2019 Braddock Relays

The last time DeMatha attended the Braddock Relays, I was Coach Mike's assistant coach during the fall of 2012.

That season, and the 2013 season, were the last times that DeMatha had a full 7-man varsity squad on which every runner broke 19 minutes in any single 5k or 3-mile race. I am very excited because I think we have a chance to accomplish that feat for the first time in six years with a strong final six weeks of training.

This was a terrific meet. Not only did our athletes do very well, but they seemed to have a lot of fun before and after their 2500 meters of suffering. The atmosphere, especially for the relay race, was like that of a high school football game, and you don't get that atmosphere very often at a cross country meet. It's one of the reasons I've been wanting to put this meet back on our schedule and this finally seemed like the right year to do it.

Note: With each result I have included a couple of numbers.

• "MP" designates the athlete's mile pace. I did not get mid-race splits for any athletes, but this number tells you your average pace through the race. Some of you started much faster than this, some ran very close to this pace throughout, and some may even had started off slower and then sped up.

• "P5" designates your projected 5k time using a formula devised by marathoner Pete Riegel. Using your P5 time, I have also stated whether you set a new virtual personal record (PR) or virtual season best (SB).

  • Keep in mind that the P5 time assumes a similar course (perhaps even two circuits of Saturday night's 2500m loop) and no strong bias on the part of the individual athlete toward speed or endurance. An athlete who excels more in shorter events (such as the 400, 800, and 1600 in track) will probably run a bit slower in the 5k than his V5 time. An athlete who "gets stronger" as the distance gets longer (think of that phrase in the same way you'd think of the concept of a "rising fastball" in baseball) will probably run a bit faster in the 5k than his V5 time.

Extras Men's 2500m Race

Here are the results for our extras race runners (41 total runners in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the third section of the extras race.

14 Ronald Rucker (So.) - 9:30.3 [MP 6:07, P5 19:49] Virtual PR by 2 minutes 39 seconds

26 Jaden Davis (Fr.) - 10:26.1 [MP 6:43, P5 21:45] Virtual PR by 3 minutes 3 seconds

30 Caleb Ghatt (Sr.) - 10:49.2 [MP 6:58, P5 22:33] Virtual PR by 1 minute 49 seconds

31 Jonah Lyke (Fr.) - 11:07.7 [MP 7:10, P5 23:12] Virtual PR by 21 seconds

32 Jon Kasner (So.) - 11:30.9 [MP 7:25, P5 24:00]

33 Jacob Robertson (So.) - 11:34.0 [MP 7:27, P5 24:06] Virtual PR by 1 minute 48 seconds

34 Bodior Elliott (Sr.) - 11:38.5 [MP 7:30, P5 24:16] Virtual SB by 2 minutes 44 seconds

35 Georges Tadonki (Fr.) - 11:42.6 [MP 7:32, P5 24:24] Virtual PR by 6 minutes 26 seconds

36 Lucas Arzayus (Sr.) - 11:51.7 [MP 7:38, P5 24:43]

37 Yaphet Negussie (Fr.) - 12:03.2 [MP 7:46, P5 25:07] Virtual PR by 4 minutes 5 seconds

38 Andrew Foreman (Fr.) - 12:09.8 [MP 7:50, P5 25:21] Virtual PR by 4 minutes 5 seconds

40 Jaquada Moses (Fr.) - 13:07.8 [MP 8:27, P5 27:22] Virtual PR by 5 minutes 7 seconds

41 Jackson McCormick (So.) - 13:53.3 [MP 8:56, P5 28:57] Virtual PR by 33 seconds

Full disclosure, Jaquada was not supposed to run today. He hasn't hit his qualifying time yet, but soon after we arrived at the track, he realized that there were not going to be official results for the extras race. I was responsible for getting times for my athletes (I also counted places to determine where our athletes finished and how many there were in our section of the extras race). He asked me what was stopping him from running, and my only response was that I wouldn't be recording his time as a matter of principle. Obviously, I ended up recording it purely because I was impressed by his insistence on running anyway. I still did not intend to count it toward his qualifying time due to the distance, but the fact that his virtual 5k time is nearly a full 3 minutes faster than his goal time, and he did it wearing basketball shoes, I am going to give this one to him. Nice job, Jaquada!

Ronald had a solid season debut and and most of our athletes ran times that I expect would lead to PRs in the 5k. Jon hasn't run an official 5k yet (last week's course at Georgetown Prep didn't have an official distance) and Lucas came very close to seeing a virtual season best but cramped up in the last quarter mile or so and missed it by less than 15 seconds.

Bodior, for his part, got a virtual 5k time just 20 seconds off his PR, set at the WCAC championship his sophomore year.

Men's A/B/C Championship Relay (5x2500m)

Here are the results for the relay teams. I will show individual splits below. Each team is identified by the color of the baton they were carrying. The number in front of each team signifies their overall place in the championship relay race. The number inside the brackets is the average mile pace for each relay as a whole. [Note: We're still waiting on official results from this race. I will update with the teams' places and their official times when they are up. For now, these are just my hand times]:

Red - 45:23.8 [5:51]

Blue - 48:50.3 [6:17]

Silver - 49:43.2 [6:24]

Splits

Here are the splits for each of our 15 relay athletes, including their MP and P5 numbers. They are listed in the order in which they appeared on their respective relay teams.

James Hudson (Jr.) - 8:48.8 [MP 5:40, P5 18:22] Virtual PR by 51 seconds

Dawson Grogan (So.) - 8:50.8 [MP 5:42, P5 18:26]

Thomas Parsons (Sr.) - 8:51.1 [MP 5:42, P5 18:27] Virtual SB by 1 minute 5 seconds

Jayden Keels (Fr.) - 8:58.3 [MP 5:47, P5 18:42] Virtual PR by 30 seconds

Langston Stovall (So.) - 9:54.7 [MP 6:23, P5 20:39] Virtual SB by 16 seconds

Jaiden Mosley (Jr.) - 9:32.4 [MP 6:08, P5 19:53] Virtual SB by 1 minute 18 seconds

Tariq Lewis (So.) - 9:42.0 [MP 6:15, P5 20:13] Virtual PR by 56 seconds

Hayward Smith-Cassidy (Sr.) - 9:33.2 [MP 6:09, P5 19:55] Virtual SB by 47 seconds

Ian Parsons (Fr.) - 10:02.5 [MP 6:28, P5 20:56]

Julius Gamble (Jr.) - 10:00.4 [MP 6:27, P5 20:51] Virtual PR by 38 seconds

Samuel Cockrell (Fr.) - 9:52.4 [MP 6:21, P5 20:35] Virtual PR by 1 minutes 49 seconds

Gavin Foran (Jr.) - 10:21.1 [MP 6:40, P5 21:34] Virtual SB by 27 seconds

Christopher Toomer (Fr.) - 9:46.0 [MP 6:17, P5 20:21] Virtual PR by 3 minutes 21 seconds

Desmond Holt (So.) - 10:02.9 [MP 6:28, P5 20:57] Virtual PR by 1 minutes 23 seconds

Michael Metz (Fr.) - 9:40.9 [MP 6:14, P5 20:11] Virtual PR by 2 minutes 57 seconds

Dawson's P5 time is only one second off his PR, set at last year's WCAC championship meet, and Ian's was 5 seconds off his parkrun time from two weeks ago. Thomas was just 16 seconds off his PR, Jaiden was only 5 seconds away from setting a virtual PR, and Hayward was 7 seconds away from setting one of his own. There are a few things I saw that will need to be addressed this week, but nothing that has me too concerned. All in all, I am very happy with Saturday's results.

College Park parkrun (9/14/19)

We had two athletes run in the College Park parkrun Saturday morning. Congrats to Steven and Max who both hit their 5k qualifying times! Here are their results. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the parkrun (139 total entries in the race). In brackets is their average mile pace:

7 Steven Camarano (Jr.) - 21:58 [7:04]

36 Maximo Legaspi (Fr.) - 26:46 [8:37] PR by 5 minutes 6 seconds

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned, take the virtual PRs with a small grain of salt since most athletes do find either speed or endurance to be more of a strength than the other. Very few are equally strong in both disciplines, and that does mean the projection formula isn't going to be spot on for most athletes. That said, if your virtual PR or SB was significant (at least 30 to 45 seconds), you can pretty much take it to the bank that you would have at least set a small PR or SB.

As expected, first and second year runners not only were more likely to have set virtual PRs today, but they set them by larger amounts. Now that we are a month into our in-season training schedule, their bodies have mostly adjusted to demands of running every day and their bodies are beginning to respond to the training we've done to this point. Perhaps most importantly, they are learning how to run these distances and are figuring out what their bodies are truly capable of, rather than holding back like they may have done at the parkrun and even last week at the Woodward Relays.

Quick Preview

Next week we have our first 5k meet of the season at The Landon School. It is a great, albeit challenging, course. It is mostly flat but there are some gradual inclines and one hill in particular, just before the 2-mile mark, that you all should prepare yourselves for mentally.

For the boys, there will be A, B, and C races. The first two allow a maximum of 9 entries per race (so we will have 9 varsity and 9 varsity B entries). The C race allows and unlimited number of entries. Because the C race runs last at this meet, I will be entering everyone in this meet, including the few athletes who have not yet met their qualifying times. I don't have to worry about any athletes in that race taking too long to finish and affecting my ability to prepare the next group of athletes since they'll be running in the last race anyway.

I will publish meet information ASAP, including who has been entered in each race. If your name appears for the A or B races and you will not be able to make it next Saturday, I need to know by Wednesday so that I can make changes to our entires before the 7:59pm deadline. If you are in the C race and cannot make it, I still need to know before race day, but letting me know after Wednesday will not preclude somebody else from getting a chance to run in one of the top two sections.

"Even when you have gone as far as you can, and everything hurts, and you are staring at the specter of self-doubt, you can find a bit more strength deep inside you, if you look closely enough." - Hal Higdon