We had another great weekend of racing, once again highlighted by the soon-to-be legendary David Wertz.  Dave tagged along with my elite Georgetown Running Company Race Team athletes to a major track meet at Swarthmore College, and ended up stealing the show by running 15:30 for 5k, a 29 second PR!  This was the first track meet of Dave's life, and he was out there with outstading college and post-collegiate athletes, and he more than held his own.  To put Dave's race into perspective, he ran 3 miles at 4:58 pace.  Gang, believe when I tell you that there are not a lot of 35 year-olds out there doing that!  I continue to be astounded by Dave's progress, and he is only going to keep getting better.  We also had an excellent performance by Beth Young in the Green Bay half marathon.  What is most noteable about Beth's race is that she made the very difficult decision to abandon her plan to run the full 'thon and drop down to the half because of atrocious weather conditions.  I've told my athletes for years that there is no point trying to run a marathon when it is apparent the weather will not cooperate, and Beth deserves enormous credit for having the wisdom to listen to my sage advise.  There is an enomrmous temptation, particularly for an out-of-town race, to run despite a bad forecast.  The thinking seems to be that I've made the trip, so I might as well run.  However,  that it is almost always the wrong choice.  There's always another marathon a couple of weeks later to run, and to my way of thinking it makes no sense to compete when the conditions are going to preclude a good performance.  It takes months to recover from a marathon, and so saving it for a better day is the sensible approach.
 
While I'm talking about the Georgetown Running Company Race Team, I want to take the opportunity to plug the Father's Day 8k.  It's a family oriented event, on a totally flat course, and it's the primary fundraiser for the team.  Those of you who have been at practice the last few months have seen some of the GRC athletes on the track, and if you've watched them run, you know these guys mean business.  This is a group of truly elite men and women who compete on the national level despite working full time, and with very minimal financial support.  By running the race, you not only benefit yourself by participating in an excellent event, you will be supporting a very deserving group of athletes.

We will make our triumphant return to TC Williams this week, so I expect to see a big crowd.  Those of you who endured the long intervals last week at Fort Ward will be happy to know that the workout tomorrow will be 10 x 400 with a 200 jog (out and back on the turn).  As always, if there are any questions, give me a shout.  See you out there tomorrow.
 
Coach Jerry