Let it Burn

Oh hey, happy New Year. Only two weeks in and finally writing the FIRST recap of the year.

A couple of us participated in the NYRR New Year's Eve Midnight 4 Miler in Central Park. While hundreds of thousands of revelers packed Times Square to watch a ball drop, me, Brennan Feldhausen, Mike Mashner and my brother Kevin raced in Central Park under the backdrop of an amazing fireworks display. This is definitely a must-do race and I would encourage you - if you don't have plans one year, go up and run it! We left Baltimore in the morning and got into the City early afternoon. We had a lot of time to kill, which due to the cold meant we were bar hopping on a Tuesday afternoon. We picked up our packets, ate some dinner, and around 11 started making our way towards the race. At the amphitheater they have a DJ, performers, a dance party - it's a lot of fun. The countdown to the race start coincides with the countdown to midnight, and as that was happening, we all went into "race mode" and forgot it was a time to celebrate. Gun goes off, and off we go, through the undulating darkness of Central Park.

Before the race I assumed we'd just chill out and enjoy it, but I was glad that nobody had those ideas when it came down to it, because it was much more fun to treat it as a race. Brennan came through at 24:15, Mike at 24:45, and I was a few seconds behind at 24:53. Kevin finished up just under 30 minutes. After the race we enjoyed the rest of the dance party, which ended at 1, before going to a local establishment. By the time we got back to NJ it had become a late night, so I would highly recommend having a place to stay in NYC!

Outside of Erik T. Orberg, who ran to an 11th place (out of 3000) finish at the Vienna Silversterlauf 5.3km in Austria on NYE, nobody else really did anything cool or notable so I won't recant.

Mike Mashner earned the first Purple Drink Athlete of the Week of 2014!

I Can Only Imagine

It was quite a busy weekend, with races near and far. It made for a great send-off for the month of September, and segue into the fall season.

Kicking things off locally were the Northsiders Nate and Emily Brigham, and Dustin Meeker, who ran the Catonsville Fall into Fitness 10k. Nate and Dusty basically held hands the whole time as they tempo'd their way to essentially a tie for first in 34:25. Emily, meanwhile, was competing in what is likely her first race in quite some time. She finished 3rd for the women in 45:22.

In the College Corner, Becky Parks finished 97th at the Charles Bowles Invitational (5k) in Oregon, running 19:47. The highlight of this one was Nick Symmonds firing the starting gun. Elsewhere in Oregon, Matt Jablonski got in his first XC race of the season, finishing 52nd in 25:09 at the Dellinger Invite at UO.

Terence Baptiste ran the Akron Half Marathon, finishing 24th in 1:18:53. Not a PR, he said, but his legs "felt like noodles" the last two miles. He did say, though, that he once again has the running bug, crediting his summer of running in Baltimore for getting him pumped to race again. He'll look for a flatter half to race this fall to keep the momentum rolling.

Sunday came and you can see how we did in the dedicated Falls Road 15k post below, so no need to rehash that one. But up in Corning, NY, a few took on the early fall favorite Wineglass Marathon and Half Marathon. Megan DiGregorio was pacing the 1:40 group in the half, and brought them through in 1:39:50. Pete Mulligan paced the 4 hour group in the marathon, and they hit 4:00:43. Marci Benda was actually racing and ran a 3:18:11. Then Pete let me know that something was messed up with the timing and it may not be completely sorted yet, so we'll have to follow how it shakes out.

Up in the Boogie Down, a few of our athletes took on the NYRR's cross country season opener at beautiful Van Cortlandt Park. The Henry Isola Cross Country Classic 4 miler saw only one runner finish ahead of Steve Febish and Ed Aramayo (be sure to click on the link to read the shout-out they received in the race recap!). Steve was 2nd in 22:37 with Ed in 3rd at 22:54. For the ladies, Ashley Campbell, who didn't plan on running, finished 5th in 27:32. Ashley wasn't going to run, but decided she may as well - but she didn't have any cash on her. The friendly NYRR let her run anyway! Thanks guys!

Lee DiPietro won the Notre Dame Prep Blazer Dash 5k, running 20:31, and looks to be in good shape ahead of the Baltimore Half in 11 days.

Our final racer of the weekend was Kevin McGrath, who spent what had to have been the hottest, most humid summer he's ever endured here in Baltimore. Back in NJ, he ran the Jersey Shore Half Marathon, and, well, didn't have a great day, but he got through it and is still on track for running his first marathon at NYC in a few weeks.

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week went to Sara Damiano - I believer her first ever!

Last night on The Runaround we chatted with Pat Price of the blog Writing About Running as well as Olympian Khadevis Robinson, president of the Track and Field Athletes Association. The topic was the movement to form an athletes' union for the sport. It was a great conversation, so if you missed it, listen in! In the last segment, we also gave shouts to Johns Hopkins women's XC team on their great finish at Paul Short, and a nod to Ultra Race of Champions winners Max King and Ellie Greenwood, who won the UROC 100k put on by Bad to the Bone Endurance.