Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler

Whether you refer to it as Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, one thing's for sure:

It shouldn't be freaking 6 degrees on March 4th.

You know, it's funny what a young man recollects. I don't recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. I don't remember what the temperature was last year on Mardi Gras, but I remember it was February 12th, and there's no reasonable explanation that, on a date 3 weeks later, it had to be this cold.

In other news, it was Amy Horst's birthday, which apparently coincides with Mardi Gras every 11 years. That's pretty neat.

While Club Challenge already feels like it was a year ago, it was only last week. There were a handful of races this weekend, most notably the Tim Kennard River Run. This 10 miler somewhere out near Salisbury got the entire Peck family out racing. Graham has been on a tear recently, ripping this winter a new one. He loves winning, and he takes great joy in beating his friend in a one-up race. Graham and his friend Cam ran the first 4 miles before Graham's superior fitness took over. He began to separate himself, dropping 10+ seconds every 2 miles. He ran his last 2 miles in sub 5:10 pace, and crossed the finish line as the winner in a new PB of 52:47. For his effort, he earned the AutoZone In the Zone Award.

Megan DiGregorio had fun being the lone leader for the women, as she easily cruised to the win in a new personal best as well - 1:02:47. Denise Knickman finished 2nd in 1:07:30.

Kaylyn Peck completed the ladies' sweep, finishing 3rd. She ran with her dad Henry as the two crossed in 1:08:30. And Mrs. Peck crushed her Club Challenge time by 2 minutes, running 1:22.

Meanwhile, out in the desert, Collin Anderson ran the Phoenix Marathon. He was looking for redemption after last year, when supreme fitness was overshadowed by an ill-timed cold. He ran 2:50 last year, which was still pretty solid. This year he's had some terrific months of uninterrupted, uninjured training and that made a big difference. Despite some lousy conditions he made it to the race unscathed and finished 12th again, but this time in a huge new PB of 2:42:07!

This earned Collin the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.

Quiet intermission weekend ahead as we begin to enter "spring" race season (doesn't feel much like spring). March 15/16 weekend is big, and Cherry Blossom is right around the corner. And, for once, it appears as if the peak cherry blossoms may not occur until AFTER the race!

Let the good times roll, y'all.

Fat Tuesdays with Morrie

That would be a pretty good "Before and After" on Wheel of Fortune...

As winter continues, we saw most people opt for workouts this weekend instead of racing. But, there were some performances that I'd like to highlight:

Steve Wancowicz ran the Mid Maryland Ultra 50k, brought to you by Bullseye Running. While Matt Barresi shattered the Course Record, Steve did a little hack job on his own personal goal. He hoped to break 6:30, but ended up breaking 6 hours, running 5:55.

Out in Utah, Collin Anderson ran a 10k in the snow. Tailwind on the way out, headwind on the way back. Managed a 37:07. Here's a pic:

And our final racer of the weekend was Gregory Jubb, who finished 9th, and managed to beat all the girls, in the Love the Run You're With 5k in NoVA. His time of 17:16 is not very good, but I awarded him the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week anyway because sometimes the first step is the hardest. Way to get back in the game, Jubbster!

Cumulatively I think there were about a thousand miles run on Saturday as a big group went to Columbia and put in work on the Club Challenge course, while a bunch of dudes hammered each other (whoa - not that way) on the NCR Trail on Sunday.

Can't Get Enough

In what was likely the last weekend of indoor racing for our guys, Greg Jubb and Louis Foudos were like Maverick and Goose, because they felt the need.  THE NEED FOR SPEED.  Greg won the 800m at the Princeton Invite after leading from the gun.  His time (1:53.23) was a 3.3 second improvement from just a few weeks ago at Maryland, and was a full 4 seconds clear of 2nd place.  Meanwhile, Louis' 2:02.76 was a 4 second indoor PR, and within a second of his all-time best.  Appropriately, Greg earned this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, and Louis earned the NOS Award.

Out in Ohio, Dustin Meeker was hoping to improve upon last year's 15:45 at the Kent State Tune Up Meet.  But, he found out the hard way that a lot of running at 5:20 pace is good for marathon training, but not great when one needs to run 5 minute pace for 3.1 grueling miles around an oval inside.  Still, Dusty crossed the line with a 16:11.26, and on heavy legs, I'm sure he'll "dust" himself off and get back for this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, according to C-Rad, there's some kind of big race.  Maybe you've heard of it.  It's called Club Challenge, and it's only the most important race in the world.  Psyche.  That honor belongs to the RM Classic.  Psyche again!  That would actually be the Arjun Majumdar Birthday Mile.  I sent an email to those of you who are registered for the event with some information pertaining to logistics, so please read it all the way through.  In an effort to not share our secrets with the world, the blog will be void of Club Challenge related material until after the race.  I also noticed that I made a few errors when I split everyone up for our squad scrimmage, so I have made the appropriate adjustments and will let everyone know their revised teams.

Today is Fat Tuesday, so in honor of the day, we will be rolling dice at the track tonight to determine our workout.  Unfortunately, I'm quite under the weather and will not be running, but I should be able to make it up there.

I Need a Vacation Tonight

For anyone who has posted on the blog lately, you may have noticed the upgraded version of this blogger format thing, and if you use colors like I do, the purple doesn't look really purple any longer.  It's unnerving.

Decent weekend of racing, even though there were just four performances.  Dave Ploskonka ran for a 5th place finish at the Seneca Greenway Trail 50k in 4:19:xx.  Great job for Dave after just getting back into his usual long runs.  Additionally, as I've now confirmed, but will wait until official results are posted to make it "official" - Dave's time is a new team record, displacing Travis Warren's 4:30:xx at HAT from a few years ago.  At the Tim Kennard Ten Mile River Run, Denise Knickman chased her Club Challenge performance with a win in the incredibly quick time of 1:03:08.  And at the B&A Trail Half Marathon, Chris Benassi took 5th in 1:19:32 and Erik Westlund was 21st in 1:24:00.  Both are terrific early season times, and the effort earned Chris Benassi his first ever Purple Drink Athlete of the Week!

There's some exciting stuff going on this next week, including one of my favorite holidays of the year, Mardi Gras, Pat's 30th birthday, Pub Run and Shamrock 5k.  Next week features our return to "official" TNT workouts in an event which will be known as the Strides of March.  There's tons of track meets coming up, if you're so inclined, and we're collectively attacking the world of Main Street Miles this year, beginning with Wednesday, April 13th's Westminster Main Street Mile (7pm).  Downhill, point-to-point. 

Finally, for any GRCers out there reading this, if there is interest in running a 2mile "race" on the track on Saturday, March 19th, get in touch with me as Ed is looking to do this type of effort.  We'll give you numbers and make it officially timed and call it a race, and we'll even send it into WRR.  We also discussed the possibility of throwing together a DMR at some point this year.  Let's collectively rap.