A lot of federal and media employees found out what their coworkers looked like in shorts at the ACLI Capital Challenge.

[button-red url=”http://www.capitalchallenge.com/2001_cabinet/history2001.html” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]The annual three-mile run, a staple of many offices in Washington, featured strong individual performances from the Executive Branch, with Coast Guard’s Patrick Fernandez edging House aide Paul Balmer, and Erin Taylor of the General Services Administration outlasting Rachel Beckmann, another Coast Guard team member. The out-and-back course in Anacostia Park featured a slight headwind after the turnaround. Both Fernandez and Taylor train with the Capital Area Runners. Balmer lead Rep. Earl Blumenauer‘s (D-Ore.) Red White and Blumenauer team to the House championship for the fifth consecutive year.

Taylor recruited four other GSA employees to join the Human “Capitol” Running Club.

“Everyone runs, in some capacity, but I think this is the first time we’ve had a GSA team,” she said. “We didn’t a chance to train together because we entered the team so late, but I’m hoping we have a few teams next year and will do some group runs.”

Some runners surprise their colleagues with hidden talents. Jake Berube, who led the Daily Caller team (the Daily Ballers) to a second place finish in the Print Media division, was the “surprise fast guy” on his team that included a former collegiate runner. Though he was on the track team at the University of Southern Maine, he was a decathlete, with the longest running event spanning a mile. That’s where he started.
“I ran the first mile really fast and I was just trying to survive the rest of the way,” he said.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) looks ahead to the race every spring.

“Everyone on my staff loves to run, and in order for them to run, I have to run, so two months before this race, I start running again,” he said. Members of Congress have to participate in the race for their offices to field teams. “I’m 58 years old, so my knees and the back aren’t great, but I try to run every two days. I always hope to run eight-minute miles.”

The junior senator clocked just over 8:20 pace on his way to a 25:04 finish, for the top male finish in the upper house. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) was the top female senator, in 35:15. Portman finishes jsut ahead of Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) the top female representative.

Portman’s Communications Director Caitlin Dunn said most of her colleagues were active runners, with many completing the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Half Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon.

Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was not only the fastest male representative, at 39th place out of 667, he was one of the fastest runners overall. His title came a day after he earned his party’s nomination for this year’s Senate race.

“I try to run most mornings, wherever I am,” he said. “Arkansas is a great state for running, with the mountains, the river valleys, the plains. Between deployments, I was was stationed in Arlington, so I’ve gotten used to running here, too. I can be the fastest man in Congress, but if I was still in the Army, my soldiers would just call me a slow old man,” he said.

Recently-confirmed U.S. Circuit Court Judge Nina Pillard won the women’s Judicial Branch title in 23:20. She gathered three of her clerks and one of her fellow judge’s clerks to form a team, after D.C. Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh told her about the competition shortly after she was confirmed. Kavanaugh’s team led the Judicial standings.

“We chose our team on eagerness,” she said. “We didn’t train together, but we exchanged plenty of emails about running to get ready for this.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Okun was the first male judge across the line in 20:47.

Nine-year-old Annie ran the race with her mom, All Things Considered Producer Justine Kenin. Annie is third-generation Capital Challenge, following in the footsteps of James Kenin, whose name now adorns the award for worst team name (WUSA-News Your Daddy won this year). NPR sported approximately 50 runners, making it one of the largest contingents at the race.

“She knew I ran this every year and she asked to do it last year,” Kenin said. “I told her she could only run if she trained for it.”

Annie felt it was one of her better races, riding high off of Saturday’s Girls on the Run 5k, the culminating event for her elementary school training group.

“I like running with my mom and my friends,” she said. “This wasn’t my best race, but it was pretty good.”

When she shared her motivational strategies, it sounded akin to what a lot of coworkers might have said to each other before grabbing a danish and heading back to the office.

“A lot of them break down and say they can’t do it,” Annie said. “I tell them, ‘don’t say can’t, because can’t never helps anything.'”

 

Perhaps she was getting her legs back under her, 10 months after having a baby. It might have been the adrenaline that came from not being able to find her bib and almost missing the start. Maybe runners just don’t forget how to race.

Whatever it was, it worked for Lindsay Wilkins, who won the Capitol Hill Classic 10k May 18 in 37:38. Earlier in the year, she had finished third at the Four Courts Four Miler. The race is an annual fundraiser for the Capitol Hill Cluster School and starts and finishes at Stanton Park, after a run out to RKF Stadium on East Capitol Street. The event yielded almost $80,000.

[button-red url=”http://www.zippyraceresults.com/search.php?ID=3972″ target=”_self” position=”left”] 10k Results [/button-red]Baisa Moleta letd the men’s field, finishing first overall in a time of 31:52. Teammates Lidedu Tekelu and Teresa Fekensa followed him in third place (32:05) and fifth place (33:05), respectively. Moleta also finished first in the 3k race, held immediately after the 10k, in a time of 9:11. Fekensa finished second overall in the 3k in 9:24.

[button-red url=”http://www.zippyraceresults.com/search.php?ID=3973″ target=”_self” position=”left”] 3k Results [/button-red]All originally from Ethiopia, the group now trains in Washington, D.C. Their teammate, Hirut Mandefro, finished first place overall for women in the 3k race in a time of 11:51.

Fekensa enjoyed the race and was very happy with his time, but noted that he and his teammates were not running on fresh legs, having just competed in the James River Scramble 10k Trail race in Richmond the day before. Fekensa finished fourth overall in that race.

Finishing second place for the men in 31:54 was Kieran O’Connor of Arlington. O’Connor was pleased with the great conditions, organization, and competition at the race.

“The first four miles were very tactical, each guy in the lead pack surging then sagging back again,” he said. “I tried to take it hard from about four and half miles, but the winner sat and outkicked me. I was just second best today.”

O’Connor, who runs with the Georgetown Running Club, is training for June’s Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth, Mn.

“Times were definitely slow out there today, but I felt it was a really solid effort,” he said.

Vidhya Amirthalingam of Silver Spring commemorated her race by taking a selfie with her daughter at the finish line. It was the first race for her 20-month-old daughter Oviya, who enjoyed the ride.

“Since I’ve had her, I’ve cut back on mileage, but I’m increasing my speed,” she said. “I realized that the shorter runs can be just as fun.” Amirthalingam tries to run as often as possible, but primarily trains alone due to her hectic schedule. “Between work and being a mom, you just go when you can fit it in,” she said.

Mona Shah, of Washington, also used the race as a motivation to get back into shape after giving birth to her son Rohan last October. “I haven’t trained at all for this,” she admitted. “But it’s a very family friendly race, and I wanted to get out there and do it.”

The Cupitt family also made the race a family event. Julia and Howard Cupitt, of Durham, N.C., traveled to the D.C. area for the weekend to run with their daughter, Hilary Moore of Arlington. They all started the race together, but mom and dad finished a bit behind their daughter. Moore does a lot of 5ks and 10ks, but this race marked the end of her spring racing season. She plans to take the summer off from racing until next fall.

Despite running what she described as her “personal worst” time, Julia was very happy for Howard’s strong finish. She is also proud that Howard ran his half marathon PR in 2012, when he turned 70.

Julia is glad that both she and Howard have remained healthy and injury free over the years. “The secret is to keep all your joints keep going in the same direction,” she said.  She and Howard often run together in the trails around Duke University.

For several participants, the race served as a change of pace from their typical competitions in triathlon. Terra Castro of Arlington is a recently retired professional triathlete. She placed fifth overall in 40:22, holding strong in second place until the last mile of the race. “10ks are brutal, but I gave it my best effort,” she said.

Castro added that she is in the process of learning how to be a non-pro athlete, while also taking on the new challenge of being a running coach to middle school students. She is now in her first year of serving as the cross country coach at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School in D.C.

Her husband, Zane Castro, is the head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and triathlon teams at Marymount University in Arlington.

A fairly new D.C. resident, having arrived here from Austin, Texas with her family in 2012, Castro is looking to become more familiar with the D.C. running scene. “I’m just taking it all in, trying to network with people and build connections throughout the running community here,” she said.

Derek Smith, of Washington, also spends more of his time training for triathlons, but selects a few good road races a year in order to keep up his running shape. He chose to run the Capitol Hill Classic because he likes how well organized the race is, and he had a few friends running with whom he planned to celebrate after. His nephew Sebastian was also there to run the kids fun run.

“I choose races based on convenience,” he said. Given that he doesn’t own a car, “A race needs to be accessible either by metro or Capital Bikeshare for me to want to do it.” Rockville Twilighter and GW Parkway Classic are on this list.

Smith trains with the D.C. Triathlon Club and also just started running with The November Project. He plans to race the Nation’s Triathlon in September and the inaugural IRONMAN Maryland two weeks later.

Jess Levin and Carlos Maza, both of Washington, were pleasantly surprised at their race performances. Having partied perhaps a bit too hard the previous night, both were struggling with the after effects, but found the race to be enjoyable, except for the loop around the RFK parking lot.

The two had trained hard to compete in a Ragnar Relay, which they did last weekend in Cape Cod, Mass., so this race turned out to be more of an afterthought.  Still, both had fun and look forward to future local races, including the Ragnar in D.C. this fall and the Marine Corps Marathon in 2015.

Kaitie Sheedy has run along Rock Creek Parkway alone before. She’s done solo loops of Hains Point. Now she’s done it leading a half marathon.

The D.C. resident won her first major event at the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in 1:20:53.

[button-red url=”http://werundclive.com/dc14/#/tmr/leaderboard/overall/1″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]“It was really nice to race in a place where I’ve trained the last several years,” she said. “It’s always nice when you can jog to the starting line from your house.”

Sheedy said the win served as a perfect tune-up for next month’s race in another capital: Canada’s Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon. She took the lead on Hains Point and found herself alone in front.

“I’ve never really been on my own before in a race. It was a good experience to get used to that, listen to my body, and just go with how I was feeling. I’ve been training really hard, so I was like, don’t freak out. Be relaxed. Trust your training, which is always kind of scary.”

Third-place finisher Ann Mazur (1:22:58), of Charlottesville, brought a different training background to the race. Although she ran low mileage in college track and cross country at Notre Dame, she’s dipped even further in recent months while working on a doctorate in English at the University of Virginia. Mazur teaches yoga and swims, but she said she hasn’t run much more than an hour since December, and her weekly mileage has stayed around 30.

“I had no idea how today was going to go,” she said. “Stay in the top three. Don’t die. That was the goal once I hit mile eight or so.”

Mazur says despite the reduced mileage, running has helped her through the days of earning a doctorate.

“You do a lot of sitting down, and frankly I have a really hard time sitting down and getting my work done if I haven’t moved around a whole bunch first.”

To add to her Sunday podium finish, she successfully defended her dissertation on Friday.

“It’s been a really insane past three days.”

New York City resident Leigh Gerson (1:21:59) took second.

For the most part, the race catered to women new to the sport or new to the distance. The 13.1 miles were a first for almost one-third of the runners.

Wearing a tiara and cape, D.C. resident Paige Fetzer completed her first half marathon on the cool, sunny morning. The racing world isn’t foreign to Fetzer, but the former triathlete’s work overseas hindered her swimming, biking and running routine.

“It was hard to maintain training since I was in places like Colombia and Iraq,” she said. “Since I moved here, I started getting back into training. I love the atmosphere of races. Everybody’s encouraging you. There’s so much solidarity and motivation. It gives you the runner’s high you can’t just get on your own.”

Race officials estimated that approximately 15,000 participants raced, and that huge group included Maj. Nancy Harris, based in Fort Dix, New Jersey, with the 174th Infantry Brigade.

Harris had never entered a race before.

“I was like, this is a lot of people, oh my gosh,” she said. “I was so nervous. I started out too fast. I don’t care. I’ll do it again. I’m in the Army, so I run because they make me run, not because I like to. Now, I like to run. I’ve already signed up for two more races.”

Harris joined Team in Training, the race partner whose team members raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and its blood cancer research.

Among the purple-clad Team In Training runners was Reston’s Liz Badley. Her  team, Out For Blood, collected more than $13,000 for the charity.

Her first race in a tutu scored her a 10k PR and an overall PR.

“My goal was a tutu PR,” she said with a laugh. “I was in a boot last week because I hurt my ankle. I told my doctor I was going to run, doesn’t matter.”

Badley said she wanted to run negative splits starting at 9-minute miles, but she cruised through mile one in 7:32.

“I was like, OK, guess my plan’s out the window.”

The motivations for entering the half marathon varied from picking a race with coworkers, like Sarah Casarella, New York, to finally running an event in Washington after having lived here for a few years, like Kelly Langhans, Arlington.

For some, the race was about family. Jessica Kloppenburg, a junior at Georgetown University, said she and her sister Alex, New York, signed up for the inaugural Nike race in DC last year, but neither were able to run it. They brought their mom Lauriann, who lives in Boston, along this year. She and her husband started running to stay in shape and allow themselves an excuse to eat good food.

“It’s turned out to be a family activity,” she said.

Food also motivated Lynne Still, of Radford, Va., who said she planned to eat a pile of pancakes after avoiding them for several months. Yet Still expressed the most common reason for selecting the Nike race over other races in late April.

“I wanted to get this necklace,” she said.

Men in suits presented finishers with a coveted Tiffany & Co. necklace in the recognizable blue box.

The Run Nike Women race series has also hosted events in San Francisco for a decade, where Kathleen Malone, of Connecticut, has run the full and half.

Malone has completed a dozen marathons, but the training has taken it’s toll. She wants to focus on the half distance, and she ran the 2013 Nike DC race.

“At the end of the day,” she said, “it’s the little blue box. I have a lot of medals from marathons, but the necklaces are a whole lot more practical.”

The fourth try was the charm for Christine Ramsey, who broke the tape at the Pike’s Peek 10k Sunday morning in 34:43.

The Baltimore runner debuted here in 2008, finishing 5th in 36:19.  Four years later, she returned, running more than 90 seconds faster but finishing two spots lower. Last year, another solid showing got her 11th.

Enter 2014.  This morning, two miles in, Ramsey, 31, found herself in the lead pack with about half a dozen women all running well under six minutes per mile. “I felt pretty strong, so I picked it up,” she said. “They were still pretty close behind me, but nobody went with me.”

[button-red url=”https://www.mcrrc.org/pikes-peek-10k-8″ target=”_self” position=”left”] 10k Results [/button-red] At mile 4, Ramsey surged again, holding onto a slim lead over Alexandria’s Lindsay O’Brien, on the way to a new personal best of 34:43 and a $500 pay day. “It was great because we pushed each other,” she said of her competitors.

Ramsey, as of late, has been more focused on reaching the finish line of her PhD program than on trying to win races. She recently turned in her dissertation; the defense is in two weeks. “So it felt good to have a good race,” said Ramsey, who will move to New Haven, Conn., soon to start a post-doctoral position.

All but 70 seconds separated Ramsey from Selamawit Lemma in 5th. O’Brien was 2nd; it was her second-straight sub-35-minute showing here. Columbia’s Julia Roman-Duval was 3rd in 35:05, followed by Loring Crowley of Winston Salem, N.C., in 35:23. Kensington’s Cindy Conant, 53, was the top master in 38:08.

On the men’s side, Nahom Mesfin, running his first Pike’s Peek, took the lead early and never looked back. He was all alone, pumping his arms on the long downhill to the finish line and waving to the crowd, winning in a net time 28:28, 22 seconds off Julius Kogo‘s event record set in 2011.

Mesfin, a former Olympic steeplechaser, is living in Alexandria, and is transitioning to longer races, he said.  To that end, he recently returned from a four-month training trip to his native Ethiopia.

Early in the race, Mesfin questioned the feedback he was getting from his watch, he said. He was seeing kilometer splits in the low 2:30s, but the pace felt a slower than that, he said. “I was not in a good mood.”

Less than a half hour later, his mood had changed.

“I am so excited, and so happy,” said Mesfin, who had been disappointed with his performance at the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run earlier this month.

Baisa Moleta, also of Alexandria, was 2nd in 29:04, followed by Dereje Deme of Silver Spring in 29:09. Gurmessa Megerssa, a Washington, D.C., resident via Ethiopia who reigned supreme over the local roads in 2006 and 2007, closed hard down the final straight to clock 29:19. Getachew Asfaw of Silver Spring rounded out the top five.

Bethesda’s Conrad Laskowski, 7th in 30:12, ran with the lead pack early on alongside Gaithersburg’s Chris Sloane, 8th in 30:33.

“I was trying to run under 30,” Laskowski said. “Came up a little short, but I am happy with it. It’s a PR.”

Philippe Rolly, 41, of McLean, was top master in 31:37.

Downhill, fast, and cool

For Pike’s Peek, runners start on Redland Road near the Shady Grove Metro station, make a quick left on Route 355 and bee-line it south past the White Flint station, where a big downhill covers the last .2 miles. “It is probably the fastest 10k you can get without going on the track,” Ramsey said.

That, as it happens, is only part of its appeal. In addition to professional-level competition, former race director Jean Arthur can only remember two years when this Montgomery County Roads Runners event had bad weather. This year, the temperature was cool, and the way the finish line banner was flapping, you knew the wind was at runners’ backs.

“I ran it for the first time last year, and I thought it was so good I came back again,” said Brian Carlson, a nine-time marathoner who started running in 1988. The Reston Runners member, who is 67, likes the net-downhill course. Plus, he said, “It’s a very well-run race.”

“You know it’s net downhill, so you know you’re going to get a pretty good time,” said Jody Gil, who came close to achieving her goal of breaking 53 minutes.

Gil ran with her longtime friend Jared Sher for six-plus miles. “He turned on the guns at the end,” she said.

Leland Hao ran the race with his son, Kelvin Hao, 11. It was Kelvin’s first 10k, and the smile on his face afterward suggested he’ll have no problem finishing the Disneyland 10k in late August.

When Kelvin’s younger sister was hospitalized for cephalitis, he met other kids his age fighting a rare childhood disease called ataxia-telangiectasia, also referred to as Louis-Bar syndrome, Leland Hao said. In Anaheim, Calif., Kelvin’s race will raise money for the A-T Children’s Project, which seeks a cure.

The race had a wave start to accommodate about 2,500 participants, and for the first time offered pacing teams. Bethesda’s Danny George, typically a 36-minute 10k runner, helped about 10 runners meet their goal of breaking 45 minutes.

“I just wanted to stay even and give them a little head start,” George said. “That way, once they got to the top of the hill, they could just coast right in.”

The George Washington Parkway Classic kicked off its 30th running with a shady 10k before a long, sunny stretch that didn’t slow winner Dereje Deme, whose 49:46 was the first sub-50 time in three years, or Claire Hallissey, who is in the middle of a farewell tour of D.C.’s races.

Though the temperature rose considerably in the latter stages of the race, both winners ran negative splits over the second half of the course, despite a considerable downhill in the first few miles as runners left Mount Vernon for Old Town Alexandria.

The event’s 10 mile and 5k races drew 6,338 finishers, with 5,152 in the larger race, compared to the 1,516 who finished the 2001 race, the last time it was a 15k.

[button-red url=”http://www.zippyraceresults.com/search.php?ID=3847″ target=”_self” position=”left”] 10 Mile Results [/button-red]Ethiopian Deme made his move on Dan Vassallo, of Peabody, Mass., with less than two miles to go and put 20 seconds on the Bay Stater. Vassallo ran a PR of 50:07, and was glad for what he called “near perfect” conditions out on the race course. He’s won a few marathons, including the 2010 Philadelphia Marathon, and said he was in the process of getting back into shape.

[button-red url=”http://www.zippyraceresults.com/search.php?ID=3848″ target=”_self” position=”left”] 5k Results [/button-red]Ayele Belete, who coaches Deme and women’s runner-up Dehininat Jara, said his charges might have suffered slightly from their efforts the day before at the Dismal Swamp Stomp Half Marathon in Chesapeake, Va. Deme won that race overall and Jara finished third.

Hallissey, the GW winner in 57:45, who also won the Crystal Run 5k two days before, is wrapping up her four-year tenure as an Arlington resident before moving back to England, the country for whom she raced the 2012 Olympic marathon. Jara followed, Sunday, in 58:01.

The first American woman, Amy Hemenway of Washington, D.C., finished third. She thought the race to be most challenging from miles five to seven. She says she only made it through that difficult patch with the help of another runner.

“Thank god for him,” she said. “I was getting depressed, and missing my splits, but I stuck with him and got back on track from miles eight to 10.”

Hemenway won the Charlottesville Ten Miler two weeks ago and admitted that she could have planned the logistics better, because the races may have too close together. But overall, she was happy with her performance.

Former Falls Church resident and longtime Pacers runner Matt Barresi, now of Palmyra, Va. finished third in 51:01, matching his third place finish in 2011. Barresi was fairly happy with his race, though the humidity played a role, and forced him to slow down somewhat.  He still ran his fastest time on the course.

‘The lead runners broke away early, around the 5k mark, and I tried to keep up, but they pulled away a little more than I had hoped,” he said.

He didn’t let this faze him too much though. “It’s a beautiful day, and I’m blessed with great teammates and great weather.  Any time you can come in top three is a great day.”

He noted that this was the first time his 10 week old son, Miles, had seen him race. Barresi planned to use his race winnings — $100 for third overall and $300 and second American — to take his wife out to brunch after the race.

Washington, D.C.’s Jess Zdeb, who finished in 1:08:31, attributed her performance to strength she gained from the November Project’s drills and exercises.

Meredith Thompson, of Potomac River Running’s team, was hoping to run just under 65 minutes today. She accomplished that, finishing in 64:40.

Thompson was happy with her performance, as she had some pretty good training leading up to the race. The warmer weather conditions were a bit of a challenge, as she hasn’t had much chance to acclimate, but she appreciated the great support along the course and the many water stops.

Thompson served for five years in the Army as a military police officer, and her husband is currently active duty military stationed at Fort McNair.  She takes advantage of their frequent relocations to try out different regional races.

Many participants out on the course had to overcome challenges just to make it to race day.

Gene Sweetnem hadn’t raced in three years. He first took a break from running after tearing a meniscus, then recovering from Lyme disease and arthritis. He was unable to get out of bed for 18 months, and side effects from his medications led to frequent infections, keeping him from running more than 1.5 miles at a time.

After stopping his medications six months ago, Sweetnam set a goal for himself to run the 10 mile. Though he found the course to be difficult, especially because of the warmer weather, he was determined to finish.

“I never quit anything in my life,” he said. He wanted to stop and walk, but wouldn’t let himself do it, not even stopping to take water. He finished the race in 1:33.34.

The Malcak family made the day a family affair. Born and raised in Slovakia, son Peter now lives in Arlington. He recruited his dad Jozef to join him in the race, so Jozef traveled from Connecticut for the event.

Though Peter has been running for several years, his dad just began running a year ago. Saying his son “dragged him into it,” Jozef nevertheless bested junior by 20 minutes, finishing in 1:33.57 to Peter’s 1:53.01.

The senior Malcak now has goals now of completing the Chester Half Marathon and the Hartford Marathon in Connecticut this year.

These plans were news to Peter, who thinks he should probably find a marathon to train for so he can keep up with his dad.

Tom Craig of Herndon also brought along his kids to the race. Daughter Sarah and son Tommy raced the 5k, while Tom completed the 10 mile. Both kids run for Oakton High School. Tom dragged the kids out of bed on their first day of spring break, and despite such insurmountable odds, Sarah finished third in her age group.

Charles Logan, of Stafford, Virginia, only started running a year ago. Calling himself a “virgin racer,” the 10 mile was his first race ever. He played soccer for years, but stopped a few years back, and got behind on his fitness.

After adopting Atlas, his black lab puppy, Logan realized he needed to do something to work off all the dog’s energy. Now they go for runs of at least six miles three times a week, and Logan has begun working towards longer and longer distances himself.

His three kids, ages 20, 17, and 14, help out by taking the dog on walks, but Logan and Atlas run exclusively together.  “I thought running was boring, before this,” he said. “Now I live for it.”

Arlington’s Erik Price used the 10 mile as a final tuneup before the following Monday’s Boston Marathon. He planned to use the race as a tempo run and followed his own plan until the last mile, where he sped up for a final kick to the finish.

“It can be dangerous  – it’s so easy to go out hard in a race, get caught up in the excitement,” he said. “You have to be on your best behavior and use it as a tempo run.”

Price plans to take it a little easy next week in Boston, and pace with a friend. He is looking towards an ultramarathon the week after.

The 5k race also included some strong performances.

Finishing first in the men’s race, with a time of 16:48, was Pacers-New Balance Nick Pasko, of Bel Air, Md. He graduated last year from St Mary’s College of Maryland, and was one of the first athletes to compete for all four years for St. Mary’s newly-formed track team.

Pasko was happy with his performance in the 5k, coming off racing the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile last weekend. Never having won a 5k, he was also happy to try out a shorter distance. “It was nice to have a straight shot into the finish,” he said, though he did note the course had its share of hills.

Matthew Matyjek of Arlington came in second overall in the men’s 5k with a time of 17:11. After a strong spring season, where he finished the DC Rock n Roll Half Marathon in 1:22 and the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile in under 60 minutes, he is looking towards running the Alexandria Running Festival Half Marathon in May.

Jackie Gruendel of Clifton was just happy to finish the race. She had a benign tumor removed three weeks ago and though she set a conservative goal of 20 minutes, she beat that by nearly a minute, finishing in 19:03.

Places three, four and five of the men’s 5k race went to Team AVA TC composed of Bishop Ireton High School distance coach Brad Byrnes and seniors Duke Roach and Michael LoGrande.

Describing his coach as “the greatest man I’ve ever met,” Roach was happy with his performance, and plans to attend the U.S. Naval Academy this fall.

LoGrande, who plans to run at Emory and Henry College, described the conditions as “perfect, with no crosswind in the second mile.”

Brynes was proud of his two runners, and pleased with his own performance. Though he hadn’t done much speed work to date, Byrnes said his training was going well.  He plans to race the Potomac River Run Marathon in May in an attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Carrie Sepko of Woodbridge used the 5k race today to cross train for her primary sport, amateur boxing. She trains with UFC Gyms and her next match is planned for May 10. This race last year was her first 5k, and she improved from an 11 minute pace to an 8:27 pace, finishing 14th in her age group with a time of 27:01.

As Washington-area residents have learned this year, if you don’t like the weather, wait a while.

[button-red url=”http://www.runwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CB-2014.pdf” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]A week after sleet, hail and snow pelted anyone who went outside, runners at the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile enjoyed nearly-perfect conditions. The only complaint many had was with the late-looming cherry trees. But that didn’t stop more than 17,747 10-mile runners. The 5k drew 2,143.

Chasing Greg Meyer’s American record put Christo Landry in contention at the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile, and though he fell short of the 46:13 standard, the Falls Church native came away with his first national championship in 46:41. His finish put him sixth overall.

Now a professional runner for Mizuno living in Ann Arbor, he came home to the D.C. area to tune up for the 10k at the Peyton Jordan invitational next month at Stanford University and ended up lobbing off a chunk from his previous 10 mile time, a racing distance of relative obscurity away from the east coast.

[button-red url=”http://www.runwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CB-2014.pdf” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]“That American record was within reach,” he said. “If I had just had someone to push the pace and hang onto the last three miles…I would have just had to run 4:40 miles, which was slower than I was going, but I was doing a lot of leading into the wind. I’m really happy to get the overall American win.”

He ran at William and Mary following a high school career at Thomas Jefferson Science and Technology.

“Just landing and seeing the metro, I was like, ‘I’m home!’” I heard ‘go Christo’ a lot. With a name like that, you know they’re yelling for you and not a ‘Chris’ or ‘Christopher.’”

His parents moved to Seattle years ago, but he still has an aunt and uncle in Capitol Hill.

Ahead of him, Stephen Sambu improved from his fourth place finish last year to edge defending champion Daniel Salel, both timed at 45:29.It was the second consecutive year two Kenyans finished in the same time at the front of the race. In 2013, Salel outleaned Allan Kirprono. Kiprono finished third this year in 45:47.

“It was a tough race,” Sambu said. “Really, really tough, from the start, people were hammering.”

He had a slight advantage with 300 meters to go, marked by a sign with the distance left in the race that Sambu was thankful to see, despite having run the race twice before.

“I didn’t have to guess how much we had left, I knew I could pull it off,” he said. “I knew he had a good kick, but in the middle of the race, if I still feel good, I knew I could do it.”

The course, now in its sixth year of the current layout, played to his strengths.

“Perfect flat, not too many hills, and no wind,” he said. “Last year was tough.”

His improvement between the two races, 90 seconds, was a testament to the improved conditions, and Sambu’s improvement. Salel’s time was 37 seconds faster than last year.

Sambu ran at the University of Arizona and lives in Tuscon.

Matt Tegenkamp, of Portland, was the second American until roughly 1200 meters remained, when his calf seized up and he struggled to the finish line in 15th place, the fifth American. He ran the 5k at the 2008 Olympics and the 10k in 2012.

“It was a pretty crazy race,” he said. “The first mile was pretty tame, then things picked up in the second mile, then three to five was just crazy fast. I was just trying to fight the war of attrition, find a comfortable rhythm and I did around 10k. Then there were enough guys blowing up from the early pace that they were coming back.”

That worked, up until close to the end.

“I spent three miles catching up to Girma (Mecheso) then after mile nine, my calf went bad and (Mecheso and) three other Americans (Mo Trafeh, Ben Bruce and frequent Cherry Blossom runner Tim Young of Fredericksburg) passed me.”

After his first go-round at Cherry Blossom, Tegenkamp came away with an observation about the course. “To compete well in this race, you have to be in track shape,” he said. “I wasn’t there and I could tell. It’s really a race where you feel like you’re on a track.”

Luke Meyer, three years ago the top U.S. finisher, lead the local running contingent, finishing 20th in 48:45 and 10th in the U.S. championship race, a mere 19 seconds slower than when he was training in law sch0ol.

 U.S 10 Mile Championships (gun times)
1. Christo Landry         46:41
2. Girma Mecheso       47:22
3. Mo Trafeh                 47:27
4. Ben Bruce                  47:33
5. Tim Young                47:45
6. Matt Tegenkamp    47:57
7.  Joe Gray                    48:04
8. Tyler McCandless  48:21
9. Ian Burrell                 48:42
10. Luke Meyer            48:46

Janet Bawcom weighed her effort at the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile on going for the overall win and although she ran out of room to catch Ethiopian Mamitu Daska, she still came away with another national title and 52:12 finish that lopped 1:16 off the American Record she set last year, when she finished fourth.

[button-red url=”http://www.runwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CB-2014.pdf” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]”I just wanted to run hard and be competitive in the race as long as I could. It worked out. Last year, I was alone on that straightaway from mile six to seven, running into the wind,” she said. “This year, I told myself that no matter what I did, I couldn’t be alone out there. If it meant hurting to catch up to someone else, it would be better than hurting on my own later. It’s going to be the same amount of pain, so I might as well hurt more early and run faster.”

Daska and Aliphine Tuliamuk–Bol would surge away when Bawcom would edge up to them, and Bawcom spent time catching up before the cycle would repeat. When Daska made a surged in the last mile, Bawcom tried to keep things going, but wasn’t able to chase her down before Daska broke the tape in 52:05,for a seven-second margin.

Bawcom, along with second U.S. finisher Sara Hall, live in Flagstaff, Ariz. Hall, who has made much of her racing reputation on the track, had run a competitive half marathon and less-than competitive 15k, but felt adjusted to the 10 mile distance as she explores her longer-race options.

“I still plan to run on the track this year, as short as the mile, but I am eyeing the marathon in the near future,” she said.

Having come back from training at 9,000 feet in Ethiopia, she “felt really strong down at sea level,” she said. “I debated between running with the leaders or focusing on the U.S. race, but I decided to go for it and I’m glad I did.”

Finishing in 52:54, she ran under the previous American record.

Hall encountered a lot of the surging that Bawcom did, and wound up on her own the last five miles.

“Not ideal when you’re used to being on the track, but I’m getting better at it. Mentally, it can be easier because you’re not running in circles. That, I enjoy.”

Philadelphian Frances Koons ran what she called one her best races to finish as the third American.

She started as a miler in high school but is finding longer distances to her liking.

“I was injured a lot in 2012 and I spent a lot of last year getting back together, so this year I’m starting to see things coming back on track,” she said. “I feel strong and I’m excited about running. I kept telling myself to think about 400 meters to go.”

Susanna Sullivan of Falls Church finished fourth in the U.S. championship race and eighth overall, capping a stretch in which she ran what was at the time the fastest women’s 8k time at the St. Patrick’s Day 8k, qualified for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials at the Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach and finished second, to habitual D.C.-area racer Kellyn Johnson Taylor, at the Collegiate Running Association Championships in Richmond.

“It’s been a lot to get a handle on,” she said, after running 54:31 compared to last year’s 58:41. “It’s happened so fast, just a few weeks.”

That improvement was part physiological development, part racing maturity.

“George (Buckheit, her coach) told me I just have to be brave and go for it,” she said. “Last year I didn’t, I played it safe.”

She’s looking forward to a few down weeks now.

Another local runner, Jen Bergman, had only been local for six days, having moved to Washington the prior Monday. Like Hall, she was making a transition to the roads, from her track background at the University of Arizona. She finished 25th in 57:13.

“Well, that was almost twice as long as I had raced before,” she said. “It was nice and flat so I liked that. I haven’t even been around long enough that I’d run down here yet, but I think I’m going to like living here.”

U.S 10 Mile Championships (gun times)

1. Janet Bawcom         52:12
2. Sara Hall                    52:54
3. Frances Koons        54:30
4. Susanna Sullivan   54:31
5. Brianne Nelson       54:33
6. Jen Rhines                54:38
7. Heather Cappello  54:40
8. Meghan Peyton      54:42
9. Sara Slattery           54:14
10. Blake Russell        55:26

Registering for a marathon is speculation. Runners slap down their entry fees and play the averages, hoping for a good day months away. When a few hundred signed up for the Runners Marathon of Reston, forcing a sellout two months in advance, they bet that the late March race date would keep it out of the reach of winter weather.

No dice.

First came the rain, long before the runners showed for the 7:30 marathon start. Then, around 11, the sleet and hail. After noon, the later marathoners contended with snow.

[button-red url=”http://www.amazingracetiming.com/events/2014/2014-reston-marathon” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results[/button-red]Jody Reed hadn’t seen weather like this at a marathon before, and she was speaking from experience. Sunday’s race was her 100th marathon, a milestone she wanted to hit near her Ashburn home, and one that drew many running friends to celebrate afterward, some from Arkansas and New York.

“There aren’t too many races where you have rain, freezing rain, sleet, hail and snow,” she said. “We had everything but sunshine.”

And though the sport is called a marathon, her pace has resembled a sprint over the last 26 months — 44 26.2-mile races.

“You just go one foot in front of the other,” she said of running that many marathons. “It wasn’t intentional. You hear about people doing marathons and you decide to sign up too. I had to slow down so I could hit 100 at a local race. This is just such a personal race, they do such a good job and make it special, so it was the right place and time to do it (reach 100 marathons).

As for her resilience in the face of all of that running. “My husband says I’m kind of weird,”she said, He accompanies her anyway and was waiting at miles 21 with a beer for her. “I’ll be a little tight for an hour, but after I take my shower I’ll feel better.”

The course looped through residential streets and paved paths throughout Reston, was was staffed and managed by members of the Reston Runners. The marathon saw 203 runners start and 187 finish. In the half marathon, 352 started and 350 finished.

Boyd Harter came from a few miles away in Oakton to run the accompanying half marathon, encouraged by his wife, Gwen, who had also run the half in 2013, the race’s inaugural year.  It was Boyd’s first half, and one that was fitting, given the road he traveled to get there.

“It felt like the weather threw everything at me this year,” he said. “About a third of us were huddled under cover during the national anthem, just trying to stay dry before we put ourselves through that.”

Despite the rough weather, Harter enjoyed the race and the distance, particularly the mix of roads and trails.

“There were long stretches of trail that were quiet, with no cars, not too many runners, that was the great part,” he said.

With the truncation of the former Montgomery County Marathon in the Parks, the Runners Marathon is the only suburban marathon in the Washington area, save for the indoor Grant-Pierce Marathon in the summer.

Habitual marathon runner Michael Wardian, of Arlington, cruised to an easy victory in 2:44:22, almost 25 minutes ahead of New York’s Christopher Baker, and in doing so broke the inaugural course record set by Lee Kaufman in 2:52:21. He was able to accept the Reston Runners’ invitation to run thanks to a few-days’ stopover after a trip to New Zealand and before tackling the North Pole Marathon.

He added roughly three kilometers to his race when the lead motorcyclist took him off course before realizing they were lost.

“That was actually good because I had to go to the bathroom but didn’t want to stop,” Wardian said. “Once I know we had already gone the wrong way and I wasn’t just running 26 miles, I felt like I had a little more freedom to stop. But I think the police officer got worried when I went into the port-a-john and he couldn’t see me. He thought he’d lost me again.”

Devin Nihill‘s 3:09:49 record withstood Front Royal resident Jill Atherton-Mellish‘s 3:34:55 winning time.

The hometown race served a decent chunk of the field. Rob Norwood lives roughly a mile from the course, which motivated him to sign up this year and last.

“It was miserable at the end, just sleet the last four miles,” he said. ”It was colder last year (roughly 35 degrees) but the rain made things worse. I was smart enough not to walk to the start this year.”

He gave a lot of credit to the volunteers, who didn’t have the benefit of building up bod heat while running.

“I dodged puddles, did math in my head,” he said about passing time during the race. “Last year I was going through a lot of life chances, so I had plenty to think about. This year, it was a little boring.”

Third place finisher Stacy Kirby ran the marathon on the suggestion of her Leonardtown, Md. training partner Jennifer Crain, who finished second.

“She was convinced I could qualify for Boston if I ran with her, and I did, by six minutes,” she said. “We started at qualifying pace and just got faster.

Crain had this weekend sketched out as a heavy training week for the Boston Marathon with a 26-mile run, so it made sense to do it with water stops and support on the course close enough to home.

They weren’t all local, though.

Glen Muromutu came from Hawaii to run the Queen City Marathon for Active Water in Cumberland, Md. as part of his goal to race in every state. When planning his trip, he saw he could knock out another state the next morning and made his move to Reston.

“Most ‘50 staters’ drive to their races, but I have to fly,” he said. “If I can add another race, the cost-per-mile goes down.”

Lourdes Martinez Guill came from New York City to run her first marathon on the suggestion of her friend Shasten Snellgroves, who attends graduate school at Georgetown University. Guill had volunteered at the New York Marathon last year, handing out water at mile 25, but saw a dramatic advantage in Reston.

“It’s packed with people, you cannot pace, “ she said. “Here, it’s just you and the road. People came out of their houses to cheer for people in the rain. It was wonderful.”

“You go numb, but never stop being cold.”

Snellgroves said she chose the race for her friends based in large part on the rave reviews it received on MarathonGuide.com.

“It’s pretty out-of-the-ordinary to hear so many great things about a first-year marathon,” she said. “We had to come and see it for ourselves.”

Silver Spring’s Jack Strausman is closing in on running a marathon in every state under 3:45. His 3:42 crossed Virginia off his list and earned him an age group prize–a matted photograph of a Reston trail, lit by a warm sunset. Simply put, an idealized version of a race that seemingly everyone hopes for when they sign up for a race.

It just doesn’t always turn out that way, as more than 550 runners and plenty of volunteers learned.

Trudging up and down numerous rolling hills isn’t exactly how many of the third annual Run Rogue 5k participants hundreds spend their Sunday mornings. But when it’s for a good cause, like raising money to fight cancer, participants couldn’t have been happier to be spending their morning that way.

More than 350 runners — including three athletes of the wheelchair division — came together on a chilly Sunday morning to conquer the 3.1-mile course in Fairfax Corner and also raise funds for Life with Cancer and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure.

[button-red url=”http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-6956?lc=en” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Just two months ago, Joey Russo and Dan Russo lost their father, Tom, to cancer. During Tom’s illness, Life with Cancer, an organization that provides education and support to those living with cancer, helped out the Russo family “quite a bit,” they said.

More than 50 of the Russo family’s friends, along with who sported stickers on their shirts, which read “Team Tom”, ran the 5k. They may have come through the finish line at all different times, but everyone on the team, including his wife and two daughters, ran for the same cause: in memory of Tom’s legacy and to raise money for the organization that helped his family get through a tough time.

“It was pretty humbling how many people we knew signed up,” Joey Russo said.  “We had friends from when we were little to co-workers we work with now.”

The two brothers, who described themselves as “casual strollers,” received overwhelming crowd support as each of them crossed the finish line.

“It’s so great to be part of a race that honors all the survivors and those lost to cancer who are in our hearts and minds,” Joey Russo said.

While competitors of the race turned the corner for the home stretch located at the Fairfax Corner Shopping Center, they were greeted with an unyielding chilly headwind. But that didn’t stop Landon Peacock from pulling off a fast kick to the finish.

“I grew up in Michigan and ran for Wisconsin so the cold is second nature to me,” said Landon Peacock, the overall winner.

Peacock and runner-up finisher Chalie Bitew gapped the pack by nearly two-minutes. Peacock clocked in at 15:29 and Bitew at 15:43.

The location of the race’s start and finish line was local to many residents of Fairfax, Va. and the surrounding area but also helped provide a short commute to work for some of the participants.

Elena Jamison, Leslie Magner and Monica Vancourt finished a 5k before their workday began at Lucy, a women’s active clothing store in Fairfax Corner . Aside from the convenient location of the race, they also recognized the importance of the cause.

“Everybody has someone in their life that has been affected by cancer so it’s for a good cause,” Jamison said.

In the women’s division, Tezata Dengersa won with a time of 17:53, an almost-two-minute lead over second place finisher Kristi Markowicz 19:52.

Leader of the wheelchair division, AJ Nanayakkara, pushed into the finish line with a time of 46:23.

“When you’re [racing] you feel like you’d do anything to get out of it,” Nanyakkara said. “But when you’re done, it’s a huge sense of satisfaction.  We’re also here just to challenge our selves.”

For many, this was their third year in a row competing in this year’s Run Rogue 5k. Brian Hansen said he and his daughter (in a stroller) keep coming up for one main reason.

“My mom’s a cancer survivor so we run to honor her and our friends whose children have cancer,” Hansen said.

As Hansen and his daughter finished the race, his mother, greeted them at the finish line.

“We originally started the race because we had two friends battling cancer,” race director Holly Jahshan said. “We wanted to make donations in their name to respective charities they chose, which were Life with Cancer and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure.”

With the help of 350 participants and a dedicated group of volunteers, organizers hope total fundraising will top the roughly $20,000 the last two years have yielded, which will be split evenly between the two charity groups.

“We hope next year to come back with a new course, warmer weather and a big turn out,” Jahshan added.