lack of competition in the field. In the women's race, Melissa Tanner was 2nd in 19:20, with New Becky Parks just behind in 3rd (19:29). For NBP it was a season best. She said she was going to try her best not to get drunk on Friday night, which could explain the performance. But after the race, and Saturday night, and most of Sunday, she made up for all that she couldn't drink on Friday. Erik Westlund had a cortisone shot prior to the race, which made his foot feel better, but also inhibited him from running too fast. Christa Wagner ran 20:48, which was almost a minute improvement from her time last year, and I'm pretty sure a PR. It also placed her 9th.

The Half Marathon

A group of 8 blitzed from the gun, clipping the first mile in under 5:30. Brennan Feldhausen made sure to dial back his effort, and it paid off for him as he began to reel everyone back in at Lake Montebello. With sustained winds of 20mph, including a headwind for the final 5-6 miles, most recorded their slowest mile on the flat mile around the Lake. Brennan finished 5th in 1:17:16, which while off his goal, didn't leave him feeling too concerned. Tim Parker was coming off a fine finish at the Delaware Distance Classic 15k, and was looking to improve on last year's 1:22 low that he ran. Unfortunately it wasn't his day, as he finished up at 1:26:31. Another who had trouble finding his legs was Joel Gladfelter, who was hoping to go under his 1:23 time from a few weeks ago. Joel finished up at 1:31:02, but as bad days happen, you just put it behind you and move on. David Lee, better known for his monster skills on the bike, and Sam Wollner, the swimmer, both found their running legs as they finished in 1:31:14 and 1:32:51, respectively. Jon Miller (1:38:42) and PJ Anderer (1:40:56) each ran fine races, and Colin Brooks had a good race, running 2:07:03. I will keep telling this story for a while, but Colin thought that the mile markers indicated what mile you were STARTING. In other words, he thought the race starts at Mile 1 (instead of 0) and that at mile 10 he still had 4 miles to go. So he had a little too much left in the tank!

For the ladies, Jackie Truncellito ran a great race, improving by 1:40 on her 2010 time in her 3rd place effort (1:28:46). Kelly Meier also ran a great race for herself, finishing in 1:39:15.

The Marathon

The laurels and praises for Dave Berdan's 2:21:19, 10th place effort, could not be higher or more plentiful, so we don't need to recap his performance. I am confident that, at any race besides Baltimore, his effort would have resulted in a sub 2:19 time, and if he gives it a go again this fall, may the wind be at his back!

But there were others running this race, some for the first time, and some as their first marathon. Conrad Laskowski shot out like a bullet, running most of the race by himself, and splitting 1:15:30 at the half. He paid for it in the back half, as almost everyone does, but still finished up at 2:44:00, good enough for 27th. Andrew Beef Jaffe always makes me scratch my head, as he muscles and bulls his way to great times. He finished up at 2:49:01. Pat McLoughlin, due to the forces of nature, decided to make Baltimore his first marathon. Perhaps not ideal from a "fast race" perspective, it did allow him to train on the course and avoid traveling. It also meant he was going to have support the entire way. He didn't disappoint. Running 1:23 at the half, he managed to hold himself together for a 1:27 back half and finish at 2:50:43 for 36th place. A fantastic debut for Pat!

For the women, Denise Knickman finished 13th and was top master, claiming $1000 for her 3:09:45 effort. Perhaps the surprise of the day was Meg McNew's 3:10:38, which, all things considered, is probably equivalent to her 3:06:43 from two weeks ago at Wineglass. This is an incredible confirmation of her fitness, but now hopefully she'll take at least more than a couple of weeks off from serious running!

The Relay

We didn't have the numbers, or desire, to put together open men and open women teams, so it was just one co-ed team with Arjun (who hadn't really run in two weeks), Ed (who had just run his marathon 6 days earlier), Amy, and Meg D. They won handily over Team Jaskot (2nd place co-ed) and finished 4th overall in the relay division at 2:42:12. Apparently Meg D (4th leg) was enjoying the water stations.

Andy Olson, and Nina Hartman, separately ran as individuals on the same team (inside joke) and established a team PR for themselves. Dave Berardi was on the 3rd place team, comprised of HCS masters.

The Purple Drink Athlete of the Week

With many worthy performances on the docket, the PDAW showed its bias towards those competing in their first marathon, and with a 2:50 debut, it's one of the best debut marathons we've seen in our years here. "Congrads" Pat!

But we weren't quite done with racing just yet!

Sunday was the Columbus Marathon and Half. Although many were looking to run OTQ times, it appears as if, between both races, just a handful of women were able to do it - the half winner and a couple in the marathon. The male marathon winner was 45ish seconds off and the half winner was even less than that. Dustin Meeker wasn't interested in qualifying for the Trials, he just wanted to run a fast time. He has been incredibly diligent in his preparations over the past few months, and he unleashed the fury on Sunday, covering the 13.1 mile course in 1:10:34 and finishing 13th out of nearly 10,000 runners. For Dusty, it was a PR of 1:06, which is pretty insane. It also helped him leapfrog Ben by 2 seconds to put him in 4th in our Top Ten All Time (in fairness, Ben has run 1:09 but it was before he met us so we don't count it. It also was before the internet, so there is no published record of it).

Meanwhile, up in Detroit, Lauren Boof Dennisuk ran the Detroit Free Press Marathon, finishing 41st in 3:21:37.

Elsewhere in Michigan, Ryan Schmidt ran on a relay race at the Grand Rapids Marathon with his wife, his brother, sister, and sister-in-law. They were out to have some fun, and for Sara, it was the first race I can remember her doing in a long time!

This week we will honor Dusty with the NOS Award, for pushing his NOS button at just the right time. He split 10k at 33:05 and zoomed past 4 people from 10k to the finish.

We will also honor the AutoZone In the Zone athlete, Dave Berdan, who seems to be firing on all cylinders following his great runs at PDR, Race for our Kids, and now Baltimore.

100 year old marathoner

2011-10-16T22:20:00.000-04:00

Let the ribbing on Ben and/or Kris begin

Berdan - 2:21:19 at Baltimore Marathon

2011-10-15T15:29:00.000-04:00

After leading the race until just before the halfway point, Dave Berdan finished 10th in 2:21:19, lowering his personal best by 2:21 (Steamtown 2007, 2:23:40). Sustained winds of 15-20mph and 12 miles in the lead took their toll on Dave, who was looking to run under 2:19 and earn his spot on the line for January's US Olympic Marathon Trials. While it was off his goal, Dave was still extremely pleased with the big PR, saying that he never "hit the wall" but muscularly was shot. He also remarked that he "should have gone to Chicago," adding that, while speculative, he felt the effort would have been a 2:18 at Chicago or Philly.

I tend to agree, as the wind was brutal out there today. It picked up steadily throughout the morning, and was straight into the runners' faces as they came back to the finish.

Either way, it's a great result for Dave, for whom this is only his 4th marathon. He also managed to outkick a runner for 10th - it was incredible. He was so far back heading into Camden Yards and wound up putting 30 seconds into him by the end.

Other great results, I'll get more up here later when they're all finalized.

Who

2011-10-14T12:48:00.001-04:00

Gave Remus my phone number?

superheroes

2011-10-14T10:03:00.000-04:00

it's like a real-life batman! link in title

FAME

2011-10-13T12:08:00.000-04:00

I caught Ed on WBAL this morning at 5:45, being asked a few questions by Ava Marie. Pretty cool! I missed the later segment starring Coach Amy and possibly Jim, maybe we can find it online somewhere.

But Ed brought this article from the Huffington Post to my attention. Liz Laseter, who graduated in May from Hopkins and ran with us on the track this summer, recently started her new career as a culinary student and author of two apparently successful food blogs (The Baltimore Food Rag and The D.C. Food Rag). It's not every day that someone we know is featured in the Huffington Post, as Miley Cyrus would say, "it's pretty cool."

You can also read the brief article from Baltimore Magazine.

This Dude is my Hero

2011-10-13T12:04:00.000-04:00

Check out the article (link in the Title) on this guy running the full B-more Marathon with his son. As a parent of 3, I find this story captivating. He has quit his job as a private practice lawyer post 9/11 to join the Army. Been deployed twice. Adopted 3 children. Completed 3 Ironmans. Now lives in the greatest city in the world (C-ville). One word: Legit.

Regardless of if I have fully admitted it to myself yet, I no longer have the capacity to be a competitive runner and go for PRs. I can still enjoy the sport that has given me so much joy and created so many friendships. I plan on donating time to Athletes Serving Athletes here in Baltimore. They have 2 races you can participate in by challenged athletes cross the finish line. I encourage all to contemplate the same.

http://www.athletesservingathletes.org/1.html

Polished Knob

2011-10-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

Ultra runners are pretty funny people. I mean, look at some of the names of the Checkpoints at the Grindstone 100 Mile Race that Dave Ploskonka ran this weekend. They're just crass. But it's our brand of humor. Dave's experience sounds hectic. He had just flown in from Israel (and boy were his arms tired!), had to connect to BWI through Philly, then had to drive to the start of this race. Sounds pretty miserable.

Here are some interesting thoughts about elite runners being self-coached. Also interesting is that Ryan Hall believes he has never run a bad marathon. "There aren't many other Americans running 2:08," he said. Cool, glad that he's content with mediocrity. Also, Beijing 2008?

Did you see a woman went into labor immediately following her 6.5 hour marathon at Chicago on Sunday? She was 39 weeks pregnant, and her doctor said it was okay for her to run half. So she jogged half and walked the other half. Tom Cruise apparently heard, as he was seen sniffing around the finish line to get a hold of the placenta.

I'm here all week, folks.

Anyway I was able to get most of the big results up from the weekend, and from the email we all know that Ed Aramayo was our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week. But I missed Tim Parker's 18th place/56:52 at the Delaware Distance Classic 15k, and the first ever triathlon for Thomas Stewart. Tom went down to the Waterman's Sprint Tri (same venue as my half on Sunday) and finished 71st, with a monster bike split. Dr. Rod also competed, swimming and running his way to an 83rd place finish. Cynthia Evans ran a 1:20:34 at Army Ten. At the PG Crime Victim's Fund Run "5k" in College Park, Greg Jubb won in 16:52 and Louis Foudos was 3rd in 18:02. The pair found out that post-collegiate races aren't always the distance they say they are!

Now it's onto the BIGGEST WEEKEND OF THE YEAR in Baltimore: the Baltimore Running Festival! Here is the schedule of events:

Thursday: WBAL11, 5:30am. Ed and Amy will be on TV Thursday morning from the Falls Road Running Store talking about how to prepare for the weekend. Set your DVRs! We will make fun of them if they fail.

Thursday/Friday: Marathon Expo, 10am-9pm. As I was informed on Monday, the Expo is at the Convention Center, NOT at Ravens Stadium, this year.

Saturday: Marathon, 8am. I'm real excited to watch this one, as we have a number of people running and looking to do well. Berdan, Pat, Conrad, Beef, Denise - it is going to be a great day out there!

Saturday: 5k, 8:30am. Looks like we've got Tristram, NBP, and Christa competing in this one.

Saturday: Half Marathon, 9:45am. Brennan, Barf, Tim Parker, Patrick O'Rourke, to name a few. Colin Brooks will be tweeting live from on course about hockey, television shows, and other things, while he attempts to run.

If you're not racing, get your spectating game face on and get your ass up and out the door to cheer on our teammates! Everyone will be in and done well before noon and the post-race party can begin. I will be on course on my bike and will be tweeting updates all day, trying to get pics and also looking to get some quotes so think of something good to say!

Boston 2012

2011-10-11T12:18:00.003-04:00

Anyone signed up? I want to reserve a hotel very soon - they fill up, and are mad expensive. Gauging interest.

They Took Our Jobs!

2011-10-10T22:59:00.000-04:00

Sent to me by Justin:

Week 5 Fantasy Football Awards

Take a look at Award #4. Sports Illustrated has stolen our award name. Is there a way we can pursue legal action? Ha, that would be pretty funny, I can see the byline now... "Small town running club sues media giant over fictitious award." Then, the next article would be "KC Masterpiece sues small town running club for using their name for fictitious award."

Even in Helsinki

2011-10-10T13:05:00.000-04:00

Picture from the Finnish Airport

Big Boy Legs

2011-10-09T13:30:00.000-04:00

Spotted: Remus, walking 100m of the 6th water stop (mile 6.5) of Army Ten Miler today. He did not have his big boy legs on. He told me was going to run 56 something. Went out in 29:40 and popped, walked.

Not spotted: Joel Brusewitz. Thought he was supposed to be racing.

Absolutely PERFECT day, a true Indian Summer (sorry Arjun!). Gorgeous day down in the District to watch Army Ten Miler. Thanks to Alex Waldt for getting himself up before the sun to join me from College Park. Here's a few preliminary results from today's action:

Chicago Marathon: Perfect conditions lead to men's and women's course records. Moses Mosop put down a 14:29 5k at 30k to break his opponents. His 30-45km split was faster than the first 15k of his 30km record run. 2:05:30ish for him. Blahblavia Blahblahovich, the Russian, ran a 2:18:20 and wrecked her competitors. She similarly threw down a 16:15 5k split from 30-35 and put 50 seconds into 2nd. Ryan Hall runs 2:08:04. But it's cool, he ran 3+ minutes faster at Boston, so obviously there's no way that the wind helped on that day.

Ed Aramayo runs a great "debut" marathon, almost even splitting a 2:36:45. He said he felt good until about 20, and expects his pictures will come out great. Disappointed that he wasn't under 2:36, but already had two beers by the 3:15 mark of the race. Alex Viana was on course and said Ed looked good. Ed also had to work through some early hamstring issues, but they abated and he went on without a problem.

Steamtown Marathon: Bob Harvey runs lifetime best 3:03:45. Absolutely perfect day out, he said. Felt good through 23, then couldn't hold on. A little disappointed he couldn't get under 3, but this is a 6 minute PR for the Harv. Not to mention, he had his bachelor party last weekend and is getting married next weekend, so he's been a busy guy!

B.A.A. Half Marathon: From Coach Amy [paraphrased] "Felt great through 11. Wicked hill right after 11 and there just wasn't anything in me to race it. Really quite ok with the situation - bets I've ever felt through 11 of a half. I thought I could do 1:26, this course was crazy. Was on pace for 1:27, ended up with a 1:29." (She finished 19th with a 1:29:03.)

Alex Battaglino finished 13th. Great position in a competitive field, on what sounds like not a terribly fast course (1:03:36 winner). At 5 miles Alex was at 25:48, at 10 he was 53:10. Finished at 1:11:21

Celebrate

2011-10-08T18:03:00.001-04:00

So I was going to invite any/everyone who reads this out to celebrate my insignificant 32nd (yeah I'm practically Ben old) birthday but, instead we have a better reason to celebrate.
Our very own RYAN ELF RONALD MCDONALD MCGRATH for the first time ever flipping WON the Gen Smallwood 70.3 triathlon today.
He's way too humble to actually plan a gathering on his own so in the guise of my birthday, come to theRow House Grille in fed hill at/around 10 pm. Chaos to ensue forthwith.

Marathon Mania!

2011-10-07T11:21:00.000-04:00

It's late notice, but let's get some guesses going for Chicago Marathon winners and winning times this weekend!

Post in the comments section or send me an email if you want to play along.

An elite athlete starting list, complete with personal bests, can be found here.

The men's race features a number of <2:08 guys, including the very naked Ryan Hall (ESPN: The Magazine's Body Issue) and Moses Mosop, who both recorded blistering times at Boston earlier this year. The women's race, meh, whatever. Either way, make your top three picks (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and winning times for each gender. I'll keep track of them and declare a winner after the race.

We will then use this to catapult ourselves into the NYC guessing game in a few weeks, and then can do Boston in the spring. If you play in all the games we can have a series winner after the Marathon Majors are done.

Cheese is also running, so if you think he is capable of upsetting the top guys and getting the win, you're welcome to write his name in.

Post Baltimore Festivities

2011-10-06T10:44:00.000-04:00

Kris and his roommate, Donna, have graciously opened their home to a post-Baltimore Marathon celebration a week from Saturday (October 15) from 3pm on. Here's how the conversation started:

9:52pm, on Tuesday

KS: Is anyone having people over after Baltimore?
RM: Nope, don't think so!
KS: Well that's a food thing cause the peeps can head ro 712 park ave baby!
KS: Hi rm. Its Donna.
KS: D is a lil tipsy('er body get tipsy). Party at ours post b-more.
RM: Hey Donna! A party sounds good
DG: Hi. This is the real donna. And btw the Kris is most likely wrong.
KS: I think I owe one to the running peeps for helping us move.
KS: Email me. And we will work our the details. Mmmmwha RM
RM: Dude you don't owe anyone - that move was so long ago! But a fun party is always cool.
KS: That's he troof, kid.
KS: That's d who thinks we owe...I just think it could be fun.
DG: Oh honey. It's ok. It will be all ok.

Since all has been assured to be ok, a party it is. Rules of parties:

1. Don't be lame.
2. Bring something to share
3. Seriously, don't be lame. If you have a bad race, don't bring it with you!

dooodz innnn spaaaaaaaaaaace

2011-10-05T13:09:00.000-04:00

Link above. Apparently Lance wanted to title his documentary "Spaceballs". He was enraged when he found out the name was taken.

I Believe I Can Fly

2011-10-04T23:42:00.000-04:00

Under normal circumstances, comparing Pete Mulligan to Michael Jordan would be ludicrous, unless we were talking about the Michael Jordan that played minor league baseball for the Chicago White Sox. But what Pete accomplished on Sunday was akin to all of MJ's career highlights, rolled into one. Pete shaved 27 minutes off his previous personal best in the marathon, an astronomical improvement, and in the process, achieved the new (and more difficult) qualifying standard for the Boston Marathon. Pete's time of 3:24:15 put him inside the 3:25 time limit for his age group, so, with some good fortune, Pete will be on the line in April 2013.

Pete at the Hon Run 2007

That performance was enough to earn Pete the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, but it wasn't without some stiff competition.

Pete raced at the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY, a race known for its fast times and propensity for bestowing Boston Qualifying times upon its competitors. A point-to-point, downhill race, this year's edition took place in wet, chilly conditions that seemed to be too much for some, but just right for others. And apparently, the "others" were everyone that we run with. Meg McNew's previous marathon best was a 3:17. She lopped off 11 minutes, running 3:06:43 and finishing 8th among women.

In the inaugural half marathon, Carly Page showed her fitness by not just winning the race, but doing it in style, and running a 6 minute PR (1:25:48). I mistakenly cited her position on the Top Ten All Time list, supplanting Meg McNew's best, but was corrected and I apologize to both of them for the error!

Terry Decker also competed in the half, but was a little disappointed with his result - a 1:29. He felt he was better than that effort, and I think so too, so I hope he can get on track for his upcoming marathon. His fiance, Molly Eagen, ran her first marathon and went 4:23, which is a great debut time.

Also earning wins this weekend were Arjun Majumdar and New Becky Parks, in two lowkey, local 5k's. Arjun ran the Marian House 5k on Saturday at Lake Montebello. The awful idea of having a two loop course led to Arjun and his main competitor having to weave through walkers towards the end of the race while engaging in a sprint to the finish. Mostly, our biggest question was who is this guy that is able to keep up with Arjun in the last 400m of a 5k? Apparently his balls were exposed, too, which had to have been quite a sight. In any event, it was hard to tell who was going to win but in the last few strides, Arjun got him, running a great 16:39 and earning his first W in a long, long time. For NBP, who ran the not-accurately-timed-or-measured Sowebo Landmark 5k on Sunday, she of course won and was not pleased with the effort. Or the shoddy organization. But what did you expect, it's a race in Southwest Baltimore!

The Falls Road 15k was held on Sunday and thanks to everyone who helped out, even if some of you were "on the clock" for the store. Alyssa Godesky finished 2nd among women behind soon-to-be-newcomer-to-the-group Kellen McGee. Alyssa had to run before the race, and then was supposed to pick up the 2nd half of the race. She tackled the hills of the course and ran a great time. Just behind was PJ Anderer, and then Kelly Meier in 3rd. In 6th was Sara Damiano, who joined us for track tonight. Christine Trzcinski and Karen Menge rounded our our troupe of ladies who stormed the race.

Lillian Pinault ran the Freedom's Run Half Marathon in 1:42:45, about 7 minutes faster than she was expecting, and Dan Miranda doubled in back-to-back half marathons, running a 1:18:43 in a 2nd place effort at a half marathon in New Hampshire on Saturday, before flying back Saturday night and running the half marathon leg of a half ironman on Sunday in Columbia (where he ran about 1:20). Not a bad weekend!

Out in Oregon, Matty Blaze Jablonski was racing in his first ever big boy college race, the Bill Dellinger Invitational, an 8k cross country race at U of O. Matt finished 41st in a stacked field (every race will be stacked for him from now on) in a great debut time of 24:45. At another college xc race, the Paul Short Invite, on Friday, Tristram Thomas finished 122nd in 27:39.

Our final competitor this weekend was Ben Ingram, who was looking forward to competing in his first ever half ironman at the inaugural Poconos 70.3. The only problem was the river they were using to stage the swim was surging, and at 14 feet, the park said the swim was a no-go. So the race became a bike-run, with a 55 mile ride and 13.1 mile run, and competitors were to go off every couple of seconds. Ben wrote up his race report on his blog, but basically in this type of race he is going to crush almost every time, and his result was a 3rd place AG finish, which earned him a spot to next year's IM 70.3 World Championship! However, since he just registered for IM Wisconsin, which is the same day, he had to pass. Must be nice to have that option!

As mentioned in the email, in addition to our PDAW, we have two new awards that will be popping up from time to time:

The NOS Award goes to the athlete who punched it at just the right time, and this week it went to Arjun.

The AutoZone "In the Zone" Award goes to an athlete who seems to be hitting his or her stride, and this week it went to Carly Page.

Good turnout at the track tonight, it was obviously pitch black just after we started the workout, which is unfortunate but we'll just have to get used to it! Also as I put in the email, the next few weeks we are going to start winding down. For the most part, the few of you that have marathons this fall know what you're doing, and there are enough of you to keep working out together for a while. For everyone else, I think you're mostly satisfied just getting in some quicker running, so the workouts will be fun. Also, somehow Space Jam was already a label for me to use.

Miscellaneous

2011-10-01T00:26:00.000-04:00

A few things before I forget:

1. My friend Celeste's all-female relay team for Baltimore is down a member. If any of our ladies would like to run, please get in touch with me. There would be no expectation of running fast, you would literally be able to run 8 minute pace and that would be fine.

2. One of our runners is unable to run the Marine Corps Marathon and is interested in transferring his bib. If you are interested in this race (Sunday October 30), again, let me know and I'll hook you up.

3. Falls Road 15k is Sunday, 7:30am at Druid Hill Park. Ed is taking care of the timing this week as I will be home in NJ. So far Zero has agreed to help and I believe Alyssa may be helping after she is done running the race, but another set of paws would be of great benefit to Ed. If anyone can help, holler at him. Meeting point is Safety City (up top, basically where the mile 1 mark is for Celtic Solstice).

Suffrage

2011-09-28T13:57:00.000-04:00

This article came out last week in the New York Times, following the ruling by the I.A.A.F. on what constitutes the women's World Record in the marathon (and, similarly, other road race distances). The issue at hand: whether women's records should count if they are receiving a benefit from pacing by male runners. The World Record had stood at 2:15:25 by the UK's Paula Radcliffe (London, 2003), during which she had the benefit of male pacers. The somewhat mind-boggling discrepancy between that, her fastest time, and the 2:17:18 she ran in Chicago in 2002 aside, even that one is tossed out. Instead, the new World Record will be her 2:17:42 (London 2005) from a race in which the elite women started 45 minutes ahead of the field.

This topic brings to the forefront, once again, what we consider World Records and what will simply be considered "World Bests" - just like what we saw happen at Boston this year. As has been a point of discussion on some of our runs this past week, I think a majority of us would agree that, for WR consideration, pacesetters should not be allowed. But, as argued previously and I'm sure would be argued again, is it unfair to consider the fastest time to cover a particular distance a World Record?

And this is why there are rules. I personally think it's kind of wrong to retroactively take away Radcliffe's World Record from 8 years ago, because that's just the way races were run back then. As the article addresses, is it more unfair for women to be paced by men than it is for men to be paced by men? It truly is much harder to find women to pace other women, because, let's face it - any woman who can run a 1:07 half should probably just stay in the race and try and win it herself. It's also the rules that rule out Boston as being a venue for World Record performances. Everyone knows that going into it, so it should come as no surprise after the fact. Of course, every RD wants their race associated with World Records. I can see the Boston Marathon media for 2012 now: "Home of the World Best *but not World Record".

Now that the fall marathon season is underway, it will be interesting to see what happens. Could the fact that the women's time is now a full 2:17 slower than it had been just a month ago have an effect on what someone runs at, say, Chicago? The women's winner at Berlin over the weekend became just the 5th or 6th woman to ever go under 2:20, so at just about 2 minutes back of the new WR, perhaps someone else will think they have a shot in a few weeks. Or, perhaps next year at London.

No matter what, I do think that elite women should have to start on their own. When they are chasing huge prize purses, it only seems fair that they should have to do it without help, whether official pacesetters or just guys that happen to run about 2:17 that are also in the marathon. For men, I think they need to take the pacesetters away as well. It was interesting to see at Berlin this weekend that when Haile Gebreselaisse had to stop, a pacesetter fell back and waited for him. That just seemed absurd to me (particularly since the pacesetter appeared to be Kenyan and Geb is of course from Ethiopia).

Oh and in case you hadn't heard, and if you missed the 12 seconds of Berlin Marathon coverage on Sunday night on Universal Sports, Patrick Makau ran a new World Record, 2:03:38, besting Geb's 2:03:59, also from Berlin.

Dancing in the Dark

2011-09-27T14:37:00.000-04:00

As I scrolled through the race results from the weekend, one of my first thoughts was man, what a great weekend it would have been to cherry pick a win. There were some seriously slow races (Run With the Horses 10k, Notre Dame Prep 5k) and some races that any of our girls could have stormed (Chestertown Half winner was 1:42, money race Hidden Treasures Half top 3 within a minute in the 1:33 range). Then, as my phone returned to service and a flurry of text messages and emails popped up in my inbox, I found out that a number of other races were really poorly organized.

Pete Mulligan finished 3rd at the Caribbean Sounds 10 Miler in the Harbor, and remarked that it made the Figgy Pudding 5k look like an "organized event." With 3 races (5k, 10k, 10mi) just running out and back through the Harbor, all three distances were short. But at least he got to eat some great jerk chicken afterwards.

Jon Miller, Meg McNew and Christa Wagner all competed at the 3/10-too-long Great Prostate Cancer Challenge 5k in Towson. I mistakenly listed Meg and Christa at 3rd and 5th, respectively, but I didn't realize that some name that looked weird was a girl, so they were actually 4th and 6th. For Christa, it was just her 2nd race this year and first since Club Challenge. A long road back from injury, and a great result! Apparently this 2000 person race had no food or water after and was just a complete Clusterf***.

At the aforementioned half marathons, Chris Benassi took 2nd at Chestertown in 1:20:39, while Brennan Feldhausen finished 3rd at Hidden Treasures in Salisbury with a 1:17:36, picking up $200 for his effort.

Two other results originally omitted in my email were Julia Webb's 1st Female/3rd overall 23:27 at the Virginia 4 Miler, and Dan Miranda's 2nd place in the Naylor's Beach Duathlon, with the fastest Run1 and Run2 of the day.

I don't have results for the Bull Run Reunion Run, but I do know that Tristram Thomas picked up a well-deserved W in 16:55 - a great time on that course, and a minute faster than he ran there last year. Erik Westlund also competed.

At the Great Pittsburgh 10k, Terence Baptiste had one of the best races of the year. He ran 34:58 for 30th place in this stacked field, and as far as I can tell it's a 90sec+ smashing of his previous 10k best. I know he ran in the 36:30 range at both Pike's Peek and the infinitely slower Race For Our Kids (I thought he may have gotten into the 35 range somewhere through the years but couldn't find any confirmation). I talked to T about his race and he said he went out a little more relaxed, as he's been going out too hard recently. Splitting 17:45 at 5k, he then tore into the course, ripping a negative split 17:13 or so for the back half. He said the course is pretty similar to Pike's Peek: net downhill but mile 5 is straight up. Tuesday Tibbs ran well too, running 54:41.

Speaking of Race For Our Kids, that was on Sunday as well. The course seems to be slightly friendlier these days, as the race was moved from late June to late September, and the route changed slightly. Last year, Andy Biladeau of UVA came and ripped into the course, running the fastest 10k at RFOK (although it was the new course). Dave Berdan slotted into 2nd then, but this year was back with a vengeance, and great form following last weekend's PDR. Dave has had some great performances at this race over the years, winning in 2008 and finishing 2nd twice, but this year was great. Dave's winning time was 30:58 - the fastest he's run here by quite a bit. Alex Battaglino hasn't raced in some time, but has been putting in monster volume as he prepares for the BAA Boston Half. He ran 32:19 in his runner-up finish. Elijah Kosgei has been 40 for at least 3 years. I don't understand it, or why he keeps writing down that he is 40, but c'mon Peter Pan - we all have to grow up at some point. Face facts: the reaper is near. But, he didn't let that stop him from running 35:22 for 4th. Dave Berardi has been hampered by some hamstring issues again, but avoided getting girled by Diane, finishing 8th in 38:59. Diane Heiser has never run a 10k before (at least not while she's been here that I can find) so her 39:25 established a personal best for the distance. It was also more than good enough for the win, over Megan DiGregorio, who finished 2nd in 40:19. Meg D has run 3 10k's this year and has been within 6 seconds of that time, each time. Suzanne Hurst completed the Falls Road clean sweep, running 41:05. Cynthia Evans also ran, finishing in 50:29.

I would be remiss to not mention our brave Ragnar Relay folks: Dustin Meeker, Liz Lawton and Melissa Majumdar. Dusty's team did great battle with Liz, and came from behind to outpace them by 10 minutes at the end. Dusty's team was 2nd overall, Liz's was 3rd (1st in the mixed division). Melissa was on the lone ultra mixed division, which meant just 6 team members instead of 12. All I have heard was just how difficult the legs were from Dusty and Liz, that running up South Mountain (in Boonsboro) at 3am was terrible, and how wrecked they were from the effort.

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week went to Terence, for his terrific PR and great finish at Pittsburgh!

We'll be at the track tonight, 6:30pm, let's try and make sure we're starting by 7. Another fairly long workout for the marathon folks, who I think are going to do 6x1600 somewhere between tempo and marathon pace, with 200m jog rolling recovery. For those who are winding down or focusing on shorter events, we'll do a simple workout: 4x800, 4x400, 4x200, getting faster on the way down. 90sec in between the 8s, 60sec after the 4s and 200m jog in between the 200s.

Wheeee! Click here

2011-09-23T13:58:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday everyone!

Marathon Course Run Saturday @ 7am

2011-09-22T21:56:00.000-04:00

What: Supported course run along the Baltimore Marathon route
When: Saturday, Sept 24, 7am
Where: Meet at Patterson Park, corner of Linwood and Eastern (at the Pulaski monument)

Looking for a group run this weekend? Join a huge group of people as they run the back half of the Baltimore Marathon course. Meet just before 7am on Saturday at the corner of Eastern and Linwood over in Canton (it won't be hard to miss the group of people) and Ed will lead you along the course. There are course maps on The Baltimore Marathon site, and you can run as much as you want. Thanks to Falls Road Running, there will be water and nutrition along the way.

Ed is going to do the 16 mile loop with a mile before and a mile after.

Vessey, Still Hot, To Race Fifth Ave Mile

2011-09-21T13:53:00.000-04:00

Actually, the women's field for this weekend's race is pretty insane:

#1 ranked miler in the world, Morgan Uceny
World Champion, Jenny Barringer-Simpson
WC Runner-Up, British hottie Hannah England
That girl from Duke (boo), Shannon Rowbury
#1 in our hearts, Maggie Vessey

In other news, here is a fun photo from the start of Philly Distance Run:

I am not really good with writing things so hopefully you can read what it says.

free race entry and hotel accomodations!

2011-09-21T13:00:00.000-04:00

hey guys and gals - so i definitely meant to post this last week when i decided, but then i got sick - so here goes

due to a number of reasons, i'm not going up to NY for the wineglass marathon that takes place on Sunday 10/2/11

i (obviously) have already registered and i have a pre-paid (non-refundable) hotel room close to the finish line

if anybody wants to gobble up a free race entry and place to stay - just lemme know - the hotel said i could transfer it, and i can arrange to have whomever pick up my packet and race for me

holler

Inspired

2011-09-20T23:29:00.000-04:00

It was a perfect fall morning on Sunday in Philadelphia, as nearly 17,000 runners toed the line to run a half marathon in and around the city. For most of the field, "just finishing" was their goal, so they could go to work the next day and tell everyone that they ran a half marathon, but for some, ambitions were much higher. For Dave Berdan, it was perhaps his best opportunity for qualifying for the US Olympic Trials, to be held January 2012 in Houston. With a 10 mile PR of 49:17, he said before the race he was hoping to come through 10 in 49:30 (4:57/mi) and push hard to the finish to get under the 1:05:00 qualifying time. His splits were amazingly even: 5:03, 5:02, 4:58, 4:59, 4:59, 5:04, 5:00, 5:03, 5:11, 5:00, 4:58, 5:01, 5:29 (1.1) for a 1:05:53. The last 5k was 15:28, and it was a half marathon PR by 23 seconds. Although he came up short of his goal, he was pleased with getting under 1:06 for the first time, and he finished 25th overall in this incredibly competitive field.

For the mortals in our group, the times were a not-quite-elite, but were impressive nonetheless. Vince Collins was InVINCEable out there, as he walked the first 5k in 18:30ish (he passed me right before the clock) and then started to roll. 5:40s. Then 5:20s. Then dropped a 5:14 or something insane around mile 9 or 10. Finished with a 5:23, and crossed the line at 1:13:09. That meant his 10 mile split after the 5k was under 55 minutes. Incredible. It was as if he had multiple NOS buttons to hit and keep hitting. It was a similar race strategy for Dan Miranda, who ran 10 miles between 5:45 and 5:50 basically, before going Jack Kerouac on that ass and dropping 3 consecutive 5:33 miles or faster over the last 5k to finish in 1:14:49 - a PR by 1:20.

Even I had a magical day. Since it had been so long since the last time I a) had run a PR and b) had really run this race (both were in 2008) I couldn't exactly remember my personal best time, but I knew it was around 1:18:40. For this race, though, my goal was a more realistic 1:20. Three weeks following the Ironman didn't seem like an ideal time to try and get after a half marathon, but I figured I would let my legs dictate my effort. I went out smart, albeit a little quicker than I had anticipated, and with some pace help from Snake Hill Bandits, I split 18:32 at 5k, 37:01 at 10k and 55:33 at 15k. I was 59:43 at 10 miles and I knew at that point I had 1:20 in the bag, but the question was could I get under 1:19, or maybe even faster. I clipped miles 11 and 12 in 6:08, and at this point realized I would need to run a 6 minute mile if I was going to have a chance at going under 1:18:40. I charged as hard as I could, hit the 6:00 on the dot, and then powered to the finish on the heels of cheers from Alyssa, Zero, Ed and Jake Klim, and stopped my watch at 1:18:38 - a 4 second improvement over my best time, set before I was hurt.

Others ran well, too. Diane Heiser is in the middle of some really big work en route to NYC in November, and confirmed her fitness by running a 1:23:03, just 5 seconds off her personal best. Megan DiGregorio had never run a half marathon before, so her 1:25:20 established a time for herself, and landed her at #9 on our all-time top ten list. Nina Hartman was all smiles as she went out to run more following her 1:28:51. She was running comfortably before picking it up, and she wasn't that far off what she ran there in 2009, so she must be in great shape! Andy Olson was running with her until she dusted him, but he was just off his personal best at 1:29:32. Brittni Bradley, also in her first half marathon, was excited to run under the NYC qualifying time - and man was she under, running a 1:31:41! Uncle Pete Mulligan bandited, but apparently finished in a new PR of 1:35, which is flying for him and gives him hope of a solid marathon in a few weeks.

For some of our other local elite guys, they had great races as well. GRC was in full effect, with Karl The-Duse-is-Loose Dusen running under 67 (and ensuring he did not get girled by Kim Smith) and Paul Guevara running in the 69 range - and making it look easy. HCS' Carlos Renjifo ran under 1:10 as well, monster race. I guess it really just was a great day, 58:46 and 58:47 were the top two times for men - both eclipsing the previous fastest half marathon run on American soil, and New Zealander Kim "I make it look painful" Smith ran 1:07:10 - the fastest by a woman on our beautiful homeland. Amazing!

Of course, our race wasn't the only one going on this weekend. At the Run! Geek Run! 8k on Saturday, it was a battle between GRC and us for the top 6 spots, with Conrad Laskowski picking up 2nd (25:44 in trainers), Dustin Meeker taking 3rd (25:51) and Ed Aramayo finishing 6th (26:26). Ed won the event last year in 25:50, and just didn't have the speed to go faster. PRs for Dusty and C-Rad though, and after tonight's workout, it is beyond evident that Conrad is ready to go for Marathon Saturday in a few weeks.

Tristram Thomas rolled to a 2 minute victory at the Fort McHenry Tunnel Run 5k, running 16:10, while Jon Miller (18:59) and PJ Anderer (20:40) had great races at the BRRC Executive Stampede 5k in Hunt Valley. Brian Benda finished 4th at the Savageman 30.0 Triathlon on Saturday admist cool and wet conditions.

When it was time to decide this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, I pulled a surprise move - and something I've never done in the nearly 4 years I've been giving out the award - and gave it to myself. I was really pleased with my performance, I ran, for me, the perfect race and know that I could not have squeeze out so much as a second faster than I did on that day.

And in case you were wondering about Adam Goucher, he did manage to run under 1:05, by 8 seconds, and in doing so qualified for Olympic Trials. And his wife is still hot.