The road under her feet still felt odd to while she held a slim lead in the 2012 Army Ten Miler.
She wasn’t hugging the inside lane, her shoes were spikeless and there was no chance an official would restart the race if someone fell in the first stretch.
Four miles into last year’s Army Ten-Miler, Kerri Gallagher surged to catch the lead pack. One of her previous miles had been just under 5:30, a pace she worried would catch up with her late in the race.
The defending champion’s goal this morning was to run 5:30s across the board. Gallagher thought it might be too ambitious, she said. But she also knew, with Olympic trials qualifier Elizabeth Maloy and Olympian Julie Culley entered in the race, 5:30s might simply be needed to win.
Nora McUmber‘s dominant performance wasn’t the story Saturday at the Montgomery County Cross Country Championships. With a 46-second lead, an observer who didn’t come to expect that performance from the race’s defending champion might think she was lost, warming up, or trailing an earlier race that had long since finished. Though she contributed a single point to the team’s total with her victory, the clump of teammates a few places back put the Barons on top.
“She’s gaining a lot of confidence with these races,” said coach Chad Young. “She respects her competition and knows a lot of girls can be competitive with her in the right race, but she’s getting an idea what she can do.”
With the reopening of the federal government Thursday, the Marine Corps Marathon is back on for Sunday, Oct. 27.
The Marine Corps Marathon had announced, via Facebook, that the continued government shutdown imperiled the race. If the federal budget situation hadn’t been resolved by Saturday, Oct. 19, organizers would have had to postpone or cancel the race.
It was an exercise in resilience.
After three days of rain, things weren’t so much up in the air for the local cross country scene as they were under water. The Glory Days Invitational was called off, Bull Run Regional Park was flooded. The golf course at Georgetown Prep was too soft and slippery, but coach Greg Dunston was adamant about holding the meet. Teams were coming from Delaware and Chicago to race.
Pacers New Balance Cross Country Tour Podcasts from the Georgetown Prep Invitational on Oct 12, 2013
Segment #1 Race Introduction with podcast hosts Chris Farley of Pacers Running Stores & Johnny Cakes Auville from the Sports Junkies
For the second week, the federal government shutdown is forcing relocations and and cancellations for races planned for National Parks Service property. No specifics have been made public about contingency planning for the Army Ten-Miler and Marine Corps Marathon, scheduled for Oct. 20 and 27, but both races declare they will be run on those days.
The Boo! Run For Life 10k Sunday will be cut to a 5k, starting at 7:30 a.m. and moved to the National Building Museum from its usual location in West Potomac Park, where it will be run concurrently with the Run to Remember.
Name: Dustin Renwick
Self-described age group: 30-34
Running in first-year races can be a roll of the dice sometimes.
Planned water stops can disappear. The course distance can be off, or markers point you in the wrong direction.
The Marine Corps Marathon will debut a registration lottery in 2014, a year after frustrations with registration management service Active caused thousands difficulty while they tried to register.
As announced in this year’s race guide, the lottery will open Feb. 23 and close March 15, and runners selected for the race will be notified March 19. The marathon has agreed to a multi-year contract with Race IT to manage registration.