In the months leading up to 2015’s Fall marathons, RunWashington will follow several local runners as they prepare for their races. We’ll chart their progress as they train their legs, lungs and minds for the challenges they’ll race on race day. Each week, we’ll catch up with our runners and see how they’re doing. First up is Burtonsville, Md.’s William Etti.
Calling William Etti’s return to running a comeback is just the beginning.
Despite closing the books on the hottest May on record, local meteorologist Alex Liggitt doesn’t think the rest of the summer will be as far out of line.
Liggitt, a meteorologist for ABC 7 who moonlights as the Running Weatherman, said that although May 2015 was the hottest since 1871, with 20 days with high temperatures above 80 and seven days above 90, he didn’t expect the rest of the summer to deviate as far from historical averages.
Two Pacers Running Stores will change locations this summer, with one moving across the Potomac River.
The Logan Circle location, currently on P Street, will move to 14th and S streets after the July 4 weekend. A new Navy Yard location, at 300 Tingey Street, will open in late August. This follows a popup location in Barracks Row in 2012. The Pentagon Row location, which Pacers purchased in 2009 from Gotta Run (which opened in 2004), will close June 28. Volunteer group run leaders will maintain local meetings in the Pentagon City area.
A college textile design class marked the beginning of the end of Landon Peacock’s competitive racing career.
Sure, he finished his collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin — Madison as a two-time All American and a Big 10 Conference Champion in cross country. But he’d found his next passion in that introductory art class.
Living in California in 2014, she was determined to get into the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run. She knew volunteering was her best chance to ensure she got in the next year, so she signed up to help out. After flying to Lexington, Ky. and picking up her car (long story), she drove it to Washington, D.C. At the end of her road trip home, she walked into her parents’ house and announced she was moving to D.C.
That move was unthinkable years before, when she was a smoker whose anxiety was, at times, crippling.
For an overzealous runner, the Capitol Hill Classic can seem like an episode of Behind the Music. Early on, everything is going great and the gravy train seems like it will never stop. But then reality hits and they have to run back uphill.
[button-red url=“http://www.zippyraceresults.com/search.php?ID=4920” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Springfield’s Shauneen Werlinger didn’t know what she was getting into when she took the lead among women in this year’s 10k. She wanted to make sure that if her pursuer, Selameawit Lemma, was going to stay behind her and make a move late, she would have to work for it.
Maegan Krifchin, a professional runner for Mizuno living in Silver Spring, reached the Olympic Trials “A” standard in the marathon, running 2:33:30 at the Hamburg Marathon in Germany April 26.
D.C. area athletes performed well at the Penn Relays April 26-28:
She started off anonymously, but as Jamie Watts kept going, more and more people noticed what she was achieving.
“No one was ever supposed to see me.”
Two frequent out-of-town visitors clashed on the new Pikes Peek 10k course in Rockville, with a Montgomery County native grabbing the win.
[button-red url=”http://www.mcrrc.org/pikes-peek-10k-9″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]It came down to the final, downhill stretch on Marinelli Road between Brian Flynn and Thomas Adam at the Pike’s Peek 10k on Sunday morning. Neck and neck, the two Virginians pounded to the finish line, but it was Flynn, a resident of Bridgewater who attended Damascus High School, who had enough of a kick left in him to narrowly beat Adam by a mere two seconds, clocking 30:27. Third place Luke Meyer, from Washington, was close behind in 30:33.
From their starting line perch at Mount Vernon, the next hour was hazy for Kevin McNab and Sheree Shea.
[button-red url=”http://www.zippyraceresults.com/search.php?ID-4829″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Despite clear skies and cool air that brushed their faces with the promise of a fast George Washington Parkway Classic, they could only guess what was in store. Both had run only one race longer than 10k, and those races were non-competitive half marathons. That didn’t stop them from both gamely handling the 10 mile race to Old Town Alexandria.