Vermont Marathon: Luke's cool PR

Kudos to our boy Luke Shane, who ran an 11-minute PR at the Vermont City Marathon on Sunday!

When he called to tell me, I was pulling into the Home Depot parking lot with the family. I nearly veered into a pile of shopping carts, I was so pumped!

Luke ran 2:57:42. He placed 53rd overall and 15th out of 133 in the 16-24 age division. His splits: 1:28:14 for the first half, 1:29:28 for the second half -- just 1:14 slower in the second 13.1 miles! Nicely done!

I had no doubt Luke could post such a solid time. However, his training was curtailed about 6 weeks before the race by a severely sprained ankle. I kept badgering him, accusing him of hurting his ankle while playing the demon sport of basketball. I knew better; Luke just misstepped at the end of a hard workout on the roads. I knew in my heart he did not play the evil hoops, but I was bummed out about his untimely injury just the same.

His recovery from the ankle injury was slow; Luke was considering not running Vermont. I'm glad he decided to do it. It's a good lesson about how months of solid mileage stays "in the bank" for a while. Luke should be proud of his effort and his result; I know I am.

Also at Vermont:

-- Marist alum (2004) Charlie Williams ran 3:22:23 in his first marathon. Our favorite Yankee and rollercoaster fan (not to mention WWE, Bruce Springsteen and other Charlie favorites!) texted and said he went out too hard and paid the price. But he still met his pre-race goal of between 3:20 and 3:30.

-- Marist alum (2008) Lisa D'Aniello ran 1:43:34 in the half marathon as part of the relay team known as Imperial/D'Aniello Domination. Her time exceeded her pre-race goal and now has her pumped up for her first marathon, upcoming in five months at NYC! Nicely done, Lisa.

-- Lastly, I love statistical anomolies and this is a great one. My old pal (and blog follower) Phil Kelly ran one of the most inspirational races at Vermont back in 2006. Less than a year after getting his chest split open for heart surgery in the summer of 2005, Phil got 3rd in his age group in Vermont 2006 in 3:49:59. Four years later, same race: His son-in-law, Chris Latuso, runs THE EXACT SAME TIME! How cool is THAT? 3:49:59. Again. If you tried to plan it that way, you probably could not.