Like a Forcefield

Very quiet weekend on the racing front, expectedly, as there were some holiday observations going on, but for us it was all about the track!

At the McDaniel Twilight Meet on Wednesday, Brian Leiter and Greg Jubb went 1-2 in the 800m in a big way, running 1:53.74 and 1:54.20, respectively.

Up in Princeton, the squad was taking on the Sam Howell Invitational.  Ed Aramayo ran a season's best 3:59.63, finishing 6th in the 1500m.  Two straight weeks under 4 for Ed!  Tristram Thomas finished at 4:01.88 (12th), while Alex Battaglino ran a season's best 4:13.24.  In a separate heat on Friday night, Chris Snyder ran 4:11.42.

On Saturday at the Penn Invite, Louis Foudos ran 2:02.78 in the 800m, which earned him this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.  Congrats, Louis!

Lots of action coming up, with the Hopkins/Loyola Invite on Saturday, Clyde's 10k and the Blue Jay 5k on Sunday, and then the big one: BOSTON MARATHON MONDAY.  Very excited for this year's race.  And we obviously have our big race next Wednesday - the Westminster Main Street Mile.  April is an exciting month for racing!

For your reading pleasure today, check out this interview with Alberto Salazar (part 2 of 2) from Runner's World.  In it, he discuss the futures of Dathan Ritzenhein and Galen Rupp, in-house rivalries, and mistakes he made during his own career.

Fire on the Track

Just got in and saw the amazing results from our trackies today!  Results are unofficial so I'll amend this post when they are, but here's what I have so far:

Maryland Invite

Tristram, Ed, and Tim all doubled in the 1500 and 800.  The results would indicate they were close to one another, but they were all in different heats.  TT went 3:59.46 in the 1500, and then 2:05.12 in the 800.  Ed went under 4 and under 2 on the same day for the first time ever (3:59.91 and 1:59.84).  I heard Tim was a little disappointed about his results, but I think they're really good, 4:12.07 (5 seconds faster than last weekend) and 2:05.03.

Jubb had a rough go in the 15, running 4:11.71, Alex raced the race in his heat and ran a solid 4:13.94 and Arjun got his season started on the right foot with a 4:16.62.  Brian Leiter ran 4:00.50.

In the 3000m, Chris Snyder, who was originally left off the start list, ran 9:07.25

Towson Invite

Meg DiGregorio runs a 4:47.19 1500m (5:05ish mile), which is a BIG PR, some 10 seconds faster than she ran last year at the Maryland Twilight Meet.

Great job guys!  Dave Ploskonka is currently enduring a tough day down at Umstead 100 Miler, as he is apparently posting on Facebook during the race.  See everybody down at the Blossoms tomorrow!

Rock the Vote

The Issue:

Allegedly Gilman's facilities should be open again starting tomorrow, which means that we could resume working out there on Tuesdays.  However, after 3 weeks at the Hopkins/Loyola track on 33rd (that's 33rd), it seems as if a few people have taken a liking to the venue.  What we need to decide now is whether we should return to Gilman or just stick to H/L.  I've created a poll on the side, but if you feel strongly (one way or another) please feel free to comment below.  Your opinions will be taken into consideration and will be used to determine where we work out.

GILMAN

Positives: It's nice there; we get to warmup down the trail; it's the incumbent and it would be nice (if they did actually resurface it) to run on a new track.

Negatives: For those who have to take 83 to get there (almost everyone), traffic can be a killer; slightly farther away for most; summer lacrosse will be starting up and that means dodging high speed errant lax balls.

HOPKINS/LOYOLA

Positives: It's nice to have the jams playing; It's nice to have that awesome water thing; It doesn't seem any LESS convenient for most people to get to (selfishly it takes me like 11 easy minutes through the hood to get there, but others have been biking over too which is cool); It doesn't seem totally unsafe.

Negatives: It is in the hood and I still don't feel comfortable just leaving our stuff there and going for a run; warmup route isn't as sweet;

What does everyone else think?  I am actually okay with keeping it at Hopkins, although the habitualist in me likes and misses Gilman. 

5000m Track Time Trial - Saturday @ UMBC

Since both Towson and Goucher have decided they would rather keep their meets full of slow college kids (Goucher, seriously? You're like an all-girls liberal arts college), the track guys are going to use Saturday for a 5000m time trial.  Here are the details:

UMBC Track (on UMBC's campus)
7:45 am start warming up
Run 12 1/2 laps as fast as you can

According to weatherspark.com, the preliminary 8am forecast for Saturday is temps in the mid to upper 30s, with a 25% chance of precipitation.  Winds will be negligible. 

This is an OPEN event - anyone reading this blog (HCS, GRC, etc) are welcome to come out for the event.  The idea is to keep everyone on track for their spring racing season.  If you are interested you can contact me, or Tristram, who I will label point person on this one.  As long as there are more than 3 people, we can count it as an official race.  I've got numbers and pins, and although I won't be there, if someone wants to go (who is not running) and use the Time Machine, it can be officially timed, and we'll send the results to WRR for rankings.

On a side note, we had 27 people at the track last night.  It was pretty awesome.  13 of those people went to CVC afterwards.  And finally, if you plan on registering for the Westminster Main Street Mile (Wednesday, April 13, 7pm), do it soon.  Registration closes April 1 but I bet it fills up before then.  This is going to be an awesome event, I think we have at least 15 people going as of now.

BRRC Track Meet #1

This just in...

1500m: Chris Belcher, 1st (4:24) - win by 10 seconds or so
2 mile: Chris Belcher, 1st (10:22) - win by 30 seconds or so
800m: Chris Belcher, 3rd (2:11)

"A good workout" he says.

That's a pretty sick triple man, great job. That 2 mile time may wind up being the TWSS record. I wonder if Denise ran...