“I love running.”

Those three words by Perry Shoemaker explain a lot about her success at the age of 45. She’s won the .US National 12k master’s championship three years in a row. In 2016 she was one of the top 10 American women at the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler. In 2015 she was the second-place woman at the Army Ten-Miler and just missed the 1:15 qualifying time for the Olympic marathon trials with a 1:16:01 half marathon in Philadelphia.


In its short life, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half-Marathon has been dealt some tough hands. In 2013, it was the first race put off by the government shutdown, though able to postpone by five weeks but seeing half of its registrants defer until the next year. Two years later, a hurricane forced a cancellation before missing the region entirely, an outcome that disappointed runners and organizers alike.

Race director Steve Nearman feels a little bit jinxed at this point. “I felt like a salmon going upstream ever since [2013], so it’s been tough,” he admitted after the race.


What is it about runners and photos? I lose more items than I save but I have not yet lost the photos of myself spanning my years in the sport.

Why do I keep these? It reminds me of the Joan Didion essay in which she asks herself: What kind of magpie keeps this notebook? Didion, in her way, decided it was “well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not.”


It started by accident, but before every race, Aaron Liiva makes sure he dabs a little bit of marinara sauce on his spikes.

He doesn’t use any particular type of sauce — although the Blake senior mentioned he’s partial to Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand. Usually, he just makes a point to save some of the sauce from his pre-race spaghetti.


A rapidly cooling evening primed Kenilworth Park for fast races at the DCXC Invitational, conditions that D.C.-area cross country runners have ached for all season. Heather Holt‘s 16:56 and senior Saurav Velleleth‘s 15:01 times on the 3.07-mile course were just the fastest of likely hundreds of personal records, even adjusting for the slightly short course.

 


At the humid and overcast Navy – Air Force Half Marathon, many a runner had to temper their expectations. After a pleasant, mild Saturday, the return of sticky summer air on Sunday felt almost punitive. Yet the conditions did not stop Susanna Sullivan (Capital Area Runners) from crushing the women’s course record or Daniel Samet (Georgetown Running Club) from a speedy victory in his half-marathon debut. The Bethesda native ran for the Georgetown Day School and later, Davidson College. 

“The weather conditions made it more challenging than I had originally anticipated when I signed up,” Sullivan said afterwards. “But I feel like I ran a smart race and I was happy with how it turned out.” For much of the race, Andie Cozzarelli of Raleigh, N.C. ran alone a few hundred feet ahead of Sullivan. Cozzarelli is a two-time All-American and alumna of NC State who now runs for Oiselle.


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