Rock of Ages

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!

Party Rock

Well, I meant to post results the day after the race, but I didn't.

By now, everyone is pretty aware of how well Rockville Twilight went.  As always, it showed why it's the premier summer event, and even though they have no control over the weather, it was among the more favorable conditions for this race.  With temps in the low 80s and the humidity at a reasonable level, the race actually started on time and the field ripped into the course, with eventual winner Abiyot Endale splitting two miles at 9:10.  Not far behind him was a pack containing Dave Berdan and then Alex Battaglino.  As a spectator, the race is very convenient, and the 2 mile mark is a great place to watch.  It's also tremendously convenient when the majority of the people you are cheering for are in the top 100-150 of the race. 

I was particularly impressed with our pack of women, who really showed up on great form for this one.  At the 2 mile, it was Melissa/Diane/Meg D with Meg McNew just 2 seconds back, right on 6 minute pace I think. 

The previous course record was 23:42, and as Endale narrowly missed eclipsing that mark (23:46), not far behind was Berdan, who ran 24:36, finishing 5th.  I am quite sure this is not an actual PR for Dave, but in the 6 years of me keeping track, it's the fastest he's run, bettering his mark of 24:39 from Rockville a few years ago.  I watched as three GRC guys came through bangbangbang in 25:12-25:15, and then HCS' Carlos Renjifo in a great time of 25:50.  Just finishing on the other side of 26 minutes was Alex Battaglino, who was racing for the first time since Club Challenge, after enduring a back injury that sidelined him for much of the year.  Next through for us was Ed Aramayo, who finished inside of 27 minutes (26:59), and was pleased with the result.  Dustin Meeker was a couple of seconds back at 27:08, and then Brennan Feldhausen finished up at 27:20.  This bettered his mark of 27:22 from the 2009 edition of the race, and shows he is on pretty good form right now, a few months out from NYC.  Keeping the PRs rolling, Pat McLoughlin came in just under 28 minutes (27:58) which was an automatic PR as he's never run an 8k before, and Seth Tibbitts was right there at 28:02, just a week removed from his Boilermaker race.  Arjun Majumdar has a ten second window that he likes to keep inside of when he races Rockville, and he stuck to it again on this night, running 28:13 to finish 51st.  Kris Simms ran 29:08, well under his pre-race anticipated 30 minute race, and then Matt Castille and Louis Foudos finished together at 29:58.  Joel Gladfelter obliterated his rather soft 8k PR by 3+ minutes, running a 31:05, and Terry Decker ran 31:18, which is great to see him back in that shape so soon after having his appendix removed.  Our final male finisher across the line was Pete Mulligan, who ran 34:59.  This is a 2+ minute lifetime PR and a 4:13 improvement from his 2010 time - way to go Pete!

Our ladies put 6 in the top 22 of the race, and it was PRs for at least 4 of them, as Melissa Majumdar led the charge, finishing 7th in 30:00.  Her previous best was 30:59 from 2009, and in 2008 she was 31:39 I think.  Melissa has been on quite a tear recently, and seems to be enjoying running quite a bit.  Megan DiGregorio, meanwhile, definitely surprised me as she came through in 30:23 - a 2 minute PR - as she finished 10th.  She looked great coming into the finish.  Meg McNew came into the race like Melissa, with a 30:59 personal best, set last year, and despite her thinking she's not in as good shape, she showed that she comes to compete at Rockville.  She ran 30:38 and finished 14th.  Diane Heiser, just a few days removed from her half Ironman, clearly wasn't too tired as she ran a 30:40 for 15th.  Amy Horst and Denise Knickman, who had each raced the Meet of Miles on Wednesday, ran 31:11 and 31:44, respectively, and our newcomer, little Susannah Feinstein, ran a 36:04. 

While there were more than enough performances that could have been the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, this week's honor went to Melissa Majumdar, as she really rocked out there!

A special shout out to our friends at GRC, particularly Joe Wiggy Wiegner, for the invite to their annual post-race festivities.  I don't think you guys typically come up for Baltimore Marathon events, but you will certainly be invited to whatever post-race we've got going on after that one. 

As for the track workout this week, as mentioned in yesterday's email, Ed is planning on doing a workout that is essentially 6 miles straight on the track, run as 400m @ 3k pace (72s, for him) followed by a 400m @ long run pace, so probably in the 1:45 realm (7min pace).  If you feel like doing this one, cool, just adjust the paces for yourself and realize that 6 miles is a long time to run, so maybe look to do 4-5 miles worth of it. 

However, if you're looking for an alternative, a workout I might suggest would be 1600m (2:00), 3min (1:30), 1200m (2:00), 4min (2:00), 800m (2:00), 5min (2:30), 400m.  We did this workout last year and it's pretty good.  On the intervals that are time based, you can run on the path so you're running for effort rather than time.  Rest is in parentheses.  If nobody feels like doing that one, we'll save it for another week.  Additionally, since we haven't done hills yet, and I'm feeling like doing some soon, I think we'll look to do that next week.  I already hear the groans and complaints but keep in mind these are workout suggestions and you're welcome to do whatever you feel like is in your best interest.