The Best of the Best:
the All-RunWashington
team
Obsaa Feda and 61 of his fellow high school harriers
Burke Lake:
the legendary XC course Eating disorders and running A disappearing running oasis in a sea of suburbia
Cover: Obsaa Feda has a chance to leap from a strong 2017 into a dominant 2018, with lofty goals for himself and his Northwood teammates. RunWashington photo by Marleen Van den Neste
EDITOR’S NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ALL-RUNWASHINGTON TEAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 BURKE LAKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TOWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UPCOMING RACES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BORN HOLDING A STOPWATCH . . . . . . . . . . . RUNNING ON EMPTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MONUMENTAL RUNNERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DOING IT ALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EVERYBODY’S RACING FOR THE WEEKEND CELEBRATE RUNNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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FALL 2018 PUBLISHER Kathy Dalby RunWashington Media LLC EDITOR IN CHIEF Charlie Ban charlie@runwashington.com SENIOR EDITOR Dickson Mercer dickson@runwashington.com PHOTO BY BOB DONALDSON / PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE “REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT 2018 PITTSBURGHPOST GAZETTE
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a regional running magazine editor. Six years ago, I had that opportunity. After years of reading ham-handed accounts of running in newspapers for most of my youth, RunWashington publisher Kathy Dalby gave me a chance to write with authority and confidence, and in great depth, about a topic I love. With a bunch of pages, a handful of writers and great designers in Orangehat and Azer Creative, we have put out what I believe is one of the best running magazines you’re going to find. It’s a dying breed, and in the time since I started as editor in chief in 2012, I’ve seen Running Times and Marathon and Beyond fall by the wayside, both favorites of mine. Print advertisement just hasn’t been able to keep up with the pace of a sport that was an internet early adopter. And that is our future. Bringing you great feature stories every week, rather than a bunch every few months and developing regular features that we wouldn’t have space to print and a diversified range of subject areas within our diverse sport. Last year, RunWashington began working with Local News Now to upgrade our website to be more functional. In the intervening months, we’ve built our roster of writers and photographers to generate many more original stories about our sport, in our area. We compiled resources people can access in a pinch, and we’ve reached the point where the magazine can hand the baton off to RunWashington online, much like when just as how we took the baton in 2012 from Brenda Barrera, who edited the Washington Running Report in the latter parts of its 28 years and brought it to a glossy and colorful magazine format. So, this will be our last issue in print, but it is far from the end of RunWashington’s presence in the D.C. area. With growing coverage, an engaged social media presence and some special events, we will be even more visible than we have been. We can do more online than we ever could in print. Breaking news. Trail closures and running route conditions in bad weather. Interactive resources like our map of water fountains, schedule of group runs and more. More stories from more voices in the D.C.-area running scene, and chances for writers to ply their craft. It has been a pleasure to put 26 issues in your hands over the past few years, and I am looking forward to putting even more stories in front of your eyes every week. If you haven’t yet, sign up for our Tuesday afternoon email, which brings you the week’s new stories. Thank you for reading stories like Patrick Benko’s race against the Metro, Matthew Hua finding his sport, Father Andy Buechele, Mike Stubbs’ cross country course, Weini Kelati, shoe designer Claire Wood, streakers, back-of-the-packers, Perry Shoemaker and more. We have even more in store. Check it out at www.runwashington.com. See you out there, Charlie NEW CONTRIBUTORS NIAMH BRENNAN is a senior at Woodrow Wilson High School who specializes in baseball, running and equestrian photography. When she’s not taking pictures she enjoys spending time with her family, riding horses and watching the Nationals. www.niamhbphotography.com VANESSA JUNKIN works for the Wicomico County, Md. Recreation, Parks, Tourism & Civic Center and is the secretary of the Eastern Shore Running Club. She previously covered courts and justice for The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md. SOPHIE TEDESCO is a junior at George C. Marshall High School in Virginia where she is a captain on the cross country team, managing editor of the school newspaper and an avid writer who has self-published her first novel.
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COPY EDITOR Katie Bolton CREATIVE / PRODUCTION AZER CREATIVE www.azercreative.com SALES DIRECTOR Denise Farley denise@runwashington.com 703-855-8145 CUSTOMER SERVICE office@runwashington.com BRANDING ORANGEHAT LLC The entire contents of RunWashington are copyright ©2016 by RunWashington Media, LLC. All rights reserved, and may not be reproduced in any manner, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, results, or other materials are welcome but are not returnable and are preferred via electronic communication to charlie@ runwashington.com. Please inform yourself of applicable copyright and privacy laws before submitting for publication; if we decide to publish your submitted material we conduct no such checks and you alone will ultimately be responsible for any violations of any laws including infringement and copyright. Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher, advertiser, or sponsors. Back issues are available for $5.00 for each copy to cover postage and handling. RunWashington is published four times yearly by RunWashington Media LLC, 4544 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22304. Complimentary copies are mailed to subscribers, area businesses and events. Be advised that running is a strenuous sport and you should seek the guidance of a medical professional before beginning an exercise regimen.
@runwashington /runwashington @runwashington
RUNWASHINGTON PHOTOS BY ED LULL
BY CHARLIE BAN Look to the left, then to the right. Everyone on this starting line started crawling and somehow ended up here, wearing a pair of spikes. Some found their niche after trying other sports. Others found their identity as a runner in their parents or siblings’ path. A few became runners out of dumb luck. A couple didn’t have. When I was your age, they would say we could become front runners or kickers, that is to say, you could be a runner since you could walk, or you just took it up a few years ago. 4 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
Today, what I’m saying to you is, when you’re facing a loaded starter’s pistol — what’s the difference? However they got there, RunWashington’s coaches panel chose them as the best of the best of the D.C. area’s cross country programs. Regardless of state or federal district, comprise the All-RunWashington team. From there, seven more runners in each area were chosen for the D.C., Maryland and Virginia preseason. Our coaches panel this year consisted of: John Ausema, Gonzaga; Jenn Deitz, West Potomac; Jim Ehrenhaft, National Cathedral School
Front row: Jessica Trzeciak, Jenna Goldberg, Nandini Satsangi, Chase Kappeler, Sarah Coleman, Seneca Willen, Julia Ghselli, Ellie Desmond and Bethany Graham Back Row: Kevin Carlson, Sam Affolder, Obsaa Feda, Jacob Hunter, Max Greczyn, Jack Leech, Edward Cerne, Gavin McElhennon, Garrett Suhr
and St. Albans; Kevin Hughes, Georgetown Visitation; Giovanni Rubenete, Northwood; Chris Pellegrini, West Springfield and Chad Young, Bethesda-Chevy Chase. They focused on cross country performances when picking teams, but also figured in recent track times. Head-to-head matchups often served as tiebreakers, but there was always room in the subjective decisions for potential. And these coaches are the first to admit they are not infallible, and any perceived slight should be motivation to prove them wrong. Let’s meet the All-RunWashington team.
All-RunWashington Sam Affolder Kevin Carlson Edward Cerne Obsaa Feda Max Greczyn Jacob Hunter Jack Leech Gavin McElennon Garrett Suhr Luke Tewalt
SR JR SR SR SR SR SR JR JR JR
Loudoun Valley Loudoun Valley Lake Braddock Northwood Bishop O’Connell Loudoun Valley WT Woodson Gonzaga Richard Montgomery Washington Latin
Sarah Coleman Ellie Desmond Julia Ghiselli Jenna Goldberg Bethany Graham Ava Hassebrock Chase Kappeler Nadini Satsangi Jessica Trzeciak Seneca Willen
SR JR SO JR SO SR JR SR SR SR
West Springfield Broad Run Annandale Walter Johnson John Champe Tuscarora West Springfield Poolesville TS Wootton Robinson FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 5
Trading spikes for spikes
Lax no more
At 5’10”, Ava Hassebrock is understandably, and frustratingly, asked frequently if she is a volleyball player. She tried, back in eighth grade, when her father insisted she try an organized sport. “It was probably one of the worst experiences,” she said. “Not because I was horrible, I was, but the team wasn’t organized, it wasn’t fun, we weren’t very good.” When starting as a freshman at Tuscarora, she ran cross country to get in shape for the high school volleyball team she could only hope would be more fun. She was better at running and had more fun. Three years and three straight fifth place finishes at the Virginia 5A cross country meet — two of which helped the Huskies to team titles — along with fifths in the 1600 and 3200 meters this spring. This pairs with a 29th place finish at Foot Locker South as a junior. Hassebrock is one of four seniors returning for Tuscarora this fall, eying another team title, but they also want to build for the future. “I want to make sure team has something once we leave,” she said. “I hope we can train underclassman to take over and keep things going.”
Luke Tewalt came to running from a lesscommon feeder sport — lacrosse. “When I was a kid, I was focused on playing lacrosse into college,” he said. But as a seventh grader, he decided to explore more of the strongest part of his game — running. By eighth grade, he was sold on track, and his lacrosse exploits have been limited to playing catch with his brother. He’s the star of the Washington Latin team, finishing second at the D.C. state meet and DCXC Invitational sophomore race last fall to Gavin McElhennon. For a track specialist training on his own, going against D.C.’s strongest boys team, it isn’t bad. “Running is about bettering myself, it’s a competition I have with my own times,” he said. “It’s a great form of self reflection because you can see yourself getting faster. Every time I do, I get hungrier and want to go even faster.” Following a 4:18 to win the 1600 meters at the DC state outdoor meet, Tewalt is eager to push himself more in cross country, bringing his track season intensity to the grass. He also won the D.C. 3200 meters in 9:33. It will likely mean traveling alone, or with teammate Oliver Spiva to Northern Virginia’s competitive meets.
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DC Dylan Blumenthal Cullen Capuano Liam de Beaufort David Giannini Mitchell Jubeir Jonathan Merril Arjun Thillairajah
JR JR SR SR SR SR JR
Wilson Gonzaga St. John’s Gonzaga Sidwell Friends St. Albans Sidwell Friends
Allison Barker Anna Cestari Brennan Dunne Zoe Edleman Sophia Hanway Cady Hyde Ava Nicely
SO SR SR SO SO JR JR
Sidwell Friends St. John’s Georgetown Visitation Washington Latin National Cathedral St. John’s Woodrow Wilson
schools race, the WCAC Championship and the Virginia Independent Schools Championship. Aside from success, he has also found fulfillment in cross country. “The community among the team and people you compete against, it’s unique among high school sports,” he said. “We all make each other faster, and the better we all run, the more exciting the race is.”
Next up Jenna Goldberg, Ellie Desmond, Jessica Trzeciak, Sarah Coleman, Nandini Satsangi, Julia Ghselli, Bethany Graham, Chase Kappeler, Seneca Willen
Out of the boat Heading into high school at Gonzaga, anything seemed good to Gavin McElhennon. “I just figured I’d do crew,” he said. “I hadn’t done it before but why not.” A vacation with a friend, which included a 5k at the beach, convinced him otherwise. He did pretty well and decided on cross country as a freshman, and was sold. With injuries to a few runners during his sophomore year, he wound up leading the Eagles, winning the DC state meet, and scoring top-10 finishes at the Glory Days and Third Battle Invitationals. He topped off his season with a 75th place finish at Nike Cross Southeast.
Steep hills and learning curves Max Greczyn’s gym class mile at Bishop O’Connell got him noticed by the track team during his sophomore year. His presence at the head of the pack at the Oatlands Invitational the next fall got him noticed by spectators who came to see the area’s most competitive meet, but then he faded quickly when the reality of the course knocked him back to 47th. “That was really rough,” he said. “I was out with the Loudoun Valley guys, but that hill put me in my place.” He recovered, though, and won the DCXC Invitational junior race, the Frank Keyser small
For the last four years, Walter Johnson’s girls team has gone on a tear, winning consecutive Maryland 4A titles. Now that Abbey Green, there for all four years, has graduated, it will fall to junior Jenna Goldberg to keep the Wildcats rolling. She joined cross country after being cut from the soccer team as a freshman. “After I saw the success I was having in cross country, I realized it wasn’t so bad,” she said. She was the eighth finisher for Walter Johnson as a freshman, then third as a sophomore, finishing 14th in the state 4A championship. She ran 11:41 for eighth place in the 3,200 meters at the hot state outdoor meet and was third at the DCXC Invitational sophomore race. She was 65th at the Nike Cross Southeast meet. Things look good for the Wildcats, with four varsity runners returning and other young runners eager for their shots.
Eyes on the prize Obsaa Feda just got tired of soccer, and thought he’d try cross country once he got to Northwood High School. It was a good idea, because by the end of his freshman year he had run 4:40 for 1600 meters. Two years later, he finished 30th at Nike Cross Southeast. While his race in North Carolina was exciting, Feda got more motivation from the time spend off the course, bonding with his teammates. Though they were 13th in 4A last year, Feda leads a young team that has been energized by coach Giovanni Rubenete, a Northwood alumnus who has come home. They want to win the Maryland state meet and keep FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 7
AVA HASSEBROCK
the ball rolling toward Nike Cross Nationals. “Seeing Loudoun Valley run the way they did gives us a goal,” Feda said. “We motivate each other, just the way they do.” Building out the Northwood team will be crucial to enhancing their depth, and Feda thinks what the team offers can help overcome aversion to running, which in turn will lead to reveal the talent in the student body. “If we can get people out to practice once, just for an easy run with the team, they’ll get a feel for the environment and what’s possible and want to be a part of it,” he said. Feda was fourth in a fast and competitive county cross country championships race. And second in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the state track meet.
Grandfathered In Some runners are made earlier than others. It would seem that Senca Willen’s life as a cross country runner was preordained, thanks to her grandfather, Frank Gagliano’s, career as a top distance coach for Georgetown, the Nike Farm Team and the New Jersey/New York Track Club, but it was Girls on the Run in fourth grade that sold her on the sport. “We only ran a few days a week, but I liked it,” she said. Now, as a senior on Robinson’s team, she works out with some of the guys on the team., 8 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
which has helped her finish sixth in the Virginia 6A championship last fall and 81st at Nike Cross Southeast, along with a second place in the 6A 1600 meter state championship. And while she recognizes what her grandfather has accomplished, Willen also appreciates that keeps his advice to the encouragement a layman would offer. “He tells me things like to drink enough water,” she said.
A Suhr thing Like Willen, Richard Montgomery junior Garrett Suhr started with recreational track in fourth grade, but his competitive side showed early. “I started to win, and I liked it,” he said. He likes to go fast, including a 4:21 that won the indoor Maryland 4A title, but he also likes to grind races out. “We had a dual meet against Poolesville, and it was so muddy, but it was so much fun,” he said. “There were points we were basically crawling, but we were still trying to beat each other.” Suhr came on strong at the end of the season, finishing sixth at the Montgomery County Championships, second in the 4A West regional and fourth in the Maryland 4A state met.
MD Aaron Bratt Noah Clifford Nicholas Karayianis John Riker Mark Unger Zachary Worthman Rodrigo Yepez-Lopez
SR SR JR SR SR SR SR
Walt Whitman Albert Einstein Winston Churchill TS Wootton Richard Montgomery Clarksburg Walter Johnson
Emily Gravell Avery Jackson Alicia Lauwers Breanna McDonald Logan Rohde Adna Trakic Charlotte Turesson
SO JR JR SR JR SR SO
Sherwood Clarksburg Walt Whitman Walt Whitman Poolesville TS Wootton Richard Montgomery
“We’re not the same runner,” she said. “He’s a shorter guy, I’m a distance person. He’s a track guy and I’m a cross country girl.” While she was only 10th in the 1600 meters at the state track championships, she was eighth last fall in the larger field at the Maryland cross country 4A. As a sophomore, a year after Wootton failed to qualify for the state meet, she led them to second place, with a sixth place individual finish. “We knew on the starting line we were going to have a good race,” she said. The team was third the next year, but smells a comeback looming. LUKE TEWALT RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY NIAMH BRENNAN
Chasing family tradition
Edward Cerne’s claim to fame as a freshman was as a workout horse for Lake Braddock teammate Kate Murphy, who was gearing up for the 2016 Olympic Trails in the 1,500 meters. He was glad to do it, but was aching for some personal growth. “I wanted to be more than just Kate’s training partner,” he said. As a junior, he was making a name for himself. A combination of iron pills and good old fashioned mileage give him a spring in his step and a lot more endurance. He won the Monroe Parker Invitational to kick the season off and the Frank Keyser Invitational’s large schools race before leading the Bruins to a state title with his sixth place finish in the Virginia 6A race. That’s all cool, but his favorite memory? “My friend got hit in the face by a frisbee,” he said, at Burke Lake.
Chase Kappeler knew hard work would lead to results in cross country. It was easy enough to see looking at her father’s running career. Dennis Kappeler ran the fifth fastest time at Burke Lake while he was in high school, and when Chase tired of the drama enrapturing her soccer team, she knew where to turn. “I didn’t like having to rely on other people to perform,” she said. “I’m pretty self-motivated, so whatever I could do with running, I would be able to see the results. The outcome is what I make it.” She is much more comfortable on a team where everyone’s work shows in the stark truth of the clock, like the West Springfield distance medley relay team that she anchored to a runnerup finish at New Balance Outdoor Nationals. As a junior, she finished 12th in the state 6A cross country race, third in the Occoquan Region and 12th at the Third Battle Invitational. On the track, she won the Virginia 6A outdoor 1600 meter title.
Family business
Bloodsport
Like Hunter, Jessica Trzeciak was surrounded by runners and knew it was only a matter of time until she started. Her father ran at Duquesne University, her brother at the University of Pittsburgh, and by seventh grade, she was hooked. She feels a distinction between the siblings’ time at T.S. Wootton.
Kappeler’s teammate, senior Sarah Coleman, has recovered from a stress fracture and is training again to bring home the 6A title they felt was possible after winning the Third Battle Invitational last year. Coleman was attracted to the sport by the competitive streak necessary to succeed. “I thought it’s just running, but it was
Fast on his own
FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 9
much more than that. I feel so motivated when it’s either me or someone else finishing first.” Coleman finished 10th at the Third Battle Invitational and sixth at the 6A state meet before finishing 42nd at Nike Cross Southeast.
Beckner at the 6A state meet. She ran solid track times in the spring, including a 5:01 1600 meters at the DMV Meet of Champions behind only Ellie Desmond, but cross country is her sport.
A budding Champe
The best from the west (of Mongtomery County)
Bethany Graham wasn’t really great at sports as a kid. But, she had to do something, so in sixth grade, her mom signed her up for a recreational track club. By the time she got to John Champe, she has a knack for distance running, and finished second in the DCXC Invitational freshman race. Her first two years at John Champe were marred by injury but allowed her talent to show. A 5:02 1600 meters and an 11:05 3200 meters this spring showed she came back from a stress fracture that ended her cross country season in September (albeit after three invitational victories).
The gazelle Julia Ghselli tried a variety of sports in seventh grade but settled on running pretty quickly. She had a meteoric freshman year, shocking Heather Holt to win the Monroe Parker Invitational, taking second to Foot Locker finalist Abbey Green at the Glory Days Invitational and winning the Gunston District and Occoquan Region before trailing Olivia 10 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
Nandini Satsangi ran some hot races, winning the DCXC junior race and finishing fourth at the Glory Days Invitational. She did alright when it was cooler, too, with another fourth place at Third Battle and the win at the 2A West regional. She won the 1600 meters in the 2A state meet and finished third in the 3200 meters. She’s a distance runner at heart, whose idea of a good time is a 10-mile run.
Another soccer casualty Jack Leech was a refugee from the W.T. Woodson soccer team cuts as a freshman, but he had already started running cross country for conditioning. His race times dropped to 16 minutes his sophomore year from 21 minutes as a freshman after he put in more summer miles. “That’s when people said I might have a gift,” he said. He finished eighth in the state 6A championship after finishing just 11th in the
VA
Gavin McElhennon, Max Greczyn, Obsaa Feda, Jack Leech, Jacob Hunter, Edward Cerne, Sam Affolder, Garett Shur and Kevin Carlson
Occoquan Region. He was third in the 6A 3200 meters this spring. He also leads a team that returns every runner from the fourth place cross country team.
Sibling recruitment Her brother’s good experiences running cross country at Broad Run convinced Ellie Desmond to try it out. By mid-October, at the Third Battle Invitational, she was 16th. A year later, she was the Loudoun County Championships runner up and fourth in the 5A state meet. “Once I had a good race, I started training hard and the two came together,”she said. In the spring, she ran 4:56.81 to win the 1600 meters at the DMV Meet of Champions.
Oh yeah, those guys Still looming large over the area, the Loudoun Valley Vikings return seven of their top 10 runners, three of whom made the AllRunWashington team and two more made the Virginia team. They are in good shape to make a repeat run at the Nike Cross Nationals title that they won in December in the lowest boys’ team title in meet history. The entire senior class is headed to the University of Virginia, but what remains is a group of runners who is coming back stronger, faster and more mature than a team that scored 15
Kellen Hasle Silas Matthew Kevin Murphy Sam Pritchard Ben Smith Chris Weeks Connor Wells
JR SR SR JR SR JR SR
Loudoun Valley Robinson James Madison West Springfield George Marshall West Springfield Loudoun Valley
Ricky Fetterolf Emily Graves Isabelle Gulgert Amy Herrema Caroline Howley Nicole Re Laura Webb
SO JR SR JR SR SR SR
Loudoun Valley Patriot South Lakes West Springfield McLean Chantilly Woodbridge
points at the Virginia 4A state meet. Juniors Sam Affolder and Jacob Hunter distinguished themselves over 3200 meters, with Hunter winning the Virginia 4A title and Affolder breaking 9:00. Affolder ran 4:08 to win the DMV Meet of Champions 1600 meters. Affolder is the second in the line of great distance runners, behind Syracuse sophomore Noah Affolder. Hunter’s lineage is like a forest after an elephant stampede, with masters mid-distance star Joan and world cross country championships team member Marc for parents, along with brother Drew, a 3:36 1500 meter runner. He could have been a pitcher, but Jacob got into the family business and found his footing in his junior year. He put his best race together at Nike Cross Nationals, when he not only finished 43rd, but used his large frame to keep his smaller teammates from being pushed outside in the first quarter mile of the race which helped them get into good positions. He finished fourth in the 4A state meet to help his team sweep the top five spots, 11th at the Great American Festival and 22nd at Nike Cross Southeast. “I love this sport because the fifth runner matters as much as the first,” he said. Affolder won the PTXC and Oatlands Invitationals, the 4A region and state titles and was runner up at Nike Cross Southeast. He finished 23rd at NXN and was a big reason Loudoun Valley set the NXN boys’ record for lowest team score. How does a team like that stay motivated? “We have to win it again,” he said. “We can never be satisfied and always find a way to improve on our races.” Junior Kevin Carlson was the youngest Loudoun Valley runner in Portland, where the sophomore finished seventh for the Vikings in 133rd place. His best performance came at the Loudoun County Championships, where he finished seventh. “It was a fast race on a fast course, and being able to race that well when everyone had a good race motivated me a lot.” He finished fifth in the 4A 3200 meters in the Spring.
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Tradition versus uniformity on Fairfax County’s hallowed grounds BY ANDREW GATES
Starting line of the 1975 Northern Region Championships at Burke Lake. PHOTO COURTESY ED LULL FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 13
Anyone who’s been part of Fairfax County cross country knows the Burke Lake course. You can’t talk to a cross country runner without hearing about it. Since 1974, the park in Fairfax Station has served as a primary competition location, playing host to numerous postseason races, district meets and the season-opening Monroe Parker Invitational. Some of the best distance runners in the country have been through there. Despite a few minor tweaks here and there, the course has remained relatively unchanged since 1974, which gives it a certain sentimental identity. But unlike the other courses that grace Fairfax County’s high school cross country scene, Burke Lake is not a 5K. It’s 2.98 miles and it has been that way from the beginning. This has sparked a debate over whether to preserve this unique trait or to conform the venue to other courses. Matt Gilchrist, coach at Chantilly and a Northern Virginia track historian, argues for tradition. “Burke Lake is important for us because it hasn’t had those major changes, unlike Great Meadow,” Gilchrist said, referring to the state meet course. Gilchrist ran the course decades earlier while attending George C. Marshall. He appreciates that running times can be compared across a 40-year span. “I think it is important to remember the history.” Track historian Pearl Watts agrees. “It’s been the same length for all this time and the biggest thing about that course is that people can compare their times to other people from the past,” Watts said. “It’s been that way since 1974.” Watts belongs to a legendary family responsible for some of Burke Lake’s strongest times, set back when he ran for Thomas Edison in Alexandria. His younger brother, George, held the course record for a while, running 14:42 in 1974. Watts’s old record, however, has since been beaten by Alan Webb, who ran 13:57 in 2000 as a senior at South Lakes. Webb managed to achieve that time by passing the two-mile mark in 9:10. He might be best known for holding the national record in the mile, but his Burke Lake record still stands too. Since that record-setting day, Watts has come to believe that going out in 9:10 was even more impressive than Webb’s final result. “Nobody ran that course harder that day,” he said. “You can’t go through there at 9:10 without knowing it’s going to hurt the last mile. His goal was to break 14 [minutes] and he knew he had to go [out] that fast.” Erin Keough, then a student at Langley, set the girls’ record, 16:09.7, in 1985, shortly before winning her first of two national championships. Burke Lake is full of stories like these, recorded by historians through the years. Bill McDowell was the first to record the top finish times at Burke Lake. When he stopped, Watts took over the role, covering the course 14 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
The Burke Lake course during the 2017 Monroe Parker Invitational. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN
for nearly a decade and researching historical data. Watts visited the public library and combed through the microfiche, reading any information he could find on previous meets to expand McDowell’s list. To get on Watts’s list, men had to break 15 minutes and women had to break 17 minutes. T-shirts are still printed today with the names of all-time top performers. “People really aspire to get to that [list],” Watts said. “Anybody who follows the history of it would know about that.” While Watts no longer maintains his list, Gilchrist keeps his own database of top times, and his stores are a “couple thousand names deep.” He sees his current database as a way to continue McDowell’s and Watts’s legacy. “It’s all about preserving history,” he said. “Milestat can’t do that … The value to running [the Burke Lake course] is that it is a link to individuals and teams of the past.” Gilchrist adds: “We’re only a link in the chain. It’s about showing respect to your heritage.” Despite some minor changes throughout the years, the first two miles have basically remained the same since 1974. Watts would know; he measures it himself whenever the course is altered. “I’ve measured that course five or six times with different wheels,” he said. “The course changes subtly each time, but the twomile mark is the two-mile mark every time.” In fact, Watts was the one who first discovered that the course was 2.98 miles long, rather than 3 miles. “I’m the one who came up with that measurement,” he said. “For years, people would say it’s 3 miles.” But Watts got out his wheel and measured, making extra sure that the course was the length the papers reported it to be. “Since it’s not 3 miles, you can’t call it 3 miles. It’s probably only forty or fifty yards difference, but that’s what it is.” But not everyone is happy about Burke Lake’s unique length. Some, like W.T. Woodson assistant coach Alex Hulse, would rather see it altered to a standard 5K distance. “It’s just strange because you can’t compare it to any other meets anywhere because it’s not 5K and it’s not 3 miles,” he said. “It would be hard to change it from what it is based on the great runners who have run there. But I think if the course was created today at Burke Lake, they would not create that course.” In addition to the awkward distance, Hulse finds the course difficult and unpleasant, citing a choke point around mile two where runners weave through a campground then choose to either run on a paved road or a narrow strip next to it. “There’s difficult footing all around,” he says. On this score, Watts doesn’t disagree. “I’ll be the first one to tell you it’s a lousy course,” he said, citing the loud noise that echoes through the trees and bounces off the water. “But what it does have going for it is its history FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 15
for comparative purposes of everything.” Hulse has heard this argument before. He understands why local fans love the course, though he also realizes that he is biased, having not grown up in the area. As a Coloradan, Hulse never had the chance to compete at Burke Lake as a high school runner. “I didn’t grow up drinking the KoolAid,” he said. Watts, on the other hand, started running in the area before the Burke Lake course even existed. “If they do [lengthen it] for some stupid reason, I’ll be the first to measure it and call it BS,” he said. Yet according to park officials, Watts has no reason to worry, and Hulse has no reason to hope. “I don’t think there’s any plans to [change the course],” said park manager Keith O’Connor. “Nothing’s come up.”
TOP 10 BURKE LAKE TIMES NAME BOYS
Alan Webb Sharif Karie Sean McGorty Jim Hill Dwight Stevens Mike Mansey Ahmed Bile Alex Corbett George Watts Louis Colson GIRLS
Erin Keogh Aimee Harms Caroline Alcorta Kate Murphy Melissa Dewey Sophie Chase Laura Heiner Heather Holt Wendy Neely Jackie Kerr
SCHOOL
TIME
DATE
South Lakes West Springfield Chantilly Oakton T.C. Williams T.C. Williams Annandale Lake Braddock Edison Edison
13:57.0 14:19.0 14:19.0 14:26.4 14:29.9 14:30.1 14:38.0 14:41.0 14:42.0 14:42.0
Oct 25, 1999 Oct 31, 1996 Nov 2, 2012 Nov 2, 1978 Nov 1, 1979 Nov 2, 1978 Nov 3, 2011 Nov 5, 2014 Nov 1, 1974 Oct 31, 2013
Langley Annandale West Springfield Lake Braddock Hayfield Lake Braddock Centreville GC Marshall Lake Braddock Jefferson
16:09.7 16:30.7 16:31.0 16:34.0 16:42.0 16:42.0 16:47.0 16:48.0 16:49.2 16:56.0
Oct 31, 1985 Oct 31, 1985 Nov 6, 2013 Oct 26, 2016 Nov 4, 2004 Nov 2, 2012 Oct 30, 1997 Oct 26, 2016 Oct 30, 1986 Oct 26, 1995
The two-mile mark on the Burke Lake course, during the 2015 Monroe Parker Invitational. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN 16 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
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Last Hurrah for the Towers? BY KELYN SOONG Tom Martin isn’t sure what he’d do without the “towers field” in Bethesda. Maybe his crosscountry runners would have to do more workouts on the track, he says. Maybe he’d even think about retiring from coaching. That’s how important the roughly 1.25-mile, grass-and-dirt loop around the WMAL radio towers is to him. It’s more than just a 75-acre field nestled between two highways and not far from Walter Johnson High School, where Martin coaches. It’s a crucial piece of the local running culture in Montgomery County. “For me, it’s almost as if, when that goes away, I might consider retiring,” Martin says. “It’s invaluable just to have… this nice open space where we can do all different kinds of workouts. It would be a tremendous loss to our program.” Martin isn’t the only one who feels that way. I graduated from Walter Johnson in 2005 and ran several seasons on the track team, where Martin was the assistant coach. Almost every runner I know has a towers story. Of all the workouts I ran in high school, the pain of the towers workout is still the freshest in my mind, nearly two decades later. Last year the Montgomery County Planning Board approved a preliminary plan to build 309 residences — 150 townhomes and 159 single-family homes — on the site. The final site plan is still under review, says Tom Mateya, the director of land development for Toll Brothers, the construction company overseeing the project. But barring any unforeseen delays to the project, Mateya says that development could start as early fall of 2019. “We’re still doing the technical paper work,” he says. “Next fall [we] would be starting the site work, meaning starting 18 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
installing utilities. At that point any use of the property would be over.” Soon, coaches like Martin and Steve Hays of Walt Whitman High School will have to find another field for time trials and weekly workouts. The elite post-collegiate Georgetown Running Club and the American University cross country teams have also used the field for workouts and will be forced to go elsewhere. Neighbors like Hays will need to prepare for the daily cacophony of construction and potential extra traffic. Dog walkers will no longer be able to use the field as an escape from the bustling world that exists just yards away from the hidden pastoral gem in Bethesda. When Hays lines up his runners for time trials each season, he is finding out exactly how they stack up compared to teams in the past. The towers course provides the perfect measuring stick. “As someone who lives there, it’s an easy place to go out and get an easy run in,” he says. “In terms of the team, when I go year to year, I can say, ‘you guys did as well as this team or that team.’” Construction of the towers began in 1940 and the site was dedicated the following year, according to the online publication Insider Towers. Greg Dunston, the Georgetown Prep cross country coach and long-time running coach at Walter Johnson, discovered the towers when he started coaching the Wildcats in the late 1980s. He was looking for places to run beyond Cabin John, where overexposed roots had become hazardous for runners, and overheard a few students talking about the towers. Dunston decided to check them out for himself. Not long after, Dunston started bringing FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 19
his team over on a regular basis. It was a game changer to have a field so close to school. “You can be really creative about the workouts,” he says. “From repeat miles, to running 600 yards, uphill-downhills, we played ultimate Frisbee there. I like the idea of being real creative and getting a real workout and having the space to do it in.” I still vividly recall a workout that Dunston and former track coach Tom Rogers assigned. On a cold and windy afternoon during my freshman season of indoor track, Rogers called the team to the track and informed us that we would be heading over to the towers for “bush runs” or “one-two-trees,” as Dunston calls them. About a fifth of a mile into the course, one finds three bushes, each several meters apart. You had to run to the first bush and back, then to the second bush and back, and finally to the third bush and back. That was one repetition. Typically we did four to six of them. “The bush runs were speedwork in disguise,” Rogers says with a chuckle. “It’s about 400 meters of uphill sprints. You also got not just speed work, but hip strength, power development and lactic threshold.” That was my introduction to track. As I watched the upperclassmen hunch over in pain, I knew this sport was unlike anything else. When I joined the outdoor track team my senior season, after a few years off from running, I returned to the towers, this time for a tempo run around the field. In the beginning I struggled to keep up with my teammates. Several weeks later, on the same winding, undulating course, I began to lead the workouts. Soon after, I ran a personal best in the mile. That’s what I will remember the most about the towers. It was never about being the fastest runner on my team; the towers field was a way for me to connect with generations of runners from Walter Johnson. I could understand the pain of the bush runs and the pride of getting stronger after each mile repeat. “There are so many students over so many years who told themselves the exact same thing… just make it to the bush, just make it to the top of the hill, just make it around the bend,” says Amanda Bird (née Lindsay), a 2007 graduate of Walter Johnson. “I’ll never know them, but there’s a tangible place and intangible feelings to be shared. It was nice to remember a place that was there even though I was gone.” A few months ago, I ran to the towers and stood at the bottom of the hill, staring up at the bushes. Aside from the white sign in front of the field announcing the site plan, everything looked exactly the same as I remembered. I sprinted from one bush to another, pausing to catch my breath. I barely finished one rep. It was hard and awful and made me question my sanity. I sure am going to miss it. 20 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
Members of the Georgetown Running Club warm up before a workout on the fields they know as the “cell tower field.” RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN
FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 21
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registering for an event. I’ll check out other websites to make
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Nov. 24 TURKEY BURNOFF 5 MILE/10MILE GAITHERSBURG, MD 26 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
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JINGLE A L L
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Born Holding a Stopwatch West Springfield’s Chris Pellegrini jumped into coaching early BY SARAH BETH HENSLEY
CHRIS PELLEGRINI instructs West Springfield runners SARAH COLEMAN and CHASE KAPPLER. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY ED LULL. 28 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
Chris Pellegrini has spent almost half of his life coaching at West Springfield High School. After he graduated from the Fairfax County school, he returned to his alma mater to serve as an assistant coach to the cross country program he cherished. Now, 17 years later, Pellegrini leads three sports, coaches more than 200 high school students and maintains a nearly year-round sports schedule. On top of that, Pellegrini is leading a girls’ cross country team that could be in contention to win a state title. The 35-year-old admits that the “everyday grind” of both running and coaching appealed to him — although he wouldn’t describe himself as a stellar runner. But that desire to seek a challenge led him to approach then-cross country coach Vic Kelbaugh in 2001. As a first-year student at nearby George Mason University, Pellegrini figured he could assist the boys’ team and see how this coaching thing really worked. “I still don’t know why he would say yes to an 18 year old, especially not one of his best runners,” Pellegrini said. “I wanted to prove to him that I wasn’t there to hang out with my friends; I wanted to be here and I wanted to help out in any way that I could.” That passion for the job blossomed. He took on coaching the distance runners in the school’s track and field programs. By 2006, he was the head coach for both the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams; later, he became the head coach for both track and field teams. Add in his time as the head coach of the indoor track program and Pellegrini is looking at a pretty full plate. But he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I like routine, and I like building, and to me this is a never-ending building process,” said Pellegrini, whose time either running or coaching at West Springfield High School has encompassed 50 total seasons, or about 20 years. “I don’t know what that feels like to not have that 3 to 5 time slot filled,” he said of his typical practice time. Pellegrini has been an instructional assistant in the school’s special education department for more than a decade as well. And while predictability is nice, Pellegrini is looking ahead at a different kind of fall season. Although he is reluctant to talk too much about it, his girls’ cross country team could take home a state title in 2018. It would be the first state championship in his coaching career. In the 2017 state meet, the girls’ team finished third, behind Oakton and Lake Braddock — a school just a few miles from West Springfield’s campus. “[Lake Braddock] is the New York Yankees of the cross county scene in this area,” he said. “Any time you think you’re as good as them, you’re probably about to win a state championship. Because that’s the caliber they are.” Pellegrini said his young team is “battletested” and versatile — featuring both cross county chops and track speed. But with its sights set on Lake Braddock, the team will FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 29
need to stay healthy and focused, he said. Sarah Coleman, a West Springfield junior on the cross country team, said Pellegrini’s guidance and the team’s chemistry point toward a strong season. “He makes it a great environment for everybody,” Coleman said. “… He sometimes has more faith in you than even you do.” Pellegrini’s ambitions are bigger than him. Part of what drives him to want to win a state championship is to make his mentor, Kelbaugh, proud. “He is a tremendous coach — I probably learned about everything from him,” Pellegrini said of Kelbaugh, who coached the boys’ cross country team to a state championship during his 34 years at the helm. Kelbaugh agrees that a successful season is in Pellegrini’s future. “He needs some state championships that I think are coming his way,” said Kelbaugh, who coached alongside Pellegrini for seven years. “And I think he has set himself up to get that. He stays in there season after season and creates an atmosphere that is so helpful to the kids and can build a great program.”
What it takes to be a good coach Pellegrini has coached thousands of student athletes, and with each one of them, he tries to foster a love of the the sport. He wants his athletes to leave high school with fond memories and a passion for running; if
30 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
they move on to compete in college, he wants to them to have room to grow. He enjoys seeing the athletes develop over the years — something he likens to starting and finishing a project. “Whether the athlete is slower or gifted, I like to see their progress from beginning to end,” he said. “Like if an athlete isn’t in the program for four years or leaves early, I feel cheated if I don’t get to go from the beginning to end of it.” It all requires balance, too, he added. There has to be harmony between progress and not overdoing it: “You can get great performances from your athletes, but you don’t have to run them into the ground to get it.” When Andrew Lackey started running in 2012, he said he was one of the slowest boys on the team — but Pellegrini pushed him over his four-year running career. He graduated as a top competitor on his cross country and track teams. “He was very patient with me; he is very patient with all of his athletes,” said 19-yearold Lackey, who went on to run cross country during his freshman year at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “He has the potential to turn anyone in the program into a really good runner.” Training high school students can have its own nuances, but Pellegrini said at the end of the day, it’s all about strengthening the coach–athlete bond. “Some coaches are technically brilliant but can’t achieve success because their interactions with kids aren’t good enough,” he
said. “If you can establish a relationship with athletes and they know you believe in them and you’re going to give them everything you’ve got, then they will give you everything they’ve got in return.” Pellegrini dwells on some of his own experiences as a runner to help him be a better coach. As a high schooler, he enjoyed the challenge of running, but often found pre-race nerves got the best of him and hindered his performances. Now “relax” is one of the more common ideas he communicates to his athletes. “He wants us to work on our mindset in competition. Even after races, even if you have a bad race, he allows you time to get over it,” said Coleman, who runs track under Pellegrini as well. “He always says, ‘Keep your head up, you’re not done yet.’” Pellegrini’s enthusiasm has inspired her beyond the course or track: she wants to be a coach some day. “I want to make runners feel the way that he does — that you can do anything you put your mind to in the sport,” Coleman said, adding she hopes to one day coach cross country at the college level. Could a future as a West Springfield coach be on the horizon? “If the opportunity comes up, I wouldn’t mind,” she said.
“I’m never off the clock” At West Springfield, track season ends June 15 and cross country practices begin on July 30. That leaves Pellegrini a month and a half when coaching is not on the calendar. But
that doesn’t mean the work is done. “I’m never off the clock; I never stop thinking about it,” he said, adding that’s the case particularly heading into a fall season loaded with expectations. He’s grateful for his patient wife of six years, who knows that his work is never done and that texts, phone calls and emails from athletes or parents happen year round. During his less busy weeks in the summer, Pellegrini logs some miles of his own. It’s an attempt to try to keep up with his own athletes at the beginning of the season. “If I can’t show them I can work hard to reach a goal, I’m afraid I would lose some of my credibility,” he said. That’s part of what has allowed him to be so reliable, Kelbaugh said. People know Pellegrini is committed to the school and the athletes — no matter the time of year. “I think that’s a big asset for any program to have someone who is that stable,” he said. “No, you would never anticipate that someone would latch on that completely. People come and they go. He didn’t come or go.” So what’s in Pellegrini’s future? Are more decades leading the teams a possibility? “The more I look at it, it becomes harder and harder to think that I’ll actually leave,” he said. At one point he wanted to be an assistant coach at the collegiate level, but now he recognizes the challenges and rewards that come with being a high school coach — and that’s enough to entice him to stay. “This is a never-ending building process,” he said, repeating his mantra. “And I don’t think it’s ever going to stop.”
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Female runners struggle quietly with eating disorders BY ISABELLA TILLEY
Montgomery Blair alumna MORGAN CASEY RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY MARLEEN VAN DEN NESTE FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 33
As the Montgomery Blair High School cross country team geared up for its weekly long run, Morgan Casey felt a pang of hunger. She would silently grind through the discomfort, and eventually it went away. This habit only worsened as the year wore on. By the end of her junior year, Casey was at least seven pounds lighter than the beginning of the year, a state champion, and anorexic. She is not an anomaly. A 2007 study found that around 20 percent of female high school athletes self-reported disordered eating. Athletes tend to underestimate disordered eating and eating disorders, however, so the actual number could be much higher. This problem continues, and may even intensify, in college. One Columbia University study found that 35 percent of female college athletes were at risk of developing anorexia nervosa, and 58 percent were at risk of developing bulimia nervosa. Those with eating disorders face worsened physical health and a are also a high risk of suicide. With a mortality rate of about 10 percent, anorexia has been called the “most fatal mental health disorder” by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Reasons Casey first started skipping lunch to save time. “I could just be filling my time with, instead of eating, with doing other things [like homework],” she says. Going into her senior year, however, she became much more conscious of how her weight correlated with her body image and her running times. She liked the way she looked when she wasn’t eating, and she was scared to gain back the
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weight she had lost. Samantha Strong, co-founder of the Lane 9 Project, a nonprofit dedicated to educating active women about eating disorders and women’s health, echoes that sentiment. As a cross country runner in high school, she was terrified of going through puberty and gaining weight. “I was going to no longer look like a scrawny prepubescent girl, and that scared me,” she says. “I didn’t want my body to change.” To avoid that change, Strong restricted her diet severely, to the point that she had osteoporosis at age 16, and didn’t get a period until she was 19 or 20. She wanted to “look like a runner,” and she was inundated with images of what female distance runners should look like: lean and muscular, with almost no body fat. Casey can relate. “I look at Shalane Flanagan, or Emma Coburn and … I want to look like them,” she says. “I want to be really strong, really fit, really skinny.” Strong points out that this idealization of thin bodies is attached to a belief in the running community that thinness will make you faster. “It’s very easy to equate success with a very specific body type,” she says. Alexis Fairbanks, another Lane 9 cofounder, experienced this as a distance runner at SUNY Cortland. “If a girl ran faster than me and she was smaller than me, that’s where my mind went: ‘Well, she’s faster than me because she is thinner than I am,’” she says. To achieve thinness, Fairbanks restricted her food intake, labeling foods “good” and “bad.” For a while, she only allowed herself to eat pizza the night after a race, but eventually she cut out gluten and dessert entirely.
Casey skips meals for the same reason, believing that attaining her junior- year weight will allow her to race the same times as she did when she won the Maryland 4A State Championship in the 800 meters. Despite a change in coaches between her junior and senior year seasons, she attributes her slight slow-down to her weight gain. This common belief — that thinness will result in fastness — is misinformed. Heather Caplan, a registered dietician and another co-founder of Lane 9, explains that weight is only one of many factors in race performance. When athletes begin college athletics, for example, they may rapidly improve due to the change in training, but they are often quick to attribute their improvement to their weight loss. “That faster time might be initially attributed to weight, but that’s probably not actually … the main driving factor,” Caplan explains. Weight loss and food restrictions are not sustainable. “There’s eventually that threshold where [athletes] get injured, or they get slower, because they don’t have the energy to pull from,” Caplan says. According to her, the consequences of food restriction include “nutrient deficiencies, bone and muscle mass loss, increased risk of injury, chronic fatigue, [and] insomnia.” Female-bodied athletes risk losing their menstrual cycle, which can lead to infertility and unhealthy hormonal imbalances. For Fairbanks, overtraining and underfueling led to a stress fracture during her sophomore year. Once recovered, she still wasn’t achieving the times she had run during her sophomore year’s indoor season.
“I had the best race of my life, and then all the races after that just got slower and slower and slower,” she says. Mayim Lehrich, a Wilson High School alumna, overtrained and underfueled to the point that she had to stop running competitively before her junior year indoor season was over. Her heart rate was low, so she stopped her indoor season to go into treatment for anorexia. “My body wasn’t doing well anymore,” Lehrich says. The myth about weight loss and running times permeates the running community and puts athletes at a high risk for disordered eating and eating disorders. A 2008 study found that in “leanness” sports that emphasize size, like running, 46.7 percent of athletes had an eating disorder, compared to 19.8 percent of athletes in non-leanness sports and 21.4 percent of non-athletes. Even coaches perpetuate the fallacy that thinness will lead to more success. Sasha, a college sprinter who wished to remain anonymous, says that on her team, the distance coach has strict rules about food and weight. “The coach tells [the distance runners] what they can and can’t eat, and if they’re doing poorly, she will tell them that they need to lose weight,” Sasha says. The coach’s focus on eating only “healthy” foods has fostered an obsession with food among the distance runners. Some even have food Instagrams where they post pictures of their meals. “When they’re running together, they just talk about, like, all the yogurt they eat, or all the vegetables they eat,” Sasha says. “All they talk about is food.” When she first started college, this
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obsession with healthy foods had an effect on Sasha. “It’s just hard when everyone else around you is eating and talking so much about food … you don’t want to look bad and eat something unhealthy,” she says. Once she realized how she was being affected by the distance runners’ eating habits, however, Sasha felt less impacted by them. Living in an environment that is hostile to food leads most people to develop unhealthy relationships with it, however. Fairbanks lived in a house with five of her teammates, with whom food and body image were frequent topics of discussion. “We were definitely always talking about it in a really negative self-talk way … like, ‘I need to go do more core because I ate xyz,’” she says. Without anyone else to step in and help, the girls’ relationships with food and body image only worsened.
What can be done? Though they are in the best position to intervene, most coaches and athletic programs lack the knowledge and resources to help athletes with eating disorders or disordered eating. A study from the Journal of American College Health found that even though 91 percent of athletic trainers working with female athletes had dealt with athletes who had eating disorders, only 27 percent felt they could confidently identify an athlete with an eating disorder. This gap, between the number of athletes with eating disorders and the number of athletic programs that can offer them adequate help, leaves many athletes to struggle with eating disorders and disordered eating on their own. The Lane 9 Project believes that coaches have more of a role to play in preventing disordered eating and eating disorders in their athletes and offers to talk to high school
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coaches and teams about warning signs and how to address eating disorders. “Coaches should just be constantly talking about proper nutrition, proper fueling and making their athletes really aware of the resources,” Fairbanks says. She adds that coaches also need to be more educated about the signs of eating disorders and disordered eating, and shouldn’t shy away from asking athletes about their menstrual cycles. “I’m sure it’s really uncomfortable to talk to a high school girl and ask her if she’s getting her period, but I think that it’s something that needs to happen … for the health and the safety of your athletes.” When Strong was a college triathlete, her coach sat down with her to discuss her eating disorder. She was relieved to finally have someone reaching out to her and recognizing her problem. “I’m really grateful that he sat me down and said ‘I want to help you achieve your goals, but you have to help yourself first,’” she says.
Recovery Not everyone is as receptive to recovery. Casey resisted her coach’s efforts to ensure she wasn’t overtraining and underfueling. After he overheard her joking about skipping lunch, he started asking her before practice whether she had eaten lunch, adjusting workouts based on her answer. Most of the time, Casey lied to avoid easier workouts and told her coach that she had eaten. In Casey’s eyes, it wasn’t her coach’s responsibility to make sure she had eaten lunch. “[Eating enough is] not something you normally expect to have to check an athlete for,” she says. Her coach, Michael Zick, said in an email that he would amend workouts for Casey based on how she was performing regardless
of whether he believed she had eaten lunch. “If she said she had eaten and was just having a rough workout, then I’d just amend the workout or shut it down, and we’d get back to work as normal the next day,” he writes. “Kids don’t always tell you when they’re hungry, or when they’re sick … A coach’s job is to carefully watch their student-athletes to monitor if they’re well.” Though Casey actively encourages other runners on her team not to skip meals and to properly fuel themselves, she is reluctant to accept her own diagnosis. She stopped seeing her nutritionist once she gained some weight, believing that she had her eating disorder under control. Once the track season started, though, she went back to skipping lunch. If she didn’t skip it entirely, she only ate enough food to stop her friends from worrying. “You dive back into the world of training constantly … and competition and all that just circling around you to the point where you’re just like, ‘Okay, being small helps,’” Casey explains. Part of her reluctance stems from not wanting to fit into a stereotype about female distance runners. “I don’t want to be that stereotype of a female long distance runner who has an issue with food and who has an eating disorder … even though I 100-percent do,” she says. Lehrich, however, believes that part of her eating disorder stemmed from a desire to identify with the stereotype of small runners. “I always felt like I had to stay small,” she says. “I think I had the identity of a smaller runner.” When Fairbanks was at the height of her food restriction, she was the heaviest she had ever been. The expectation that women with eating disorders are always skinny dissuaded her from seeking help. Now, Fairbanks wants people to know
that eating disorders can affect people of all sizes. “You don’t have to meet some sort of weight criteria or appearance criteria to deserve help,” she says. “I never felt like I could reach out for help, because I wasn’t stick thin.” She finally recovered when she escaped collegiate competition and began running for enjoyment. When she first moved to Washington, D.C., she joined running clubs to meet new people and found a much more relaxed environment. “It was superfit competitive runners and super-average runners who just love running, and then everyone went and had burgers and beer and fries afterward,” she says. As she spent more time with these running groups, Fairbanks loosened her strict rules on food. “It kind of forced me to get a little uncomfortable and do things that I was afraid to do,” she says. “It was a very slow process of, like, ‘Oh, well, I’ve gone and had a beer and fries a few times in a month now and literally nothing happened.’” After going into treatment multiple times, Lehrich says that her relationship with food is improving. “I try to look at food as fuel and something that I need and something that’s there to help me, not the enemy.” To help think of her body more positively, Lehrich tries to focus less on aesthetics. “I try to think about what my body does for me, and what I’ve put it through, and how it’s still there for me now,” she says. Caplan wants more people to know that recovery is always possible. “There is a world where you don’t always have to be thinking about [food] and you’re able to have mental and emotional energy for things that have nothing to do with your body or the food that you’re eating in any given moment,” she says. “There is a recovery world that is possible for you.”
Runners, coaches and parents can reach the Lane 9 project at https://lane9project.org/contact/
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More from our weekly online feature on the individual people who, together, are the sport of running in the Washington D.C. area. Check it out every Friday at www.runwashington.com. JOEY FRYE, physical education teacher, Brookland, Washington, D.C. Volunteer roles in the running world: Community Coordinator for Healthy Kids Running Series D.C. – Kenilworth Park National Run@School Day Favorite local trail: Anacostia Riverwalk Trail Pet peeve: When I’m running and give a little wave or “head nod” as I pass by runners coming from the other direction and they don’t acknowledge or reciprocate! LAURENCE FRIERSON, attorney and moonlight artist, Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C. When did you get started running: Our fourth grade teacher started us with laps around the recess field. That laughing, lung-burning, fall over your feet feeling has never gotten old. My best race was: Perfect conditions at this year’s Cherry Blossom Ten Miler. Favorite local race: Chasing doods on Rock Creek’s Western Ridge/No Name Trail loop. FRANK PRUSIK, business operations manager, Gaithersburg, Md. Running mentors: My daughter, Andrea, who ran competitive cross country in high school and college has given me great advice over the years. One tip that she gave me, which I always try to remember during races, is to 38 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
relax. A relaxed muscle will work better than a tense muscle. Andrea and I ran in Boston together, which made it extra special. I’m also inspired by Steve Prefontaine. Go Pre! Goals: To keep running when I’m 70, then I’ll reset my goal MEGAN GRIMALDI, nonprofit researcher, Washington, D.C. When did you get started running: After I got my graduate degree. I figured, hey, I’m not going to be spending 12 hour days in the computer lab; I may as well find a new hobby. Have you taken a break from running: Immediately before and after I gave birth to my son. Trust me, I ran again as soon as I possibly could. It felt amazing. MEGHAN MALONEY, project manager, Alexandria, Va. Most adventurous decision you’ve made with your running: Traveling to Norway to run the Midnight Sun Marathon Goals: Qualify for Boston, but to always maintain my joy of running Your advice for a new runner: Just keep going! Even if you’re just running a bit that is a big step in the right direction. Favorite running book: Run the World by Becky Wade Why is the D.C. area a great place to be a runner: Because of all the runners! No matter where or what time of day I am running - I always will see at least one fellow runner out. Also, all the great running paths.
JOEY FRYE
FRANK PRUSIK
MEGAN GRIMALDI
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MEGHAN MALONEY
When It Comes to Extracurriculars, Coaches Say Each Runner is Different BY VANESSA JUNKIN
MOLLY BRIGHAM and ELIZA POGGI RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY NIAMH BRENNAN 40 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
As students at St. Albans School and National Cathedral School prepare for the cross country conference championships, many of these runners are also getting ready for the fall play. Jim Ehrenhaft, who coaches cross country for both Washington, D.C., schools and is also the assistant track coach in charge of distance, is just one of the coaches in the region who works with students balancing other commitments outside of running and school. “It’s something that we just have to help them manage,” he said. “Because their interests certainly should be encouraged, and at the same time, when they made choices, there are consequences or repercussions, and we just, again, have to help them understand that and put it in perspective — that’s one of the big challenges.” Some students can handle multiple commitments without a negative effect on their running, Ehrenhaft said. For others, it does have an impact, and he works to help them understand what their running-related expectations should be when their efforts are split between different activities. “The reality is that with the choices being made the way they are, it’s at times going to impinge upon the energy you have left to run,” Ehrenhaft said. A pair of his National Cathedral School seniors are active in the choir, which involves 90 minutes of rehearsal after school, along with a daily class that eliminates their study hall periods. “Rehearsal starts at 4:45 and practice starts at 3:45, so we try to go to practice but we can’t go the whole time,” said Molly Brigham. “I basically do my work during lunch.” It’s not all bad for her. Though a track runner throughout high school, Brigham is adding cross country for the first time. “For me, both act as a stress reliever, so even if it cuts down my time, it expedites my work ethic, and I’m not as stressed.” The choir is serious business. “They made us sign a contract that we would sing until we graduated,” said Eliza Poggi. “I ran in seventh and eighth grades, but I was worried about balancing it all in ninth grade so I only ran track.” That first year back, Poggi saw her two passions collide on a September afternoon: The DCXC Invitational and a wedding, where she would make $50 to sing. “I finished the race and went right to the wedding, still sweaty,” she said. “I had fallen during the race, so I was muddy and bleeding a little, but the robes covered that all up.” Balance in life is important for students, said Jesse Gaylord, who coaches boys’ cross country and boys’ and girls’ track and field at The Field School in Washington, D.C. “In a sport like cross country and track, where consistency is your silver bullet, working with a group of kids who are anything FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 41
but consistent sometimes is definitely a challenge,” he said. “But, that being said, I work with students who need additional support sometimes academically, and I’m a firm believer that kids will run better when they are confident and strong not just with their running, but with their academics and their personal lives, their family lives as well.” Gaylord said he thinks it’s important for students to have more than one interest. If a student is solely focused on running and is sidelined by an injury, that student can lose his or her identity, he said. Exploring various activities is particularly important for ninth- and tenth-grade students, and these help provide a break, both physically and mentally, he said. Students won’t be running at a high level for the rest of their lives, either, he said. “I encourage them to branch out and be involved in some extracurricular activities that aren’t running so that it provides perspective for their running,” he said. At The Field School, students are only permitted to play one sport per season for the school, but some play soccer outside of school as well, Gaylord said. He has the students work with their soccer coaches so they aren’t doubling their efforts, he said. Kelly Deegan, the head coach for boys’ and girls’ cross country at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., said sometimes students at her school play more than one varsity sport at a time. “The coaching staff and athletic department have always worked well with other sports to try to do what’s best for the kids,” Deegan said. “I think that we’re very lucky at our school.” She said it is the student’s job — not the parents’ — to work out a compromise between the coaches and let them know about conflicts. The same thing would take place for a student who has a commitment with a club or a role like a class president, she said. Deegan expects her student-athletes to come to practice when they are finished with their other activity, and if they cannot make it to practice, they’re expected to let her know. Having a family that’s supportive of a student’s activities is key as well, she said. If the student is involved with multiple activities, they might have to miss family occasions because they run out of time, Deegan said. For example, a student shouldn’t be missing cross-country for both travel soccer games and for a family vacation. “Then it becomes a line of, are you going to choose maybe your eighth best runner to run in the top seven over this person who hasn’t completely committed,” she said. But it’s an individual decision that is made between her and the busy studentathlete, because each student is different, she said. She and Ehrenhaft also said there are times when it makes more sense for a student 42 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
to skip a practice because it won’t benefit them. Deegan said there are also students who will run with someone else in the morning if they miss a practice. Sometimes, it goes the other way, as well. A student may miss part of a soccer practice because they need to be ready to run at a meet, she said. Tai Dinger, who graduated from St. Albans in 2014 and went on to attend Stanford University, was able to be successful in his running while also being part of singing groups during high school. In fact, the year he graduated, Dinger set the school’s mile record. He said St. Albans allotted separate times for singing and athletics. “I think a big part of it was that St. Albans was structured in a way that allowed me to do that,” he said. But sometimes, he’d find himself thinking about running while in chorus or vice versa. “The part where it got difficult wasn’t necessarily the time commitment or anything like that, but just being low on energy,” Dinger said. Dinger, who is going into his fifth year at Stanford — he just completed his undergraduate degree and will now be in his last year as a graduate student — also runs for the university. He did continue singing for two years in college, but decided to focus on running after that, he said. Kathryn Dykas, founder and owner of D.C.-based KD College Counseling, said often colleges would prefer that students be dedicated to a couple activities rather than get involved in an exorbitant number of extracurriculars. Dykas doesn’t encourage students to join a club that they aren’t interested in just to put it on their resumes. Instead, high school runners may be able to volunteer in the community helping younger runners, for example, she said. “They’re kind of looking to see what they do with that passion,” Dykas said. Admissions counselors may also appreciate students who are completely dedicated to their running and schoolwork, she said. Each student is different. “At the end of the day, colleges just want students to be themselves,” Dykas said. “And I think the tricky part is finding what school you can be your best self at.” Whether student-athletes fill their afterschool time with numerous activities or are completely focused on running, there is the possibility of that affecting their running performance, Gaylord said. “We need to know our individual athletes as coaches, and we need to know their limits and we need to know them as people in order to advise them as runners,” he said.
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BY SOPHIE TEDESCO
It’s 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Music blaring from a DJ breaks the sleepy stillness of the open field. Underneath the foggy haze of a fall morning, hundreds of high school runners are awake and ready. A mass of bodies squish together along the line, experiencing the thrill of adrenaline, nerves and anticipation. And then the gun goes off. All you can hear is the tidal wave of cries from spectators and random cowbells clanging. The race is a blur of hills and turns and ups and downs. Sand and mud and grass. And then it’s over. Runners stagger across the finish line; many collapse into the waiting arms of volunteers. The music is still pounding; the finish line announcer is calling out names and times. What began as a competition, intense and focused, takes on the air of a festival. Athletes wander around searching for food and friends. No longer competitors, racers from all different schools come together to hang out and enjoy the amenities. Not just a fierce competition and not just a party, a cross country invitational is a unique hybrid of what makes the sport so wonderful. The ability to race ferociously and push past limits, but also to enjoy and embrace the running community. At least 59 invitational meets take place in Virginia and Maryland alone during the regular high school cross country season. They range from hilly and hard terrain to flat and fast. Some meets involve as few as nine teams, while others include over 100 teams. Last year’s Oatlands Invitational which featured 3,200 runners. For the approximately 600 high school cross country teams in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., the philosophies and plans of their coaches are just as diverse. Coaches must whittle down the hundreds of meets available to them during the regular season to less than a dozen that fit their athletes, training plans and the constraints of the calendar. Selecting meets is a process driven by the ideology of the coach and the culture of the team. “My number one priority is to prepare my varsity athletes for the postseason,” said Marc Hunter, head cross country coach at Loudoun Valley High School, home of the 2017 boys national cross country champions. “The glitziness and the flash [of a meet] doesn’t appeal to me unless it helps prepare my team.” Hunter uses a five-part plan to select invitationals. First, he only brings his team to meets that are a full 5k distance and are not run on any pavement. Hunter also ensures that his athletes run multiple big races close to home so that family and friends can spectate easily. Third, Hunter wants his varsity athletes to take an overnight trip to a meet to practice adaptability before distant postseason races. His final two priorities are to select meets that are run on postseason courses and find a fast meet for his junior varsity team to end their season. Championship meets are a critical part FALL 2018 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 45
of any team’s planning, and coaches look to prepare their athletes for the postseason during the regular season. However, even with the same goal, coaches’ strategies on how best to prepare their athletes differ. “In scheduling meets, a lot of weight should be on making sure athletes are fresh and the regular season doesn’t take too much out of their emotional gas tank in order for them to be physically, mentally, emotionally ready for the post season,” said Desmond Dunham, DCXC Invitational meet director and St. John’s College High School track and field head coach. Sidwell Friends School boys cross country coach Bill Wooden also works to combat mental and physical fatigue in his athletes by mixing local meets with others along the East Coast. Ultimately, Wooden places the greatest emphasis on competing on courses that simulate postseason races. “Our league meet is at the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood, Md., and it’s a challenging course,” Wooden said. “That’s an important meet so we have to run some hilly courses so that we get used to running hills. The D.C. State Championship is at Kenilworth Park, which is extremely flat, so we have to really get ready to run on a flat course.” James Madison High School coach Craig Chasse also values running on courses that prepare his athletes for the postseason. He looks for opportunities to race at the sites of championship meets, specifically running the Monroe Parker Invitational to compete at Burke Lake Park, the location of Madison’s district and regional championship races, and competing at Great Meadow, the site of the Virginia High School League State Championship. Chasse also looks for challenging courses that may not host postseason races but will prepare his athletes nonetheless. Matt Oblas, meet director of the Oatlands Invitational, also believes in the value of a difficult course. “The best part of Oatlands is the course being very challenging and having a lot of diversity, from hills to creeks to wooded areas,” Oblas said. “I think the biggest thing for any meet is the course. If the course isn’t something that people want to run then all the other stuff doesn’t matter.” Another important aspect of regular season races is having strong competition to push athletes. Chasse looks to find a balance between competing with talented Northern Virginia schools and avoiding racing the same people week after week. “We wouldn’t want to necessarily avoid teams in our district, but we don’t want to see
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The 2017 Glory Days Invitational, which mimics postseason racing. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN
The 2017 Oatlands Invitational, an early-season race that brings a lot of the top boys’ teams in the area together over a hilly course. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN
them seven times during the season,” Chasse said. “If we went to all the local meets, you would see all the same teams very often and it wouldn’t be as good. We travel to see how our athletes are against other people. Last year we went down to North Carolina for the Great American Invitational and there were 15 of the best 30 teams in the nation all at one meet. It was a good challenge.” Wooden sees travelling as a way to break his athletes out of their comfort zones. “The athletes race against people who they have no idea who they are, or how good they are, and they’re not constrained by, ‘Oh this kid always beats me so I won’t even try to beat him because I know he’s better than I am,’” Wooden said. “It’s just an opportunity for people to not have any preconceived notions and just go out there and run their own races.” While travelling is a way for teams to face different schools and athletes, Oblas also lauded the great variety of talented teams in Northern Virginia and the D.C. area that attend local meets and create an impressive level of competition. Hunter appreciates the opportunity to race in highly competitive meets close to home because he believes it attracts spectators and grows the sport locally. “I want to make sure we have a couple of huge invitational races that are in our backyard, because it gives parents and friends an opportunity to see and experience a cross country race and to see their kids run in a high-level cross country race,” Hunter said. For Walt Whitman High School cross country coach Stephen Hays, many times even the largest local meets are not big enough for his team. Hays looks for meets that do not limit the number of runners so his entire team can race. “I like to go to meets that have a lot of races because we have a big team and I want to try to include as many people as possible in the races,” Hays said. “Some races only have a Varsity A race and a Varsity B race, so you can run 14 kids, and our team is just too big for that. I want to go to a race where they’ve got 4 or 5 races and I can race the whole team.” As another cross country season approaches, coaches are evaluating available meets against their teams’ priorities to craft a schedule that will strengthen and prepare their teams to achieve their goals. Meet directors and teams alike will continue to work to create an environment that heightens the enjoyment of cross country. “We try to do extra things and create the atmosphere,” Oblas said. “We try to give it character. It’s about all of those different things.”
Aug. 25 Great Meadow Invitational Sept. 8 Monroe Parker Invitational Sept. 15 Track and Trail Invitational Sept. 15 Adidas XC Challenge Sept. 15 Oatlands Invitational Sept. 15 Braddock Relays Sept. 15 Landon Invitational Sept. 29 DCXC Invitational Sept. 29 Octoberfest Invitational Oct. 6 Great American Festival Oct. 6 Glory Days Invitational Oct. 13 Third Battle Invitational Oct. 13 Frank Keyser Invitational Oct. 13 Georgetown Prep Classic Oct. 27 Montgomery County Championships Oct. 27 WCAC Championship Oct. 27 ISL/MAC Championship Nov. 1 Virginia Regional Meets Nov. 1 Maryland Regional Meets Nov. 3 DC State Meet Nov. 9 Virginia Independent Schools Championship Nov. 9-10 Virginia State Meet Nov. 10 Maryland State Meet Nov. 10 DC-MD Private Schools Championship Nov. 24 Foot Locker/Nike Cross Regionals Dec. 1 Nike Cross Nationals Dec. 8 Foot Locker Championships
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MIKE CROZIER PHOTO BY STEVE LAICO
BY CHARLIE BAN Have you bought shoes from this guy? At Pacers, probably Clarendon, maybe 14th Street, any time over the last 10 years? You might not have realized it, either because his voice was cracking, or maybe he was limping around, but Mike Crozier here eventually went on to finish 15th at the NCAA Track and Field Championships this past June. Crozier was never one to stay at home and hang out, so it didn’t surprise his family or friends when he went out and got a job at 14, during his freshman year at Gonzaga. He worked the stockroom at the Clarendon Pacers, near his Arlington home, but soon after wound up on the sales floor. That job was the constant as he went from novice runner to sought-after recruit to promising freshman to injured 20-year-old and as he worked his way back to being a contributor for Georgetown. Crozier stuck with running through a hernia, a stress reaction in his public bone, and muscles that tore themselves away from his bones. An icy fall after he had recovered from surgery fractured his hip and brought 48 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | FALL 2018
him back to the training room. Coach Brandon Bonsey kept Crozier’s head on straight throughout all of his travails. “He told me to live every day like the elite athlete I wanted to be,” Crozier said. “Live like you’re going to race NCAAs next week even if you won’t qualify for Big East. And that was important to me — I wanted to perform on the track, not just be ‘good locker room guy’ because I stuck with it through all the injuries.” He ended up spending six years running for Georgetown, thanks to time lost to injury, and he saved the best for last. He was the last qualifier for the NCAA championship finals, battling to the finish line over the last lap of the semis, then fought back from last place two miles into his last career race to finish 15th. Though that time on the Hilltop gave him a chance to earn a master’s in public policy, he found his professional calling and will join the Hoyas’ coaching staff for the next year. It’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about running, and you can be confident in your purchase.
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A DC Road Circuit Classic Race Honoring Our Armed Forces.
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