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Welcome to the Washington Running Report
Run! Geek! Run! 8K
By James Moreland
Washington, DC
September 17, 2011
Below Douglas Flood dressed the part and had a fast race too.
Now that fall is underway and the summer’s heat furnace has been turned off, it is time to revel in the cool morning air on the flat West Potomac Park course. The fourth annual Run! Geek! Run! 8K continues to grow with nearly five hundred finishers and the times matched all but the biggest competitive races in the region.
Eight new records were set. Last year’s winner Ed Aramayo finished fifth overall in 26:26. He nearly had to surrender his third fastest event time of 25:50 as third place Dustin Meeker, 29, roared home in 25:51. Meeker was topped for the 25-29 event record by Conrad Laskowski who finished in 25:44. Ahead of them Ryan Witters ripped through the finish line as if he were in a jailbreak with a nifty 25:26. That would have put him in eight overall at the biggest 8K of the summer, the Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K.
Of course, July and August were blazing. Today’s the morning started out in the high forties. There was a light wind that helped the slightly muggy morning that burst into showers as the final random awards were being passed out. The course is ideal for fast times. Many runners are aware that an 8K is about 50 meters short of a full five miles. The only glitch on the course was that the three and four mile markers were directly across from the one and mile markers when they should have been 50 meters past them.
Last year Maggie Infeld led of runners to a sub 30:00 finish, setting the record in 28:32. This year Anna Holt-Gosselin had only Michelle Miller to keep her honest. Miller had a very nice 28:53. Holt-Gosselin (left) took down Infeld’s record with a superb 28:29 for tenth overall. Her time would have been runner-up in the Rockville race.
Eleven runners age graded higher than 80% or national class. Naomi Stanford, 60, of Washington, DC led all runners with a world class 35:45 for 89.4%, easily an event record. Shannon Smith, 45, led the women masters in a swift 34:36 for a new event record. Sushila Nanda, 50, coming off ten straight age group wins during the summer added another easily with 34:58. Perhaps not so easy as 55-year-old Ida Draim ran the third fastest event time for her division with 36:19. It is not too shabby when the only woman to beat your division time has been Betty Blank. This year even though the race got larger, it moved to ten year age groups.
For the men David Wertz (below) continues to improve. Now a submaster he finished fourth overall in 26:05 to add another event record to his collection. Top master Craig Chasse had a very good 28:42, sneaking under Bill Bray’s 28:43 from 2008. But then Bray returned to win it all in 28:06 the next year. Matt Anderson continues to enjoy his new division setting the 45:49 record in 31:45. After the race Peter Cini, 53, was speaking Italian to seventh place Edi Turco (26:51). This mega racer only had time to get 23 races in this summer. This first fall race was faster than all of them. Cini set himself a new event record as well (30:54).
After the race runners had a short walk to lots of very fresh bagels, cookies, and bananas. This year the awards were bobble head geek dolls. The crowd loved them. It is always better when a race has a unique award. After four years this race continues to grow.
With more than sixty races in the past two weeks, you got to have the good stuff if you want to runners to come. This race has the good stuff.
FEMALE Open
1 417 Anna Holt-Gosselin 23 Vienna VA 28:29
2 399 Michelle Miller 30 Damascus MD 28:53
3 588 Dagmar Salazar 28 Rockville MD 32:25
MALE Open
1 335 Ryan Witters 23 Washington DC 25:26
2 573 Conrad Laskowski 25 Rockville MD 25:44
3 562 Dustin Meeker 29 Baltimore MD 25:51
FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 1 - 19
1 Kourtney Turner 18 F ROCKVILLE MD 55:41 54:50 11:02
MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 1 - 19
1 Samuel Garner 11 M ODENTON MD 39:40 39:29 7:57
2 Tim Masters 16 M MARLTON NJ 45:31 44:44 9:00
FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 20 - 29
1 Emily Halnon 26 F WASHINGTON DC 32:58 32:57 6:38
2 Brennan Hogan 28 F WASHINGTON DC 33:13 33:03 6:39
3 Erica Marrari 29 F UNIVERSITY PARK MD 33:28 33:24 6:44
MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 20 - 29
1 Ed Aramayo 25 M BALTIMORE MD 26:26 26:26 5:19
2 Jason Myers 25 M ALEXANDRIA VA 26:41 26:41 5:22
3 Cole Ashcraft 20 M WASHINGTON DC 29:11 29:07 5:52
FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 30 - 39
1 Jennifer Yip 31 F WASHINGTON DC 33:11 33:05 6:40
2 Elizabeth Clor 32 F CHANTILLY VA 35:57 35:53 7:14
3 Julie Moses 32 F MITCHELLVILLE MD 37:53 37:48 7:37
MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 30 - 39
1 David Wertz 35 M ARLINGTON VA 26:05 26:04 5:15
2 Edi Turco 38 M ARLINGTON VA 26:51 26:50 5:24
3 Eddie Valentine 31 M ARLINGTON VA 27:31 27:29 5:32
FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 40 - 49
1 Shannon Smith 45 F WASHINGTON DC 34:36 34:31 6:57
2 Andrea Freeman 40 F WASHINGTON DC 34:42 34:38 6:58
3 Karen Young 43 F BOYDS MD 37:45 37:42 7:35
MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 40 - 49
1 Craig Chasse 42 M RESTON VA 28:41 28:40 5:46
2 Andrew Pugh 41 M WASHINGTON DC 29:46 29:45 6:00
3 Brandon Hirsch 41 M ROCKVILLE MD 30:01 29:59 6:02
FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 50 - 59
1 Sushila Nanda 50 F ARLINGTON VA 34:58 34:57 7:02
2 Ida Draim 55 F ALEXANDRIA VA 36:19 36:13 7:18
3 Myra Washington 54 F MONTGOMERY VILL MD 40:55 40:52 8:14
MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 50 - 59
1 Peter Cini 53 M FAIRFAX VA 30:54 30:52 6:13
2 David Pinnick 54 M MANASSAS VA 33:53 33:52 6:49
3 Bill Stahr 50 M THE PLAINS VA 34:11 34:10 6:53
FEMALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 60 - 69
1 Naomi Stanford 61 F WASHINGTON DC 35:45 35:40 7:11
MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 60 - 69
1 Bob Hersh 60 M ARLINGTON VA 39:48 39:37 7:59
2 Mark Trachtman 60 M ARLINGTON VA 44:21 44:05 8:53
3 John Cross 60 M BURKE VA 47:10 46:39 9:24
MALE AGE GROUP: NET TIME - NET PACE 70 - 99
1 Ralph Bayrer 72 M WASHINGTON DC 47:35 47:03 9:28
2 Robert Gurtler 76 M THE PLAINS VA 49:37 49:29 9:58
FEMALE FIRST TIME RACER: NET TIME - NET PACE 1 - 99
1 298 Nancy Vo 31 F Alexandria VA 41:17 41:04 8:16
MALE FIRST TIME RACER: NET TIME - NET PACE 1 - 99
1 338 Christopher Schultz 33 M Arlington VA 43:07 42:16 8:31
Shannon Smith is top female master
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