It wasn’t Metro accessible, there weren’t bands every mile and the race might not have had the panache of a national series, but sure enough, a marathon went off Saturday morning in Northern Virginia.
The inaugural Runner’s Marathon of Reston and accompanying half marathon took charge of the streets and trails in a race that billed itself as being “designed by runners, for runners.”
Hilary Dionne was glad to attend her friend’s wedding in Alexandria, but it meant a sacrifice.
She wouldn’t be able to defend her title at the New Bedford Half Marathon in Massachusetts, a fast and deep race upon which her Boston Athletic Association teammates were descending. She’s training for the Boston Marathon, where she finished 15th, and as the third American, last year, and wanted to test how her training was going.
When runners registered for the most recent Montgomery Country Road Runners Club race, they were mistaken if they thought it would be a “piece of cake.” Little did they know that they would have to conquer tough-rolling hills through Seneca Creek State Park in order to cross the finish line.
“It’s a very challenging course,” said Carol English of Germantown, Md. “But it’s good. It builds character.”
Saturday was full of surprises for runners at the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon and Half Marathon.
[button-red url=”http://running.competitor.com/cgiresults?eId=54″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Chief among them was the weather — unexpectedly delightful despite days of resignation that the forecast for Saturday, a 70 percent chance of rain, according to the Running Weatherman, would leave runners soaked, chafed and miserable.
For the seventh year in a row, Washington, D.C.’s spring marathon champion was a college athlete who competed for something other than a track team. For the first time, though, it wasn’t former lacrosse player Michael Wardian.
[button-red url=”http://running.competitor.com/cgiresults?eId=54″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Peter Lawrence came to Washington with his family for a spring break trip requested by his daughter.After 20 hours of driving, with stops in New Orleans, Atlanta, the now-41-year-old, who played tennis at the Virginia Military Institute hit town for a week of sightseeing with a cadre of elementary school-age children.
As Kristin Mitcham’s feet hit the sandy Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath in Georgetown for 10 miles, Kristin’s brother’s feet were hitting a treadmill nearly 7,000 miles across the globe — in Afghanistan. Her brother, Sean, who has been stationed in Afghanistan for nearly five months in the Army, told Kristin that he would run 10 miles on a treadmill at the same time of her race.
[button-red url=”http://www.dcrunningclub.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/FINAL10MILERRESULTS_030913.67183300.pdf” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]“My brother bought me the registration,” Mitcham, 33 of Reston, Va. said. “He buys us all presents over the internet when he’s deployed around Christmastime and holidays.”
It all came back in a hurry for Phoebe Markle.
After a few months of no running while she rested her IT band, muscle memory took over as soon as the horn sounded for the Four Courts Four Miler and she tore down Wilson Boulevard. The kind of muscle memory that develops after running two marathons, a half marathon, a half ironman and a 10k in a little more than a month.
The gap was just too much for Jordan McDougal to make up.
[button-red url=”http://results.bazumedia.com/event/results/event/event-3289″ target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Anyone watching the finishing stretch of the St. Patrick’s Day 8k would say that. Elarbi Khattabi, of Waynesboro, Pa.,was comfortably ahead heading back on Pennsylvania Avenue, having broken the race open at three miles. McDougal, of Warrenton, figured the lead was around 20 yards, but that seemed like a conservative estimate.
Name: Maggie Lloyd
Self-described age group: Millennial
Beau Jackson knows running.
Even though it had been more than 10 years since his high school athletic heyday, he managed to put together a solid 26:21 finish at the Bright Beginnings 5k at West Potomac Park March 3.