I know I have little right to protest since I didn't go to the meeting, but I find it highly controversial that D.C. race would become part of the CBRC Grand Prix series. Yes, I plan to run the Young Life 5k, so this will make me sound biased, but why not have made it the replacement for ANS? I worry that this might set a precedent for other local treasures like the Chaptico Classic or the Step By Step 5k having their Grand Prix status stripped and transferred to "non-local" events.
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Nobody knew where or when or even whether ANS is going to happen, so we dumped it. Chaptico is unlikely to find itself in that boat.
However, someone suggested adding a trail race to the Grand Prix, and I think next year we're likely to do that, and maybe a track race as well.
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
I agree with adding a trail race and a track race. I love that idea. It gives added incentive for everyone to come out at least once to each thing if they were on the fence about doing it or not.
The ANS race only recently was added to the list of CBRC races. It seemed like it was becoming an annual event. But every year the course measurement has been questionable and the organization has come down to the wire. It's already a far enough distance away that not many CBRCers actually do it.
I think reaching out to this other race is a pretty good idea. We've been trying to encourage having the CBRC compete as a team more regionally, yet race after race we get lukewarm excitement, even though we offer free entries to them. Including it as a part of the series is a good way to strengthen participation at the regional races. I'm entirely in favor of it. I would have preferred it were a race we do more traditionally, such as the Veteran's Day 10k, but this is a less congested time of the year for CBRC Grand Prix races, so this makes sense.
I find myself in deep disagreement with Dowgiallo! While it would be nice to encourage more participation at trail and track events, a Grand Prix event should be one of some prestige --- and one that can be expected to garner a large local turnout. The track 5000m event would be the most likely candidate from the track series, but even that would be pretty weak as a Grand Prix event (last year it was just a flock of high schoolers and a then a few club runners, then only a handful of people in the B race). Many people, especially those of the slower and older variety, were and would be too intimidated to run under such a spotlight (i.e., having everyone watching them get lapped again and again). I suppose a Grand Prix trail event could be a bit more legitimate, but what would determine which trail event is the most worthy? And still we probably couldn't expect more than 50 people to show up. Then as far as the D.C./club team events, sure it would be great if more people participated, and it's awfully nice of the club to pay the way. But let's face it, the club will probably never get more than a dozen, maybe 20 max members to go up for one of those. And again it's sad that some of our delightful local races (like Young Life!) are getting overlooked as the CBRC is now outsourcing Grand Prix status to big city races. Basically I think that, though these Grand Prix initiatives are fine ideas in theory, they pose disadvantages to the club's general running audience.
Actually, the replacing of the ANS event with the Capitol Hill 10k doesn't affect my Grand Prix ambitions, since I wasn't planning to run ANS anyway. But I would have a fit if anyone threatened the sacred Grand Prix status of the following events:
LPRM and/or LPR10
Hospice
Chaptico
Step By Step
HSMC Thanksgiving
Jingle Bell
Actually I think we started sponsoring Capitol Hill Classic before we started sponsoring Veterans Day.
Alright, who is this German JessicaAlbaJenniferLopez guy? First he blocks Phil from the last available M20-29 age award spot at the marathon by running 3:12, and then he denies Joe the age group golden pie at the Pi Run --- and now he seems to be the founder of the renegade (yet blandly titled) Southern Maryland Running Club (wooing Amy of my office away from the CBRC!). Apparently he ran a casual 98-mile run (at 14:00/mi + pace) around DC a couple weeks ago, but plans to run Hospice. Most likely the 10k, I'd imagine, but if he turns up in the 5k I'll have to put myself to the task of avenging Phil and Joe's honor.
Where is he from? Maybe he just doesn't live far enough south to be able to get involved in the CBRC. It's possible he just is too new to know much about that, but I find that hard to believe with how active they are at all the local races.
I think the CBRC needs to renew its commitment to beer and pizza. Let's all get hammered at the next CBRC meeting to show those other clubs what they're missing!
As long as it is a double evening run evening.
For whats it worth, I talked to him at the marathon--for all of 10 seconds. It was just after mile 1 and he was passing me. He was pretty friendly and made some joke. I cannot remember what his joke, but I thought he was nice, thus I didn't really begrudge him his victory over me. Like others, my other main impression of him from the marathon was that he wore long pants, which put him in a small minority. Joe mentions him extensively in his race report at Patuxent Pi. Hes a good race tactician, runs slightly negative races. If he runs the 5K, I will almost certainly try to cheat a little bit and pace off of him, though he'll likely be able to pull away from me in either the second or third miles as he very much runs the second half of races faster than the first.
If you can beat German, the implication will be that you can beat Joe! Then again it's still perplexing to me why it took Joe nearly 21 minutes to run the Pi course, however difficult it may have been, considering he then came close to breaking 18:00 just a week later. Maybe German is just more adept on tough trail courses, and wouldn't see such a major improvement upon switching to a paved race as Joe did. For what it's worth, we did race AlbaLopez in last summer's Chaptico Classic 10k (where he ran a modest 45:15).
Just as I suspected, the so-called Southern Maryland Running Club is little more than a Facebook group for the cool kids who inhabit the Maximum Fitness gym --- a remarkable number of whom are into trail ultra-marathons.
Then again it's still perplexing to me why it took Joe nearly 21 minutes to run the Pi course, however difficult it may have been, considering he then came close to breaking 18:00 just a week later.
Joe definitely ran a better race at Colon Rollling but there is no doubt in my mind that you are underestimating the Pi course. A lot of the leaders ran both races and Joe closed the gap on a couple of them at Colon, but by like 10 or 12 seconds. While the sand running at Calvert Cliffs was the slowest terrain I have ever raced, overall Calvert Cliffs is probably a faster course than Pi. The Pi course is so tough cause its constant hills and the hills are of the steepness that it hurts to go up and they are too steep to run fast down. Further it has a lot of twist and turns and part of it is on longer type grass. Its advertised as 3.14, but most Garmins are going to read the course at 3.2 or so which alone adds 25 seconds to race.
Hah, oh wow --- I was definitely going to be watching out for the wrong guy. I assumed that this was German, since in the sequence of the Pi Run photos he's shown receiving a pie directly before Joe. But the marathon results list his bib # as 9, so this must be him. Yeah there won't be any confusion now.
Yes, the latter with bib #9 is the correct person. He does not fit the stereotypical running appearance at all. He's a marvel to watch. He just moves like clockwork. I definitely get the feeling his training is based on volume over speed.
If he uses the gym a lot, even if most of his running is easy, some of the lifting he does serve as a substitute for quality running. An imperfect substitute. The best way to improve your speed is to have a couple quality running sessions per week--there is no alternative as effective as that. Nevertheless other types of cross-training can give you benefits to your speed, just not as much as quality running sessions.
The person you were looking at the Pi run was probably the second place 19 and under runner as they did first place 19 and under, first place 20-29, first place 30-39, then after they did all the first places, they started the second places.