Nick Williams finds that redemption lives close to home, in his second attempt this fall with a new personal best. Meanwhile Shinobu Kusakabe positioned herself excellently for a potential breakthrough, cruising through halfway in 1:37:04 and finishing 6th in her division. Well done to all!

GORE-TEX® Philadelphia Marathon
November 17, 2013 - Philadelphia, PA
Results

Marathon
Bib	Name 			S/Age	Net	Pace	Plc	Sex	Div
1395	Nicholas Williams	M31	3:00:12	6:52	316	287	61
2676	Shinobu Kusakabe	F42	3:22:30	7:43	1059	159	6
1024	Daisuke Ogata		M38	3:27:42	7:55	1372	1126	189
3288	Scott Sanger		M48	4:04:23	9:19	4539	3012	345
10,889 Finishers

Half Marathon
Bib	Name 			Sex/Age Net	Pace 	Plc 	SexPlc 	Div
20733	Brian Savitch		M34	1:24:53	6:28	128	109	24
12,466 Finishers

Shinobu writes: Continue reading →

USA! USA! Photo courtesy of Julia Taylor

The first of the .US Road Racing Championships, sponsored by USATF in collaboration with a new sponsor, Neustar, gets a spotty report card. Can I say that and still keep my good standing in USATF? Hope so.

The race course gets a solid A. The plentiful and emotionally invested police officers of the City of Alexandria get a good A. The staff of USATF and the boatloads of volunteers, happy to help and cheerful, ALL get As. And, the weather was an A+++ for a distance event.

But, some of the administrative details deserve, well, attention to detail. The online registration was cumbersome and hard to follow. And, you know, if I say that, you can dismiss it. If Julia Taylor says that, they need to pay attention.

As your determined PR person, I was crushed, crushed I tell you, to see that my WRC affiliation did not show up on the website along with other clubs. I called. I emailed. I was told again to verify my age and promised the change would be made, but no luck. And, then, at packet pickup things really fell apart Continue reading →

Paul Karlsen, bearing his club colors and displaying impeccable trail etiquette. At the Riffle Ford Rd. Aid Station along the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail, at mile 12.8 of the 2013 Stone Mill 50 Mile Run.

Paul Karlsen has achieved escape velocity from Planet Marathon’s gravitational pull, and is now in ultrarunner space. Many thanks go to race director, Doug Sullivan, and the MCRRC, who so capably hosted this logistically challenging event, thus culturing an engrossing experience for both athletes and their enablers alike.

Meanwhile, an undeterred Lauren Gabler stealthily struck a redemptive performance that somehow eluded her at this year’s Marine Corps Marathon. Word has it that her passport application for 2014 Boston is now being expedited.

Stone Mill Fifty Miler Race
Montgomery County, Maryland    11/16/2013   6:00 A.M.
Official Results

Place Sex/Tot  Num   Name                S Ag Gun Time Pace  
===== ======== ===== =================== = == ======== ===== 
   15  13/178    159 PAUL KARLSEN        M 35 08:07:00  9:45 
251 Finishers

2013 Anthem Richmond Marathon
November 16, 2013 - Richmond, VA
Results

PLACE	NAME		BIB	HALF	NETTIME	G/PLACE	D/PLACE	DIVISION
147	John Kendra	1096	1:30:37	3:07:22	130	 4	M50-54
577	Lauren Gabler	1125	1:44:22	3:34:03	119	32	W25-29
4798 Finishers

Friends of WRC, Harsha Thirumurthy (2:40:42) and Shawn Rumery (2:41:33), also ran quite respectably down in Richmond.

Good job to all! but what will Sunday’s Second Act bring? Stay tuned for late breaking results from Philadelphia and the 2013 USA Masters 12 km Championships!

Julia Taylor invokes skyscraper envy during her Saturday shake out run in Central Park

• Julia Taylor conquered the ING NYC Marathon in a new personal best of 3:22:56, and 340th woman. (results)
• Megan Haberle was the 13th woman to cross The Parks 10K finish line in a new personal best of 39:51. Said Megan, while finding us for coffee afterwards, “I was too busy racing back and forth with this one woman to remember to stop my watch at the finish line.” Good! Liz Lambert et enfant achieved an expectant harrier’s division per-athlete-average of 32:01. (results)
• Lucy Rogers, while enrolled in the Wake Forest Schools of Taking Care of Business, slipped away from her studies just long enough to race the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon to a new personal best of 3:05:26, placing 26th overall and 4th woman! (results)

Lucy and Julia will both be racing next spring at the 2014 Boston Marathon.

Great performances for all from WRC!

Continue reading →