- The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named Weini Kelati, a sophomore at the University of New Mexico, as its women’s Division I National Athlete of the Week. Kelati attended Heritage High School in Leesburg for three years and competed for the Pride for two years, including 2015, when she won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships. She won the women’s White race at the Division I Pre-National meet last weekend.
- The Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation reports the bridge on Donaldson Run Trail in Zachary Taylor Park, at the North Upton Street entrance, has been damaged from a fallen tree and is currently closed to pedestrian traffic.
- Repairs to the Arlington Memorial Bridge will force detours for pedestrians, alternating at noon and 4 a.m.
Get ready! 3 of 6 lanes & 1 sidewalk on Arlington Memorial Bridge close Monday, Oct. 15. Everyone shifts to the N. side of the bridge. 4am-noon = 2 lanes to DC & 1 lane to VA Noon overnight to 4am = 2 lanes to VA & 1 into DC. More at https://t.co/rLYiXg5FFC #MoreThanABridge pic.twitter.com/HoOE1HyVAA
— Jenny A-S NPS (@NPSJennyAS) October 11, 2018
We all know that runners can get intense. But for most runners, there is a finish line at the end where the intensity comes to a stop. That was not the case for us. For 101 straight days in the heat of D.C. summer, my friend Brian McElhaney and I competed in a grueling run streak competition, all for the prize of a $30 dessert.
Brian and I are both Arlington residents and coworkers at Potomac River Running. One day in the early summer, Brian proposed seeing how many days we could run idea of having a run streak competition between the two of us. I thought it sounded fun, so I agreed. At the time, neither of us really understood what we were getting into.
Loudoun Valley hasn’t truly flexed its cross country muscle yet.
Not in winning the Great American Cross Country Festival a week ago and not in scoring 18 points to win the Third Battle Invitational, taking six of the top seven spots in the process. The defending Nike Cross Nationals champions haven’t even figured out who their top seven will be, and two runners who raced in Winchester did well enough to only make coach Marc Hunter’s job harder as the Vikings pick their seven runners who will compete in postseason races.
“It’s a good problem to have,” he said. “I’m always amazed at how the boys do. It’s a revolving door for 6-7-8-9, and it’s been a short season, so we’ll have to make some tough decisions. When they run well like this, it makes it harder.”
Our hosts are back for another episode, where we talk not politics with the presidential cell phone alert, the Clarendon day race, the Chicago marathon, bird scooters, Survivor and more. Our guest this week is Survivor Hall of Famer Jonny Fairplay, who has experienced an extreme life pivot and is now an avid runner.
Montgomery Parks opened a new six-mile natural surface multi-use trail running along Pepco’s transmission right-of-way connecting Muddy Branch Stream Valley to South Germantown Recreation Park. It is being maintained through a collaboration between Montgomery Parks, Pepco and the Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts. RunWashington’s will have an Off the Beaten Path look at the trail next week.
D.C.’s Kerry Allen qualified for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials after running 2:41:33 for seventh place at the Twin Cities Marathon in Minnesota Oct. 7. She was RunWashington’s top-ranked road racer in 2017 and has broken the course record at the Riley’s Rumble Half Marathon the past three years. She also won the Parks Half Marathon this Fall. She is one of eight full-time immediate D.C. area residents to qualify for the Olympic Trials, set for Feb. 29 in Atlanta, so far.
For the second straight year, high humidity met Army Ten-Miler runners, but this year’s race was mercifully cooler. But last year’s conditions still stung Susan Tanui, so when the defending women’s champion set out, she made it a point to start out conservatively. It paid off, with a 56:33 victory over Julia Roman-Duval’s 57:17.
Tanui improved by 17 seconds over last year’s time and Roman-Duval improved by two minutes. Tanui, a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, is stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado. Roman-Duval lives in Columbia, Md. Emily Da La Bruyere, of D.C. was third in 59:07.
Luke Tewalt isn’t the kind of hold back, especially when he has a chance to really be part of a race.
The Washington Latin junior took that opportunity Saturday at the Glory Days Invitational at Clifton’s Bull Run Regional Park, leading W.T. Woodson’s Jack Leech and Bishop O’Connell’s Max Greczyn through the rolling course. For Tewalt, it was a Goldilocks race, not too fast, like the DCXC Invitational a week earlier when he faced off against a Lynchburg area runner with a much faster personal best; and not too slow, like many of the smaller invitationals his charter school team had been racing.
“I don’t mind setting the pace because I’m used to that in a lot of my races, but it was even better to have guys to run with,” he said. “We were all out there pushing each other and it wound up being a really fun race.”
Jenny Paul is an attorney who has written for RunWashington since 2018, including this profile of Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier Kerry Allen. Read more of her work here.
Name: Jenny Paul
Self-described age group: 30s
Residence: Washington, D.C.
Occupation: Lawyer by trade, but amateur meteorologist in the days leading up to a race
Volunteer roles in the running world: (as applies)
Why you run: I’m competitive, I get to start off the day by seeing friends, and I don’t have to check my work email for a good 90 minutes while I’m running!
When did you get started running: I ran (or jogged very slowly) my first mile outside of gym class during my freshman year of college. I started running seriously about 10 years ago in law school.
Have you taken a break from running: No extended time off, thankfully
Training shoe: Zoom Flys and Brooks Launch
Coach or training group: Dojo of Pain
The hardest race you’ve ever run: CIM 2018
Most adventurous decision you’ve made with your running: Taking a leave of absence from my full-time job to try to train to qualify for the Trials (which ended fatefully at CIM 2018, see above). The plus side was the leave allowed me time to write great stories for Run Washington, which I hope to get back to some day soon!
Running mentors: Alan Pemberton, Jeff Redfern, Dan Yi, with assists from the rest of the Dojo
My favorite place to run in the D.C. area is: Love it or hate it, Hains Point is where the Dojo does its business
Favorite local trail: I am highly averse to trail running.
My best race was: Hoping the best is yet to come.
Favorite local race: Rock n Roll DC Half Marathon before they moved the date; now I have to say Lawyers Have Heart, because who doesn’t love running in a sports bra in front of all of their colleagues on the Whitehurst Freeway?
Ideal post-run meal: Baked & Wired iced tea/lemonade or something from Bassett’s after a Dual Ferries run
Favorite flavor of gel, gu, etc: Chocolate
Pet peeve: Anyone who tries to tell me that weather doesn’t matter on race day because it’s out of my control
Goals: A goal: OTQ; B goal: place really high among American women in Boston 2020; Always goal: have fun while running and never take for granted the D.C. running community — it’s the best.
Your advice for a new runner: Find training partners; it makes every run so much better.
Favorite running book: Currently working my way through the AAA’s tome on Salazar
Song in your head during a run: Anything from Hamilton
Have you dealt with a major injury: I’m not going to jinx myself
Running quote: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” — Teddy Roosevelt
Why is the D.C. area a great place to be a runner: The running community is second to none, and, quite frankly, so is the wide variety of long run options (but RIP, Big Loop).
