Go Bananas

When the Richmond Marathon comes around, you know they 'bout to go bananas!

Dubbed "America's Friendliest Marathon," Richmond never lets you down. It's quietly moved its way up as one of the fall's premier races for our group, and you can see why: 90% of those who participate set PRs there.*

* I pulled that number out of the air, but it's actually probably pretty close based on the last 5 years' of results.

This year was no different, as we had two huge performances in the marathon and one gigantic race in the half!

Sara Damiano ran 3:31:04 last year, which was a 5 minute PR and resulted in her first ever Boston qualifying time. This year, unbeknownst to the city of Richmond, former capital of the Confederate, Sara D was about to go...bananas. Like Sherman marched through Atlanta, burning it to the ground, so too did Sara D blaze Richmond. She ran 3:22:51 - an 8+ minute improvement. It was simply incredible. And amazing.

In her 5th marathon, Stephanie Granlund was looking to go...bananas. Stephanie has improved by leaps and bounds this year, getting her half marathon time down to 2:00, which gave her the confidence to go out and run fast at Richmond. She even split her way to a 4:23:58 – over 16 minutes faster than her previous best!

Running the half was a determined Lillian Pinault. For those of us who have seen her progress at TNT over the past couple of months, you just knew she was going to go - you guessed it - bananas. But remember that rinky dink 5k she ran the week before? Well she did something to her foot in that run, and wasn't able to run all week leading up to the race. She bit the bullet and went out with the 1:35 group, until mile 8 when she thought "this feels too easy, and if I'm injuring myself, I'm already going to be hurt - may as well let it ride." And ride she did, all the way to a 3.5 minute PR of 1:32:28! Her last 5k was faster than the 5k she raced the previous weekend. Incredible! And amazing!

The effort was good enough to earn Lillian the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week!

But there were a few other races that happened in the first half of November as well:

Downs Park 5 Miler has become a fall favorite. This low key event put on by the Annapolis Striders has produced a number of our fastest 5 mile times. We've had a grasp on the W here for the past few years, and this year it was Steve Febish's turn to get the win. He won in 26:51, ahead of runner-up Sean Caskey in 27:24. Nick Klastava was 6th in 28:27 and Josh Dawson ran 28:45 for 8th.

In the Rockville 5k, Tom Stott ran 19:28 for 10th, but it was wife Patty who stole the show, running one of her fastest 5k races in years, 24:01 for 9th. In the 10k, Dan Miranda and Sara Damiano were both first-losers (JK), finishing 2nd.

PJ Anderer ran the "inaugural" Across the Bridge 10k, which was really just the old Bay Bridge 10k making a return. Said it was a pretty good race, and he ran well, finishing 26th in 38:34. Fellow Penn State alum, Mike Mashner, finished 13th at the THON 5k in Happy Valley.

PJ and Bryn Burkholder also ran the Oktober Lauf Fest Half Marathon in Pennypack Park (outside of Philly), keeping that little tradition alive. In the first of his November 50 milers, Mr. Peck ran the Stone Mill 50 in 8:27:58, with Pete Mulligan coming in at 11:32:49. Josh Greenberg finished at 11:38:22. I also saw Jeff Rumbaugh ran the Rock n Roll Las Vegas Marathon (3:18:07) and Tristram Thomas (7th) and Jon Miller (8th) ran the Dustin Bauer Memorial 5k.

Dream

Here's some rainy day reading...

As I mentioned in this morning's email, following his impressive come-from-behind win at the RM Classic, Dustin Meeker took home the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.

In other weekend racing action, Brennan Feldhausen successfully defended his title at the Oktober Lauf Fest Half Marathon, with a little bit of fortune on his side. He was in second place heading into the technical trail section at mile 11, but when he emerged from the woods with a half mile to go, to his surprise, he was in the lead. Apparently the leader had gotten lost in the woods, which left Brennan with a clear shot to hit the finish line first. He crossed the line and explained to the race director what happened, and the RD simply said "that's racing." PJ Anderer was also running, and gunning for a PR (previous best 1:35). He went out at a reasonable, but quick, pace, clipping miles under 7 minutes on the way out. At the turnaround he slipped a bit, but held on for a 1:34:15 finish. Way to go PJ!

Also this weekend was Jim Adams' Ride and Tie event, held down in the Massanutten Mountains. Teams consisted of two human beings and a horse. Runner A would begin by running while Runner B rode the horse (Katie, the Wonder Horse) ahead on the trail. At whatever point they chose, they would dismount and tie the horse up, and beginning running themselves. Runner A would arrive, see the horse, and ride it ahead of Runner B. And so on, for 20 miles. Here's Jim's account of the event:

"I started off the race on the run and went about three quarters of a mile up the mountain before finding Katie the Wonder Horse tied to a tree. I passed Nathan, my training partner, a couple minutes later and told him I would tie the horse eight minutes later. By the way, we are running up trails way steeper than Hollins Road out of RE Lee Park.

I wound up running about two miles of the three, and we gained over 1,000 feet in the process, then down the backside. Katie was running some and we got a team that had a fifteen minute staggered start on us. Then I took a wrong turn and lost that gain.

We finally got into the Shenandoah Valley and were cruising on the River Road. Somewhere in here at a switch Katie stepped on my foot exactly where the surgery had been performed and the immediate pain was excruciating. I started running, figuring that if it was broken I would go down, or else the pain would eventually go away, which is what happened.

After a while we started climbing again. Suddenly Katie seemed to figure out that we were going back up the mountain and wanted no part of it. At the only horse water stop, she refused to drink. Nate took off while I tried to get her to drink something, but nothing doing. Then heading up the trail she just stopped. I had to get off and lead her. Nate, who is a large animal veterinarian specialist, said she was dehydrated but more so just tired and not having fun anymore.

We kept coaxing her up the hill...then we hit the rocks. This was a nasty, nasty area for man or beast. The only way we could get Katie to tiptoe through the rocks was to lead her, basically dragging her. Then we got to the top and the Shenandoah Valley fell away to the east with the Blue Ridge Mountains in fall color, and Fort Valley fell away to the west with the Massanutten in color, and the two rivers winding through the valleys, forest and pasture, and it was awesome to behold.

But Katie still hated the rocks and we were having a difficult time getting her to move forward. We could hear the Arabians coming up below us, they trot over the mountain rocks like they are in a grassy meadow. Then we caught up to the dun that we had lost several miles ago, and his rider was ticked. They did not know where the other runner was, their horse was acting worse than ours, and the Arabians were still trotting up the trail. By the way, this one was a 1,200 foot climb.

Nate got back on Katie and I took off...I got a long, long downhill without any rocks. After a mile and a half I had sand and rocks in my shoes and sat on a log to shake them out when Nate came rolling by on a rejuvenated Katie. I got my shoes back on and started chasing them down the hill. Maybe 1200 meters later Nate pulled up and started jogging. I was on Katie but he said to just take it easy, we had re-established such a big lead at the time that no one would catch us, and that part of the final score would be how fast Katie recovered pulse and respiration at the mandatory vet check at the end. So we came in at a very easy ten minute pace, and Katie passed vet check with flying colors.

Funny thing was, they were all over the horse about its health. Nobody cared that we were exhausted and dehydrated, I had a rolled ankle and a stomped foot, they just wanted to see if the horse was OK.

And that's the way it was. Enough for this year, but this is an event I am going to do again for sure."

Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

I don't know how Brennan Feldhausen even found this event (Oktober Lauf Fest Half Marathon), but it gave out pretty much the sickest swag of all time.  Not only was his finisher "medal" some kind of wood-whittled whistle, but his award for winning the event is this:

Pretty freaking sweet.

Races were limited this weekend, it seems as if nobody wants to put on races other than marathons in the fall.  The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Hunt Valley was the day's big event, not only by size (reports of 32,000 were scaled back to 23,000) but also by virtue of being televised.  So, at 8 o'clock in the morning, I was able to watch Dave Berdan get the victory (15:29ish) with a quickly-getting-into-shape Greg Jubb in 2nd about 20 seconds back.  Also on TV I spotted Jake Marren, who is just happy to be running again (he ran 18:10), and Lillian Pinault, who finished with a PCPR of 20:35.  Kelly Ort also ran, finishing 3rd in her age group.  Of course, results will likely never get posted, because this race is not about results.

Just down the road about 2 miles, at Oregon Ridge Park, the Dustin Bauer Memorial "Run for Life" 5k took place.  I thought the times seemed slow, and then was informed that it is a cross country run, up and down the hills of OR on the grass.  The times then made sense.  Rory Jenkins, former FRRS employee/lived in Alaska for a while, got the win in 17:30.  Jon Miller finished 13th in 20:03 (I inadvertently credited him with the time of 12th place previously) and PJ Anderer ran 22:28 for 32nd, which he was pleased with the day after a 14 mile run.

Saturday was the Princeton Running Club Invitational (8k XC), where Alex Waldt the young helped his Maryland team to a 2nd place finish, as he finished 3rd in a time of 27:20.  Great work dude!

This led to our decision for Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, and as he has been super impressive of late, not even just running fast or getting wins, but his on-air presence when being interviewed ALL THE TIME, this week's honor goes to Dave "the teacher from Garrison Forest" Berdan.

In other news, Meg McNew, with her NFL pick of the week Cleveland Browns, improved her record to 2-2.  This week, she's upping the ante.  Not only has she provided us with her pick (Kansas City Chiefs) but she has provided a line (-10).  They play the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night.