Alberto Sala-who? Nike wha? Team RunnersConnect Tears It Up!

team runnersconnect
Nancy rocking her brand new Team RunnersConnect t-shirt before her awesome HM!

We open up this week’s race results recap with the Scotland Run 10k that was held in Central Park (NYC) on April 6th. It was the obvious choice to lead off with since we had two athletes competing in it and because we borrowed from Danny Tateo’s post to come up with that catchy title.

Speaking of Danny, when he led off with “Alberto salawho? Hey Jeff, your my Guy!“, then we knew it was going to be a good one. Danny ran a 35:29 for 10k over the challenging Central Park course and basically got faster as the race went along (his two fastest miles were his last two). His time was fast enough for him to win his age group by 80 seconds in a competitive field. Overall he was 64th out of over 7,700 runners.

Danny wasn’t alone in repping the crew in the Big Apple. Also toeing the line for the team was Simeon Bayles. Simeon ran a 43:05 and his splits were fairly consistent considering the terrain. Remember, on a hilly course like that it’s more important to gauge effort over exact splits. Now Simeon will be able to start the next race from the six minute pace corral which should help him get out faster and avoid the crazy congestion of the first mile or two.

Markus Metz ran a race that I am familiar with, the Cambridge City Run 5 miler, so I was even more interested in seeing how he did and what he thought of the course. It’s a great course, but people and dogs can provide added (and unwanted) challenges to your race day experience. Markus ran a PR of 31:12, and that was even with some bystanders just getting in the way. At least the dogs weren’t an issue this time. As Markus said, “All the running in the snow, against the icy wind, in the dark somehow paid off.” Yep, that’s it. The secret is there is no secret, just getting it done even on the days where getting it done might be a unpleasant experience. Markus now has his sights set on sub-30:00 and a half marathon of 1:30:00. He’s on his way!

Katie Miller and Bobby Smith both ran 5k’s and both ran quite well. Katie “crushed it” and felt “spectacular.” She PR’d by over a minute and a half (ran 26:00), which is just a huge drop for a 5k. Bobby hit his 5k goal for 2013 by running a 21:42. He ran a strong race and held pace until the very end, where he was able to hang on and hit his goal. It was an incredible 40 second improvement from his last 5k only a month ago.

Next up in our recap is Donna Ferguson who ran a ten mile race, but wasn’t planning on actually racing it. It was her first attempt at this distance since rupturing her plantar fascia back in October. But she just couldn’t completely hold back, being in Louisville with all the NCAA tournament “fever” going around. Can we blame her? Donna ended up running a 1:37:40, and that was with her holding back as best as she could. She felt strong throughout and that is the big takeaway here. It’s a positive step forward for her, and between that and the Louisville win last night, I’m sure she’s fairly ecstatic right now.

Working our way up the distance ladder, we had a couple of teammates racing half marathons. Nancy Howard ran her 23rd (!!!) half marathon, this one out in Texas. Nancy ran along the country roads, passing by sites such as llamas, longhorns, cows and miles of million dollar homes, and dealt with conditions like wind gusts near 30 mph, all in the process of running her third fastest half ever. Even more impressive was the fact that Nancy was trying to sell the RunnersConnect program to some women she was chatting with during the race. Yeah Nancy!

Sweeny Choong also ran a half and she crushed it. Not only did she run a PR of 1:38:20, but she also took down a big rival in the process. That is also known as taking a scalp, and Sweeny keeps this up we’re all going to have to start guarding our scalps! Although the hills here weren’t as severe as in her last race, she kept Coach Jeff’s advice in mind and maintained effort on them, which helped her immensely.

Michael Brown ran a marathon, in Paris. I’ll give you a minute to let the jealousy pass. Okay, now that we have moved on from location envy, we can get back to the real focal point: Michael’s new PR of 4:40:01. It wasn’t a huge PR, but a PR is a PR. Michael PR’d despite having some stomach issues and had to walk for a bit over the last eight miles. Considering all that, the PR is even more impressive. The marathon is a beast of a distance and even when you’re in prime shape something can go wrong over the course of the race and derail your plans. The takeaway here is that despite the issues Michael got a PR and the confidence of knowing that he’s actually a lot faster than his PR now. Watch out for him in his next race!

Normally the marathon is the safe bet for being the longest distance in the race recap, but not when Rob Sklenar is involved. Rob ran 50 miles in approximately ten hours at the American Endurance Race 50 miler. For someone like me who’s never attempted anything beyond 26.2, that is unfathomable. All in all it was a good experience for Rob even though suffered some bad leg cramps over the final miles, which included 1200 feet or so of climbing. Kudos to Rob for that accomplishment, and too far removed from a marathon too.

Lots of PRs over many distances this past weekend. That’s exactly what the coaches like to see! The efforts not only serve as validation for the training but also inspiration to the rest of the team. Great job all around, keep it up!

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