Charlie Ban is the Editor-in-Chief of RunWashington, the runner's source for the DC area.
A man found unconscious Saturday on the W&OD Trail has been identified. He was found around 12:43 p.m. near the Fairfax County Parkway. Alexandria’s Bethany Sachtleben qualified for the 2020 U.S. […]
Lake Braddock girls won their third straight 6A title, once again beating Oakton, winner of the two state meets before the Bruins’ streak started.
After three years of winning team scores in the 40s, the Bruins nearly doubled that, scoring 86 to Oakton’s 92.
On the eve of the the most dominant team race in Virginia history, Sam Affolder was a little disappointed.
“We had a team meeting, and I was expecting an inspirational speech about how we were going to make history and we’d come out fired up,” he said. “We talked about what we were going to wear the next day. Nothing about trying to sweep or go after the state record. I’d never had a pre-race meeting like that before.”
It looked like Gavin McElhennon was making a mistake. As he powered his way around the perimeter of the Kenilworth Park fields, he let Luke Tewalt hang behind him. He blocked the wind, set the pace and put himself out there, vulnerable for Tewalt to attack and take over the lead in the D.C. state cross country championships.
But his confidence in his strength gave him a boost and let him know it was alright, and the move he made with a mile to go gave him the margin he needed to win. He wound up running away from Tewalt and finishing in 16:34, 21 seconds faster than Tewalt on a course measured by several team representatives to have been between 75 and 200 feet longer than 5k. A permit conflict with the Kenilworth Park track prevented the use of the same course used in last year’s state meet and four years of the DCXC Invitational.
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High school teams raced their district and conference meets and colleges held their conference meets over the last week. Here are the local individual team and individual high school winners and the overall college team conference finishes and the top runner from local teams. College teams race their regional meets in two weeks. Virginia and Maryland teams run regional meets this week and D.C. teams race their state meet this Saturday at Kenilworth Park.
Name: Brian Murphy
Self-described age group: 30-34M
Residence: Silver Spring
Confusion in the first mile threw much of the leading Marine Corps Marathon pack into chaos, but Arlington’s Desta Morkama eventually overcame a nearly-two-minute deficit, and up to an extra half mile, to win in 2:25:14. Meanwhile, Fairfax’s Sarah Bishop turned a 22-mile training run into a near-Olympic Trials qualifying time (2:45:06).
This all followed a 10-minute delay to allow a suspicious package to be cleared from the course. (more…)
Successful marathon racing means being able to handle and adjust to 26.2 miles of uncertainty. Usually that means digging down when things get tough, like when you go the wrong way in a race, but for Fairfax’s Sarah Bishop, the Marine Corps Marathon meant feeling better than expected and going with it.
She took what was primarily a 22-mile training run for her goal race in December and won, set a personal record by more than two minutes and fell just short of the target she’s setting for five weeks from now. Her 2:45:06 was just seven seconds short of the qualifying standard.
Through nearly three miles, a pack of nine boys stuck together, fighting for the lead in Montgomery County Championship. With a misstep in last year’s race still fresh in his mind, Bethesda-Chevy Chase’s Adam Nakasaka upset the careful detente among the guys who had traded off the lead for much longer than almost anyone had expected.