Wednesday workout, November 4

RACES

I'm still trying to get my head around Kieran's amazing performance at the Philly RNR half marathon on Saturday, where he ran the truly outstanding time of 1:04:39, and qualified for the Olympic Trials Marathon with room to spare. To say Kieran had the race of his life would be an understatement, and I could not be more proud of his spectacular run. The research arm of GRC has swung into action to answer the compelling questions the media throng have been asking me since the moment he crossed the line. GRC historians are hard at work trying to determine if Kieran's race was the greatest performance ever by a GRC man. GRC statisticians are trying to calculate the odds that a guy who stated in his introductory email to GRC in May 2013 that he did "the bare minimum to get by" when he ran high school cross country, who did not run competitively until after he graduated college in 2009, and did not train in an organized setting until he joined GRC in the summer of 2013, could meet the very, very difficult Trials qualification standard out of the half marathon barely 2 years later. And GRC's aeronautical engineers are utilizing the latest wind tunnel technology to calculate how much faster Kieran would have run if he had shaved his beard. Whatever the answers to those questions prove to be, we can all take great pride in Kieran's magnificent accomplishment. Well done!

There were other notable performances in Philly. Blake Taneff made an excellent GRC debut by running 1:06:54, a PR of over 2 minutes, which puts him 4th on the GRC all-time list. Blake, a standout at Ohio State who has ran 29:12 for 10,000 on the track, hopes to join Kieran in LA for the Trials, and I like his chances to hit the standard when he takes his next shot in January. Jerry Outlaw ran a very nice PR of 1:09:35, which sets him up well for another marathon PR in Houston in January. Tex Paul ran a solid 1:10:32, which is a big step forward as he continues to return to full fitness. Last but not least, Chris ran a huge PR of 1:12:20, which I was particularly pleased with. When Chris joined GRC in May, I regarded him as a developmental runner who was going to need at least a year to progress to the level of accomplishment that we expect from our members, but Chris accelerated that timetable considerably with his major breakthrough on Saturday.

In non-Philly results, our men's class of 2015 ran the Parks 10k, and since each of them made their debut at the distance, it was PRs all around. Kyle W led the way, finishing 3rd in 33:06, followed by Lukasz in 4th in 33:09, and Greg in 6th in 34:02. Future GRC superstar Emily Potter was second in 36:39, and they combined to win the team title. Katie continued her winning ways at the Baltimore Trick or Trot "5k" where she ran 17:46 on a course that was at least 100 meters long. Finally, Teal made her return to racing in a low key "5k" in New Jersey, and her time over the indeterminate distance was 18:48. However far she actually ran, the important point is that Teal is healthy again and back in training, as she's got a race in February that is of slightly more consequence to get ready for!

WORKOUT

We'll be at BCC on Wednesday for our normal 7:15 start, so meet for the warmup at 6:30.

I'll send the women's workout separately.

See you Wednesday at BCC.

Jerry