Liza posted the LPR10 results to the group list -- I'm sure they'll post them soon. The top man and women were Ethiopian, which is what I heard -- I googled their names and it seems to confirm that: Ezkyas Sisay 19/20? years old, m, Washington, DC http://www.athlinks.com/racer/32345322/Ezkyas-Sisay.aspx 2006 Ethiopian National Steeple Chase Champion ------ Belainesh Gebre 19 years old, f http://www.tricitiessports.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=237&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=18739&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1131&hn=tricitiessports&he=.com Gebre is one of Ethiopia's rising stars at only 19 years of age, but she has already run under 32 minutes for 10k in her young career. ==================== I like the hat as carrier idea. Today was my trial run of carrying my water belt with water bottles in a real race, and while it was slightly annoying, I definitely prefer it to clumsily spilling the water & gatorade (which is what happened to me last weekend) -- I'm just not agile enough to handle cups of liquid.

Grats to all of you! Those are solid times. I had a pretty strange weekend. I can't really attribute missing the race to any one particular thing. It was kind of a stressful weekend in some ways and very relaxing in others. I really wish I had run the 10-miler, but I can get over missing it. I'm glad all of you had great runs and I hope to catch you at some of the future ones.

The half marathon course was on its own for the first three miles, and then piggy-backed onto the last 10 miles of the marathon course.

This was Vic's summary of the Baltimore Marathon: "Baltimore is a VERY deceptive course. It's truly hard not to go out too fast on the first half with those downhills from mile 3 to 7. Then you hit mile 14 or 15 where the hills start and never end until 21. At that point you don't really care any more." So do I understand that the half runners skip the downhill and get all the rolling hills?

Place Name City Age Age Group Time Pace 1 Ezkyas Sisay Burke VA 19 ***** M 0-19 54:27 5:27/M 2 John Piggott Williamsburg VA 43 ***** M 40-49 56:32 5:39/M 3 Belainesh Gebre Burke VA 20 ***** F 20-29 56:33 5:39/M 4 Karsten Brown Front Royal VA 34 ***** M 30-39 58:33 5:51/M 5 Edward Tersine Indian Head MD 31 1 M 30-39 59:23 5:56/M 6 Patrick O'Clair La Plata MD 16 1 M 0-19 1:03:13 6:19/M 7 Vic Papagno Hughesville MD 40 1 M 40-49 1:03:31 6:21/M 8 Brian Forsgren Washington DC 30 2 M 30-39 1:05:17 6:32/M 9 Mark 'Stick' Converse Tall Timbers MD 48 2 M 40-49 1:05:38 6:34/M 10 George R. Hall, Jr. Waldorf MD 40 3 M 40-49 1:05:48 6:35/M 11 Perry Rapp Lexington Park MD 43 4 M 40-49 1:08:12 6:49/M 12 Daniel Anderson Rockville MD 42 5 M 40-49 1:08:23 6:50/M 13 Kyle Karstens Great Mills MD 42 6 M 40-49 1:08:48 6:53/M 14 Timothy M. Barbee California MD 29 1 M 20-29 1:09:03 6:54/M 15 David Ari Loewensteiner Lusby MD 30 3 M 30-39 1:09:55 7:00/M 16 David Basford California MD 37 4 M 30-39 1:10:09 7:01/M 17 David Raley Mechanicsville MD 25 2 M 20-29 1:10:16 7:02/M 18 Peter Charles Kostelnic Boone IA 21 3 M 20-29 1:10:21 7:02/M

3:25.04. My 5K splits are much more even than I expected (and wrong on the web site -- all are exactly 10min off on the website): 24:36, 24:07, 24:07, 24:41, 24:24, 24:25, 23:52, 24:17. I've not looked at my mile splits, but I know they vary a lot more than that. Someone I know from down here caught me at mile 20 and was going strong, so I chased him for most of the last 6mi, so I think I'll find my last miles pretty fast -- good thing I had that to focus on, because I was tired. It was very cold (for me) -- I should have brought hat and gloves -- I didn't warm up until about 10mi in, and at that point I saw Crystal and took off my long-sleeved shirt and gave it to her, and immediately was cold again. Transit from the race was terrible -- you have to walk a long way from the finish line to the Family Link-Up, and then you're next to the Rosslyn metro, and it was a disaster -- they closed the gate and had a good hundred people in line waiting outside the gate. So we took shuttles to Crystal City. Neither the driver nor Marine on the bus knew where the Crystal City metro was, so we had to go find it. Happily, we did find it and it wasn't crowded at all. I'm really glad I could walk downstairs after this marathon, because at the Gallery Place transfer, the down escalator wasn't working, so I had to go down lots of stairs.

Perry surpassed his previous marathon time by over 65 minutes! And like Rick said, you're less than five minutes away from Boston qualifying. I don't know how accurate those 5k splits were, but it looks like Adubb hit a major wall (or something else ... ? I hope it was nothing seriously damaging) in the final miles. Live race data put him just about a minute behind Perry at the 30k (18.65 miles), and then he went on to finish the marathon approximately 45 minutes after Perry. Adubb's time is still very respectable, however --- especially since it was the second marathon he'd run in three weeks!

Yes, a time of 2:20:00 would easily make you the winner of the Lower Potomac River Marathon. And speaking of the LPR, that's one event where participants certainly don't have to deal with metros, transits, escalators, or 100-people lines after the race!

Perry, I saw that you and Crystal ran the Step By Step 5k on Saturday. I'd say that running a 19:39 5k less than a week after a marathon isn't too shabby! I also observed that Jessica S. --- who lives and runs in the next neighborhood over from me --- won the female faction of the race with an intimidating 19:06 (I remember she also won the Step By Step 5k last year, but with a time that was more like 19:33). I'm not so certain that I could've matched 19:06, and if I hadn't, I'd have no choice but to hang my head in shame the next time I pass her on the street (as of the last time, it seems we're on a "waving" basis).