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.
Some children may still have been nestled all snug in their beds, but others dashed away Sunday morning at the Run with Santa 5k in Reston.
[button-red url=” http://s3.amazonaws.com/media.racebx.com/transfer/gen/5/4/8/54846beb-c354-43c3-b0ee-0c9fc0a86526/2014-Santa-Results.htm” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]At what many called a great family run, kids and adults alike donned Santa hats, ugly sweaters and jingle bells to be greeted by Santa Claus at the finish line on a brisk but sunny winter morning.
On a holiday renowned for gluttony, the winners at the Alexandria Turkey Trot ended up getting just enough, not too much.
For Kevin McNab, it meant a narrow win over Georgetown University cross county runner Collin Leibold, both timed at 24:32. For Susanna Sullivan, all she really needed was one second by which to break the women’s course record — 27:13.
The high point in Zak Miller’s running career came a month ago at the Marine Corps Marathon.
The 28-year old ran his best marathon to date, finishing in 2:36:02 to place 14th overall in a field of 19,791 runners.
Molly Huddle won her record fourth U.S. title on the roads this year at the .US National 12k Sunday in Alexandria, running 38:08 to repeat as champion at that distance and of the U.S.A. Running Circuit. She won the inaugural 12k event last year in a world’s best 37:50.
[button-red url=” http://www.national12k.us/Results.aspx” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Her move in the third mile this year put distance on pursuers who included Emily Sisson (38:21), Kim Conley (38:42) and Sara Hall (38:48), all of whom were in striking distance after the race strung out from Huddle’s early pace. By 8k (25:31), she had a 13 second lead over the chase pack, which closed to a 10-second lead over Sisson at 10k (31:57) before she tacked three additional seconds onto her margin in the last 2k.