House of the Rising Sun

It's been almost two weeks since a few of us headed to the capital of Louisiana, Baton Rouge (aka the Big Raggedy, according to some people in New Orleans, aka the Big Easy). Highlights from the trip included fried food, way too many trips across Lake Pontchartrain on the I-10, a visit to LSU (and a basketball game!), beautiful weather and 2 of us even ran a marathon while we were there.

The Louisiana Marathon started at 7am on a Sunday, with temperatures just below 50 degrees. It was comfortably cool then, but the mercury quickly began to work its way up as the sun rose. Brennan Feldhausen had been planning on running the marathon all along; I, on the other hand, signed up the day before the race, and actually just had them switch Conrad's name to my name since he couldn't run. The goal was to run 3:15 pace until 18, at which point Brennan was going to pick it up. We enjoyed the first 10 miles of the race as it wound through campus and around their beautiful lake(s), and then the half marathoners headed home while we went to perform a squiggly out-and-back through some neighborhoods. We were running steady miles but as we hit mile 14 - which happens to be the farthest I'd run in 3 months. All along I knew the pace wouldn't bother me, but at some point, my weak little legs would kick out. That happened almost precisely at mile 19. Brennan gave me a fist pound and took off, and as soon as he did, I may as well just have stopped! I shuffled in the final 7 miles, running slower each one. I finally crossed the line at 3:24 something and Brennan had put nearly 20 minutes into me!

After the race it was warm and sunny, we ate some alligator gumbo and jambalaya and stuff, and headed back to New Orleans. It was a nice weekend, and many thanks to Conrad, Amy, and Andy for being a fantastic support crew, who, due to various hitches, were unable to run.

Also that weekend, Ed Aramayo ran a 4:25.34 in the mile at the Terrapin Invite. He finished 5th in a competitive field. A week later, Mary Cain would run slightly faster, but as it's been pointed out, hers was on a banked track.

Pete Mulligan ran a 50k somewhere, just a no-frills event. Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week went to Brennan. And our KC Masterpiece Award went to Amy Flashenberg, who killed it in both navigating us in the car and finding restaurants, and making sure we didn't have to wait in line to get in!

This past week was also pretty quiet, following the return of the Polar Vortex. Inhospitable conditions are making everyone curse winter, with folks feeling the freeze, resorting to treadmills, or even - gasp - riding bikes inside or taking up swimming!

But a few people did race, including Kevin McGrath, who ran a very chilly Fred Lebow Half Marathon in Central Park on Sunday, or Collin Anderson who ran 17:02 for a 5k in Salt Lake City. At the BRRC GPS 8 Miler in Loch Raven, Johnny Lyons took 10th with Denise Knickman a place behind. Denise took the women's win, but probably only because Megan DiGregorio was 10 minutes late and had to catch up! Meg D still managed to finish 7th. Mr. Peck also ran, good to see him back in some results.

Ed continued his indoor season, and also likely wrapped it up, with a 3000m in Boston at the BU Terrier Invite. He was disappointed with how he raced, but still ran a PR of 8:48.58 and will take it.

Another snowbird race this weekend allowed Pete Mulligan to pace the 4:40 group at the inaugural Town of Celebration (Florida) Marathon. Nobody was feeling that bad for him when they saw the weather!

Our PDAW this week went to Denise, because hey, she won.

Something to Believe In

Sunday's Club Challenge race will go down as one of the most memorable for me, as we took a lean but feisty group down to Columbia and for the 4th straight year claimed the Overall Team Championship. But, as we all know, it was close. Real close. We scored 557 points to the very motivated Howard County Striders' 559. It was pretty incredible.

Jim Adams did a little research and found that in the past 10 editions the cumulative overall point totals stand at 6935 to 6950, advantage Falls Road. Amazing! Now that's some competition!

Here's a brief write-up from Washington Running Report about the race.

There were some really amazing performances and while each of you got a shout in the email I'm going to limit it a little here. Once again I'll start with the ladies. Last year we had 11 ladies under 70 minutes, this year we had just 8 women in the race. I knew 6 had a chance to break 70, and 6 did. They were led by race winner Melissa Majumdar, whose return to competitive racing has been nothing short of astonishing. This victory is her biggest since she's been in Baltimore, and it was 8 seconds faster than she ran in 2010. She ran a smart race, starting out a little slow and building throughout. Pumped up by Chrissie Ramsey, the selfless teammate, the duo lit up the field and put nearly 2 minutes between them and 3rd place. 

Suzanne Hurst ran a PR and finished 8th, and Carly Page came up big as our #4, running faster than she did last year. Jackie Range wasn't far behind Carly, finishing under 1:08, and big D Denise Knickman was our 6th, coming in just under 70 minutes. Suzanne Andrews ran a terrific first CC race, finishing in 1:11:46.

For the men we were once again led by Dave Berdan, whose 3rd place finish came as I'm sure a bit of a surprise. Very competitive up front this year, with a new course record set (51:00). Nate Brigham was running CC for the 2nd year now, and once again was one of the playmakers. Last year he earned a PDAW for his big finish, and this year was just taking it as a tempo run. Fortunately for us, his superior fitness means that even a tempo run yields a 6th place finish. Dustin Meeker was just one spot and 150 meters behind. 

Our 9-12 guys were really critical on Sunday, as Matt Franco and Patrick O'Rourke tied at 59:43, and then Arjun Majumdar and Joel Gladfelter came through just over an hour. I was really happy for Joel, who not only ran a huge PR but achieved one of his long-standing goals, which has been to be one of our top 12 at this race. 

PJ Anderer was one of our two Purple Drink Athletes of the Week (Suzanne Hurst was the other) because he ran 7 minutes faster than he did in 2012, and a 10 mile PR at 1:05:10. Now we just need to get him to stop doubting himself during the race!

Gone, but certainly not forgotten, were our ladies (and gent) down in New Orleans. Megan DiGregorio led the girls in 10th place, running a PR of 1:21:53. Amy Horst and Meg McNew finished at 1:23:07 and 1:23:10, both PRs, and for Amy, truly a testament to her diligent work this winter to prepare for this race. Sara Breedlove also ran a PR, 1:27:28. So they pretty much all kicked ass. And in the marathon, Cory Donovan went out a little fast, slowed down, ran 3:39, but had a good time.

Moment of the Year may go to Meg D, who got to run a brief cooldown with Kara Goucher after the race. "How do I get faster?" she asked.

So great job to all, and for those of you who helped our team keep the trophy (and for those who came out to support - the Stotts, the Conrads, Steve, Emily, Kip and Brian), THANK YOU! I'm so proud of all of you!