On The Run (December 2008)

(This "On the Run" column first appeared December 2008 in The Daily Progress)

Hundreds of our neighbors chose to do battle this autumn with the mystical 26.2 mile challenge called the “marathon”. From Chicago to Richmond and from Maine to Florida, our area gladiators crossed one marathon finish line after another. Many of the courses were challenging and some of the races were extremely crowded but no other obstacle was greater for these hard working athletes than the weather.

The primary destination for many of our area marathoners was Richmond, as over half of our local long distance racers chose this “safe and conservative bet”. A cool mid-November date and only an hour from the comfort of our homes, this familiar race had been a comforting friend to marathoners over the years. But this year’s edition turned out to be very different as some of the most bizarre and challenging marathon weather conditions scorched the souls of all who dared to venture out on such a horrific day. With absolutely no warning summer weather suddenly reared its ugly hot and humid head and bullied out our typical fall weather. The poor unsuspecting racers were left unprotected and at the mercy of searing 78 degree sunny skies with humidity in the low nineties. Add brisk 25 mph balmy southerly winds to these already poisonous conditions and you’ve got the equivalent of a marathon meltdown!

I was out on the course cheering on several dozen of my athletes and in my thirty years of coaching I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed such road carnage. Because the athletes, who had been training in much cooler conditions, had no time to acclimatize, they felt burned up after only a few miles into the race. The brutal conditions showed no mercy as close to 1,000 of the 4,000 starters never made it to the finish line and, after all were accounted for, the median time of 4:12 from last year had ballooned to 4:29 for this “memorable” 2008 edition!

Still, despite the incredibly challenging conditions, many of our local marathoners are to be commended for their perseverance in battling their way to the finish line. Folks like Eliza O’Connell, Courtney Johnson, Casey Opitz, Patty Workman, Alex Moore, Chi-Chin Wu, Cathy Branchaud, Bob Johnson, Kristen Keller, Mark Robbins, Louise McMurtrey, Nancy Davis-Imhof, Blair White, Jim Horskotte, Paul Wagner, Nick Wispelwey, Kiyoko Asao-Ragosta, Henry Reeves, Neal Ammerman, Trish Foley, Mary Fowler, Rick Kwiatkowski, Charlie Menefee, George Rich, April Ristau, Jim Dillenback, Kevin Cox, Lisa Draine, Mark Okusa, Leslie Bergin, Tommy Kinstle, Betsy Collins, Lauri Wilson, Kase Luzar, Dave and Carol Meyer, Daniel Allen, Jeanine and Tom Wolanski, along with many other locals, are all to be congratulated for their gallant efforts on such a brutally unkind day.

And here’s a brief and all too incomplete list of some of our area friends who are to be commended for their excellent finishes at other marathons this fall: Bill Potts, Kara Williams, Glen Anderson, Kenny Ball, Julia Bellis, Mike Cassity, Leisa Gonnella, Jerri Emm, Ray Clarke, Brian Hoard, T.J. Wilson, Mike Hirsch, Pete Wooten, Mary Alice Clore, Stacy Siebert, Rebecca Stone, Stephen Pisano, Laura Kluge, Katie Rohyans, William Cox, Harry Landers, Kristen Solomon, Bob Johnson, Kerry Hendrix, Tara Friedman, Barb Wiggins, Laura Kluge, Ed Spellman, Tracy Sandau, Katie Riedel, Wendy Keller, Melissa Vanderplaats and Jonathan Hirsch.

And while we’re on the subject of local long distance racers it’s worth mentioning the extraordinary accomplishments of Chris McCartney, who debuted with an excellent 10:38 at the prestigious JFK 50 Miler last month and Sophie Speidel, who lopped over 30 minutes off her previous fastest time to score an impressive 15:03 p.r. clock stopper (4^th female overall and tops in the 45+ age category) at the grueling but gorgeous Hellgate 100K!

The Legs of November: The area played host to no less than a half dozen footraces this past month and along the way these November not-for profit events entertained over 2,500 folks and donated over $60,000 for area causes. Cartie Lominack and Bette Dzamba and the fine folks at The Shelter for Help in Emergency kicked off November with “The 5K Shelter Run” as Chris Hess and Maureen Bjerke led over 250 of their fellow male and female racers through the streets of beautiful Downtown and across the finish line. Carol Finch and the fine folks at Blue Ridge Outdoors hosted a record crowd of 220 trail blazers for the popular “Blue Ridge Burn”, the annual romp through the woods of scenic Walnut Creek Park, with Burkhard Spiekermann and Samantha Floyd taking home blue ribbons in the 5K and Roger Williams and Emily Ferguson placing first in the 10K. As is tradition, a concerned and dedicated group of UVa students played host to over 500 sober runners just prior to the kickoff of UVa’s last home football game. The runners pledged not to partake in the bizarre ritual of drinking a fifth of alcohol before the last home game (known as the “Fourth Year Fifth”) and, instead, they raced in the annual Fourth Year 5K. And November went out with a bang (or should I say with a loud gobble) as 1,300 holiday runners participated in the Boar’s Head Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning. The Boar’s Head folks were ably assisted by close to 70 race day volunteers from The Charlottesville Track Club, The Blue Ridge Rotary and Western Albemarle High School as we safely guided the trotters over what is widely considered to be the area’s toughest 5K course. George Heeschen and Louis McMurtrey were first racers across the finish line.