For a year and a half, Sam Doud didn’t race.

After he walked away from collegiate running at American University, he just logged his miles, enjoyed the sport and bided his time until he was ready to race truly long distances.

“I’ve never been one of the fast guys, I never broke 4:20 for the mile,” he said. “A marathon seemed pretty natural for me.”

In February, he started getting itch to see what he could do — he was running fast and ready for the challenge. The Rock ‘n’ Roll D.C. Marathon started a few miles away from his Glover Park home, what better place to see what he could do? Ended up being a good move.

In winning the race Saturday morning, he blazed the fastest time (2:26:57) since the course was beefed up two years prior, and left two solid marathoners in his wake in 2013 Marine Corps Marathon Champion Girma Bedada and six-time Rock ‘n’ Roll/National Marathon winner Michael Wardian.

Doud, 21, showed up with his roommate and put on his bib — number 31616 — and saw Wardian (bib number 1) and Bedada (bib number 2) near the starting line.

“I has no idea who they were, but they looked fast and people were taking a lot of pictures with Wardian,” Doud said. “My main plan was to not blow up, so I wasn’t going to go with them. I’d let them do their things.”

But he ended up catching them both, running with Wardian between miles 11 and 17, then reeling in Bedada with a mile and a half to go before putting three minutes on him.

Though the back half of the race is always lonely, marathoners usually have the half runners to keep them company through 12 miles. This year the marathoners started an hour and a half before the half. With Metro’s Safetrack restrictions keeping race organizers from opening the system early, they started marathoners early and allowed the more than 13,000 half runners take the trains into the city. The marathon’s 2,373 finishers were on their own to get to the start. That meant empty streets for Doud and his competitors, with few spectators braving the cold, though he got a boost from passing the statue of Simón Bolívar near the first mile mark.

When Doud crammed for the race with a few marathon-pace workouts, he targeted 5:50 miles. On race day, he averaged 5:36 per mile, and only his cautious first mile was slower than his initial goal pace.

“This has me wondering what I could do if I seriously train for a marathon,” he said a day after the race.

Despite his early success, he has a lot to learn. For instance, Wardian remarked to him after the race that he hadn’t seen Doud eat anything during the race.

“I told him I didn’t see any food,” he said, at the time unaware of the bevy of running gels and calorie-replacement options available to runners, including at one water stop.  

Still, he never hit the wall, and felt comfortable throughout the race, even in the latter stages. He remarked that the climbs around Fort Dupont Park were far more difficult than out of Rock Creek Park on Shoreham Drive.

Doud, a Bloomington, Ill. native, has less than a year until he graduates with majors in math and computer science, and is tossing around the possibility of running the Marine Corps Marathon.

There, he’ll likely face warmer weather than the mid-20s that greeted him on race morning.

On Saturday, he played it safe, wearing extra layers, including two hats, for his first marathon.

“I don’t want to be the guy wearing shorts and a singlet and freezing,” he said. “I thought I might look a little dumb in the race photos, but it’s better than being cold for two-and-a-half hours.”

He took time after the race to find out a little bit more about the marathoning world from Wardian, particularly how he should expect to feel in the morning.

“He told me I should run the next day,” Doud said. “I woke up feeling like I had put on about 30 years, but I got out there.”

And ran 13 miles, a little faster than 7:20 per mile.

Christie Wetzel, of Falls Church, won the women’s marathon in 3:04:01, two years after running 3:58 in her first marathon here. She ran the race with her husband, Rodrigo Garcia, pulling ahead of him near the finish. Ithaca, N.Y. resident Sabine Fischer-Daly was second in 3:08:41 and Hyattsville’s Angela Hartman was third in 3:10:07.

In the half marathon, Mizael Carrera (Addison, Ill.)1:05:51 defended his 2016 title, Austin Whitelaw (Johnson City, Tenn.) was second in 1:07:59 D.C.’s Paul Thistle, recovered from a long foot injury, was third in 1:08:27. D.C.’s Kerry Allen (1:19:20) won the half after finishing second in 2014 and 2016. This title comes three weeks after she won the Dahlgren Heritage Trail Half Marathon in Virginia. Jenny Mendez Suanca, the 2015 Marine Corps Marathon champion, was second in 1:21:37 and Fairfax’s Sarah Bishop was third in 1:22:02.

You probably know an ultrarunner, and not just the ones you read about in Born to Run. The sport has grown significantly in recent years as more marathoners ask what’s beyond 26.2 miles. In D.C., ultrarunners hide in plain sight, working for the government, opening donut shops, or practicing law. They infiltrate your road marathons, casually enjoying a bagel while you’re trying to stomach another gel. They’re your colleagues, your neighbors, your friends. And if you’ve been thinking about taking on these more extreme distances and conditions, they’re your best resource for getting into the sport.

 

The ultra club

With some 635 members, 20 events, and three major races per year, the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club is the hub of ultrarunning in the D.C. region.

“We’ve been here right from the start, sort of being a driving force to have events and runs that appeal to everybody,” said club president Alan Gowan.

The club has grown in the last few years as younger runners join the sport, and the club has adjusted to fit members’ interests. That includes partnering with the D.C. Capital Striders on a weekly trail run in Great Falls Park.

Striders President Rick Amernick has come to admire ultrarunners’ tendency to mentor one another.

“A lot of [Striders] (who) had never thought of doing an ultramarathon caught the bug because you’re running with people that sign up for these races, 50k, 50 miles, even 100 miles,” he said. “Some of our runners have completed those races over the last several years strictly because they were encouraged by the runners who they saw on a regular basis [who] said, ‘Hey, why don’t we train together?’”

Lauren Masterson, president of the Washington Running Club, came out to Great Falls while training for her first 50 miler this year. She turned to ultrarunning as a way to stress less about her road marathon times, but she still felt timid before her first run.

“All these people are gonna be so hardcore and they’re gonna be jumping off rocks and just blazing through these trails,” she remembered worrying. “And a lot of them are,” she added, “but they are so welcoming. They have this great Facebook page where people post questions and you’ll get like 10 responses and it’s just been so informative.”

“It’s a real close-knit group,” agreed Tom Corris, a 15-year VHTRC member, “and it’s cliche to say that we’re all family but yeah, we’re pretty damn close to it.”

 

More cowbell, please

In April, at the finish line of VHTRC’s Bull Run Run 50-mile race, runners rounded the final turn, greeted by the clatter of a cowbell. Kids toddled alongside their fathers to the finish, where race director Alisa Springman greeted them with a high five, handshake, or hug. Volunteers tugged perforated timing stubs off of race bibs and handed out t-shirts. Two-liter bottles of soda lined a picnic table in the finisher’s chute, but the good grub was up a hill in the Chow Hall, where members of VHTRC dished out chili, brewed coffee and shot the breeze.

“You don’t want to disappoint anyone,” said Springman, who has run the race herself 10 times but was directing it for the first time with her husband. “You know what your experience has been like as a runner and it seems seamless, so you want to provide that for the same reasons, so other runners experience that.”

For 350 runners, she recruited a team of 150 volunteers to support the race in rain and even an unseasonal burst of snow.

Like many others, she called the community “tight-knit” and “family.” In a race like the Bull Run Run, she relies on volunteers to make the event run smoothly, but she also relies on the runners to watch out for one another. “You don’t have to spend weeks and months and days and years with a person on the trail to get to know them very well,” she noted. “Oftentimes, an hour or two on the trail where you’re really open and connected to things emotionally, you share a lot more and you feel much more connected than you would otherwise.” This isn’t just talk for her, either; Springman and her husband met at a trail race. “It took off from there!” she said.

 

The D.C. Scene

Most people don’t think of major urban areas when they imagine trail or ultrarunning, but the D.C. region does not lack for training routes. In Rock Creek Park, more than 30 miles of paved and unpaved trails wind between commercial and residential neighborhoods of Northwest D.C. Great Falls has another 15 miles in Virginia, and across the river, the C&O Canal Towpath runs past miles of detours on its way to Cumberland. In a relatively short drive, you can reach the Shenandoah or Massanutten mountains, Harper’s Ferry or parts of Pennsylvania.

“You would never know that there’s opportunity for trail running here,” said Larry Huffman, who found VHTRC in early 2010 and ran a 50k within the year. Huffman lives in Tyson’s Corner, the rapidly urbanizing suburb just two miles from Great Falls. He runs to the Wednesday night workouts.

Although our mountains are a bit less majestic than the west coast’s, decorated marathoner and ultrarunner Michael Wardian sees a lot of upsides to living here.

“It’s not ideal to live in a major metropolitan area if you want to be really successful (running) in the mountains,” he said. “But it’s possible. You just have to work a little harder.”

Wardian has been known to train with his treadmill at its maximum incline to prepare for races out west, although he regrets that he can’t mimic the brutal descents that follow those climbs.

Like many of us, he stays here to be close to friends and family and the D.C. food scene. When he travels for races, which he does often, he can choose from three airports and virtually every carrier, making his trips more flexible and cost-effective. His friends in Montana don’t have that luxury.

“I feel like it’s worth that kind of tradeoff to be able to get all the perks that we have living in a place like this,” he said.

Wardian has raced around the world and has seen a lot of terrain, but he settled pretty quickly on the destination most like home: Costa Rica, where in 2014, he won the 225k Coastal Challenge Expedition race through the rainforest.

“The climbs aren’t super big and the trails are super duper similar to the U.S. […] That was really neat. I felt really comfortable on those trails,” he said. Most notably, the climate is “kind of like our summer heat. It’s like soupy, hot, humid, which is great for me but a lot of other people from different climates like the Northwest or West Coast kind of suffered. That was something that made me feel at home.” Endlessly optimistic, Wardian has found an upside to some of the worst traits of D.C.’s weather.

VHTRC member Josh Howe of Chantilly gushed about the Instagram photos of a friend who recently moved to Colorado, but he has no plans to leave just yet.

“It may be expensive to live here,” he said. “Traffic may suck awfully bad, but we have some pretty awesome trails around here. Within an hour you can be in the mountains.”

 

The ultra effect

Even if an ultramarathon doesn’t spark your sense of adventure, ultrarunners generally agree that thinking or training like them can make a difference at shorter distances thanks to the improved endurance, nutrition habits and mental toughness that come from their training regimens.

“You can use that speed that you get in a 5k, 10k, half-marathons, marathons to be able to have a quicker turnover and be a more efficient runner in [ultramarathons],” said Wardian, who turns up for shorter races around the city when he’s in town. “Then you can use that strength and power and discipline that you have from doing the longer stuff to be even that much of a stronger, more competent runner in shorter stuff. I think there’s a nice balance.”

Ultrarunners also develop an ability to eat real food on the run and a highly articulated sense of their nutritional needs. When Josh Lasky started training for his first ultra, he would buy a Chipotle burrito and try to eat it during the workout. “Bit by bit, bite by bite,” he said, “you take that burrito down.” With his stomach acclimated, he can sustain himself on slow-burning whole foods for most of his races, then get a boost from sugar and caffeine to power him to the finish.

“Nutrition is paramount in getting through these things,” Masterson said, who trains mostly on nutritional drinks but likes to grab some potato chips and soda during races. “I’ve seen grilled cheese,” she said of the aid stations, “They have little sandwiches, salted potatoes, french fries; it’s like a junk food fest and it’s awesome.”

If you do decide to take it on, ultrarunning can shake up everything you know about yourself as a runner. “Whatever you run on the roads really doesn’t matter,” Masterson said. Between technical skills, extreme conditions, and the sheer duration of the event, ultrarunning requires a totally new approach to training and racing. You cannot go fast and gut it out. Your GPS probably won’t work; even if it does, your mile splits will be at the whim of the next hill. Your supplies will disappear, your headlamp will die, or your feet will blister; something will go wrong despite your best planning. You will feel soaring highs and profound lows and you will learn to eat when you start crying. If you’re capable, you will keep going, pushing on to find out what physical or emotional boundary you can crack next. This is not a sport people do for fun in the moment; if anything, they do it to feel the pain, to endure it, and to find out who they are on the other side of it.

“[Ultrarunning] brings you to a place of resourcefulness and being uncomfortable in a way that you’re not in your normal, everyday life, where you’re very pampered and everything is accessible and problems are relatively mild and quickly solved,” Springman said. “So a little existential, but there’s something kind of primitive about that, I think, to just get back to something more basic, where the only thing you have to focus on is moving forward and all the other noise and distraction is gone.”

Lasky has a philosophical take that he’s mulled over the course of many miles. “I think the reason why ultrarunners do what they do is because they don’t have the ability to imagine it and they’re not satisfied with the imagination alone…” he said. “It requires a willingness to come face to face with your own mortality, your own limitations, your own strength.” Lasky took up the sport after several years caring for his disabled father as well as a lengthy recovery from a broken ankle. For him, ultrarunning is a test of his limitations and a display of gratitude for his own mobility.

“You’re gonna be in your head a lot,” Amernick said,  “I feel like crap, I can’t believe I’m doing this.” He recalls his first 50-mile race last year; at mile 40, he blurted out to a volunteer, “Why do people do this?!” At the finish line, he announced, “I’m never going to do this again!”

Within a few hours, he was asking, “When’s the next one?”

“And that’s what happens,” he said. “That’s what happens. This experience has basically embraced you. You don’t realize it at the time but maybe a day later, a week later, you can look back and go:

“Oh my god, that was amazing.”

 

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2016/2017 issue of RunWashington

The word Brian Shrader kept saying over and over – to reporters, to friends, to race organizers, and to new fans seeking his autograph – was “shock.”

For example: “I’m still in shock,” he said, after winning the .US National 12k championship in Alexandria this morning. “I don’t even know what to think.”

[button-red url=”http://www.national12k.us/Results.aspx” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]

There were a number of reasons Shrader felt this way.

For one, the top prize paid out $20,000, but the 23-year-old still has track eligibility left at Northern Arizona University. So unless he wants to turn professional, Shrader, according to NCAA rules, can only accept prize money “in an amount up to actual and necessary expenses for the calendar year.” (See this Collegiate Running Association page for a more detailed explanation, but he could keep as much as he can document with receipts, including costs for travel, equipment and coaching.)

Before today, Shrader had never run a 10k, let alone a 12k. He had only run one other road race: the CVS Downtown 5k, the national championship, in September, where he was 4th in 13:59.

Shrader racing the 5k was Northern Arizona University alum Diego Estrada‘s idea. They both live, and occasionally train together, in Flagstaff, Ariz. That day, Estrada unleashed a strong kick to win his first national title, while Shrader qualified to have his expenses covered to compete in the 12k.

On a cold, overcast morning, Shrader, Estrada, and 22 other elite men started around 7:25 on S. Union Street, near Oronoco Bay Park. They headed south to Franklin Street and made a short climb and descent. There, not long after the mile mark, they turned left onto George Washington Parkway, which they followed out to the halfway mark, where they did a U-turn and retraced the same route.

Last year, Aaron Braun, of Alamosa, Colo., came here hungry to win his first national title, setting the tempo for a big lead pack and throwing in a series of surges that allowed him to gradually slip away. He broke the tape in a time of 34:26, which he found out later was just two seconds slower than Steve Spence’s American record.

At yesterday’s press conference, Braun said he was just as fit, if not more fit, than he was in 2013, but also knew he’d have more of a “target on his back.”

That turned out to be true.

In the opening mile, a huge pack, 20-plus strong, formed around him. The consensus, it seemed, was that Braun would be the one pushing the pace while everyone else would be the ones trying not to get dropped.

As 4:40s in the early miles dipped down closer to 4:30 by halfway, the pack started to string out. After the U-turn, Braun threw in a 4:25, his goal being, as with his earlier and later surges, to “try and hurt people a little but also not hurt myself.”

“I needed to be able to put them away earlier,” Braun said, “and make them think it was too big of a gap.”

But back on S. Union Street, when the finish line came into view, Braun, though he had successfully dropped most of the field, was still flanked by five other runners – Shrader, Estrada, Jared Ward, Girma Mecheso, and Parker Stinson – who were snapping out of survival mode and tapping into a far more positive notion: I can win this thing.

Shrader, wearing his NAU singlet, had been executing his strategy of keying off Estrada, hanging on to the lead pack as long as he could, and waiting to see what he had in the end. In the final miles, he tucked closely behind Braun.  The last 200 to 300 meters, for him, and for everyone involved, was a blur.

Shrader took the lead; and when his legs tied up, 50 meters or so before the finish, he expected to get caught, but no one came. He won in 34:11, averaging 4:35 per mile, as all six in the final chase pack dipped under what used to be Spence’s American-record time.

Estrada, who had given Shrader the idea to test out road racing, and who missed training time recently due to a sinus infection, was just a second back in 2nd. He said the race played out as he expected.

“I assumed Aaron would push the pace, which happened. And then I figured there would be a few guys with a mile to go; then of course everyone would charge again … But I hesitated a little bit. I wasn’t quite feeling it, and it cost me at the end because I ran out of room,” he said.

Braun, just three seconds back, returned to the podium. “My goal, he said, “was to come back and get the title, number one, and get the record for number two. I got number two, but not number one.”

Mecheso, 5th, gave Braun credit: “The way he ran, he deserved to win,” he said, “because he was pushing all the way.”

Stinson, two seconds behind Mecheso, was inspired by the result, calling it “one of my best races.” Like Shrader, he still has track eligibility, though at University of Oregon.

On one hand, he would’ve liked to have been more competitive during the sprint finish. On the other, he doesn’t envy Shrader.

“I’m glad I didn’t make too much money,” he said, “so I don’t have to make any decisions.”

***

Falls Church native Christo Landry knew his odds of winning his fourth national title  in 2014 weren’t good. Five weeks ago he finished 13th in a new personal best of 2:14:30 at the Chicago Marathon, and was still feeling its effects. “I just don’t have the top-end gears right now, coming off the marathon,” he said after finishing 8th in 34:42. “And when you get dropped running 4:35, right after running a 4:32, [you know] they’re running a great time. They ran great, and I just wasn’t hanging with them today.”

For Landry, through, today’s 12k was also a way to celebrate a breakthrough 2014 that gave him an insurmountable lead in the USA Running Circuit (USARC) standings. After the top 10 men were announced, Landry was awarded the $25,000 overall USARC title. He had 82 points, 31 more than Estrada in second.

In the masters division, Arlington’s Michael Wardian won a national title in 38:32. Philippe Rolly, of McLean, was second.

“I don’t ever try to just look to win the masters, but it’s exciting to be in a new age group,” Wardian said.

In typical Wardian fashion, the ultra runner and marathoner was in the Bahamas earlier in the weekend getting in some heat training, he said, and on Friday will represent Team USA at the World 100k championships in Quatar.

“Our team is completely stacked,” he said, “so I think we should win the team title.”

  

Even after 50 miles of running, Zach Miller was still happy to be out on the JFK 50 Mile course.

For a guy who spends five months at a time at sea, the latest champion of the east coast’s big fall ultramarathon doesn’t take any time on land for granted. Miller, not to be confused with  2003 runner up Zachariah Miller, is based in Columbia, Pa., but that’s just a place his junk mail shows up while he’s on the boat.  Results

“It’s good and it’s bad,” Miller said about his job operating printing equipment on cruise ships. “I’ve gotten to run on five continents and I’ll be able to do South America soon, but I really can’t get fast running 10 miles a day on a treadmill.”

That didn’t stop him from pulling away from Ultra Race of Champions winner Rob Krar somewhere between mile 33 and 38 and cruising to victory in 5:38:53, the third fastest time on the course and the youngest, at 25, under 5:40. Krar did not finish the race. Matthew Flaherty of Bloomington, Ind. was second in 5:44:37 and Arlington’s Michael Wardian, he of two marathons in a single day earlier in the week, finished third in 5:55:37.

“When they said I was going to come in under 5:40, I couldn’t believe it,” Miller said. “Only two guys had done that before, and one was Max King (2012 winner and course record holder at 5:34:59).”

Miller’s job affords him months-long vacations, and this one included a road trip to Nevada for the USATF 50k trail championships. A sixth-place finish helped convince JFK race director Mike Spinnler to let Miller into the race, though he didn’t decide on it until a few days before.

“I got the okay but I really had to think about if I really wanted to do it,” he said. “A 50 mile is a lot different from a 50k. I had never run more than 35 miles before.”

Whatever pre-race worries seemed quaint in retrospect of a race that came together “perfectly.” He took the 13 miles of alternating road and technical Appalachian Trail easy, cautiously navigating the rocks.

“I wanted to make sure my ankles came out of it,” he said. “I was falling back, but there was plenty of race left.”

When he and Jason Wolfe hit the C&O Canal Towpath for 26.3 miles, they took down the pace, but Miller considered that he might be running on borrowed time, though it was Wolfe who didn’t finish.

“I thought if we kept sub-6:00 pace up too long, I might blow up by mile 25,” he said. “I was working pretty hard, but once I caught up with Rob (Krar) and found out who he was, I was just happy to be up there with him. I was floored just to be in a position to be second to him.”

Miller didn’t know the kind of lead he had, or that Krar had dropped out, until he hit a tight turn with a little more than eight miles to go. On the rolling hills headed into Williamsport, Md. he tried to reconcile some of the splits he got from escort vehicles, 6:15 for one mile, with the fact that he had never pushed his body that far in a race.

“I was in the great unknown,” he said. “I was just seeing what I could do at that point, it felt like it was all adrenaline. I nailed the nutrition, because you have to take a lot of food to keep going. I think I had a banana at every aid station and my homemade gu.”

Oddly enough, the former Rochester Institute of Technology 10k runner might be well suited for ultra running because of his job situation.

“I don’t have the opportunity to train for a fast marathon, but I can get really strong,” he said. “When were at port, I go out and run because that’s my chance to get off the treadmill. If we’re in port for four hours, I’ll go run for four hours. Norway, South Africa, I just go out and run mountains.”

Warren County, Va. native and Flagstaff resident Emily Harrison might not have matched her time from her ultramarathon debut last year, when she dipped under the old course record coming in second to Ellie Greenwood, but she still managed to race with a commanding lead and capture the title that eluded her before.

“I felt a little off from the start,” she said. “Even leading up to the race, I knew I wouldn’t be as fast but (coach and habitual JFK runner) Ian Torrance said I could run in the 6:30s, so I just focused on getting the win.”

Her 6:35:05 was nothing to scoff at, because it was well ahead of Frederick’s Sage Norton‘s 7:14:03 and Boulder’s Kara Henry‘s 7:17:37.

“I just didn’t drop my pace on the canal this year,” she said. “I did get to see my parents and grandparents driving along the canal and thought to myself that I’d get to see them in a few miles.”

Those were just two of the 863 runners to finish the trek between Boonesboro and Williamsport, run the day after the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination.

Erik Price hasn’t had his pick of great days in either of the ultras he’s run this year. The Oakton resident tried his hand at the Northern Virginia North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile in June, which saw hot muggy weather demolish the field. At JFK, temperatures in the upper 30s and lower 40s, which took a hit at mid-day were accompanied by a constant headwind. That’s coupled with the long, consistent stretch on the towpath, made Price somewhat wistful for the sweltering North Face conditions.

“Running that far on a flat course, you use the same muscles, make the same motion for so long,” he said. “People told me JFK was a tough race but I didn’t see it, looking at the elevation chart. Now I know.”

The conditions hit Reston’s Andrew Simpson hard, but he managed what he called a “great race” despite all of it.

” I think I was close to hypothermic,” he said after recovering from his 39th place finish in 7:29:32.

“Somehow I sprained my ankle along the way but didn’t notice until I stopped and tried to walk around the gym at the middle school,” he said. “Definitely an epic day for ultra-marathoning. I would think that JFK would have been  very proud as the course tests you both mentally and physically.”

Simpson’s Team FeXY finished second in the men’s open category to Pain Train.

Lara Shegoski finished fourth on the women’s side, hundreds of miles away from where her Johns Hopkins University cross country teammates were celebrating their second consecutive Division III women’s cross country national championship. Shegoski spent a week out of training with the flu and getting back into the swing of training wasn’t easy.

“My coach said I could try to get back into shape and run one more race, but I figured it was time to move on,” she said. “I spent the summer not running because of ROTC training, so I wasn’t in shape for college racing.”

The ultra distance, though, worked out quite well.  In a race that would make Aristotle proud, she just ran without a strategy or preconceived notion about the race, her mind a blank slate. That led to a surprise midway through the race.

“I thought I’d run nine hours,” she said. “I was running with two other women and one of them mentioned we were on sub-7:30 pace. Once I heard that, I started getting a little worried, so I stopped looking at splits.”

She finished in 7:20:45.

Eugene resident Emily Halnon signed up for the race while living in Washington, D.C., but she found her new training environment rocketed her into an optimistic mindset for the race.

“You have great trails, and great runners of all kinds,” she said. “It’s not just “Track Town.'”

She took the Appalachian Trail section carefully and managed to emerge unscathed.

“I fall in road races, so that was really big,” she said. “But it meant a lot of people passed by me.”

She emerged onto the towpath in 26th place and worked her way up to seventh by the time she turned onto the road, holding that place to the end.

Triathlete Alyssa Godesky of Baltimore had a breakthrough race, running 7:38:20 on her fifth JFK race for sixth place. Her previous best was around 8:05. She was the second woman to reach the towpath but found her pursuers running faster than she thought was sustainable for that long a race.

“I tried to hold on but I saw my Garmin putting us in the low-eights (pacewise) and I knew that wasn’t my plan, so I let them go,” she said. “I know what I’m getting myself into, I guess. I was excited to race an ultra now that I know how to race, triathlon definitely taught me that. I used to do ultras trying to go fast, but I have a different mentality now.”

Everything is supposed to hurt during a marathon.

The debut of a grand pianist in a full tuxedo complete with tails at mile six was not the only new tradition that the Montgomery County Road Runner Club’s Parks Half Marathon started in its eighth year. The runners themselves were determined to mark new ground by crushing the old course record by more than a minute.

Filled with hills, scenic parks and trails, the race included an elite class of runners, many from the local area.

Clocking in less than two minutes after the women’s finish line tape broke, Etaferahu Temesgen of Silver Spring, Md. clenched second place followed by Tezata Dengersa of Washington, D.C., who took third. Meseret K Tolwak of New York, N.Y. won the women’s competition with a time of 1:16:25.

Haile Teg Mengesha from New York, N.Y. took the overall first-place title with a time of 1:04:31, which was 20 seconds faster than Ernest Kebenei of Norfolk, Va., who finished second. The elite competition also featured professional ultra-marathoner Michael Wardian of Arlington, Va. 

But even with the cost of attracting more runners and providing unique entertainment, Race Director Mike Acuña and the Montgomery County Road Runners Club have not lost sight of the club’s goal established eight years ago to provide a high-quality race at a good value.

“It’s a local race with a big feel to it,” Acuña said. “We’ve figured out a way to make it grow without making it too crowded.”

Acuña also mentioned the race’s other priority—giving runners a chance to get a race under their belt before the marathon season begins.

“We’ve got people who [want to] race half marathons,” Acuña said. “And then we’ve got a lot of marathoners that use this race a tune-up for fall marathons.”

Many runners who tuned up for a marathon hoped to achieve a certain time and looked to Run Farther & Faster coach Julie Sapper as their pacer. While celebrating her birthday with 13.1 miles and a ribbon filled with glitter, Sapper noted that the day was not about her.

“It’s about everyone else,” Sapper said. “You don’t want to disappoint people and not have them get the time they want. Although you sometimes lose people along the way, you know there are some people that can see you from far away and are using you as a marker. So I just tried to stick with my pace.”

Despite feeling the pressure, Sapper successfully led her group into the finish line to their goal time.

Among the thousands of athletes who competed on the hilly course through the parks, some competitors had a home-field advantage.

“I normally run on the trails during the week,” said Robert Palmer of Silver Spring, Md. “So it’s like a home course for me.”

Rob Hannon also had a home-turf advantage.

“[The course] is in the neighborhood,” Hannon said. “I can see my house from the trail.”

The race started near the Rockville Metro station and winded through Chevy Chase and Bethesda, took runners along Rock Creek Park paths and Capitol Crescent and Georgetown Branch Trail. Finishing in Elm Street Park in Bethesda under humid conditions, runners were greeted at the finish with commemorative beanies, refreshments and massage therapists.

 

Cathy Ahn has been on the lookout for strange and unique races this year. She found one, a few miles from her Arlington home.

Though she had already signed up for the Grant-Pierce Indoor Marathon, she decided the morning of the race to go for the gusto and run the 50k instead. She ended up finishing second in 4:54:25.

[button-red url=”http://racepacket.com/rsltwrap1.php?id=3836″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Unofficial Results [/button-red]

“I thought about running one more lap than the marathon so it would technically be an ultra, but I decided to just go for it,” she said.

She was accompanied by a handful of Arlington Road Runners, several of whom raced with the rest cheering. Those spectators got to see their athletes a lot. With 210 laps of the 200 meter track for the marathon and 250 for the 50k, the race had almost a dozen lap counters, who tracked several racers to back up the electronic Racepacket timing system.

Eddie Valentine kept his eye on his friend Dave Lin, who was visiting from Manhattan. He was conscripted into the counting corps and limited himself to tracking four runners so he would be able to handle the workload.

“You second guess yourself when the electronic system doesn’t match your count,” he said.

The race started four years ago to give Michael Wardian an opportunity to shoot for the indoor marathon world record and added the 50k to give him an opportunity there, too. The race is named after his two sons. He came through again, running 3:12:13 to Russian Igor Tyazhkorob’s 3:14:49 from 2002.

Wardian tried to run consistent 6:00 pace, hitting 45 seconds for each lap, despite winding through nearly 60 other runners.

“It’s amazing to think it started with 10 people four years ago,” he said. This year’s race had 54 starters.

With wins in several races recently, including the Vermont City Marathon and North Face Endurance Challenge in consecutive weeks, he’s recovered from the stress fractures that plagued his latter part of 2012.

“Just a little pain in my hip today, from the left turns,” he said. “They just started the lap after I split the marathon; It was a little odd.”

Women’s marathon winner Alison Slade, of Odenton, Md. made a pair of comebacks, returning to the marathon after a decade away and racing once again in the Thomas Jefferson Community Center, where she ran many races as a student at the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology. She initially signed up to take a shot at the world record for the women’s indoor marathon, 3:05, but suffered a hamstring injury shortly after than left the goal harder to reach, but she persevered with breaks to massage it and finish in 3:33:21.

The Setash family from Centreville, Va. came to surprise Eric Setash and he went for his age group win to establish a 45-49 indoor 50k national record, which he did in 5:07:35.

“He thought we were home packing for our trip to Cancun,” said his wife, Mary. “We probably should be, but we don’t get to see his ultras.”

His son Charlie and daughters Layne and Abby accompanied him for the last lap. He was ready for his massage, scheduled for Tuesday at their all-inclusive resort, and to demolish every meal that day.

“I’m usually ravenous two days after these races,” he said.

He was disheartened to run over four hours for the marathon en route to the 50k, but he recovered well.

Runners weathered the eight-lap miles in a variety of ways. Lin played head games with the clock, trying to run consistent splits so every few laps, he would cross the starting line at the top of the minute. He didn’t mind the weaving through the lapped runners, because it broke up the monotony of the race.

Steven Waldon on Brooklyn, N.Y. “just zoned out” for about 80 laps. He initially didn’t think he’d have the luxury of doing so, because somehow, at the end of the first lap, he fell down.

“I’ve fallen in trail races, everyone falls in trail races,” he said. “I still don’t know how I fell on a track, on the first lap.”

Making matters worse, he fell again during lap five.

“By my estimation, I was going to probably fall 50 or 60 times,” he said. “I still don’t know how I managed to fall.”

He went on to finish third in 3:54:58.

 

Trying to schedule a friendly get together in the past four months with Monique Young has been no easy task. In order to meet her weekly mileage goal in preparation for the 50 Mile North Face Endurance Challenge, her days started at 5 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m. But waking up and going to sleep that early to get enough miles under her legs has been worth the trade off for her.

While she described the course through the woods of Algonkian Regional Park, her face lit up. “Amazing” was a common word for Young to describe the mostly dirt and gravel course that she said smelled like honeysuckle.

[button-red url=”http://results.bazumedia.com/event/results/event/event-4201″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]While Young left road running for trail running to be closer to nature two years ago, the North Face Endurance Challenge marked one of several 50 mile trail races that she has completed.

Laura Coogan, first place finisher in the women’s marathon with a time of 3:57:31, conveyed a similar nightlife situation—which she said has been on the decline since college. While balancing a time-demanding training schedule and nursing school life, Coogan took great delight in indulging in the North Face Endurance Challenge post-race festival, which consisted of ice baths, food, beer and many other activities.

“It’s like a big party,” Coogan said. “Except that you have to run a marathon. But at least you earned that party.”

The North Face Endurance Challenge consisted of an entire weekend of trail racing. And with a eight different events, including a 50 mile, 50k, marathon and marathon relay race, there was something for everybody.

All that George Johnson could remember from last year’s North Face Endurance Challenge marathon relay were trees, shade and cool temperatures. But all that Johnson could remember from this year’s race was the sun beating down on him.

While Johnson appreciated the lack of rain that muddied up the course in last year’s course, he said the start and finish that took place in an open field with no shade was quite the challenge this year.

Above the Potomac River, the well-marked courses included three miles of tip-toeing and hopping along bluffs on the River Trail with climbs up to 300 feet. In return for their brave climbing skills, the shaded areas of the park blocked them from temperatures that steadily rose to the mid-90’s.

Potatoes, salt, chicken broth and chips were served throughout the race to keep runners fueled. Gallons of water and sport drinks were guzzled down all in an effort to conquer the heat and finish the race.

Among the several local note worthy athletes that competed in the Endurance Challenge included Elite Ultra Runner Michael Wardian of Arlington, Virginia, who took first in the 50 mile race with a time of 6:45:36. In the women’s 50k, Rachel Clattenburg of Washington, DC won first place with a time 5:05:05.

 

By Steve Nearman
Washington, DC
March 17, 2012
For the Washington Running Report

There was little drama determining the champions of today’s Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon and Half Marathon around the four quadrants of Washington, DC. There was plenty of drama, however, from the thousands of runners whose bodies were not so acclimated to the unseasonably warm temperatures.

Local favorite Michael Wardian of Arlington and George Washington University medical student Meghan Bishop ran dominating races and easily tamed the field of 3,181 starters (3,129 finishers) at the seventh annual race. Wardian, who outruns the field in what seems like at least a marathon or ultra a weekend, covered the 26.2-mile course on autopilot, winning here for the sixth time in seven years in a pedestrian 2:26:35. He earned $1,000.

Wardian opened a big gap early, but had to fight off eventual runner-up Travis Barczak, a 22-year-old Detroit native in his marathon debut. Barczak charged a mile down North Capital Street and drew even with Wardian at 11 miles. But the rookie was no match for the 37-year-old veteran, and six miles later Wardian dismantled Barczak’s hopes for a marathon victory.

“I was smelling blood,” said Barczak, who competes in cross country and is on spring break from Wayne State University this week. “I saw the front guy was relaxed. You’ve got to take advantage of the down hills.”

Wardian was unfazed.

“I started throwing in some 5:17 miles and putting some distance on him,” Wardian recounted. “He was running pretty fast. It was cool. I like to race. And if somebody wants to race, let’s get it on.” Wardian traveled solo from the Southwest Waterfront past Nationals Stadium and all through Anacostia back to the finish.
Barczak slowed considerably over the second half (1:16:41) and ended in 2:28:56. Scott Allen of Washington, DC (2:36:05), Benjamin Emmanuel of Arlington (2:38:24) and Philippe Rolly of McLean (2:41:34) followed.

“I was hoping to run 2:35 but I ended up at 2:41,” said Rolly, who turns 40 this year and is prepping for a successful masters campaign.

Bishop, meanwhile, had no visions of grandeur in her first race over 10 miles. Wearing headphones on a course full of live bands, the 26-year-old from Blue Bell, PA, said she was just happy to be running again after three busy years of medical school, working 80 hours per week to become an orthopedic surgeon.

“I was not expecting to win,” said Bishop, whose last long race was two years ago at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile. “I was just hoping to go under three hours.” Bishop, who was a top distance runner for the College of William and Mary, came close – 3:01:40 – leading the entire course. She took home a $1,000 check for her sweat.

Immediately upon cross the finish line, she took up residency in the medical tent. “My legs were wobbly near the end,” Bishop admitted. “It is probably from dehydration.”

Bethany Sachtleben, 20, from Manassas, trailed her by nearly 10 minutes in 3:11:25. Silvia Baage of Washington (3:13:50), Noalig Montagnon of New York City (3:15:05) and Patricia Soumoff of Southampton, NY (3:16:13) were next.

Four hours into the marathon, drama began to consume the finish area as many runners collapsed or nearly collapsed. The culprit most likely was the temperature, which was mid-50s with haze at gun time 8:00 a.m. but rose into the 70s and full sun by the afternoon.

“We were ready for everything, heat, cold, you name it,” said Dan Cruz, head of media relations for the Rock ‘n’ Roll series. “There were about five minutes when it looked like a war zone.”

In the accompanying half marathon, which drew 16,477 starters and 16,291 finishers, Ricky Flynn nailed his only goal, which was to win, speeding around 13.1 miles in 1:06:39. Flynn, with a personal best 1:04:15 last fall, said he signed up for the race more as a workout as he transitions from marathon training to track sharpening for this June’s Olympic track and field trials. Flynn placed a surprising 12th in the Olympic Marathon trials in January in a debut 2:12:29.

“I was using it as more of a workout than a race, trying to get back in track shape,” said the Lynchburg, VA, resident who grew up in nearby Damascus, MD. His “workout” banked him $1,000.

Flynn said he traded the lead with Washington-based Ethiopian Gurmessa Mergerssa for the first five to six miles. Once they hit Mile 7, Mergerssa abruptly backed off the pace and Flynn turned it on for the next mile. “I just pushed the pace to make sure he didn’t come back on me,” he explained. Mergerssa fell back more than a minute and posted a 1:07:57 time. Italian Paolo Natali was third in 1:08:07.

Ethiopians Askale Merachi and Tiringo Getachew swept the women’s half in 1:16:52 and 1:20:42 respectively. Local favorite Lisa Thomas of Fairfax was third in 1:22:17.

Just before noon, Janette Ray and her training partner Dexter proudly completed the half marathon. Both received their finisher medal around their neck and their water. Then Dexter rolled over onto the pavement in total content.

Not to worry, Dexter is a 6-year-old white lab who has assisted Janette in four marathons and now her fourth half marathon in the past two years. Dexter is Janette’s right arm, a limb she lost to cancer as a baby.

“He needs exercise and so do I,” said Janette, a Kingstowne, VA, resident who was united with Dexter five years ago after a second surgery on her left arm. “I couldn’t move the arm so he minimizes the load.” Janette said Dexter pulls laundry out of the dryer and carries things on his back, along with walking with her five to six miles every day after her work at the Office of the Secretary of Defense Washington Headquarters Services.

Janette was waiting for her husband John to complete the full marathon.

“I’d like to do marathons again but I have a balance problem now and I’m afraid of falling on my face,” the 49-year-old said. “Today we ran 10 minutes per mile which is pretty good for us. Dexter ran all the way through nine miles; then we walked. This is the first race where they actually gave him a finisher’s medal!”

 

Marathon by division

Div	Name	Sex	Age	City	ST	Net
1	Patrick Hearn	M	21	Sykesville	MD	2:46:46
2	Steel Flynn	M	23	Mount Washington	PA	2:49:55
3	James Graves	M	21	Winston Salem	NC	2:56:26
1	Benjamin Emmanuel	M	26	Arlington	VA	2:38:23
2	Jesse Contario	M	28	Arlington	VA	2:46:59
3	Andrew Zernovoj	M	26	Emerald Hills	CA	2:50:31
1	Nick Gramsky	M	34	Vienna	VA	2:39:46
2	Richard Velazquez	M	31	New York	NY	2:42:16
3	Daven Oskvig	M	34	Amherst	NY	2:45:55
1	Karsten Brown	M	37	Front Royal	VA	2:48:18
2	Chris Farley	M	35	Arlington	VA	2:51:59
3	William Uher	M	37	Odenton	MD	2:53:21
1	Camerino Ortega	M	41	Chantilly	VA	3:02:44
2	Joerg Schroeder	M	44	Rockville	MD	3:04:43
3	Stephen Sundown	M	44	Upper Montclair	NJ	3:06:44
1	Kelly Ricke	M	46	Olathe	KS	3:04:53
2	Robert Denmark	M	46	Arlington	VA	3:06:04
3	Gary Obert	M	46	Arlington	VA	3:10:19
1	Mark Neff	M	50	Derwood	MD	2:47:27
2	Glenn Trimboli	M	50	Bloomfield	NJ	3:16:29
3	Jim Cummings	M	51	Mannington	WV	3:21:25
1	Robert Towne	M	59	Spokane Valley	WA	3:27:06
2	Vernon Loeb	M	56	Wynnewood	PA	3:28:12
3	David Pinnick	M	55	Manassas	VA	3:31:58
1	Dana Beyeler	M	60	Russell	PA	3:10:51
2	Skotin Leonid	M	62	RU		3:15:01
3	Von Jennings	M	64	Clarksville	MD	3:53:14
1	Gregory Chaconas	M	66	Washington	DC	4:01:53
2	Robert Walker	M	67	Pittsburgh	PA	4:13:04
3	Lynn Brown	M	66	Crownsville	MD	4:22:01
1	Won Yub Lee	M	73	Salamanca	NY	5:14:29
2	Benito Vazquez	M	72	PR		5:15:45
3	James Simpson	M	70	Huntington Beach	CA	5:36:17
1	Elizabeth Bleuer	F	22	Arlington	VA	3:16:37
2	Esther Kendall	F	24	New York	NY	3:18:22
3	Alyssa Tewksbury	F	23	Wyalusing	PA	3:22:40
1	Ashley Duerr	F	27	Falls Church	VA	3:15:30
2	Sarah Moore	F	29	Aliso Viejo	CA	3:18:21
3	Keelin Wellott	F	26	Rochester	NY	3:19:45
1	Noalig Montagnon	F	30	New York	NY	3:11:29
2	Patricia Soumoff	F	33	Southampton	NY	3:14:53
3	Kathryn Claiborn	F	31	Philadelphia	PA	3:20:13
1	Ayano Murase	F	35	Washington	DC	3:26:39
2	Janie Hayes	F	38	Washington	DC	3:29:15
3	Leslie Kasmir	F	36	Arlington	VA	3:30:56
1	Sandrine Falgon	F	41	Washington	DC	3:20:03
2	Cathy Ross	F	40	Burke	VA	3:21:51
3	Melissa Senall	F	40	Fairport	NY	3:24:46
1	Ellen Komesarook	F	47	Gaithersburg	MD	3:21:42
2	Anne Helsabeck	F	45	York	PA	3:39:20
3	Phyllis Sevik	F	47	Ellicott City	MD	3:43:00
1	Barbara Haney	F	53	Fort Washington	MD	3:45:05
2	Theresa Gusman	F	52	Dickerson	MD	3:52:39
3	Patricia Keating	F	50	Dayton	MD	3:55:25
1	Myong Dunn	F	55	Hanover	MD	3:52:29
2	Elizabeth Baumgarten	F	55	Stone Ridge	VA	3:53:50
3	Stephany White	F	56	Grovetown	GA	3:56:46
1	Colleen Piccone	F	60	Pittsford	NY	4:17:01
2	Sandra Bradley	F	60	Portland	OR	4:21:12
3	Mary Fredlake	F	62	Washington	DC	4:30:37
1	Joanne Murphy	F	66	Baltimore	MD	4:55:05
2	Ruth Liebowitz	F	69	Staten Island	NY	5:33:52

 

Half Marathon by division

Div	Name	Sex	Age	City	ST	Net
1	Woohyun Kim	M	14	Centreville	VA	1:59:20
2	Jake Edwards	M	14	Sykesville	MD	2:10:21
3	Brandon Marquart	M	14	Ellicott City	MD	2:12:21
1	Thomas Selishev	M	16	Silver Spring	MD	1:19:37
2	Kevin Clark	M	17	Fayetteville	NC	1:33:23
3	Cory Staton	M	15	Fairfax	VA	1:35:18
1	Chris Hague	M	23	Kensington	MD	1:14:37
2	John Clark	M	18	Carlisle	PA	1:17:17
3	Conor Murphy	M	18	Greenlawn	NY	1:18:11
1	Darryl Brown	M	29	Exton	PA	1:09:29
2	Joe Kelly	M	26	Arlington	VA	1:13:09
3	Patrick Murphy	M	27	Washington	DC	1:13:29
1	Daniel Blouin	M	33		CA	1:09:00
2	Phil Reutlinger	M	33	Alexandria	VA	1:12:43
3	Eddie Valentine	M	32	Arlington	VA	1:16:02
1	Matthew Thomas	M	37	Alexandria	VA	1:13:21
2	Tim Fahey	M	38	Arlington	VA	1:15:02
3	Mike Carriglitto	M	36	Pottstown	PA	1:16:01
1	Michel Couillard	M	44		CA	1:19:12
2	Andrew Pugh	M	42	Washington	DC	1:22:20
3	Mike Bloemker	M	43	Shawnee	KS	1:25:27
1	Thomas Jensen	M	48	Oakton	VA	1:21:07
2	David Phipps	M	48	Severna Park	MD	1:23:35
3	John Michael Chapin	M	45	Alexandria	VA	1:24:37
1	Kevin D’Amanda	M	50	Bethesda	MD	1:21:26
2	Christopher Ryan	M	53	Washington	DC	1:24:58
3	John Whitridge	M	50	Rockville	MD	1:26:52
1	Bill Raabe	M	57	Washington	DC	1:24:23
2	William Loomis	M	57	Silver Spring	MD	1:33:50
3	Ken Krehbiel	M	58	Washington	DC	1:41:21
1	Bob Albritton	M	60	Vienna	VA	1:28:04
2	Carl Randall	M	60	Fredericksburg	VA	1:31:10
3	Bob Becker	M	60	White Hall	MD	1:31:48
1	John Morris	M	67	GB		1:32:57
2	Michael Luke	M	65	Roslindale	MA	1:53:13
3	Michael Serene	M	66	Akron	OH	1:53:40
1	Malcolm Cohen	M	70	Ann Arbor	MI	2:22:10
2	David Loprinzi	M	72	King City	OR	2:22:35
3	Ken Morrison	M	71	Manassas	VA	2:27:01
1	Lou Wilson	M	75	The Woodlands	TX	3:21:43
1	Kerry Lane Magalis III	F	13	Front Royal	VA	1:52:10
2	Bryanna Leyen	F	14	Perry Hall	MD	2:05:58
3	Sarah Harmer	F	14	Wall Township	NJ	2:07:27
1	Rachel Labella	F	16	Bristow	VA	1:41:19
2	Mary Brass	F	17	Dunwoody	GA	1:46:25
3	Madison Oliver	F	15	Clifton	VA	1:52:34
1	Kerry Allen	F	23	Washington	DC	1:26:40
2	Susan Bentley	F	23	Jamestown	NY	1:27:04
3	Caitlin Dorman	F	24	Washington	DC	1:29:20
1	Teal Connor	F	26	Washington	DC	1:24:17
2	Wendi Robinson	F	25	Washington	DC	1:24:39
3	Laura Hutchinson	F	29	Holyoke	MA	1:26:57
1	Jeanna Composti	F	31	New York	NY	1:24:42
2	Bridget Holt	F	33	Gambrills	MD	1:25:09
3	Kendra Goffredo	F	31	EC		1:26:47
1	Susan Dominowski	F	35	Germantown	MD	1:24:31
2	Chrissy Graham	F	38	Olney	MD	1:28:01
3	Jennifer Sober	F	38	McHenry	MD	1:28:36
1	Leslie Cohen	F	44	North Potomac	MD	1:24:32
2	Jennifer Smith	F	41	Baltimore	MD	1:32:12
3	Sally Foster	F	40	Linthicum Heights	MD	1:33:19
1	Grace McElroy	F	45	Sleepy Hollow	NY	1:29:51
2	Andrea Meuser	F	45	Vienna	VA	1:33:07
3	Shannon Smith	F	46	Washington	DC	1:35:19
1	Kathleen Russo	F	52	Salisbury	NC	1:40:04
2	Ruth McArthur	F	54	Boerne	TX	1:42:23
3	Teresa Lent	F	50	Arlington	VA	1:42:46
1	Linda Ottaviano	F	56	Cold Spring Harbor	NY	1:44:42
2	Susan Gold	F	56	Fairfield	CT	1:45:26
3	Linda Sheaffer	F	56	Washington	DC	1:54:06
1	Serge Harrison	F	62	Cockeysville	MD	1:54:05
2	Anne Forsha	F	61	Derwood	MD	1:55:21
3	Ann Rosenthal	F	62	Bethesda	MD	1:57:10
1	Chris Craun	F	65	Bethesda	MD	1:56:59
2	Janice Jacobs	F	65	Arlington	VA	2:07:39
3	Lucia Davidson	F	66	Arlington	VA	2:17:00
1	Sharon Leicham	F	70	Memphis	TN	2:23:12
2	Mary Dowell	F	72	Lynn	MA	3:09:58
3	Betty Wright-Thomas	F	70	Washington	DC	3:15:34
1	Anne Morris	F	75	Springfield	VA	3:22:57
2	Matilda Lowe	F	78	Sarasota	FL	3:43:42
1	Katy Curnyn	F	91	Littleton	NH	3:11:16

By James Moreland
Leesburg, VA
August 14, 2011
For the Washington Running Report

As Michael Wardian was finishing his preparations he had a big grin on his face. He noted that he had just won a 10K but the race was “almost too short.” This year would be his fifth time racing the 20K and he had won the last three years. There were three other submasters in the elite field. Frenchman Philippe Rolly who back in 1999 had won the St. Patrick’s Day 10K in 30:27, well ahead of Wardian’s 30:55 PR. Rolly had dappled in Wardian’s forté winning a fifty miler in 2008 in just over seven hours. Wardian had won the JFK 50 Miler in 2007 in 5:50:34.

Italian Edi Turco loves to run. He told us at the DCRRC Landon Cross Country Saturday night that he looks for a race every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Like Michael he runs fifty plus races a year. Often onlookers wonder if these guys would not be faster with fewer races. Perhaps Wardian might improve on his 14:55 PR, which does seem a little out of touch with his new marathon PR of 2:17:49 set this year. And of course he always maintains, “I love to toe the line.”

Third in that group of mega runners is Karsten Brown of Front Royal. About ten years ago, he was just getting started and trying to quit his clove cigarettes. Now he runs a hundred miles a week and will race close to a thousand miles this year. After falling in one 50K in July he bounced back on August 6 to run fifth overall at the Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail 50K. The next day he took on the Dog Days Cross Country 8K. Still, more than 75 races already this year and a really busy week of racing, he was not feeling to optimistic about a victory.

Tall and slender with his cap on backwards Wardian stayed right with the 10K leaders as the masses roared down Harrison Street. The next three miles plus are all up hill and the wheat, which was a little soggy from the morning’s rain, would soon get separated from the chaff. Jared Abuya, 34, of Gainesville, VA  had the best of the race coming up the final hill alone in a 1:05:50 for the second fastest time ever on the course. Aaron Church set the record in 2006 with 1:04:29. The next runner was Wilson Komen of Washington, DC. The lanky Komen has run sub thirty for a 10K and been ranked number one in the Washington Running Report Running Rankings. Though he loves to run, lately he had not been racing as much. His 1:06:19, the third fastest time for the event, proved he still has his stuff. Wardian floated in next in 1:08:10. It will probably mean he will have to go and find another long race to run. He has scheduled the North Face Endurance Challenge Kansas City 50K on August 27.

The next two runners ran close together and almost did not seem aware they were in a battle. Neither surged, and Matt Logan bested Oberst Enzian by five seconds in 1:10:36 to round out the top five. The top master was hard charging Derik Thomas who always seems to finish near the top. At 45, his 6:02 pace on a very muggy day was marvelous. As Rolly crested the hill in 1:13:45 he did not seem to be aware that Edi Turco was coming up behind him in 1:13:57. But the savvy racers always know where their competition is. Brown rolled in just behind Thomas in 1:15:17 and at least at that point it looked as if he might be considering a day off. By Tuesday we expect to see him back out running the Paul Thurston 4.5 miler at Burke Lake.

For the women, Elena Orlova eschewed the 20K in favor of the 10K. That would have been a battle royale. Orlova had set the submaster record in 2009 in 1:17:34 while finishing second overall, followed by Meghan Ridgley. Last year on the short course (12 miles), Orlova won it all at an identical pace with Lisa Thomas of Vienna, VA less than a minute behind. This year Thomas was being pushed ever so close to the record. Ridgley was again third overall with a very nice 1:19:21. The battle for the gold was not decided until the final meters as Lindsay Wilkins, also of Vienna, clung on tenaciously. Thomas touched down in 1:17:40 with Wilkins five seconds behind. Erin Swain out dueled Sarah Bard for the fourth spot 1:20:35 to 1:20:47.

The 20K event is in its 8^th year. This year the two races combined for the second largest crowd behind the perfect weather 2008 event which produced 137 ranked runner times, which is 10% of the field. Normally the course is very hot and the bright sun can whittle down the runners. This year the weekend was wet. The early morning rain cooled the air but left it drenched. There were no new records set in the 10K. In the 20K there were two. Grandmaster DeeDee Loughran, 53, finished ninth overall knocking 35 seconds off her record set in 2008. Right behind her Lanie Smith, 19, of Reston, VA (left) set the new teen standard with 1:26:55 and that was with a 30 second late start.

The 10K race is similar to the fabled Greasey Gooney 10k, the first 5K plus is a winding uphill that gets steeper as you go. When you turn around all but the final hundred meters is downhill ride to the finish. Even the four mile marker was eager to get to the finish line. It ended up about a quarter mile closer to the finish line by the time runners caught up with it. While that made for an awful long fourth mile split, mile five was really, really fast. For those hurrying back to the front of the Tuscarora Mill Restaurant at the finish line, there were no worries. The crew that supports the food and drink know their work. For nearly ten years, they have made a science of producing lots of great snacks and plenty of cold drinks. One runner looked at all the iced drinks and said, “They all have sugar in them.”  Yes!!

The race always brings out the elite racers and especially the durable ones. Charging down past mile four the race was not yet decided. Lucinda Smith, 29, of Darnestown, MD had a slim lead but Julia Webb easily had Smith in her sights. They were racing with the top men as well, Smith winning in 37:23. That was one spot behind masters winner John Zimmerman’s 37:18. Webb came in soon after as sixteenth overall in 37:33. Speaking of masters, top ranked master and today’s race director Ray Pugsley said of Elena Orlova’s race, “Once you reach, forty everyone is aware of age.” Peggy Yetman, 43, of Leesburg, VA is nearly back to full form and held off Orlova for third place in 38:15. Orlova, 41, finished in 38:24, the same pace she ran the last two years in the 20K. Melissa Rittenhouse, 35, was next among the seven runners who qualified for the open division of the Runner Rankings.

For the men, everyone said that the winner looked like a kid. Joshua Hardin is a junior at William and Mary. Last year he struggled on the hot and hilly Cascades course in 36:47, finishing second among the five teens in the top six. The year before he was Rookie of the Year, breaking 31 minutes twice with a 30:37 10K best as a freshman. Today, he blasted ahead a prerace favorite Seife Geletu to a crushing 32:23 victory. Geletu’s worse race of the summer had been a 16:04 Run through History 5K overall win. He had won his age group at the prestigious Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K in 25:28. His runner-up finish in 33:18 had some runners eyeing their Garmins. Kevin Shirk was third with a solid 33:44. Top teen Patrick Spahn had run the Twilight 8K in 26:47 (34:01 10K equivalent). At Leesburg, he mustered a 35:47 for sixth overall.

Ronnie Wong and Jim Noone both belong to the 50 Plus Club. Wong turns 65 in September and won his division in 44:57. Noone, 67, easily won his division in 45:45. For the even older, jovial Leesburg resident Terry McCarthy, 76, bested mega racer Bob Gurtler, 76. Gurtler projects to again finish with more than fifty 5Ks and 100 races in a year. Of the 11 men older than 70 in the race, Dixon Hemphill, 86, is the oldest by a decade. Hemphill is still the race director for the popular Goblin Gallop 5K, which is run of the Let Freedom Run 5k  course in the fall.

With all the food and drink after the race, some runners were hoping for some beer to fill the classy commemorative pint glasses each runner received in their packet. The race course has changed a few times over the years but after 23 years, the race is still a summer classic.

Awards Listing for the 10K (No Duplicate Prizes)

MALE OVERALL
    1   477 Joshua Hardin         20 Sterling VA             32:23 V 
    2   803 Seife Geletu          29 Washington DC           33:18 V 
    3   785 Kevin Shirk           31 Winchester VA           33:44 V 

FEMALE OVERALL
    1   105 Lucinda Smith         29 Darnestown MD           37:25 V 
    2   537 Julia Webb            28 Charlottesville VA      37:33 V 
    3   536 Peggy Yetman          43 Leesburg VA             38:15 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 1 - 14
    1   745 Tyler Lichtenberg     14 South Riding VA       40:04 V 
    2   433 Joe Haberlin          14 Ashburn VA            50:33 V 
    3   266 James Wroe            14 Ashburn VA            51:19 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 1 - 14
    1   267 Annie Akagi           10 Leesburg VA           61:55 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 15 - 19
    1   697 Patrick Spahn         18 Fairfax Station VA    35:44 V 
    2   361 Ian Rappaport         19 Vienna VA             37:00 V 
    3   462 Jarret Cutsail        18 Warrenton VA          38:49 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 15 - 19
    1   618 Karissa Love          17 Leesburg VA           48:06 V 
    2   663 Abbey Cademartori     16 South Riding VA       48:53 V 
    3    85 Jaclyn Shepherd       18 Leesburg VA           50:07 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 20 - 24
    1   521 Rich Saunders         23 Alexandria VA         34:14 V 
    2   346 Keith Flanders        24 Silver Spring MD      36:22 V 
    3   149 Michael Nordlund      24 Arlington VA          37:40 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 20 - 24
    1   109 Jillian Pollack       22 Winchester VA         40:53 V 
    2    30 Kailey Gotta          22 Steubenville OH       42:21 V 
    3   733 Erin Landy            21 Burke VA              44:19 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 25 - 29
    1   168 Brennan Feldhausen    26 Baltimore MD          35:58 V 
    2   750 Andrew Ciarfalia      28 Reston VA             36:44 V 
    3   780 Timothy Snyder        25 Frederick MD          38:06 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 25 - 29
    1   518 Kelly Swain           26 Vienna VA             40:36 V 
    2   671 Tamara Shear          25 Washington DC         42:37 V 
    3   736 Bre Morton            27 Centreville VA        44:03 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 30 - 34
    1    45 Hugh Toland           30 Fairfax VA            34:06 V 
    2   784 Matthew Lofkin        32 Winchester VA         35:52 V 
    3   783 Sean Allen            31 New Market MD         36:52 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 30 - 34
    1   636 Andrea Cardy          31 Reston VA             42:02 V 
    2   644 Meredith Samson       31 Chantilly VA          42:06 V 
    3   637 Tasha Stryker         31 Arlington VA          42:16 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 35 - 39
    1   659 Keith Freeburn        37 Centreville VA        37:25 V 
    2   576 Aaron Holley          36 Washington DC         39:17 V 
    3   273 Giovanni Cordova      35 Reston VA             41:22 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 35 - 39
    1   652 Melissa Rittenhouse   35 Harrisonburg VA       40:09 V 
    2   299 Tatiana Sheptock      35 South Riding VA       44:45 V 
    3   718 Cristina Burbach      37 Washington DC         45:23 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 40 - 44
    1   789 John Zimmerman        44 McLean VA             37:17 V 
    2   289 Craig Chasse          41 Reston VA             38:44 V 
    3   571 Matteo Mainetti       41 Fairfax VA            38:57 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 40 - 44
    1   575 Elena Orlova          41 Gaithersburg MD       38:23 V 
    2   459 Kim Isler             43 Oakton VA             41:58 V 
    3   746 Cheryl Young          42 Reston VA             44:40 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 45 - 49
    1   798 Matt Anderson         45 Fairfax VA            40:08 V 
    2   540 James Darling         46 Falls Church VA       41:54 V 
    3   172 Mark Peterson         49 Purcellville VA       45:52 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 45 - 49
    1   737 Kristen Barner        46 Rockville MD          47:49 V 
    2   626 Marsha Demaree        46 Marriottsville MD     49:30 V 
    3   710 Judy Swain            46 Purcellville VA       52:07 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 50 - 54
    1   153 Harry Linde           52 Sterling VA           40:50 V 
    2   283 Rhys Williams         50 Reston VA             43:45 V 
    3   274 David Lee             53 Arlington VA          45:57 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 50 - 54
    1   207 Nina Van Winkle       51 Vienna VA             51:10 V 
    2   309 Betty Sutter          53 Reston VA             54:27 V 
    3   621 Susan Manning         51 Virginia Beach VA     56:28 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 55 - 59
    1   417 Roland Rust           59 Bethesda MD           39:43 V 
    2   800 James Lee             56 New Market MD         48:24 V 
    3   557 Dennis Doyle          56 Arlington VA          49:34 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 55 - 59
    1   531 Peggy Davis           59 Vienna VA             52:40 V 
    2   510 Leslie Kash           55 Round Hill VA         54:00 V 
    3   680 Carla Bourgeois       58 Montclair VA          60:53 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 60 - 64
    1   678 Ronnie Wong           64 Baltimore MD          44:54 V 
    2    24 Robert Ring           63 Harrisonburg VA       54:38 V 
    3   666 Chris Wells           60 Sterling VA           55:32 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 60 - 64
    1   458 Linda Kearney         64 Oak Hill VA           52:35 V 
    2   410 Freyda Greenberg      62 Falls Church VA       53:06 V 
    3   530 Laurel Clement        62 Haymarket VA          55:39 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 65 - 69
    1   450 Jim Noone             67 Fairfax VA            45:40 V 
    2   572 Bob Chase             66 Falls Church VA       47:41 V 
    3   709 Paul Holley           65 Ashburn VA            62:48 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 65 - 69
    1   342 Pat Welch             66 Vienna VA             60:40 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 70 - 74
    1   451 Chan Robbins          74 Arlington VA          55:07 V 
    2   682 Ken Quincy            73 Vienna VA             56:47 V 
    3   812 Warren Pitts          73 Baltimore MD          59:01 V 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 70 - 74
    1   463 Ecris Williams        72 Reston VA             64:21 V 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 75 - 99
    1   814 Terence McCarthy      76 Leesburg VA           64:18 V 
    2   366 Robert Gurtler        76 The Plains VA         65:51 V 
    3   272 Dick Coogan           79 McLean VA             80:18 V

             Awards Listing for the 20K (No Duplicate Prizes)

MALE OVERALL
    1  2518 Jared Abuya           34 Gainesville VA        1:05:50 X 
    2  2572 Wilson Komen          33 Washington DC         1:06:19 X 
    3  2652 Michael Wardian       37 Arlington VA          1:08:10 X 

FEMALE OVERALL
    1  2504 Lisa Thomas           35 Vienna VA             1:17:40 X 
    2  2505 Lindsay Wilkins       33 Vienna VA             1:17:45 X 
    3  2118 Meghan Ridgley        32 Ashburn VA            1:19:21 X 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 01 - 19
    1  2701 Thorpe Lichtenberg    17 South Riding VA       X 1:12:25 
    2  2694 Brady Guertin         15 Ashburn VA            X 1:17:17 
    3  2574 Austin Lushinski      16 Ashburn VA            X 1:18:31 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 01 - 19
    1  2292 Lanie Smith           19 Reston VA             X 1:26:25 
    2  2712 Alexandra Ludtke      18 Purcellville VA       X 1:35:25 
    3  2186 Laura Kinley          19 Jefferson MD          X 1:41:26 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 20 - 24
    1  2719 Oberst Enzian         24 Charlottesville VA    X 1:10:40 
    2  2636 Alec Saslow           23 Arlington VA          X 1:27:06 
    3  2656 Christopher Smith     24 Centreville VA        X 1:38:28 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 20 - 24
    1  2260 Juhie Kumar           24 Great Falls VA        X 1:35:20 
    2  2454 Victoria Butler       24 Ashburn VA            X 1:37:25 
    3  2634 Liz Cresswell         24 West Chester PA       X 1:38:16 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 25 - 29
    1  2739 Matt Logan            25 Washington DC         X 1:10:36 
    2  2216 Mark Buschman         27 Ellicott City MD      X 1:12:09 
    3  2611 Brian Carnes          26 Leesburg VA           X 1:16:27 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 25 - 29
    1  2509 Erin Swain            29 Vienna VA             X 1:20:33 
    2  2639 Sarah Bard            27 Leesburg VA           X 1:20:45 
    3  2507 Annie Feldman         29 Vienna VA             X 1:25:07 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 30 - 34
    1  2288 Jeremy Lynch          31 Falls Church VA       X 1:22:26 
    2  2334 Tim Soltren           34 Fairfax VA            X 1:25:35 
    3  2654 Matthew Van Auken     31 Alexandria VA         X 1:27:53 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 30 - 34
    1  2580 Megan McNew           32 Baltimore MD          X 1:25:43 
    2  2225 Laura Ramos           32 Silver Spring MD      X 1:26:41 
    3  2311 Jessica McGuire       31 Arlington VA          X 1:27:36 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 35 - 39
    1  2736 Philippe Rolly        38 McLean VA             X 1:13:44 
    2  2264 Edi Turco             38 Arlington VA          X 1:13:56 
    3  2716 Karsten Brown         37 Front Royal VA        X 1:15:15 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 35 - 39
    1  2132 Tenley Ludewig        36 Washington DC         X 1:29:03 
    2  2021 Nancy Eiring          38 Washington DC         X 1:30:13 
    3  2007 Jennifer Zimmerman-Ra 38 Purcellville VA       X 1:36:02 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 40 - 44
    1  2062 Kevin Bell            42 Reston VA             X 1:19:57 
    2  2679 Christopher Green     42 Sterling VA           X 1:24:17 
    3  2638 Chris McKee           42 Vienna VA             X 1:24:58 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 40 - 44
    1  2018 Tonya Stotler         44 Leesburg VA           X 1:33:16 
    2  2635 Billie Boersma        40 Alexandria VA         X 1:35:15 
    3  2397 Diane Lathom          40 Ashburn VA            X 1:39:28 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 45 - 49
    1  2553 Derik Thomas          45 Alexandria VA         X 1:14:54 
    2  2655 Eugene Holmes         46 Arlington VI          X 1:20:26 
    3  2690 Howard Frost          45 Falls Church VA       X 1:24:42 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 45 - 49
    1  2479 Mandana Mortazavi     47 Leesburg VA           X 1:32:43 
    2  2005 Amy Perkins           47 Leesburg VA           X 1:42:33 
    3  2297 Anna Bradford         47 Vienna VA             X 1:47:26 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 50 - 54
    1  2740 Bob Ferry             51 Vienna VA             X 1:20:55 
    2  2541 Kevin Dix             52 Manassas VA           X 1:27:09 
    3  2585 Elias Tinta           53 Rockville MD          X 1:28:53 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 50 - 54
    1  2503 Deedee Loughran       53 Oak Hill VA           X 1:25:48 
    2  2230 Carole Jones          54 Ashburn VA            X 1:34:28 
    3  2304 Ellen Mannion         50 Herndon VA            X 1:42:58 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 55 - 59
    1  2686 Bruce Halpin          55 Ashburn VA            X 1:24:17 
    2  2587 Richard Morgan        59 Silver Spring MD      X 1:28:31 
    3  2276 Clyde Rollins         56 Herndon VA            X 1:33:15 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 55 - 59
    1  2352 Marcy Foster          57 Reston VA             X 1:47:38 
    2  2561 Maria Nusbaum         59 Reston VA             X 2:01:03 
    3  2178 Marilee Seigfried     59 Purcellville VA       X 2:02:28 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 60 - 64
    1  2567 John Bolton           60 Leesburg VA           X 1:43:24 
    2  2565 Richard Kaplar        60 Herndon VA            X 1:47:48 
    3  2598 Robert Lewis          63 Washington DC         X 1:48:14 

FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 60 - 64
    1  2711 Linda Mills           61 Salisbury MD          X 1:50:19 
    2  2023 Mary Fredlake         61 Washington DC         X 1:59:52 

MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME 65 - 69
    1  2122 Bill Vislay           65 Bumpass VA            X 1:43:16 
    2  2545 Lou Shapiro           69 Silver Spring MD      X 1:45:33 
    3  2362 Patrick Brown         66 Reston VA             X 1:51:59