Georgetown Running Club runner Kevin McNab’s pre-race ritual is quite unorthodox, to say the least. Some runners prefer to get a quick warmup the morning of the race, while others load up on carbs and water for sustenance. McNab, however, said he is lucky if he arrives to the race venue more than 10 minutes before start time.
Sunday was no different.
Midway through a month of public meetings, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park has withdrawn its proposal in begin charging entrance fees to the park outside of Washington, D.C.
This is despite a recent 10-percent budget cut and nearly 20-percent staff reduction, mainly at Great Falls Park. Existing entrance fees may still be increased.
Three local cross country coaches were honored by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as Cross Country Coach of the Year in their respective states. They included Anthony Belber (D.C.: Georgetown Day School boys), Kevin Hughes (D.C.: Georgetown Visitation School girls) and Mike Mangan (Va.: Lake Braddock Secondary boys).
According to USTFCCCA, State-by-state winners were selected based on their teams’ performances throughout the 2014 cross country season. Among the factors taken into consideration were team score and placement at the state championships, margin of victory, performance against rankings if available, individual championships, and how their teams’ performances stacked up to previous years (e.g. first title in school history, consecutive titles, etc.).
Vote for the Best of Washington Running 2015, now through the end of March! The finalists each were among the top six most frequently nominated races, stores, programs, etc. in our monthlong nomination period. Winners will be announced publicly in our Summer issue, due out in early May.
It’s a Sunday morning in December, a few minutes past 9. The weather is gray and cool and still, perfect for running.
RunWashington Editor in Chief Charlie Ban and Patrick Benko, who is 32 and a relatively recent running convert, meet at the chosen starting line: the gates to the Van Ness Metro station in Northwest Washington, D.C.
Nine miles in, it came to him.
For the third straight year, Northern Virginia is sending a runner to the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships with a serious shot at the national title, possibly on the boys’ and girls’ side. Two other area runners will join them in San Diego, making it the 25th time the region has sent multiple qualifiers to the venerated high school national championship.
The same day that Andrew Hunter, Anteneh Girma, Ciara Donohue and Weini Kelati qualified for the Foot Locker final, Rachel McArthur, Alex Corbett and Kate Murphy earned individual trips to the Nike Cross Nationals meet, a team-focused national race in Portland, Ore. Corbett and Murphy each led their Lake Braddock teams to third place finishes, just out of the automatic team berths and the boys an agonizing one point from an at-large invitation.
For much of the 2014 Jingle All the Way 5k, Nicolas Crouzier (16:01) remained on Tom Dichiara’s (15:56) heels. Both runners battled for sole possession of the lead throughout the 3.1-mile course.
But as the two neared the finish line, Dichiara turned it on to edge Crouzier, and captured a first-place finish among all runners.
The greatest risk to Ashley Donovan and Adam Meyer, as they ran to Washington, D.C. from Portland, Ore., wasn’t the wear and tear on their bodies. It was the wildlife — close calls with a rattlesnake and roughly a dozen dogs on the road.
Since July, the duo not only trekked thousands of miles across the country on foot (3,165 miles to be exact), but also met with more than 100 community leaders in nearly a dozen states.