Fast halves, near and far

After months and months of scant results posts, here’s the third one in three days! We got a text from Marist Running Alum Spencer Johnson, now tearing it up with the San Diego Track Club, on Saturday reporting that he ran a big PR at the Las Vegas Gold Invitational Half Marathon, sixth place in 1:07:31. A great effort at a unique venue, as you can see. Spencer reported that the desert air was dry and the course had ups and downs that can be detected by his mile splits, which are here via Strava: 5:07, 5:02, 5:18, 5:02, 5:05, 5:14, 5:08, 5:13, 5:13, 5:02, 5:06, 5:10, 4:52.

Back here in Poughkeepsie on Sunday morning, sophomore Ramsey Little ran a half marathon (time trial) of his own. He drove his car out to near New Paltz (Eltings Corners, to be exact) so he could run a linear, west-to-east 13.1 miles. His roommate, Dan Czop, cycled next to him to provide splits updates to me and the team and to provide encouragement. Ramsey noted Spencer’s time from Saturday and it motivated him to get moving at a fast pace He finished in a very strong 1:08:08 (5:11ish pace), with intermediate splits of 33:00 (10km) and 52:30 (10 miles). These are the mile splits that he sent me from his watch: 5:18, 5:23, 5:16, 5:18, 5:08, 5:13, 5:11, 5:05, 5:05, 5:11, 5:09, 5:11, 5:05.

And last weekend, freshman John Ignacz set the table with his own half marathon time trial, in which he blasted out a solid 1:12:43. Here are his splits from his Strava post: 5:39, 5:50, 5:39, 5:45, 5:42, 5:33, 5:30, 5:21, 5:38, 5:21, 5:25, 5:25, 5:28.

All good stuff. But before we get too excited … it IS 2020 and we just got an email saying all athletic department activity would be PAUSED on Monday due to several Covid positive cases connected to freshmen dorms, with the McCann Center being converted into a massive surveillance testing center. We’ll keep trying to outrun this virus …