Maryland runners made themselves at home at Virginia’s Bull Run Regional Park, winning the individual and team titles at the Glory Days Invitational. Walter Johnson senior Abbey Green led the girls’ race from the start, and cleared the way for the Wildcats to claim the team title.
On the boys’ side, Poolesville’s Ryan Lockett overpowered Severna Park’s Garrison Clark in the last half mile, despite a rough start and a last-mile misstep.
Two recent additions to the Army’s World Class Athlete Program won the Army Ten-Miler on a muggy day that felt more like July. Haron Lagat and Susan Tanui, both natives of Kenya and U.S. Army specialists, have benefited from more structured training environments, and it showed Sunday. Conditions were bad enough that after 10:08 a.m., the race rerouted runners near the Department of Agriculture to cut a mile off of the course and soon after stopped recording finishing times. Roughly 24,723 runners crossed the finish line, though race representatives have not quantified the nine- and 10-mile finisher totals.
Race representatives have also not responded to inquiries about the number of runners given medical attention during the race.
Oct. 22, 2017
Basking in his 15:11 that led the day’s times at the DCXC Invitational, Grafton senior Price Owens summed up the day’s races without saying a word.
He threw back his head and guzzled from a gallon jug of water.
Cross country is a rough sport. Athletes brave all kinds of weather and all kinds of terrain; they run on hills, rocky trails, mud and sometimes even through creeks. Sometimes that iconic and pastoral racing environment isn’t available every day, but even in a “concrete jungle” with some of the worst traffic in the nation, many D.C. runners still log those miles.
The Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg served as a showcase for the nearby Loudoun Valley, but not just the school’s nationally-top-ranked boys’ varsity team. Junior Sam Affolder‘s 15:43 win for 5k led the way for five team titles and three runner-up finishes for various Viking teams.
Affolder, seniors Peter Morris (third, 16:01) and Colton Bogucki (ninth, 16:19), and juniors Jacob Hunter (13th, 16:29) and Jacob Windle (20th, 16:52) scored 46 team points and had all finished before second place Cary, N.C.,’s Green Hope had two runners in. The Falcons, who also came up for the 2014 DCXC Invitational, scored 117 points and Delaware’s Salesianum School was third with 194 points.
“We’re moving,” reads a massive sign in the storefront window at 7516 Leesburg Pike near Tysons Corner.
To the passerby headed to do some grocery shopping, it may seem like any other storefront. But this location, home of one of the the longest continuous-running specialty running stores in the D.C. area, has held a special place in the running community since 1991. That’s not to say it hasn’t changed over the years–it began as Fleet Feet Sports, then Metro Run and Walk and, finally, Potomac River Running.
Six weeks before a marathon is a good time to take stock of how training is going, but even moreso because Sept. 14 is the last day Marine Corps Marathon runners can legally transfer bibs for the race.
The good news for runners on the fence is that as one of the most popular marathons in the country, demand for their bibs is high, and they can almost certainly recoup their registration fee. In addition, for local runners, who don’t have added travel and lodging commitments, there’s less of a financial sunk cost in bailing on Marine Corps, making it easier to fall back, take a few more weeks to train and take a shot at a later marathon, in Richmond, Philadelphia or Rehoboth.
Julia Ghiselli didn’t know much about Heather Holt before the Monroe Parker Invitational, except that she was fast.
A lot of people are getting to know Ghiselli now, and she’s pretty fast herself. And Ghiselli was pleased to learn that Holt was also “very nice.”
As last season came to a close in North Carolina, Loudoun Valley’s disappointment felt cushioned by potential.
Though the Vikings failed to make Nike Cross Nationals, they were on the cusp. They made up ground on a team that had beaten them soundly seven weeks earlier and one junior, Peter Morris, had qualified for the finals with another, Colton Bogucki, one spot away. Jacob Hunter, just a sophomore, was 20th.