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.

Rise Above It

It's rare that everything goes perfect in the build-up to a marathon. Bad training days happen. Bad training weeks happen. Life gets in the way. Sometimes we feel like we're under-prepared; sometimes we feel done before the race starts.

There aren't too many weekends in the year when almost the entire team is in action, less so in a marathon. In most years, Richmond and Philadelphia are separated by a week, but this year apparently was the perfect storm for scheduling and the two races were on consecutive days. To give each its due, this is Philthy Rich Race Weekend Recap Part 1.

Tim Parker loves the Richmond Half. He loves it so much he's raced it every year since 2009. This is his Roland Garros, his Wimbledon. He comes to play, and every year he's seen amazing results. He's run his fastest half marathons here, and even when it's not a PR, the time is always consistent. This year was no exception as he ran 1:20:55 for 47th place.

Christa Wagner is a relative rookie when it comes to half marathons. Having only run one previously, it was almost assured that she was going to run a PR. For the past few months her training has been focused around triathlon, which has taken her to a new level of fitness and given her strength and speed. But the long season has taken its toll, and in the past few weeks a few little flare-ups have curtailed her running. She didn't let that get in her head. Instead she remained confident in her fitness and performed. Her 1:32:33 was a 13 minute PR, and she finished 47th out of 5000+ women in the field. As soon as she was done, she changed clothes and made her way onto the course to cheer on our marathoners. But wait, there's more! She got in the car, drove back up to Baltimore, pulled a quick turnaround and headed up to Philly to watch her friends race on Sunday. That's boss.

If marathon success were measured purely by effort, Terry Decker would have won on Saturday. He put in the work on Tuesdays when he was running 3x2mi intervals by himself on the track. He followed a training plan. He made adjustments. He wanted it. Bad. Like so many out there, Terry has other life commitments. He got married earlier this summer. He has a demanding job that leaves him drained most days. He sees firsthand things that we only read about in the papers the next day. But he doesn't complain. On Saturday he went out through the half on the pace that he believed he could hold for the whole race. I believed he could too. The back half, though, was a different story. Actually, his day sounded a lot like mine at New York; suffer in the back half, but be proud of the chance to run with his brother. That's what it's all about.

Sara Damiano has been working towards her goal of qualifying for Boston for quite some time. She's been close, but would come up agonizingly short. This time was different. She's racing faster than she ever has before, and more than anything, had the confidence that Saturday was going to be her day. She was cool as a cucumber before the race, and went out and simply got it done. A 5 minute PR led to a 3:31:06, meaning she qualified for Boston by 4 minutes. Way to go, Sara D!

Emily Hurley was sidelined most of the first half of the year, and didn't really start training again until early fall. She's able to get into shape pretty fast, and decided that Richmond was a good goal. On race day, she thought she'd run 3:15. But you know how it goes when you feel good, and she went out there and, as she often does, ran happy. She crossed the line in 3:08:48 and was all smiles.

We all know how tough it can be to improve on already great marathon performances. Carly Page's 3:04:06 from NYC 2011 is a time that many would be happy to rest their laurels on. But much like her professional side, Carly's relentless pursuit of perfection keeps her hungry. Carly's training cycle was far from perfect; in fact you might call it the complete opposite. In a race, as with any situation, we always have two choices. We can choose to let excuses get the better of us, let our minds play tricks and tell us to succumb when things get tough. Or, we can rise above it, and be great. Carly chose to be great on Saturday. At mile 16, where most people would say the day often starts to get tough, Carly was ready to go: "I'm rolling, I feel great, let's do this," she said. She was running comfortably with the 3:05 group and came through the half in 1:31:17. Then, she picked it up. She went from 6:58/mi to a few miles in the 6:40s, before settling back in around 6:53. When you're able to do that at mile 18, you're untouchable. Her slowest mile was a 7:13 mile 25 - if that's your worst mile, you ran the marathon right. At that point she had so much time in the bank, she was going to blow her PR out, it was just a matter of by how much. The last two-tenths is severely downhill. Think Westminster - it's rough on tired legs. But it's also a pretty nice way to finish, because you could roll down the hill. She crossed the line as the 8th place woman in 3:02:12. By her own admission, she hasn't had a good race this entire year. I think this one made up for all the rest. The look on her face as she finished said it all, she knew she had done something spectacular. And for that reason, she earned a Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.

We'll be back with Part 2 later, but what an amazing race Richmond is. Having been to Richmond as a spectator on three occasions, it's easy to see why it's considered America's Friendliest Marathon. The course is beautiful - and to those who think it's "hard" or "slow" (particularly compared to Philly) I'll respectively disagree. Richmond is a smaller race, with great logistics and if I had to choose between the two, I'd pick Richmond.

It was fun watching everyone, and shout to the spectators Dan Miranda, Molly Decker, and then Christa Wagner!

Va Va Voom

There was a flash of summer over the weekend as temperatures soared into the upper 60s, even low 70s. This made for some great outside time, and, a number of excellent race performances.

Brennan Feldhausen kicked things off in southern MD, running the Rosaryville 50k. It was Brennan's first attempt at the "marathon +" distance, and he nailed it! Consistent splits the whole way led him to a 3rd place finish in 3:36:33 - 6:59/mi average. Shout to Ed Aramayo who ran the first 12 miles and set up an ideal pace on the trails.

A number of people marched south to Richmond, for the Redemption Marathon. Phil Turner was one of the runners displaced by the NYC Marathon's cancellation last weekend, and he had a banner day, running a 5 minute PR (2:42:37) and finishing 28th. Phil said he went out a little aggressively and paid for it at the end, because he felt he was capable of breaking 2:40. Phil is running Boston so I'd expect we can count on him being in pretty good shape this winter. Megan DiGregorio was also slated to run New York, but a nagging Achilles injury has hampered her running since Baltimore. The extra week of recovery helped her out, and she cruised to a 3:01:50 9th place finish, just 2 minutes off what she ran on the flat-as-a-pancake NJ Marathon course earlier this year!

The day didn't turn out as well for some. Dan Miranda and Meg McNew weren't on their best form, but got through another day at the office and have had great seasons - don't let this one day define you! Sara Damiano ran a 5 minute PR, at 3:36:50. She said she realized Boston qualifying was out around mile 18, but soldiered on. Kelly Meier was going to run New York, was also injured, and, like Meg D, crushed, running a 3:47:26.

In the half marathon, Tim Parker blazed to a 1:18:59 major PR. Tim loves Richmond, and loves the half marathon distance. This is 45+ seconds faster than he ran there in 2010 (his PR) and a minute faster than last year. Tim is always very consistent, but this is a remarkable result for him. It was also good enough to earn him a Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.

Also on Saturday, Terry Decker (Turtle Trek 5k) and Collin Anderson (Spectrum Academy Turkey Trot) snagged wins. For Terry, it was his first ever win, and that's got to feel good. For Collin, the race wasn't quite 5k so he was bummed to not get a complete idea of his fitness, but he felt good shattering the dreams of some special needs kids.

Sunday was the Harrisburg Marathon, which normally checks in around 700 or 800 runners. After the cancellation of THE marathon, the quiet race blew up, and saw nearly 1800 finishers. Patrick O'Rourke didn't mind, it meant he had some more people to run with. Patrick dropped a 2:45:27 to finish 13th. And Pacer Pete Mulligan brought his gang home in 4:29:06.

Lillian Pinault ran the Lehigh Valley Road Runners' South Mountain 10 Miler - a race that apparently goes up for 5 miles and then down. She finished 7th in 1:15:50, and was mostly pleased to not hurt herself running down the hill.

An entire race I missed was the Cardinal 5k in Kensington. I've heard of this race before, it's one of those "I hope nobody knows about it because it's low-key but there's money on the line" events. Allison Letourneau took the win (and 5th overall) in an impressive 18:09, narrowly edging out Matt Franco who was 6th in the same time. Fiana Kumm, our terrific Chrissie-replacement relay runner, was 4th in 19:52.

Jim Adams ran the Trout Unlimited Restoration Run 5k (results on the right side), finishing 32nd in 25:34. 

Finally down in DC, Liz Laseter blitzed the flat Veteran's Day 10k to the tune of 38:33 (15th) and PJ Anderer went big, running 5 minutes faster than last year, and 3 minutes faster than his MCVETs time from earlier in the year. He was disappointed he couldn't have gone 17 seconds faster though - he ran 40:16.

Great job everyone, surprisingly big race weekend for November! We'll have about a dozen or so Philly performances to report on this coming Monday. We also held our last official Tuesday Night Track workout of the year last night, thanks for coming out. It was pretty cold. 

Now Make That ... Hammertime

Kris Simms vividly recalls what it was like to be a member of the entourage of once-upon-a-time rapper, M.C. Hammer: "It was like we were living a dream, every day.  You know the music videos you see today, with the rappers rappin' about blunts and bras, menage-a-trois, sex in expensive cars?  Well, it was exactly like that, except in real life."  Sadly, the million-dollars-a-day spending could only last so long.  When the money ran out, so did Kris.  He spent the next few years bouncing around the entertainment industry, finding moderate success as a professional wrestler, and being tossed an occasional role in a Disney movie.  There was also good money in stunt appearances, as The Kris eerily resembles the President.  He has been approached by one filmmaker, whose name rhymes with Skyler Berry, to re-make the Kevin Kline classic, "Dave."  Except this would be called "Barry and Madea Go To Washington."

Kris' true passion, however, lies in the sport of footracing, and this past weekend, he tested himeslf by running the SunTrust Richmond Marathon.  The last time Kris laced his sneaks up to run 26.2 was in the fall of 2008, when he ran the Marine Corps Marathon on a warm October morning, to the tune of a 3:02, which, at the time, was a PR.  While on a ski trip that next January, in the middle of preparing for Boston, he had to have an emergency appendectomy, and poof, there went Boston.  And for the next few years, the marathon just hasn't been a priority for Kris.  Until NOW.

We knew he was in good shape, but the marathon is a crazy event.  I followed his splits: 40:19 at 10k.  1:24:55 at the half.  2:09:40 at 20 miles.  He was running an amazing race, but could he hold it over the last 10k?  Cramping set in.  The Kris stopped and worked it out.  He fought on.  In the end, the cramping would cost him time, but it wouldn't stop him from running a huge new PR - 2:53:40 - as he finished in 39th place.  Truly amazing stuff!

Also in the race, Dave Ploskonka ran 3:46:17.  At first, I saw his fast half split and thought maybe he was pacing a group and then decided to drop off, but apparently he ran the entire marathon course before the actual marathon, in reverse, for 52.4 miles (minimum) on the day. 

Some of the other Saturday results included Tim Parker's 1:20:00/36th place finish in the half marathon at Richmond.  Tim always runs well at Richmond, so it was no surprise to see him redeem his lackluster Baltimore performance.  Julia Webb finished 4th among women in her 2nd fastest time ever, 1:20:17.  I believe she negative split the race.  Also on Saturday, in Georgia, Lisa Ievers ran a PR at the Soldier Half Marathon, finishing 3rd in 1:27:59.  It was 4.5 minutes faster than her time there last year, and a really impressive result!  At the Rosaryville 50k, Bob Harvey came twice...across the finish line (no inuendo there).  I don't know why they have him listed twice, but he finished 9th in 4:26:34. 

Sunday's big event was the Veteran's Day 10k down on Hains Point.  As you can see it was largely the GRC Show, with their runners putting on a little How-To Clinic in West Potomac Park, but I was more than pleasantly surprised to see how well Tristram Thomas ran.  Tristram is in great shape, as he prepares for this weekend's half in Annapolis, but to finish 5th in 31:50 was really great to see.  It moved him to 8th on our all-time list, bumping off Ben Ingram.  Ben traded leads with Alex Waldt in the last two miles of the race, before Alex managed to find that little bit extra in his legs at the end.  They finished 21st and 20th, respectively, in 34:08 and 34:05.  Liz Laseter, who was traded to GRC for perhaps a runner to be named later, if anyone ever moves from DC to Baltimore, ran a solid 39:27 in finishing 20th.  David Lee, ahead of the Las Vegas Marathon, got under 40 (39:32) and Jon Miller ran a de factor PR (40:26).  PJ Anderer...ran. 

At the Metric Marathon in Columbia, Meg McNew ran with Kelly Meier, in Kelly's first run over 15 miles.  She nailed it, as the pair crossed the line together in 2:12:28 (13th and 14th).  Sara Damiano was 22nd in 2:14:46.  In the 5k, Eileen Fleck did battle with New Becky Parks, as the duo went 1-2.  Eileen took the W in 19:12 to Becky's new PR of 19:14.  Great work ladies!

As mentioned in the email, it was a tough week for Purple Drink Athlete of the Week considerations, but in the end, it favored the huge marathon PR of Kris Simms, so congratulations buddy!

And there was an AutoZone In the Zone award winner this week - Tristram Thomas.  He has been flying sky high lately and we hope to watch that continue this weekend!

Tomorrow will be the last official night of TNT.  Gilman, 6:30pm, the usual.  The guys doing Annapolis have their workout, and if anybody shows up who is running Philly this weekend you will be doing very light stuff.  I myself will probably go out for the NP-Charles-ColdSpring-Roland loop run and then do some easy stuff on the track.  Winter track will start up after the break - I think I am going to mandate a week off from track for EVERYONE next week so you can chill out in advance of Thanksgiving.

Still to come this week on the blog, a preview of this weekend's racing action and instructions on how to follow it all!