We're Not in Kansas Anymore

We're heating up...

In spite of unfavorably warm temperatures over the weekend, we had some terrific performances:

On Friday evening, Darcy McDonald was runner-up to GRC's Anna Holt-Gosselin at the PR Twilight 4 Miler, running 22:47. Up in PA, Drew Thivierge went head to head against Abiyot Endale, but it wasn't very close as Abiyot went onto win in an absurdly quick 19:09. Drew was 14th in 23:42. Side note: Endale THEN went onto win the Damien's Run 5k in a course record 14:23 or something on Sunday. If he were on our team, I'd probably have given him the PDAW...

Dave Ploskonka, just a week off his Old Dominion 2nd place, for some reason went out to the Maryville Marathon in Kansas or somewhere, and finished 9th in 3:32:32. Interestingly, elsewhere in Kansas or Missouri, Sara Breedlove ran the inaugural Pioneer 5k. Terence Baptiste posted up at Lawyers Have Heart 10k in DC, running 36:32 for 33rd place.

Sunday was a big day, one of my least favorites of June. At the 4.4 Mile Chesapeake Bay Swim, Brian Benda finished 4th in 1:32:18, which is obviously awesome. I wonder how long it would take Joel to swim 4.4 miles? Couple of days? Benda said the water was nice, no chop, but large swells. Going back inland, it was our men stealing the spotlight for once, going 1-2-3 at Survivor 7. Luke Belford and Elijah Kosgei ran side by side until 2k to go, when Luke was able to drop "the 40 Year Old" Elijah, winning in 39:09 to Elijah's 39:28. Jack Flowers was with them up to that point as well, when he must have gotten severely torched, as he finished in 40:54. Tom Stott ran a 7 mile PR at 42:58, and Bryn Burkholder finished 6th in 49:30.

The theme of the weekend was seriously Kansas, as Ben Ingram competed in his first official half ironman, the Kansas 70.3. A non-wetsuit swim, gusty winds, and high temperatures made for tough conditions, but Ben had a great race, finishing 43rd in 4:40:51, on the heels of a 1:19:28 run - one of the fastest of the day, including pros.

But out on the Eastern Shore it was the sufferfest known as Eagleman. Andy Sovonick, in his first long-distance race, had an awesome swim, a great ride, and then found out that running off the bike in 90+ temperatures can make you run slower. Andy finished 73rd in 4:31:37. OJ Keller had the 2nd fastest non-pro swim of the day, and rode just a minute off his fastest bike split there. He held on valiantly through 9 miles of the run before fading a little, and finished in 75th at 4:32:09. Marc Malott, another EM virgin, had a solid race all around, and finished safely in 4:35:32 for 92nd. Ashley Campbell made it through and lives to fight another day. She went 5:46:23.

The relay team of Alyssa Godesky and Carly Page (O Say Can You See Those Fast and Pretty Girls) won the female relay and was 2nd overall, nearly beating a team with 3 athletes, including two dudes. Alyssa swam and rode, and then poor Carly had to run a half marathon in the middle of the day after sitting in the heat all morning. She did it though, and now appreciates triathlon I think.

Our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week went to Andy Sovonick for his excellent first Eagleman, and our KC Masterpiece Award for coming through in the clutch went to Ed Aramayo. Ed was a great help on Sunday to not only us, but race winner and 3x Ironman Champ, Craig Alexander. Ed gave him time checks back to his competitors, which is pretty cool. The NOS Award went to Ben Ingram for his speedy run off the bike.

Ball So Hard U.

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!