Starting a team from scratch is not easy, but for one local runner, it is a challenge worth doing.
Nicole Mancini may have had a short tenure as a cross country athlete, only competing for two years in college before switching over to marathon running, but her love for the sport is as strong as ever. Originally from Michigan, Mancini moved to northern Virginia in 2006 to work at Brentsville District High School in Nokesville.
It’s 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Music blaring from a DJ breaks the sleepy stillness of the open field. Underneath the foggy haze of a fall morning, hundreds of high school runners are awake and ready. A mass of bodies squish together along the line, experiencing the thrill of adrenaline, nerves and anticipation.
And then the gun goes off. All you can hear is the tidal wave of cries from spectators and random cowbells clanging. The race is a blur of hills and turns and ups and downs. Sand and mud and grass.
Dustin Renwick brought his morbid curiosity and his camera to a taco mile held Aug. 26 at Kenilworth Park.
Our 2018 cross country issue includes stories about the historic Burke Lake course, schedule building, managing extracurriculars with running, West Springfield coach Chris Pellegrini and more! Click through to read the magazine online. This will, however, be our last print edition because we are going online only from here on!
Dorothy Beal didn’t know quite how important running would be to her.
Not only has the 36-year-old run 36 marathons in 15 years, but she has turned the hobby into a blog and social media campaign that inspires runners and promotes a positive body image — and turned the ventures into a business and brand that reaches thousands.
Look to the left, then to the right.
Everyone on this starting line started crawling and somehow ended up here, in a pair of spikes.
The Washington Post reports a runner was punched in the face Aug. 15 and surrounded by five suspects, who took the runner’s phone. On Aug. 11, four robbers, one with a knife, surrounded the victim, taking a phone and $30.
Both incidents occurred at the north end of the trail before it reaches Edgewood Street NE, near the Dew Drop Inn, and both happened around 8:45 p.m.
Name: Aaron Richards
Self-described age group: Late 20’s
Grab the tortillas but hold the sour cream — Washington, D.C. is getting its first taco mile.
Organized by November Project DC, and in partnership with the D.C. Parks and Recreation Department, the Aug. 26 taco mile challenges runners to eat tacos before running a quarter mile. And then again. And then again… And then again. It’s an all-ages alternative to a beer mile, one that can be sanctioned on public property but still tests runners’ digestive discipline.
Little Bennett Regional Park in Clarksburg is the largest park in Montgomery County, encompassing over 3,700 acres of Maryland wilderness. The good news for runners is that this green space also boasts approximately 25 miles of trails, all of which have natural surfaces. Countless loops and out-and-backs make Little Bennett the perfect place to get lost on a weekend when trail running is on your schedule.
In addition, you won’t have to compete with mountain bikers, because they’re not permitted on any of these trails. Horseback riders, however, do frequent some parts of the park, so it’s best to use caution when approaching.