He's also now the president of CBRC... I would think that would affect his training over the past months.

Yeah, 2006 was certainly a remarkable year for Hospice. All those guys who ran sub-16:00 were from out of the Southern Maryland area, however, and they didn't return in 2007. I'll admit that I'm hoping they skip 2008 as well.

Well, I'd kind of like to contest the official scoring of the race. Since the results are ordered by gun time, I finished 196 overall. However, I've counted 44 individuals whose chip time I was faster than. However, being that I'm not going to complete five races during the spring season, it's really not a huge deal. Alden may have a larger argument to make, in this scenario. His chip time was probably better than over 100 people who finished ahead of him. I may not even finish five official races in the fall, either. I plan on doing a 5K in September, the Baltimore Half in October, hopefully a race in early November followed by a Thanksgiving day race, and one race around mid December. I'm also toying with the idea of running the Annapolis 10 miler, depending on how the LSD training goes. However, I'd probably be running Annapolis solo, and I can not expect anyone to commit to the BH yet. From left to right: Place (by gun time), division place (again, by gun time), bib number, name, gender, age, City, CHIP TIME (official time), gun time, gun time pace. 196 44/309 3224 Richard Schaffer M 25 Cockeysville MD 20:57 21:55 7:03 840 138/309 1391 Alden Gross M 25 Baltimore MD 25:03 27:21 8:48 It's also tough to find a cap number... I can tell you the place of the last person with a gun time faster than 46:00 was #3230. However, plenty of people with chip times finished faster than her. http://www.charmcityrun.com/eventResults.cfm?eventid=710 I trust you and Joe will figure something out, though.

Thanks to the information and coercion I provided Joe, the League website has been decently updated. Keep hitting "refresh" if things don't at first appear to be changed.

Well done! I know that the screwy Jingle Bell results say you ran 20:12 then, but this would probably be your real PR, right? And I agree that the Forerunner is likely far more accurate on a simple out-and-back course than on a twisty-turny one. If I were you I'd take it as easy as possible between now and the Hospice. The race between you and Rick (and Phil?) might be a close one, indeed!

So after all that did you at least take it easy on Sunday?

That was very kind of you to give everyone a head start --- whether you meant to or not, haha. Somewhere over the past few months I got the idea into my head that, after running a marathon, I'd be able to almost effortlessly sprint my way through a 5k. I found out yesterday that it doesn't quite work that way. But still, I must admit that a 5k seems like a quick lap around the track in comparison to a MARATHON. It'd been chilly at the break of dawn, but by warm up run time --- 8:40 a.m. --- the sun was sizzling! As the masses (hundreds upon hundreds!) pressed in on the start area, I observed that everyone who appeared to be hardcore was lining up over on the 10k side. This was misleading, because it soon became apparent that very few people were aware that they were supposed to be on one side or the other. Regardless of all them, I snatched an enviable front line spot with Rick right to my rear --- and Julia Smith at my flank! We had fierce dogfight back at Chaptico Classic 2006 when, after a series of pass-backs, I managed to out-kick her at the end and finish three seconds ahead of her with a time of 20:22. I've improved since then, but so has she --- by a thousandfold! And you'll soon learn how much so. They kept us corralled up in the starting area for a tediously long stretch of time --- mainly so that we could stand at awkward and annoyed attention for a distant, scarcely audible rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. I don't mean to sound unpatriotic, but this is a race, not a baseball game. Anyways, the megaphone beep eventually went off, and so did we! As has happened on numerous previous occasions, I went for glory from the get-go. That's right, I led the race almost all the way to end of the driveway where the 5k and the 10k branch off into opposite directions on the Leonardtown-Hollywood road. I looked down at the Forerunner and reckoned an opening pace between 4:30 and 4:45/mi! I'd give anything to be able to run an entire 5k at that pace, but I'm not Kenyan --- or Ethiopian (or even Nigerian). A few fast-footed fiends overcame me before the first quarter and, sure enough, Julia was among them (my other usual rivals like Victor and Travis were off waging wars of their own in the 10k). By the time I hit the half mile I was struggling to keep the pace sub-6:00/mi; sub-6:15/mi by mile one (which I hit somewhere around 6:06, I think); and sub-7:00/mi by the race midpoint. Where did I go wrong? Who am I? I totally flubbed the one and only water stop. A line of girl scouts (or whatever they were) were proffering cups, and after inadvertently smacking the first girl's cup out of her hands, I grabbed for the third or fourth's cup and proceeded to pour more water down my nostrils than down my mouth. Then I came to the rather tricky portion of the course --- where you loop around through those twisty side streets --- and in that stretch I, fighting for fifth place in the race, was caught by a guy who must have been at least 60. That was all too familiar to what happened back during the marathon around mile 21. I didn't let him out of targeting range, though, and I stayed hot on his heels as we trundled down the great downhill free fall. It was quite jarring and jolting, I must say, and my left shin and knee were feeling unpleasantly stiff. And did I mention that it was getting very hot out? Then, upon turning left to tackle the mighty uphill (which actually wasn't much of a challenge), I chanced a glance back over my shoulder and nearly Sithed my pants (in other words, my underwear almost went over to the Dark Side). Lo and behold, there was Rick --- not even 100 yards behind me! This was also when I hit mile two, halfway up the hill, and I can't quite recall what the split was. But it was time to get freaking serious! I did get serious in that third mile, passing a couple people wearing red shirts and keeping pace with the old fellow. Legions upon legions of fun walkers were marching by in the opposite direction, and I certainly gained moral momentum from their enthusiastic, heartfelt cheers. Joe, Billy, Tiffany & kids were among them. The traffic, however, was toxic. The air literally broiled with steaming exhaust fumes! It made for nasty breathing, yes, but I didn't let it get to me. Finally putting the old school runner behind me, I made the turn, hit mile three just under 19:00, and kicked it. I'll admit that seeing the clock strike its way in the 19:30s made me a bit lackadaisical about time (my goal was to break 19:00, after all), but I still finished fairly strong in 19:35 --- fourth overall! The third male, yes, yet the first person in overall was NOT male. Smith smote us all with a time of 18:33! It was surely a first in CBRC racing history. 19:35 was woefully slower than my original overeager goal time of 17:59, and even way past my reconceptualized determination to simply break 19:00. BUT, like I said, the marathon was only six weeks ago; I’d only had three weeks of solid 5k training; and it was, as I may or may not have mentioned, hot out. My mild disappointment was thoroughly assuaged, however, when I was adorned with a gilded gold medallion for a solid win in the age group! And I wasn’t the only League member to place in that age group …