2023 College Park parkrun #1

As I did last year, I want to begin by thanking all of the volunteers who so generously give their time, energy, and enthusiasm to make the College Park parkrun happen every week. It's such a great opportunity for us to tune up for the season every August and it wouldn't be possible without their commitment.

We had a great turn out today. We won't quite double in size over the next week, but we'll have many more athletes joining us over the next few days as we approach our September 1 cut-off date. Those who made it today, though, got an invaluable head start of the season.

Without further ado, let's jump right into the results. Since I was the only coach out there today I was unable to get mile splits, but as we continue through the season that will be a regular part of these recaps as an opportunity to see whether you may be starting too fast or too slow.

At the end of the writeup, I'll share a few takeaways from today. For our returning athletes, in blue, I have noted all athletes who set a new PR (personal record) in the cross country 5k (3.1 mile). I know some of our new athletes have run the distance before and may have set new PRs, but I only track your DeMatha times because I hope you'll run your best times (so far) as DeMatha students. And in silver, I have noted all athletes who set a new PCB (personal course best) for the Paint Branch Trail out-and-back 5k course (if you've never run this course before, today's run is your current PCB and I've placed a silver asterisk (*) next to your time).

Open Race

Here are the results for all of our athletes (295 total entries in the run). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the race.

5 Jalen Neptune (Jr.) - 19:35
9 Brandon Smoot (Jr.) - 20:23*
10 Roman Zentek (So.) - 20:38 PCB by 1 minute 16 seconds
13 Maxwell Ellison (Jr.) - 21:23*
14 Phillip Marshall II (Fr.) - 21:24*
17 Tyler Ellis (Jr.) - 21:33*
29 William Herman (So.) - 22:50 PCB by 1 minute 27 seconds
36 Jesse Holland III (So.) - 23:26 PCB by 25 seconds
44 Brendan Dougherty (Jr.) - 24:11 PCB by 10 seconds
45 Ryan Pickett (So.) - 24:14*
46 Cameron Lamb (So.) - 24:14
47 Andrew Righi (Sr.) - 24:15
48 William Jackson (Jr.) - 24:15 PCB by 18 seconds
50 Joseph LeGloahec (So.) - 24:24 PR by 46 seconds
69 Xavier Raymond (So.) - 26:12
82 Nicholas Berry (So.) - 26:55
99 Tyson Woods (So.) - 28:00*
101 Renaud Williams (Fr.) - 28:04*
107 Aleko Rodousakis (Jr.) - 28:33*
120 Aidan Lopez (Jr.) - 29:27*
135 Daniel Traves (So.) - 30:47
154 Akintunde Shoetan (Jr.) - 32:24*
164 Alexander Davis (So.) - 32:49*
174 Jesse Kliman (So.) - 33:59*
176 Elliott Kramer (So.) - 34:34

We also had a few former team members run at today's parkrun. Congrats to each of them!

11 Ian Parson '23 - 20:53
20 Corlie Jackson McCormick '22 - 21:41
121 Yaphet Negussie '23 - 29:27
165 Georges Tadonki - 32:51

I'll start by commending some of our returning athletes on excellent starts to the 2023 season. Joseph LeGloahec wasn't able to  join us for any of our training sessions this summer and yet he still came in today and set a new PR. While it's common for sophomores to make big improvements from their freshman performances, it's very difficult to come into a new season already running the fastest times you've ever hit, so that definitely tells me he's been keeping himself in shape this summer.

Brandon Smoot was only five seconds off his PR from last season, so he's also coming into 2023 in excellent shape. While he's a junior, last year was his first time running cross country in high school, so I think we can expect a similar jump for him as I typically can expect from sophomore athletes.

We also had several new personal bests for this course amongst our returning athletes. William Herman and Roman Zentek both ran more than a minute faster today than they did on this course last August.

Looking at our new comers, I'm really proud of the effort everybody put into today's performance.

One performer I'd like to highlight is Phillip Marshall II, who was at several of our summer training sessions and has looked very good in practice. I think he managed today's race very well. I'm excited to be able to get his mile splits in next week's race so we can get more information to help him improve, but we've had many terrific athletes in recent years start out in the 21s at the parkrun (e.g., Roman Zentek last year and Hayden Walsh the year prior).

In fact, looking at this past year's graduating class, Christopher Toomer graduated as the school's #7 5k runner ever and didn't get into the 21s until the second parkrun of his freshman year. Meanwhile, Ian Parsons, who clinched us the WCAC title last year, barely broke 21 minutes in his first high school parkrun.

Final Thoughts

Once again I'd like to congralate everyone on their performances today. I know not everyone is thrilled with the time they ran today, but that's part of the rationale of running this parkrun every preseason. If you didn't train over the summer, hopefully you're not a senior and you get a chance to learn from that and commit yourself to training next summer. In either case, all you can do now is put your best foot forward this season and improve every day.

If this was the first time you've ever run a 5k, be proud of that accomplishment. We hope to accomplish much more this season, but celebrate every victory you can along the way. This is one of those victories.

If you did not break 30 minutes today, I hope you'll still make an effort to join us at next Saturday's meet. Because the JV and freshman races are earlier in the day than the varsity, you won't be entered to race next week, but it will still be a fun atmosphere and you should be there to encourage your teammates and to get an idea of how meet day typically operates. Two weeks from today, at the Chesapeake Invitational, the JV race is after the varsity race, so everyone will be entered to run regardless of the time they ran today and including those who were not able to make it to today's parkrun.

Information for the upcoming week and next Saturday's meet will be posted to the website over the next couple of days and I'll send all of that out via Remind as it gets posted. Athletes, remember to check your emails on Monday morning; by then, I will have sent you your recommended training paces for this week's workouts. I'll do my best to estimate your training paces if you did not run today.

Parents, you'll receive an email from SignUpGenius soon that you can use to volunteer to bring water, gatorade, and various snacks for the athletes to have at next Saturday's meet.

Thanks everyone and congratulations! We've officially begun the 2023 season!

"It's not what you did last year. It's what you're going to do this year. That's more important." - Albert Pujols