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Mountain Maryland Half Marathon Named 2010 RRCA Regional Championship
By Kevin Spradlin
Lavale, MD
November 11, 2009
For the Washington Running Report
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The Road Runners Club of America has named the Mountain Maryland Half Marathon, scheduled for April 18, as its 2010 Eastern Region Half Marathon Championship race.
The RRCA is the parent club to more than 980 running organizations across the nation and has more than 195,000 members. Many of them will be headed to Allegany County next spring to participate in the Eastern Region Half Marathon Championship event, which will follow the same path over the 13.1-mile course as it did in April 2009.
"Running through downtown Cumberland and finishing on the Great Allegheny Passage trail is a great way to show off what Mountain Maryland is all about," said Kevin Spradlin, executive director of the Mountain Maryland Marathon Club. "This RRCA Championship Event designation simply enhances what many felt this past spring was an already attractive course layout."
More than 512 runners from 13 states and Washington, DC registered for the marathon, half marathon, 5K for United Way, kids marathon, and 400-meter tot trot. All of those events are back for the sophomore year. New this year is a two-person marathon relay, in which both runners will run approximately 13.1 miles.
The half marathon begins in downtown Cumberland rolls past commercial and residential districts along Queen City Drive and North Mechanic Street as runners head towards Lover's Leap and the Narrows.
Runners take state Route 36 for the last flat stretch before a steep incline of about 150 meters up a Dakota Avenue hill. The remainder of the race is on the Great Allegheny Passage, including a constant incline of nearly 3.5 miles before hitting the turnaround point inside the historic Brush Tunnel. After that, it is downhill to the finish line of the race, of which nearly eight of the 13.1 miles are contested on a former rail trail comprised of crushed limestone.
"I like to think we all put our running shoes on one foot at a time," said Maureen Hall, marathon club president, but the championship designation will "improve the depth of talent."
Hall, a veteran masters runner and winner of the first Maryland RRCA championship series in 1995, likened the distinction to the old days of the Great Allegany Run 15K run. She placed 24th among 157 runners and earned the women's masters title in the process with a time of 1 hour, 45 minutes and 15 seconds - only a few months after breaking her foot during a five-mile race.
"It brought a quality to the race," said Hall, who now resides in LaVale but traveled from Baltimore 15 years ago to compete in Allegany County. "People looked forward to that. It's nice to have that distinction."
Now part of a championship series, winners of which will advance to the national half marathon championship, people now will think, "Oh yeah, the half marathon. I'm gonna come do that now," Hall said.
"It certainly is an honor, I think, to have that seal of approval," Hall said.
In April, Woody Snoberger (24) of Ridgeley, WV won the overall Mountain Maryland Half Marathon title in 1:23:07. Kelly Gruber (25) of Frederick, MD won the women's title in 1:34:47.
Registration for the 2010 marathon festival opens November 15. For more information, log on to the race Web site.
Last year's April 19th results can be found in the searchable results with the event name Life Fitness Mgmt Mountain Maryland Marathon/HM/5K.
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