I have no idea how their fast runners did, but several of us remembered passing two of the SMR runners walking in the first mile, which was odd... Here are the finishers up to just after DR:

Place	Name	City	Age	AgePlace	Time	Pace
1	Luis Maurro	Ellicott City MD	31	*	17:58	5:47
2	Jamie Thorne	Mechanicsville MD	17	1	18:35	5:59
3	Jeff Gay	Solomons MD	17	2	19:00	6:07
4	Noah Wood	Catonsville MD	25	1	19:10	6:10
5	George Hall	Waldorf MD	40	1	19:14	6:11
6	Julia Smith	Tappanannock VA	39	*	19:16	6:12
7	Paul Serra	Lusby MD	52	1	19:19	6:13
8	Joseph Groeger	Mechanicsville MD	17	3	19:27	6:15
9	Alexander Barton	Lusby MD	15	4	19:42	6:20
10	MacLain Christie		17	5	19:43	6:20
11	Jereamy Hall	Waldorf MD	11	6	19:54	6:24
12	David Raley	Mechanicsville MD	25	2	19:59	6:26
13	Alan Parris	St Leondard MD	54	2	20:00	6:26
14	Matthew Hale	Mechanicsville MD	17	7	20:10	6:29
15	Zachary Flowers	Mechanicsville MD	17	8	20:25	6:34

Why is that 11-year-old listed as sixth in his age group? As I recall, the age groups went 10 and under, 11-14, and 15-19. I also recall that he went up and received a first in age group award, to much fanfare. And I certainly feel better knowing that he beat me by "only" five seconds. Rick: if their performance at the Chaptico Classic was any indication, the SMR cross country team very likely won't be ruling the WCAC. I believe that only one or two of them beat me and, as Perry observed, a couple of them were running absurdly slow. Chopticon crushed them, it seemed. I also just noticed that Alden's 10k time in the half marathon was faster than his Kiwanis 10k time!

I looked at Aaron and Alden's results over the weekend. I'll see if I can find them again now. Alden Gross Overall Place 7604 / 16312 Pace 10:58 5K 26:58 10K 55:27 10 Mi 1:40:53 20K 2:12:28 Chip Time 2:23:46 Clock Time 2:40:53 You can see here that Alden's 10k split destroyed my 10k race. Nine Grosses finished the race. Aaron Witherspoon Overall Place 669 / 16312 Pace 7:54 5K 22:16 10K 46:17 10 Mi 1:17:34 20K 1:36:24 Chip Time 1:43:25 Clock Time 1:45:13 Aaron is clearly in decent shape. I'm looking forward to your marathon performance. Two Witherspoons finished the race... and with only a 10 second difference in their times! The official results have me down for 57:37. My goal was to break an hour, which meant to reach the 5k point before 30:00. I was pretty confident that, if I could do the first in 30, that I would be able to eek out the second half in the same amount of time. I started the race conservatively and ran some very slow splits. I gradually increased my effort and, except for the 4th mile with the two hills, would venture to say I ran a negative split on every mile I did. Usually, a person feels like they're going faster because of the energy spent and this really means they are probably going the same speed. That was likely the case for me over the last few miles. Anyway, I looked at my watch at the 5-mile mark and it said 50:00, which meant I would need to run an 8 minute pace for my final 1.25 in order to achieve my goal. Either the course wasn't marked exactly or else I misread my watch, because there's no way I ran 1.25 miles in 7:37 to finish. Still, the final mile was probably the fastest mile I've run in months. The weather was perfect. The sky was overcast with clouds for most of the morning, so no direct sunlight scorched us. There may have been a slight breeze at times, too. I would gladly race in those conditions any day of the week. I had high hopes for the Ryken team. They showed up in uniforms and looked pretty good. The chopticon kids wore whatever they wanted. However, I know the Chopticon #1 beat the Ryken #1. I'm not sure after that. What I am sure of is that some kid was walking after the first mile like Perry says and he looked light enough that he easily should have been able to keep jogging at an under 10 pace. The situation that really, really aggravated me was when I was on the highway just about to pass through the 5k finish area. A male and female pair of Ryken "runners" were walking leisurely along the road talking together. They were maybe 400 meters from the finish and going downhill, yet they weren't making any effort to run and I have to think one or both of them was using it as a chance to flirt. I pretty much wanted speak obscenities at them and say they were a disgrace to Ryken's dignity, but chose to withold any conclusions about them and to just continue running my race. Anyway, I don't think any Ryken runners were in the 18s. If Ryken wins the WCAC, then I'm pretty sure that says more about the state of WCAC running than it does about Ryken. I think I enjoy most races regardless of the distance. Shorter races tend to have tighter finishes, though, and that makes something like a 5k a little more exciting than most 10ks I've done. One thing I regret is that I never had a great 10k time back in high school. I remember either not taking the race seriously (too many races of more importance surrounding it) or else having leg problems (entire race was on road near the end of another racing season). I won 3rd in my age group this year mostly thanks to luck. I came in last in the age group. The difference between our times was vast, too. Perry, is the race in Hughesville (I think that's where it is) this coming weekend going to count for the Grand Prix? I noticed in the results that I'm listed as being from Tall Timbers. I definitely entered Lexington Park on the entry form. I'm guessing they must have profiles or saved histories tied to runners, so they pulled up my old information. That's cool. I kind of like the idea of Tall Timbers better, anyway, so I'm not complaining, but I did find it interesitng.

No, wait, this must be them: 104 Mary Principe Lusby MD 16 (age) 13 37:23 12:01 105 Andrew Barncord Issue MD 17(age) 42 37:23 12:01

I think Adubb ran his race pretty well paced. The splits show he started somewhat briskly in the lower 7s and then maintained an average pace only a little slower. If the race were longer, then maybe running a perfect pace would have helped, but for 13.1 you may as well set your initial sights on a good speed and see how well you do. It's because of that small variance in pace that I'm guessing Adubb has it in his mind he may be able to manage the whole marathon under an 8 minute pace if things go well. Those splits indicate to me that Adubb is a man possessed. Alden's times show that he could have probably started a little more slowly, but it's difficult to know what pace to run for a race you've never done before. I'm guessing from your splits that you hit some sort of a "wall" in the second half of the race that slowed you down for the last part. What did you think of your pacing? How does it compare to the pacing of your long runs?

Joe - I don't suppose you've been keeping a mileage log the past couple of years, have you? If so, it would be interesting to see how many miles you ran in the period of 8/06 - 7/07 versus what you may run during 8/08 - 7/09. If there is/should be a significant difference, I don't think you'll need to "work harder" to improve as much as "work consistently." Of course, one could argue that those to phrases are equal, so I guess I have no point.

The Hughesville race is not part of the Grand Prix.

Hmm, that's funny. I think of the race as having gotten less competitive. I wonder if I can find statistics to back this up. I can't find a list that gives the results without age groups, but I think you can clearly see by glancing at the age group results that the race was quite faster in the year 2000! http://www.racepacket.com/result9/aug00/chaptico.htm