In typical RunnersConnect fashion, athletes took to the roads this past weekend and crushed new personal bests and course records. Wind and rain couldn’t stop the RunnersConnect team at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and torturous hills wouldn’t deter our half marathoners in Baltimore. Here’s a recap of the new PRs, course records, and great tune-up races run this weekend.
John Pereira got the ball rolling in Toronto with a new PR and his first time under 3 hours in the marathon. His official time was 2:58:28. This was a huge step for John after a disappointing run in Boston thanks to the heat and hip issues. John put in a lot of work over the summer to get healthy and racked up some major mileage this Fall and it paid off this weekend. Both John and Coach Jeff are most excited that the training allowed John to stay healthy and they’re excited about continuing for some redemption at Boston this year!
Mike Bosch ran as a pacer for the Toronto Marathon and did a spectacular job of leading the field to a 3:05 finish. Mike suffered through some wet shoes, thanks to the heavy rain early in the race, but managed to finish just 27 seconds outside pace – a fantastic result given the tough conditions and lack of Garmin reliability due to the tall buildings. A good reminder of why you should learn to train without a Garmin!
Chuck Dixon completed the Scotiabank Toronto Water Front Marathon in a time of 2:50:23 on Sunday. He finished 4th out of the 350 competitors in the Male 40 – 44 age group and 52nd overall out of the 3250 finishers. Although Chuck didn’t hit his goal time he is happy with the result considering he has dealt with a torn meniscus for the past few months. He will now take a couple of weeks of downtime before turning his focus to the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Richard Marshall tackled the Toronto Half Marathon as a tune-up for the Hamilton Marathon on November 4th where he hopes to break 2:50. In perfect pacing fashion, Richard finished in 1:24:28. Absolutely perfect tune-up for the race in three weeks!
Tim Parker opened up his racing season at the Baltimore half marathon. Despite feeling a little rusty, Tim crushed the hills and ran a new course PR of 1:21:49. Tim has been running this annually for quite a few years, so setting a PR clearly indicates he’s in great shape for his goal half marathons in November.
Michael Brown ran the Baltimore half marathon as a tune-up for the Marine Corps Marathon and ran a phenomenal course PR of 1:59:09. Even better, Michael was holding back, saving his legs, for the last 4 miles of the course. This is exactly the confidence boost Michael needed as he comes off 4 weeks of very hard training.
Pearson Smith ran the Utah Half Marathon as part of her 22-mile long run in preparation for the NYC Marathon. She ran a 7 mile warm-up before the race even started and despite a very steep uphill first 5 miles, she crushed the race. Her time was 1:32:28, which netted her 5th woman and second in her age-group. Like Michael, this was the perfect confidence booster for Pearson as she begins her taper.
Jonathan Tolksdorf participated in the Vantaa Marathon held in Helsinki, Finland this weekend. His time of 3:05:29 was a 7:33 PR that placed him 82nd out of the 670 finishers. Jonathan executed his race plan and ran with complete control. He is still in shock of by how easy the race the felt. He now turns his attention to breaking the 3:00 mark this coming spring in a race that has yet to be determined.
Serj Martinez ran the Itasca’s Oktoberfast 5k in Itasca, Illinois on Saturday. His finishing time of 20:08 was a seasons best by 1:37. He was 2nd in the Male 20 – 24 age group and 21st out of the 534 total competitors. After battling injury early in the summer Serj is happy with the progress he has made this fall. He now turns his focus to the Halloween Hustle 5k on October 27th. The 5k will be his last of the fall before he takes downtime before he begins training for next spring.
Awesome job to everyone that competed last weekend. Let’s hope it provides so motivation to all those racing in the upcoming weeks!
