Six WRCers and two compadres gathered early on Independence Day, at the historic Vienna Town Green. Hosted by our friends of the PVTC, together we sweetly sang the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner to the accompaniment of an MP3 file played back on a BlackBerry held up to a P.A. mic.
In fact, we sang a little too fast for the frugivorous gizmo that symbolizes this Washingtonian life. Were we perhaps nudged out of meter by some magnetic inducement flowing from the extra high voltage 230 kV transmission lines looming above us?
Whatever the case, it was marvelous to watch the B.A.A.’s Jonathan Baker zoom off in a flurry, followed brightly by newcomer Daisuke Ogata, dressed in day-glo orange hat and shirt and mistaken more than once for a distant traffic cone. Rachel Clattenburg in red paced herself wisely, climbing up the ranks throughout the race. We slapped low-fives as we passed along the out-and-back course.
Everyone left the race with some quarry of Stars and Stripes, whether in the form of a beach towel, embroidered flags (both in original and Vermont antiqued flavors), or just the shorts they wore to the race. I offered my own flag to Daisuke as a gift, and he immediately requested to have his picture taken with it in the now-standard USATF display. What a great country, that even our silliest of motifs are accessible to all.
Full results are available here; WRC (& friends) results are below.
Potomac Valley Track Club Go Fourth 8K W&OD Trail, Vienna VA Thursday, July 4, 2013 5K Name G Age Time M F Award -- --------------------- --- ------ - - -------- 1 Jonathan Baker M 29 27:15 1 M20-29 1 B.A.A #Unicorns 5 Rachel Clattenburg F 29 33:16 1 F20-29 1 6 Kit Wells M 36 33:35 5 M30-39 3 7 Daisuke Ogata M 38 33:51 6 12 Jay Jacob Wind M 63 36:09 9 M60-69 1 18 Jerold Paulson M 54 38:23 14 M50-59 2 33 James Scarborough M 55 43:34 24 41 Benjamin Stutts M 2445:4728:47* 27 M20-29 2 91 finishers * late start, due to confusing pre-race instructions
UPDATE: A race report by Maggie Lloyd was published on RunWashington.com, here.