Big racing weekend coming up

You want diversity? Saturday morning you'll have middle-distance (especially if that distance is to the wight room) Jason Myers, regular old distance runner Charlie Ban and marathoner extraordinaire Chris Bain all lining up for the HCA Virginia 8k in downtown Richmond -- hometown of Bain, near the alma mater of Ban and city where Dolla Billzzz and his boy Bones likely convene to watch ODU in the CAA basketball tournament every year. A half hour later, Shannon O'Neil will start the American Family Fitness Half Marathon. Seamus Bain will not be racing this weekend, however.

Sunday morning on Hains Point, throngs of GRC runners will give the 10k the old college try. They will include LDO and LTO, Chatty Cathy Campbell, Bitsy Young, Nina Nickname Forthcoming Breckelmans, Maura " Skittles" Carroll, Susan Hendrick, Teal Connor and Lauren "Woodshed" Woodall. Sam Luff Diddy will take a crack at the top spot, with Witty in pursuit, way above his mid-distance pay grade but successful nonetheless, and Outlaw back to that 10k distance he loves so dearly. Rookies Alex "Viking" Benway and Matt "Fridge" Hassett will be close in pursuit, and Dave Wertz, Dave O'hara, Sam Boimov and Scott Koonce, along with new guy Colin Raunig will take it worth the price of admission. Never mind that it's free to watch, for that matter, don't be shy about checking it out at 8 am.

Patrick Murphy will extend his stream of Run for Research 5k wins, this year at the National Harbor. He will celebrate with some hot chocolate.

Check the blog and the team's twitter account for results and possibly splits.