Mixing It Up With The Big Kids
Glennis Lofland (St. Catherine’s High School, Richmond, VA) is not afraid to mix it up with college competition. At the Carolina Chick-Fil-A Invitational at UNC Chapel Hill on Saturday 2/16, she ran a good, well paced race establishing her best time of the indoor season of 2:22.37 for 800 meters. Glennis opted to go out at a pace more in line with what she would hold for the duration and dropped toward the back of the pack when many runners started out too aggressively. She picked people off one at a time and waded her way through the field. After conservative laps of 35 and 35 the first two laps, Glennis finished up strong and even with laps of 36 and 36.
I Think She’s Getting The Fever
Miriam Smith (Blacksburg, VA) was a sworn trail runner. For years, Miriam ran an amazing number of miles enjoying the terrain and challenge of the extensive trail network in Jefferson National Forest, just west of Blacksburg. She rarely considered racing, but gained strength through the long grueling climbs from creek bottom to ridge on Brush Mountain or Gap Mountain. A change of venue due to working for just over two years in Sweden forced Miriam to run flatlands instead. At the same time, she began to do a wider variety of speed work intended to stimulate her leg speed and turnover. The plan was for her new found ability to combine with her great strength to ready her for the next trail race. Recently she took a job back in the United States and decided it was time to find a gauge to monitor her progress and to see if all that road and track work had paid off. Miriam went to the starting line at the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon last Saturday, 2/16 not knowing what to expect because she hadn’t raced in so long. Her lone marathon experience was years before.
Miriam went through the first half holding around 7:40 per mile pace and slowed slightly the second half, but steadily passed scores of runners that had gone out more aggressively. Her time of 3:26:59 landed her 158th out of 1751 competitors. It was also a PR by over 22 minutes. That’s not bad for her first race in several years and not knowing what she was capable of. Although Miriam ultimately sees herself as a trail ultra marathoner, she has already planned her next two road races for the spring.
Impressive Focus and Resolve
Colin O’Sullivan (Wilmington, NC) headed into last Saturday’s Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon with apprehension. On top of recently increased responsibility and a demanding and unpredictable work schedule as a hospital administrator and family business to attend to– both of which required extensive travel and time requirements, Colin caught a cold at the start of the week, just 5 days before the race. With a realistic goal of 2:59 in mind, Colin headed to the starting line questioning whether his exhausting pre-race schedule had taken too much from him to execute his goal. The first few miles turned out to be right on pace and after passing the half marathon mark, Colin continued to concentrate on the race at hand and not on the factors that had piled up against him before the race. The remaining miles clicked off right on pace and even slightly faster than planned to finish at 2:58:31. The finish puts Colin right on target for preparation for his late spring race.
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