Road Rage
Club Running Takes to the Streets
April is a wonderful time to be a runner, pollen notwithstanding. As the weather finally starts to make up its mind and short sleeve-weather becomes a glorious constant in our lives, we find ourselves in a brief window where running is… comfortable! Here in Virginia, I know it’s only a matter of weeks before the heat really sets in and the mosquitos begin to swarm.
April is also championship season, at least for those of us in the club world. Last week I wrote about NIRCA’s outdoor track nationals, but that was only one championship meet out of three to be held this Spring. This past weekend, the other two — the Road 5k and the Half Marathon — took place in Bloomington, Indiana. Once again, I was unable to attend in person, but I was following along (and running a race of my own!) from Williamsburg.
First and foremost, I was appalled by the conditions in Bloomington on Saturday. While I was racing my way through a sunny, breezy, 48-degree day, NIRCA’s championship contenders were braving rain, sleet, and intense wind. Seriously, go back and watch the highlight reel on NIRCA’s Instagram — these conditions were 2018 Boston Marathon-level atrocious. As if that wasn’t enough, the half marathon course was a decently hilly, roughly 2.5-mile loop to be run 5 times. Saturday was to be a test of grit as much as it was fitness.
In the men’s 5k, The Miami Striders (of Ohio, mind you) swept the podium. Elliot Rodstrum took the gold in 16:04, followed by his teammates Johnny Sayle (16:20) and Alex Kowolak (16:33). Meanwhile, the women’s race saw the return of several of this year’s track All-Americans, most notably Michigan’s Anna Nagelhout and Pitt’s Caroline Beard. It was Indiana’s Claire Overfelt, however, who wound up taking home the win, running 18:02. Anna Nagelhout was ten seconds behind in 18:12, and it would nearly be another 90 seconds before third-place runner Nicole Polemitis of CMU arrived in 19:40. Caroline Beard was hot on her heels, running 19:49 for fourth.
The Half Marathon championship was, by all accounts, a real sufferfest. When the dust had settled and the sleet had abated, it was Notre Dame runners who took home the gold in both the men’s and women’s races. Jack Beakas won a tight race by 46 seconds, running 1:11:19 to finish ahead of Michigan’s Zach Duval (AKA this year’s steeplechase champion), who ran 1:12:05. Max Villareal of Kentucky finished third in 1:13:15. Though they narrowly missed any podium finishes, Pitt men Eli Anish, Tim Purcell, Kartik Kannan, and Cole Bishop took places 4-7, all finishing within 2 1/2 minutes of each other. If the half marathon were scored like a cross country race, Pitt would have scored a 35 (MRun would have taken second with 71 points. No other team had 5 men finish the race).
On the women’s side, Shea Aquilano won it all in 1:23:26, over 5 minutes ahead of runner-up and fellow UND runner Karson Girvin (1:28:46). Mizzou’s Erica Shangraw wasn’t far behind, finishing in 1:30:14 for third. Notre Dame athletes Claire Reid and Gracie Wetli rounded out the top 5, cementing the Notre Dame women as the fastest half-marathon club team in the nation. Our cross country scoring metric from earlier might be a bit misleading in this case, so let me put it this way: Notre Dame only had 4 runners in the women’s race, but they all finished in the top 5. Pitt and Grand Valley State also made strong showings.
Hokies Keep it Rolling
After taking home a men’s team victory at outdoor nationals, the VTRC returned to the track last weekend at the Wildcat Track Festival in Lynchburg, VA. The only club team in the meet, Virginia Tech did us proud with front-of-the-pack finishes in several events.
Adam DeFosse took 2nd in both the 100m and 200m dashes, running 11.10 and 22.70. Philip Lopez also took 3rd in the 200m dash, just .21 seconds behind his teammate. Meanwhile, Aidan McCarthy returned to the 400m, finishing second in 50.72, and Harrison Naseh ran a 4:10 1500m for 7th overall. Logan Shepperd and Evan Grace both won their events outright with a 1:58.41 800m and a 15:23 5000m, respectively. Konnor Rafferty won the steeplechase, too, finishing in 10:54, and the VTRC men’s relay teams took first and second in the 4x100m and 4x400m races. Sydney Szabos, Suzie DiLorenzo, and Catherine Schumacher finished 2-3-4 in the women’s 5000m race, and Sarah Phillips also took second in the 100m hurdles, running 19.44. Additionally, Maddie Tchong leapt 10.40 meters in the women’s triple jump, earning herself third place overall and a new club record in the process.
Author’s Note:
Reasonably Speedy has been a little quieter than usual on social media for the past couple of weeks, and nobody’s been more aware of it than me. The reason for this is quite simple: college is hard! As many of you know, I’m finishing up my last semester at William & Mary. Between school, job hunting1, writing, training, and all the other perks of being a college student, my time for Reasonably Speedy’s social media presence has been… limited, to say the least. This is compounded by the fact that, technologically speaking, I am essentially 67 years old.
THAT BEING SAID — I’ll be done with school (forever!) within a month, and I’ve got a lot of ideas for RS moving forward. So this is my solemn promise to you all: the newsletter will keep arriving in your inbox every Friday afternoon, and I’ll post as much as I can in the meantime. Once the summer rolls around, things will really start picking up. On that, you have my word.
P.P.S. —
We’re currently sitting at 98 email subscribers. Y’all know what to do:
Somebody hire me, please!