Looking Forward

Indoor Is Inbound

Start breaking out the pin spikes and the inhalers, y’all. We are now approaching the season of tight turns, weird distances, and track hack — lots of track hack.

A brief anecdote about my last (and also first) indoor track race: I happen to be allergic to dust. I was running an indoor mile on a flat, blue track at Christopher Newport University in January of 2022. The indoor facility at CNU has, as I quickly learned, a lot of ambient dust. We were all wearing masks until it was our turn to race, so nobody really noticed until the gun went off. I had a decent enough race despite the fact that my tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of my mouth.

As soon as I finished running, however (and I mean as soon as I finished), I couldn’t stop sneezing. Nonstop. Up to three or four every minute. In between, I was coughing. I’d inhaled more dust in the last six minutes than I had in a month spent in my (still pretty dusty!) apartment. The only time it stopped was when I ran, so I wound up doing a five-mile cooldown in the 20-degree streets of Newport News with my friend Rachel just for a respite from the involuntary freak-out happening in my diaphragm.

Needless to say, I’m stoked for indoor 2023.

Now, NIRCA doesn’t have an official indoor season, so the majority of results will come from club runners competing unattached at open meets around the country. So, this is where I ask for your help: please keep me updated. Clubs - -send me your race schedule! Send me your results! I wanna know what’s up!

D4 Takes Philly

There have been plenty of club runners crushing things on the roads, including Turkey Trots, BQs, and speedy halves. But one of the more jaw-dropping results I’ve seen arrive when I was sent a Strava activity from University of Oregon club runner Emmett Saulnier, who took ELEVENTH OVERALL at the Philly Marathon a few weeks ago, running 2:24:17. That’s 5:30/mile, and only about 6 minutes away from an OTQ.

Not only that, but when I checked the Philly official results page for corroboration, I noticed that Emmett Saulnier had finished 1 place and only 5 seconds behind Zack Holden (10th, 2:24:12), who up until this year was running with the UVA running club. That’s (current or very recently removed) club guys taking 11th and 12th at a major American marathon. That’s pretty cool.

These are definitely the fastest marathon result I’ve seen from a club runner so far. Is this a league record? I know a couple of Northeastern and Boston College guys broke 2:30 at Boston in the Spring, and I know Jacob Montgomery ran 2:30 in Toledo while still running club at Pitt¹, but I don’t think I’ve seen any clubbers go sub-2:25 before. At least, not while still running club. Either way, 2:24 is... well... it's fast. Congrats to Mr. Saulnier and Mr. Holden, 'cause geez I bet that hurt.

Rep the RSTC on Race Day

The time has come. RSTC singlets are coming.

After deliberation, preparation, and some field research, I’m going to be putting in the first order of RSTC singlets early next week. Orders from Pontoon (the company I’m ordering from) generally take about 4 weeks to arrive, which ain’t half bad considering they’re coming from Down Under! If you want a singlet, fill out this form and Venmo $25 to @d5lefko by Monday, 12/5. If I put in the order early next week, the singlets should arrive just in time for Indoor!

One other thing I feel compelled to clarify about these: the singlets are by no means a money-making venture. $25 should be just enough to cover my costs and the shipping to send them from me to all of you! If I turn any “profit,” it’ll be a buck here and there if a stamp winds up cheaper than expected.

Not trying to make it weird! I only mention this because I want to be clear: I’m honored people want to rep the RSTC at all, and I’m thrilled at the idea of people showing up to races wearing this gear. I’d send a free singlet to everyone who wants one if I had the budget, but I don’t².

Now, with that outta the way, order your singlets! Viva la RSTC!

1. Has Nick Wolk raced a marathon?

2. Not, that is, unless Warren Buffet suddenly starts responding to my DMs.