Busy weekend of marathoning
in the Northeast – Hartford on Saturday, Steamtown (Scranton, PA) on Sunday,
and my personal favorite Mohawk Hudson (Schenectady to Albany) also on Sunday.
Marist Running was well represented in all quarters, as posted earlier with
Hartford. Here are some Sunday highlights (note,
if I missed anything, please let me know?) …
--In Steamtown, Liza
Grudzinski celebrated her 36th birthday in grand fashion with a
two-minute PR and an elite time of 2:53:56.89. Really proud of Liza. She
trained very hard over the summer, but has been slowed for the past 4-6 weeks
with a plantar fascia injury. Liza has an incredibly high pain threshold, so
she was able to train through the injury at times. Still, her training was most
definitely affected by it. She called me last Thursday to announce that she was
going to give it a go, with no real goals other than to manage the foot. Well,
she did great, gutted through the pain and ran a tremendous time. Very proud of
Liza. And, knowing Liza, she was probably equally thrilled to be joined at the
finish line by her very energetic 19-month-old boy Emmett and her husband Kirk.
What a great birthday present! Nicely done!
--Up at Mohawk Hudson, Lisa D’Aniello won her age group in the half marathon with a time of 1:32:40 (7:05 pace). And Kiersten Anderson had a tremendous marathon debut with a 3:23:47, and a smartly paced race (1:41:16/1:42:41). Both Lisa and Kiersten have had their ups and downs with the sport over the past few years, but they are wonderful and dedicated young women and it was great to see them put it together up there.
--Finally, a shout-out to
my brothers and friends in the Middle Aged Machines (note to the men, especially de la Hoya: I want me one of those fancy
singlets -- size XL, of course -- as you can see in the photo above!), who
all ran tough up there at Mohawk Hudson. Mr. Bucket (David Swift) was the leader of the MAMs in
3:11:46, followed by Davey O (David Osterhoudt) in 3:12:40, John Mckee in
3:21:55, Michel Joseph (the brains behind
the operation, with the best splits of the group) in 3:22:51 and finally
Neil Grencer with a very strong 3:27:10. When I was going through my major
injury issues earlier this year, these guys had my back in every way; I am
honored to call them all my friends.
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