As the cherry blossoms fell off the trees, many Striders were in full bloom at the season's biggest race

I decided to join those racing with a 4:30am buzzing alarm. By 5:20am, I pulled up to the Broken Land Parkway Park 'N Ride and discovered several Striders were on the exact same schedule. The Metro ride was a piece of cake and the crisp, cool air shocked our systems as we crested the (broken) escalator. Sorry to digress; now to the real story:

The conditions were near ideal for this time of the year (unless you were spectating). I didn't hear anyone complain about the wind going around Hains Point. We had several amazing performances which including huge PRs by our team captain, Carlos Renjifo, who blasted across the finish line in 51:43 for 20th place and a 1:37 PR. He ran with the big dawgz and showed he deserves to be in the discussion with the area's elite. This is also a new team record! Seth Geoghegan, our newest (official) member battled through a toe blister (wore a new pair of shoes for race day...what an idiot) to run a 2:00 PR, 56:01 for 49th. Docta Kent wasn't far behind in 56:36. Peter Keating, reportedly only running 25 mile weeks, ran 57:07 for 72nd overall. Keith Levasseur, who I'm guessing ran a 20-30k warmup, had a solid Boston tune-up as he cracked the top 100 men for 96th place with a 58:27. The last of our sub-hour crew was the infamous Jason Tripp, who looked strong the last 150m, clocking a 59:06. Our only healthy grandmaster, John Chall, performed well with a 63:08.

Our ladies squad was quite (grand)masterful as well. I swear they get younger each day! Robyn Humphrey led the way averaging just under 6:30s, rolling through in 64:40 for 56th and 2nd in AG. Kelly Westlake was right on her heels, finishing 65th in 65:18. Ms. Constantcy, Pat Wilkerson rounded out the sub-70 crew with a 67:49, including 3rd in her age group. Janeth Scott ran even splits for a 70:26 followed by Dorothy Beckett in 71:44. Many of the Run 4 Chocolate ladies were also spotted on the course.

Courtesy of Robyn:
So Kelly and I are out together, too fast (Kelly's fault) but good thing as at 1.5 miles Joan Benoit Samuelson comes up on my right and I say "Kelly, an American treasure is to our right", Kelly looks to see and she is like OMG, where is Dave Tripp with his camera when you need him? Joan says "Thank you so much", so humble, lovely lady as she powers up and pulls away I say, "now I can die", which got a big smile! A great moment for Kelly and I!

Here's a formatted Striders breakdown:

Place / Name / 5 Mile / Gun Time / Net Time / Pace
20 Carlos Renjifo* 25:51 51:43 51:43 5:11
41 Tom Williams 27:04 55:12 55:11 5:32
49 Seth Geoghegan* 28:19 56:04 56:01 5:37
56 Kent Werner 28:11 56:38 56:36 5:40
75 Peter Keating 29:46 57:26 57:07 5:43
96 Keith Levasseur* 29:29 58:30 58:27 5:51
111 Jason Tripp 29:25 59:08 59:06 5:55
171 Brian Fleming 30:46 1:01:37 1:00:59 6:06
263 John Chall 31:01 1:03:14 1:03:08 6:19
307 Akintunde Morakinyo 32:05 1:04:05 1:04:01 6:25
429 Bobby Gessler 32:25 1:06:06 1:06:01 6:37

56 Robyn Humphrey 31:37 1:04:42 1:04:42 6:28
65 Kelly Westlake 31:58 1:05:20 1:05:18 6:32
117 Pat Wilkerson 33:14 1:07:51 1:07:49 6:47
160 Julie Thienel 34:18 1:09:35 1:09:31 6:58
183 Janeth Scott 34:48 1:10:55 1:10:26 7:03
230 Dorothy Beckett 35:26 1:12:06 1:11:44 7:11
253 Lisa Fichman 36:00 1:12:43 1:12:27 7:15
260 Janelle McIntyre 36:27 1:13:03 1:12:41 7:16
323 Tacy Powers 36:46 1:14:05 1:13:35 7:22
356 Rebecca Ramsing 36:54 1:14:31 1:14:15 7:26
416 Grace Tran 37:35 1:18:13 1:15:07 7:31
641 Hazel Chase 38:27 1:20:56 1:17:51 7:48

* denotes PR

Congrats all!!!

A few selected pictures (click the Picasa link on the right side of the blog for more):


The crew!



Carlos kicking some ass!



Seth with a HUGE PR!



Robyn leading the way for the ladies...

More Photos
Taken by GRC's Michelle Miller are here.

Videos
Finish Line videos on the Cherry Blossom Website
Compilation of Howard County Striders Finishes (Thanks to Issel Lim!)