Washington Running Report Rankings

The newest edition of the Washington Running Report is online. Click here to view (Link). Striders among the rankings this go-round are:

Michael Wegner (1st, 19 & Under)
Mike Colaiacovo (3rd, 40-44)
Pete Keating (1st, 45-49) + Picture
Bob Burns (13th, 55-59)
Kara Waters (3rd, 35-39, 10th Open Women)
Robyn Humphrey (4th, 45-49)
Donna Wecker (6th, 45-49)
Pat Wikerson (3rd, 50-54)
Dorothy Beckett (12th, 50-54)

There is also a picture of Carlos Renjifo, which is a bit strange, since he is not ranked...

Congratulations to all of you!

Edit by Issel (2012-01-27):
Actually, rankings can be found here: http://www.runwashington.com/news/3440/475/Spring-Men-2011.htm
Blog post: http://stridersracingteam.blogspot.com/2011/08/washington-running-report-spring-2011.html
And Carlos was ranked #28 in the Open Men division. :)

Striders Women Shine on a Sunny Day in Baltimore

On an almost perfect summer morning, three Strider women -- Kara, Pat, and Dorothy -- toed the line at this year's edition of the Baltimore Women's Classic.

The women asserted themselves early, with Kara jumping to the front of the race with eventual winner Darcy McDonald, and Pat and Dorothy not far behind. As they entered the neighborhoods of Federal Hill, the packs began to spread out, but the women continued to look strong.

With less than a mile to go, all three ladies were well within the top 40 and still looking solid. Kara had lost a few places in the miles between, but was still fighting a tough battle for fourth. Pat and Dorothy, only 15 and ~20 spots back, respectively, were also still mixing it up in small packs of their own.

At the finish line, all three Strider women were still pushing for higher places. Kara finished in fourth (18:33), just able to hold off some very strong last-minute charges by Arlington's Lindsey Larose and Falls Road's Diane Heiser (The margin between 4th and 6th was less than a second!). Not far behind, Pat and Dorothy had finishing kicks of their own, which helped them reach 20th (20:30) and 25th (21:29) place finishes.

After the race, the ladies had a lot of positive things to say about the race ("great organization", "great cause"). But across the board the one complaint was that this year's course had way too many turns, which probably made the times a bit slower.

Results are posted here (Link) and pictures are posted here (Link).

Thursday evening track workout

I plan on being at OMHS on Thursday evening around 5pm for a track workout. My plan is 8xMile with 400m rest. Would love the company of others, even if you aren't planning on doing the same workout!

Men's Racing Team goes 1st, 3rd, and 4th at Father's Day 8k

The men's racing team ran well at yesterday's inaugural Father's Day 8k put on by Bullseye Running...

The course was an out and back (with a small loop) around the Lark Brown area. There were several rolling hills along the course including a steep 1/4-1/3 mile incline around the 2.5 Mile mark. The humidity made race conditions quite tough to go along with the challenging course.

The leaders went out at a comfortable pace. At the first mile, the lead pack consisted of Mark Buschman, Doug Mock, Peter Keating, and Mike Colaiacovo. The group went through 2 miles in 11:00 as nobody really wanted to push the pace. As the group hit the hill at 2.5 miles, Mark pulled away from everyone and my Mile 3, he had a 20 second lead. It was a good battle for 3rd between Mike and Peter but Mike was able to kick it in up the small incline to the finish line.

Official results:

Mark Buschman, 1st, 26:53
Mike Colaiacovo, 3rd, 27:40
Peter Keating, 4th, 27:47

Racing Team Women Represent at Damien's 5k

On another hot and humid Sunday, the women of the racing team toed the line and ran strong races.

Stefanie Commins, who was running only her second race in 2011, set another season best with a time of 18:54 -- a 13 second improvement over her Remembrance Run 5k time and good enough for second place. Unlike the her race at the Remembrance Run, however, first place was completely out of reach, as the winner clocked an insane time of 16:41, finishing 4th overall!

The real race this time was in women's master category. Newcomer to the racing team, Kelly Westlake, ran a solid effort and worked hard at the finish, just passing fellow Strider, Robyn Humphrey, at the line. The time separating the two was less than quarter second, with Kelly running 19:54.52 and Robyn finishing in 19:54.78. Kelly finished as first master, while Robyn, who tightened up with less than a quarter mile to go, had to settle for second this time.

As a side note, both overall winners ran very fast times, but in both cases, I believe, just missed out on the $500 prize money for setting a course record (14:32 for men, 16:41 for women).

Results are posted here (Link) and pictures are posted here (Link).