Holiday Party Scheduled:
Club Social Director Rachel Bleacher has secured the upstairs room at Timothy’s, 100 Creek View Rd. off Paper Mill Rd. in Newark for the club’s Holiday Party. It will be on Wednesday, December 7 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. This is always a good time to renew your dues for 2012. Invite prospective club members to come as well. There will be a donation box towards food in case they are not prepared to join at that time. Your input will be appreciated on potential award winners for 2011 and club events in 2012.
Last MAUSATF Event
The last event in the MA-USATF Off-Road Series is the Delaware Open XC Championship at Brandywine Creek State Park on Saturday, November 26. Always lots of great random prizes at this event.
Philadelphia Weekend
It was a busy weekend in Philadelphia for Pike Creek Valley Running Club members with many participating in either the Rothman 8K, the Philadelphia Half-Marathon, or the Philadelphia Marathon. All three events combined to make up the final event of the MA-USATF Grand Prix series, so people were running for themselves and for the club. Immediately below are the individual times. The USATF age grades are not yet available. I’ve taken the liberty of noting some finishing positions in the age groups of the 8K even if they are below first through third, because the competition was tough (even world-class) and the most of age-groups were large (40 to 140).
While some people observed that the weather was “perfect”, others felt that, with the conditions of temperatures rising into the 60s and bright sun early on, it was a bit on the warm side for running long distances. (See comment in personal story below.) It is known that at least 10 people had to go to the hospital for emergency treatment. Two people died: a 40 year-old man just a quarter mile from the marathon finish and a 21 year-old U. of Penn student who had just finished the half-marathon. Philly.com stated: “Although both men appeared to have died of heart attacks, according to a police spokeswoman. A Temple University cardiologist said that was unlikely, particularly with a 21-year-old victim. Alfred Bove, who has run marathons, said runners should be checked for undetected heart problems, which can worsen as blood-sugar, potassium, and sodium levels drop during a race.”
On a brighter note, John Schultz completed his 50th marathon on Sunday (after having run the Turkey Trot 10K the day before. Speaking of 50, a number of club members gathered Thursday at Cafe Napoli for a pre-race carbo-loading, which was topped with cake to celebrate President Ray Christensen’s 50th birthday. Ray celebrated by easily besting the Boston qualifying time for his new age group.
Use this link to Don Ropp’s photos taken at Philadelphia Marathon &Half: See Photos Here
Race Results:
Rothman 8K
25:29 Dan Suhar, 6th 25-29
25:57 Mike DiGennaro, 5th 30-34
28:14 Greg Cauller, 3rd 50-54
29:16 Matt Cutrona, 4th 40-44
33:07 Lynn Knothe, 5th 30-34
34:16 Dirk Sweigart, 12th 50-54
36:52 Carole Feole, 4th 50-54
44:27 Jerry Herman, 4th 65-69
1:19:47 Don Monagle, 5th 70+
Philadelphia Half-Marathon
1:41:53 Chris James (switched to half from full – wasn’t feeling well)
1:42:59 Claire Neilan
1:43:57 David Baca
2:10:25 Denise Boyle
2:18:34 Leonora Wagner
2:18:34 Gelsomina Paolini
Philadelphia Marathon
2:44:08 Andy Jakubowitch, BQ
3:11:08 Michael Brown, BQ
3:21:26 Ray Christensen, BQ
3:24:30 Adam Schilling
4:46:21 Lori Culnane
4:59:26 Beth DeProphetis
6:26:45 John Schultz
Of 120+ Delaweareans, PCVRC members had 4 of the top 12 times
Other Race Results:
Bucks County Marathon
4:29:44 Dave McCorquodale
5:28:12 Steve Thorpe
Bucks County Marathon
I have fond memories of the Philadelphia Marathon. It was my first marathon (1995) and my first BQ (1996). Between 1995 and 2006 I ran it nine times. But over the years as participation increased, parking became a real hassle. One year I got a ticket parking where I supposedly allowed to park and had to write to the Philadelphia Parking Authority to get it removed. But in 2006 when the half-marathon was added and everyone ran together, I had had it. It seemed like too many people starting together, vying for the same running lanes. There were only 8,100 finishers in 2006. I can’t imagine what its like with 20,000 finishers – as there was last Sunday. I’ve already moved on. I did Rehoboth until it moved into December. Caught the North Central Trail for a second time last year. So I was ready for something new.
Thankfully along came the Bucks County Marathon the same morning as Philly with a cap of 500. It got about 350 registered and slightly less than 300 finishers. The course is out from Yardley, PA, along the Delaware River Towpath into and through New Hope, before returning to Yardley. It advertised that we had no hassle with the parking and, indeed, the Yardley Train Station lots easily accommodated all the runners’ cars. The start and finish were right there, so no one was more than a hundred yards from their car.
Another convenient feature for someone who had to travel 72 miles to get there was the 9 A.M. start. It made it possible to not have to get up in the wee morning hours. Leaving home just before 7 A.M., we rolled along I-95 past Penn’s Landing and saw hundreds of the Philly runners going past.
In contrast to the mass start at Philly, the towpath is so narrow that the race organizers had wave starts of only 25 runners each every thirty seconds. We were seeded by predicted finish time and I started in the ninth wave. We zigzagged through the streets of Yardley and were on the trail within a third of a mile. The strategy worked as people were well spread out, yet not out of sight. It always helps to feel that you are chasing someone.
The surface of the trail was of two varieties: The first roughly nine miles (and last nine) was composed of fairly fine reddish gravel. This felt comfortable in the beginning. As we neared Yardley, the gravel became small stone and in thin shoes I was feeling a lot of the stones crunching my metatarsals and my pace slowed. The only “hills” were a dozen steps in New Hope and a few large culverts for drainage from the canal if it overfilled. But my lack of training (I only do marathons – I don’t train properly for them) meant that my legs tired. By the time I got back to the finer gravel I wasn’t lifting my legs enough and was scuffling along the surface. That wouldn’t happen on a smoother road surface.
The course also featured some humorous signs, referenced to the Philly, New York and Boston Marathons. One sign simply said “Mule” with an arrow <----. On the other side of the canal, at the bottom of an expensive property was an actual statue of a mule. At mile three, "Almost there!" At mile nine a sign said, "If you were at Philly, you'd be running up a hill right now". At mile 17 the sign said "Welcome to Newton, Home of Heartbreak Hill". Somewhere on the course, a sign had "Oh, no! Not the 59th Street Bridge!". Strangest one was "What happened here?", which was up in the New Hope area. Turns out it was the exact spot where Jessica Savitch, a well-known local news broadcaster, was murdered in 1983. Anyone who ran Sunday knows that it was inordinately warm for the latter half of November. I brought both a long and a short sleeved shirt. Eventually I choose to wear the short, but probably could have worn a singlet. However, unlike Philly, even though we were starting two hours later, we were in a rural wooded setting. It was still fairly cool at the start and the first ten miles were good because there were trees (no leaves) to help break up the effect of the sun. However, nearing New Hope, I felt more exposed to the sun and it was warm. However, by the last third of the race the sky began to cloud up and that kept things manageable. (After the race I wrote to the director suggesting possibly an 8 a.m. start to avoid as much warmth on an unusual day such as this one was.) The water stops were sufficient for a cool day, but just a bit sparse for the warmth. However, I made sure to take water and Gatorade at each stop and was sufficiently hydrated. One mistake I made was not timing my fuel intake right before I reached the hydration points. I got away with it until mile 21 when I had used up my bottles of goo and was down to a couple PowerGels. I took some of one and it was really thick. After a couple swallows, I felt myself unable to hold it down and it and the drink I had a mile before came back up. No more PowerGels for me. This was marathon #5 in my run-walk experiment. The results were not positive for me. I think I could just run a tad slower and do just as well. I still end up feeling tired legs at about the same point in the race as I always do. Of the five marathons I’ve done this year where I didn’t have some major problem(there were three like that), two were without planned walking and three were with walking breaks. Although this last one was the best time by a couple dozen seconds, those five times are all within a minute 49 seconds of each other.
Recommendation: If you crave the crowds and noise, this is not the marathon for you. If you’d like a quiet run along a towpath, with the canal on one side and, at times, the Delaware River on the other, this is the one. One disappointment for a Delaware runner. There was a postrace party at a place somewhere in Bucks County called “The Pourhouse”. Sounds good for a beer lover. But it is 18 miles away from Yardley. Meanwhile, I-95 is a couple miles outside of Yardley, which makes rolling back to Delaware very easy. Carolyn (who did a ten mile training run on the towpath) and I found the Yardley Inn for our own re-fueling. It’s right on the Delaware River, but it’s a tad pricey.