Kerri Gallagher will tell you 10 miles isn’t her specialty. And she has a point.
Last year, Gallagher was fifth in the 1500 meter run at the USA Track and Field Championships.
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News
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After a few heavy weekends of racing, some teams took off, but it wasn’t a rest week for everyone.
In Cary, N.C., Loudoun Valley’s Andrew Hunter ran 14:46 to win the Great American Cross Country Invitational’s Race of Champions, demonstrating what he can do on a fast course. E.C. Glass sophomore Libby Davidson ran 17:07, letting Heritage’s Weini Kelati know the 4A state championship won’t be a lonely race. James Madison’s girls took fifth, with a short-handed Oakton team behind in 14th.
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There was no calendar hopping this year for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon, the first of the region’s races to bear the brunt of the federal government shutdown last year. The race ended up postponed until early November, but temperatures were cooler in the fifth running in 2014, with runners bundled in spandex, hats and gloves in early October.
While many weren’t expecting the low temperatures, most runners were thrilled to race in the crisp and cool air so early in the fall.
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When Anthony Belber was brought on as an assistant track coach at the Georgetown Day School 17 years ago, the GDS Hoppers could hardly fill a school bus.
“The first year I coached, we only had four girls and 10 to 12 boys in cross country,” he recalled.
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It’s not unusual for Carolyn Ruth Carlson, of Chantilly, to be found grinding away on her stationary bike with science textbooks open or while looking at a PowerPoint presentation.
Choosing between a degree in biology and the triathlon team at James Madison University simply wasn’t an option.
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The DCXC Invitational gave Maryland, D.C. and Virginia runners a chance to face off, though the grade-level race format precluded a showdown between Heritage junior Weini Kelati and Bethesda-Chevy Chase senior Nora McUmber, both strong contenders for their respective state individual titles in Virginia and Maryland, it didn’t keep anyone from running a fast time, with 14 boys breaking 16 minutes on a course that while not as hilly as others, still retained some challenge, with turns and uneven footing.
Walter Johnson’s girls took a look at the Maryland state meet course, which will return to Hereford, and came away with a win in the elite race, capturing three of the top four places with Kiernan Keller winning, and Abbey Green and Emily Murphy following in third and fourth.
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While many coaches are worried about their team bringing home championships, Desmond Dunham his eye on a bigger prize.
The cross country coach at Wilson High School in Washington D.C. (now at St. John’s College High School, also in D.C.), who has been coaching for 17 years, said he measures his accomplishments by the success his athletes have later in life, once they’ve put their running shoes away.
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More than 1,900 high school cross country runners christened the inaugural DCXC Invitational at Kenilworth Park in Northeast D.C. Saturday afternoon. They came from Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania and North Carolina and battled for five hours on a warm fall afternoon.
[button-red url=”http://dcxc.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/team_totals” target=”_self” position=”left”] Team scores [/button-red] The meet split up varsity teams among classes, giving spectators eight chances to watch runners race against their peers. The format also switched up the invitational style in the middle of the season. Each race scored three runners, and the results compiled for all races led to Virginia’s James Madison winning the girls’ races over Lake Braddock, Ocean Lakes, Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Winston Churchill; Lake Braddock won the boys’ team title over Pennsylvania’s Cardinal O’Hara, Winston Churchill, James Madison and Gonzaga. Lake Braddock also won the combined boys’ and girls’ team title, over James Madison, Winston Churchill, James F. Robinson and Bethesda-Chevy Chase.
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Run and repeat.
That’s what 286 runners opted to do at the Clarendon Day 5k and 10k, both of which started with a more-than-one-mile drop down Clarendon Boulevard into Rosslyn. The brave 5k runners were on the clock to get back to the top of the hill by 9:05 at the latest to start the 10k.
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Working out the logistics for a 50-state marathon goal is almost just as difficult as completing 50 marathons. The list begins to add up quickly: race registration fees, cost for travel and accommodations, maneuvering time off of work, and the list goes on.
Race series have sprung up to give traveling runners a chance to knock out several states in one trip, often with races five days in a row. One such company, Altis Endurance Sports, based in Annapolis, brought that approach to the Potomac River, with five back-to-back trail marathons, in Meyersdale, Pa.; Keyser, W.V.; Frostburg, Md.; Annandale, Va. and Washington, D.C.