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Cover: Lake Braddock senior Kate Murphy, fresh off the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she ran the 1,500 meters, and the World Junior Championships 3,000 meters. RunWashington photo by Ed Lull.
EDITOR’S NOTE ........................................................................................2 OFF THE BEATEN PATH .......................................................................5 MILITARY RUNNING ...............................................................................9 THE 2016 ALL-RUNWASHINGTON TEAM .................................... 12 HOW COLLEGE COACHES APPROACH RECRUITING............ 21 BEYOND THE TOP SEVEN ................................................................ 25 UPCOMING RACES............................................................................... 28 SHOE-IN FOR HER DREAM JOB...................................................... 31 PARENTS: KNOW BEFORE YOU GO ............................................ 35 COACHES NEED TO RUN, TOO ...................................................... 39 PERRY SHOEMAKER ........................................................................... 43 LOCAL WRITERS .................................................................................. 46 CELEBRATE RUNNING ....................................................................... 48
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How to support your cross country-loving kid FALL 2016 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 1
FALL 2016
PUBLISHER Kathy Dalby RunWashington Media LLC EDITOR IN CHIEF Charlie Ban charlie@runwashington.com SENIOR EDITOR Dickson Mercer dickson@runwashington.com PHOTO BY SWIM BIKE RUN PHOTOGRAPHY
As cool and historic as it was to have two local high school runners go undefeated throughout the cross country season last year, after a while, covering races got boring. As Drew Hunter and Weini Kelati manhandled the competition in Northern Virginia, their races lacked the uncertainty that comes with a bunch of evenly-matched runners getting together to compete. On the positive side, that prompted more attention to the middle of the results, and I never need an excuse to check out the deep fields the D.C. area’s races draw. But with them gone, and Rachel McArthur healthy and able to challenge Kate Murphy, the races up front look to have a little more variety. We’ll introduce you to this year’s crop of the most promising runners in the area, as picked by the RunWashington coaches panel (page 12), but you’ll also learn about some of the runners who aren’t on the front lines but still give their heart, lungs and sweat glands to their teams (page 25). Parents and coaches? There’s something in it for you, too. Christine Taranto, featured in Military Running (page 9), finished second in last year’s Marine Corps Marathon. She got into that condition when she regained the joy for running she had when she was in high school. We also have two stories about shoe makers. One is masters’ ace Perry Shoemaker (page 43), who is one of the D.C. area’s top road races. The other, Claire Wood (page 31), is a shoe maker for New Balance, where she is the senior footwear manager for running. She ran track at Oakton, which begs the question, posed by her classmate Jon Lauder, why aren’t the All-RunWashington team spikes burgundy and gold? We’ll also take a look into how Georgetown’s coaching staff builds teams they hope can compete for national collegiate championships (page 21). The Hoya coaches explain many of the considerations that dominate their thinking while they try to bring in runners who can contribute throughout their careers. The challenge and promise of this year’s cross country season can be best summed up by Walter Johnson runner Jacqueline Zito: “There are races where it’s ninety-eight degrees, and it’s humid, and it’s hot. You’re getting up at 6:00 in the morning to drive an hour out to this big field, and then you have to run a 5k, and it’s 8:00 in the morning. At that moment, you want to be anywhere but there. But you get through it, and sometimes you do really, really well.” I hope all of you do really, really well. See you out there, Charlie charlie@runwashington.com
CONTRIBUTORS PAMELA HERSCH (She’s Got the World on a Shoestring, Where to Run?) is a visual artist originally from Mexico City, now based in Boston. In her portrait work, she aims to create settings that allow her to capture her subjects in their natural environments, documenting the moments that define them. She particularly enjoys making the connections with people that allow her the opportunity to locate and illuminate each subject’s specific intersection of work and play. JEN MARANZANO (There’s no Bench in Cross County) is a former four time NCAA Division III All-American runner who continues to race with the DC based running group, the Dojo of Pain.
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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.
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By Jake Klim The Seneca Creek Greenway Trail begins at the Potomac River and travels northeast along its namesake creek through roughly 26 miles of Montgomery County. For years, recreation enthusiasts who wished to explore the trail had to pursue an out-andback starting from one of the various roads that intersect the path. Now, with the recent construction of the Seneca Bluffs Trail, on the opposite side of the Seneca Creek, runners, hikers and horseback riders are able to complete an undulating loop which starts and ends in the once prospering town of Seneca, incorporated near the confluence of Seneca Creek and the Potomac River in 1732. The route detailed below is a 12-mile loop — a true trail runner’s course, nearly all of it on natural terrain. Add another two miles by parking at Riley’s Lock. The Stone Mill 50 Miler uses about 6 miles of this route during their ultra each November, and the Montgomery County Road Runners hold a marathon and 50k here in March. Although the trail gets plenty of foot traffic throughout the year, it’s common to not see a soul on this run, which is what attracted Ed Schultz, former race director of the Seneca Creek Greenway Marathon, to this area years ago. “I have seen enough McDonalds, 7-11s and irate drivers,” Schultz quipped, “I find I need to get to the trails regularly.” Park your car along the field just north of the Seneca Store (formally Poole’s General Store), which until recently had been serving the community since 1901. Part of the store still sells feed and grain to the agrarian and equestrian populace of upper Montgomery County, but don’t expect to find any sports drinks or runner’s grub there. Be sure to bring food and fluids for after the run; the closest water fountain, which is seasonal, is located at Riley’s Lock about one mile away. There are bathrooms available at Riley’s Lock, too.
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Begin by jogging back to River Road. Turn south and cross the bridge above Seneca Creek. Make an immediate left and follow Seneca Road as it curves slightly away from the water. Before you’ve a chance to say, “I thought this was a trail run?” the Seneca Greenway trailhead will appear on your left, one third of a mile from where you parked your car. Take the blue-blazed trail and make a series of zigzags back and forth between the creek and a few homes that hug the forest on your right. Although it’s not hilly, it’s tough to get into a good rhythm during the first mile, so best to use the time to warm up your legs and take in the scenery. After a mile, you’ll climb the first of a trio of short hills. On the final descent, you’ll have the option of running two paths. It doesn’t matter which one you’ll pick; they’ll both dump you out on Berryville Road, which you’ll want to take a left on. Keep Seneca Creek on your left, and continue to follow the trail as it exits the small parking lot and re-enters the woods. As you continue down the trail, the sound of flowing water will quickly fade. In fact, for the next mile don’t expect to see the creek at all. Instead, continue to follow the well-marked Greenway Trail as it cuts across a number of fields that are in the process of being reforested. Take a moment and enjoy the complete isolation, though the occasional whiff of cow manure or glimpse of rusting barbed wire fence will remind you that civilization is never too far away. At 2.5 miles, you’re rewarded with a very impressive view of Seneca Creek. Ignore the two spurs trails that cut in from the right a half mile later, which direct you to Berryville Road. The next mile is relatively flat and straight, and one of the faster sections of the trail, so open up your stride if that’s your prerogative. Eventually you will return to the creek and it will remain audible for the foreseeable future. Around 5 miles, you’ll also hear the sound of cars, which is your first indicator that Route 28, the turnaround and symbolic halfway point near mile 6, is just ahead. Cross under the Route 28 bridge and
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then take an immediate right to arrive at a parking lot. From here, the Greenway Trail continues north, to the left, but you’re going to want to head out on the road and run over the bridge you just ran under. Cross the street when it’s safe to do so and keep your eye out for the Seneca Bluff trailhead on your left. You can’t miss it. The six-mile section of trail that you’re about to head down is one of the longest uninterrupted natural pathways in Montgomery County. In addition to runners, hikers and horses, the trail also draws mountain bikers, so keep your head up as you follow the orange-blazed path across a field and back into the woods. For the next three miles, the trail weaves through a beautiful and desolate forest. Aside from the occasional home visible on your right, you might forget you’re in suburban Washington, D.C. At approximately 9 miles, the trail intersects Dry Seneca Creek, an offshoot of Seneca Creek. Ironically, Dry Seneca Creek is nearly always wet, so hop your way across using the concrete pillars that have been placed there for fording. About a half mile later a side trail intersects from the right, which will bring you to a parking lot located off of Montevideo Road. Disregard the side trail and continue to follow the often twisting Bluffs trail as it snakes its way back towards the creek. Near mile 10 you’ll notice a number of pieces of antique farm equipment alongside the trail. Shortly after that, make a boomerang-like turn and you’ll soon find yourself at what’s arguably the best view of the run: a horseshoe bend that rises nearly 100 feet above Seneca Creek. Hit the “stop” button on your watch and take it all in. After you’ve had your fill, begin a slow descend as the trail makes its way through woods and fields until you reach the clearing where you parked your car 12 miles earlier. The next time you decide to tackle the loop, consider running it backwards, as it offers completely different views and gives you a fresh traverse through this great terrain.
POOLE’S STORE
BRETTON WOODS GOLF COURSE
RILEY’S LOCK
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CHRISTINE TARANTO nearing the finish line of the 2015 Marine Corps Marathon. PHOTO BY CHERYL YOUNG
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By Katie Bolton From her early days at the U.S. Naval Academy, Christine Taranto knew she wanted to be a Marine. Marines were tough and disciplined, the best of the best. The ones she met immediately impressed her. She worked to meet the Corps’ high standards for physical fitness and academic achievement. When she struggled, she doubled down to prove that she wouldn’t hesitate to put in the work. She remembers wanting the Marine evaluators to know, “Look, I’m not gonna give up. I want to do this… I’m not going to give up unless you tell me to.” Two years earlier, as a sophomore, the two-time Pennsylvania state champion (in cross country and the 3,000) left the Academy’s Division I cross country team. “I just wasn’t really happy running at that level and I realized that the end state is, I’m going to lead Marines and Sailors regardless of what my commissioning source is, so instead of focusing on athletics, let’s focus on passing school, becoming a good officer, and really moving toward the future,” she said, In her time off, she used her savings to buy a bicycle. “I picked up cycling in the meantime because you’ve got to do something,” she said with a laugh. She was commissioned as a Marine in 2007 and deployed soon after. Any running she did was, as she put it, “for the enjoyment and a little bit of sanity and to maintain my Marine Corps physical fitness standards.” She focused on succeeding as a Marine first. Time passed. By 2011, now stationed in North Carolina, she was running every day. “The running just kind of all came back to me,” she said. “I wasn’t deploying, it wasn’t just 30 minutes in because you wanted to. It was, I’m going to run. I’m going to do this.” She and her roommate decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon in 2012, and though she trained herself and was making her second attempt at the distance, her 3:16 finish time caught the attention of the AllMarine Running Team. Her coach, Joe Puleo, the author of Running Anatomy and the All-Marine Running Team’s coach until February 2016,
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saw profound talent when they met. He also recognized her fragility. “I really just enjoyed running and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run competitively again,” she said. “At the same time, I also saw it as a unique opportunity and I had a lot of friends on the team.” Puleo introduced her to his style of “creative coaching,” a program that meets the physical and emotional needs of athletes. “At the highest levels, running isn’t what it looks like to most people,” he said. He strives for smarter, holistic training of his athletes, which helped Taranto settle in. She was immediately honest about her fitness outpacing her confidence, which allowed them to communicate openly throughout their time together and begin addressing her mental blocks. Taranto and Puleo brighten to talk about one another, their mutual admiration readily apparent. “He has been one of the greater gifts of my life,” Taranto said. “He is absolutely a phenomenal coach, knows his athletes, treats us well. He understands that we’re Marines first even though he has no association with the military. At the same time, he’s become a great mentor and friend. I think that if you can find all those things in a coach, you don’t let them go. He’s been absolutely astounding. It’s been phenomenal.” Building their relationship took time; Taranto did not break through in her training until the Big Sur Marathon in 2015, where she ran 2:59 and placed second. She attributes her success to trusting the process, trusting her training and trusting her coach. “I think if you can do all three, then you can expect great outcomes,” she said. Her outcomes have indeed been great. “I’m 31 years old and I’m almost as fast as I was at 17,” she said. “I am achieving things I never thought possible.” With the support of Puleo, the Corps and her teammates, she “found joy in racing that I hadn’t had since high school.” Later in 2015, her breakthrough year culminated in a PR of 2:53:30 and secondplace finish at the Marine Corps Marathon. At that race, her team also won the Armed Forces Marathon Championship, allowing Taranto to celebrate her victory with her entire team. Marine Corps is, of course, near and dear to
Taranto’s heart, but the race is also, as she put it, “electrifying.” With wall-to-wall spectators, including her fellow Marines, and views of the major monuments, Taranto feels great pride to be representing her country and the Marine Corps. Her victories mean a lot. It’s hard work to be a Marine and a competitive athlete. Each man and woman has to perform their job duties, to be a Marine first. She had to become hyper-efficient to balance these demands, which she sees as an extension of the Marines’ warrior ethos. “The support of all the commands I’ve been a part of and the Marine Corps as an institution is something I am truly grateful for,” she said. “We are an intense, focused, and passionate group of people and I truly believe Marines work harder for something they believe in and an institution that supports them as an entire person.” The Corps enthusiastically supports Taranto; they have twice named her Woman Athlete of the Year, first in 2013 and again in 2015. Each time has been a surprise. She didn’t even know the award existed until her first win. She is honored to be recognized for her efforts and hopes she inspires other runners, women and Marines. At all times, she aspires to lead by example and represent herself, her team, and the Marine Corps in the best possible light. “Not only am I a role model as a Marine, I’m a role model as a Marine athlete,” she said. “That’s a really unique opportunity and that’s what I embrace the most. If that’s what people are going to know me for, I’m going to embrace it wholeheartedly and use it as setting the example for other people to aspire and achieve.” It seems the more she succeeds, the harder she works. Puleo cannot hide his esteem for her as a leader or a teammate. He is most excited at her athletic potential and plans to spend the next few years making sure her 31-yearold musculoskeletal system keeps up with her incredible cardiovascular abilities. “She’s like a lung,” he said with a laugh. “She doesn’t really have a ceiling that way. She’s ridiculously capable of aerobic fitness.” She also continues to improve her marathon times on a “vanilla” training plan.
“I think in a couple years we’ll break out the big artillery that my advanced athletes use,” he threatens. “I think it would be something pretty special.” Although Puleo is no longer the team’s coach, he continues to train Taranto and many of her teammates as individuals. Already, he has his eye on Taranto qualifying for the next Olympic Trials. This would require a big push beginning in 2018; yet she is running so well now that he wants to let her ride that out. For her part, Taranto is focused on the People’s Marathon again this fall. “I’m in it to win it,” she said proudly. Quickly, her humility and perspective come back. “At the same time, I realize that I can’t control who shows up and I can’t control anything outside of myself that day. If I can go out and hopefully if the conditions are right, run a PR and run the best race that I can, just hope that it comes out on top. If not, (I’ll) just be really satisfied with the outcome.” Despite her accomplishments as both, she still hesitates to define herself as only a runner or Marine. “If I identify as just a Marine, then I’m losing a part of myself, and if I identify as just a runner, I lose another part of myself,” she said. “Both are part of my identity, but they’re not strictly who I am.” She also competes on the All-Marine Triathlon Team, bakes cupcakes, and reads, all of which keep her grounded. She mentions a book she’s reading about being positively present and practicing radical acceptance, both of which she tries to incorporate into her running and work. Her coach, Joe Puleo, cites her mindset as one of her great strengths, along with her leadership and joyfulness. “She’s a good woman. She’s a great leader. She’s got really great qualities,” he said. In the middle of all this, Taranto received her MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. Now a captain and logistics analyst, she received orders to Quantico in April of 2016 and moved to Woodbridge. Most people would need to adjust after a crosscountry move, but Taranto seems unfazed. Such changes come with the territory. After all, she is a Marine first.
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HEATHER HOLT, PATRICK LYNCH, KATE MURPHY, COLTON BOGUCKI, PAGE LESTER, SEAN GRIMM, RACHEL MCARTHUR, BRANDON MCGORTY, SARAH DANIELS, SAURAV VELLELETH, EMILY SCHIESL, ROHANN ASFAW, DANIELLE BARTHOLOMEW, AHMED HASSAN, CASEY KENDALL, CONOR LYONS , ABIGAIL GREEN, PETER MORRIS. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY DUSTIN WHITLOW/DWHIT PHOTOGRAPHY
BY CHARLIE BAN Despite the loss of two national cross country champions, the D.C.-area cross country runners won’t be overlooked this fall. Not after Kate Murphy ran the third-fastest high school 1,500 when she qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials. She made it to the semifinals a week before she finished 12th in the 3,000 meters at the world junior championships. This follows a year when she won the Nike Cross Southeast meet and a state individual title. Coming back for her senior year at Lake Braddock, she headlines a local group of girls who have been getting a lot of attention for their exploits on courses near and far, including Patriot senior Rachel McArthur, who was an alternate to the world junior championships this summer in the 1,500 meters. Seven of 10 girls on the post-season All-RunWashington team return for the 2016 season. The boys, on the other hand, are all coming out of the shadow cast by Drew Hunter and his 2016 classmates, with only Richard Montgomery senior Rohann Asfaw returning from last year’s All-RunWashington team. This year’s cross country landscape inspired the most engaging discussion among our coaches panel that we’ve had in the past four years. They met after the three state meets to pick the 10 boys and 10 girls who represent the best of the D.C. metro area. They also picked the seven boys and seven girls from D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Virginia again dominates the AllRunWashington preseason team, with nine of 10 boys and eight of 10 girls. The coaches selected the most promising teams heading into the season, though they will be no surprise to anyone who saw last November’s state championships.
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Once again, Maryland and Virginia will hold their state meets over the same weekend — Nov. 11-12, with the Maryland and D.C. private schools racing that Saturday, a week after all D.C. schools meet for their state championship. Page Lester - National Cathedral School Junior Page Lester, the National Cathedral School triathlete who moonlights as a runner, won both the 800 and 1,600 at the ISL championship, after trailing now-graduated Taylor Knibb across the line at the Maryland-D.C. Private School cross country championships. A shoulder injury kept her from swimming normally, so she spent four months just kicking in the pool. “It wasn’t very fun, but my legs are stronger now,” she said. Her endurance has been improving as she’s added distance to her weekly long runs. “I used to do four, maybe five miles, now I’m up to 10 or 11,” she said. “I’ll run three afternoons a week, plus my long run,” on top of five or six swims and three or four bike rides weekly. Abigail Green - Walter Johnson - Junior Abigail Green emerged from a swimming pool and shot to the front of Walter Johnson’s team as a freshman, helping the Wildcats to the last two Maryland 4A championships. Now a junior, she’s aiming to lead the team to its fourthstraight title, while also targeting the individual crown, which Annapolis senior Maria Coffin won last year. It’s a rivalry she’s embracing. “Maria’s very consistent with her running, and I ran my best time when we ran even then pushed it at the end,” she said. “When I was a freshman, I’d just go out fast all the time, that’s all I really knew how to do,” she said. “I didn’t
know any better, sometimes I pushed a little too hard. I can follow other people’s lead now, but I also know how to run my own race.” She broke 11 minutes in the 3,200 meters, getting down to 10:37, which changed the way she looked at racing. “I broke a huge barrier for me when I broke 11 so early on, and breaking it every time I ran the 32. It helped me feel like I was on a higher level after that,” she said. “To see a different number at the start of your results changed things more than I thought,” she said. Ahmed Hassan - Oakton - Junior Ahmed Hassan had been cut from the basketball team his freshman year at Oakton when he decided to take his then-unapparent talents to the indoor track team, a week after the season started “Coach cut me some slack and let me run,” he said. “A lot of the older guys helped me out. I shuffled my feet a lot when I started.” He learned to fix that, and ran 4:32 for 1,600 meters his freshman year. But coming into his first cross country season as a sophomore, without the familiarity and base training to go along with the distance, left him ill-prepared “I was getting rocked in workouts,” he said. “It was a major adjustment to the mileage.” It all paid off when his 1,600 meter time dropped to 4:17.56 to finish second in the outdoor state meet. He had started his track season with a 4:41 in January.
the two. Now juniors, they’re also leading teams that could match up well at the state meet, after Wolcott’s Tuscarora team won and Holt’s George Marshall team took fifth. Holt avenged her state meet loss to Wolcott and nearly made the Foot Locker final in the process, finishing six seconds back from the last qualifying spot. She’s in her third year of running, after playing soccer, and she’s picking up the nuances outside of the 5k races. “I’ve gotten more experience racing, but now I observe people’s demeanors before races,” she said. “It’s helped me relax.” She went on to win the indoor and outdoor state 1,600 meter titles, the latter in 4:54.28. Wolcott, on the other hand, is more of a distance runner, hitting 10:39 for 3,200 meters midseason during her abbreviated spring, good enough to be the fourth fastest time among returning Virginia runners. As a result, she’s a fan of more difficult courses that test her strength, where she can build a lead and tire the kickers out. “I don’t have a great kick so I like to put as much distance between me and anyone behind me so they can’t surprise me,” she said. She started running for fun in seventh grade, but when she reached high school, things started to come together for Wolcott. “I like the competitive aspect, pushing yourself, seeing how good you are,” she said. “Once I got to race I just kept finishing close to the front.”
Heather Holt - George Marshall - Junior Emma Wolcott - Tuscarora - Junior Despite their polite demeanors, Heather Holt and Emma Wolcott grabbed the spotlight in Virginia’s 5A division, winning the individual titles in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and setting up two more years of competitive races between
Saurav Velleleth - Thomas Jefferson - Senior For Saurav Velleleth and his Thomas Jefferson teammates, running is a fun reprieve from their science and technology magnet school’s grueling curriculum. “School takes up so much of your life, there’s so much homework,” he said. “For a lot
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of us, we use running as a way to take our minds off of academics.” He has an added complication of commuting from his home in Loudoun County, about 45 minutes each way, where he got his start running with the Nova Athletic Club, directed by the Hunters. But they can’t turn their focus on and off, and that’s why the Colonials notched a runner-up finish in Virginia’s 5A division last fall, with Velleleth leading the way in third place. “We take our academic dedication and apply it to the sport,” he said. “We’re pretty motivated on our own.“ He followed that up with a second place finish in the 3,200 meters in the spring, after winning the indoor 3,200. But what would his life be without running? “I’d be playing basketball, getting home at 5 instead of 8. Living like normal kids. I don’t want that.” Patrick Lynch - George Marshall - Senior George Marshall senior Patrick Lynch put everything together during his junior year, culminating in a ninth place finish in the Virginia 5A meet. He was enthusiastic about the sport from the start, though. Without a fall sport as a freshman, he showed up to the first day of tryouts and loved it. “I liked that, when with other sports you had to hold back, with running, you can just put it all out there,” he said. But there was a sport way to run, and he came around to it in 2015. “I finally figured out how to push and when to push,” he said. That savvy helped him hit 4:25.93 for 1,600 meters this spring. Sean Grimm - James Madison - Senior Sean Grimm led the way for James Madison’s surprising runner-up finish in the 6A race last fall with his 19th place finish. The Warhawks look to challenge Lake Braddock this fall, with four of their top five returning. Grimm’s journey to a pair of spikes started when he gave up baseball after eighth grade. “I got bored sitting around when I was supposed to be playing a sport,” he said, explaining why he would probably be swimming or cycling if he didn’t run. He’s an endurance nut. As he’s matured, he’s refined his approach to competition. “There’s a tactical part of the races,” he said. “I’m learning to use different strategies and it feels like a whole new sport when you do that.” He showed mastery of nuance in finishing TOP TO BOTTOM: ABBEY GREEN, AHMED HASSAN, BY WHITLOW, EMMA WOLCOTT BY MARLEEN VAN DEN NESTE
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eighth in the outdoor 3,200 meters at the Virginia 6A meet. And running has benefitted him outside of his athletic life. “I’m not normally academically motivated, but after I run I feel like I have a lot more focus,” he said. “It’s good for me all around.” Conor Lyons - Lake Braddock - Senior A transplant from Indiana, Lyons played a big, or tall, part in the Bruins repeating as team champions. He misses the slower pace of the Midwest, but that didn’t stop him from finishing eighth in the Virginia 6A race to help Lake Braddock defend its title. “We have a lot more speed-based stuff here. I never ran a 200 before I came here,” he said. “I don’t like intervals and I know they make me better.” They helped gain the fitness that carried him to the 3,200 championship this spring in a PR of 9:16.80. If he wasn’t a runner? “I’d probably be watching videos on YouTube.” Casey Kendall - Oakton - Senior The Virginia 6A cross country championship race was run on guts and teamwork for Oakton’s Casey Kendall. “Cross country was kind of disappointing,” she said. “I had a few quick races but had some rough ones toward the middle and the end.” Injuries and low iron couldn’t keep her down all the time, though. She and thensenior Jill Bracaglia finished together, with Kendall given the edge for third place in the results. “If she wasn’t in the race, I don’t think I could have done that,” she said. “That’s just teamwork there. That was the hardest race of my life.” Bracaglia is gone, as are Kendall’s earlier role models who graduated, including her sister Kara, leaving her the undisputed leader. “I like being captain. I’m really extroverted so it works out well,” she said. “I like checking up on everyone in practice, making sure they’re in line and doing what they’re supposed to, but then on race day keeping their nerves down. “I tell them, ‘It’s just a race, do what you have to do. Do what we’ve trained for.’” Danielle Bartholomew - Osbourn Park - Senior Danielle Bartholomew broke out at the Oatlands Invitational, finishing third and introducing Northern Virginia to the Osbourn Park junior who had spent two years toiling with injuries. “I was a little freaked out by all of it,” she TOP TO BOTTOM: SAURAV VELLELETH AND PATRICK LYNCH BY VAN DEN NESTE, DANIELLE BARTHOLOMEW, CONOR LYONS. BY WHITLOW
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said of the new standard for her performances. “I ran for fun before, but then once I started running fast, I felt like I had to keep getting better,” she said. “I was worried about disappointing people. Now there were expectations.” She’s managed those expectations, while also justifying people’s confidence. She finished seventh in the Virginia 6A cross country meet, then second in the outdoor 3,200 meters. That success has bought her a little benefit of the doubt from her older sister, with whom Danielle creates costumes for cosplay conventions and now understands Danielle’s commitment. “We usually make the costumes without patterns, so it’s a creative outlet,” she said. “It’s a good balance from all the running.” Rohann Asfaw - Richard Montgomery - Junior Rohann Asfaw went from a gawky teenager hoping to lose some weight to a near-national qualifier in just a few years. He’s been doing that on relatively-low mileage, about 35 miles week, but with a lot of intensity. He was one place away from making the Nike Cross National meet last fall. “I’ll start boosting my mileage to get ready for college running, but for now I’ve done alright with short, faster stuff.” He’s done more than alright. Asfaw dominated Montgomery County and nearly won the state 4A cross country title. He later avenged his loss to Dulaney’s Eric Walz in winning both the 1,600 and 3,200 at the outdoor state meet, and he’s the favorite to ascend to the title this year. He ran 9:11 at the New Balance indoor national meet and he was one place away from qualifying for Nike Cross Nationals. “It was exciting to finish at the top of a lot of races, but I really want to make to Nike (Cross Nationals),” he said. Rachel McArthur - Patriot - Senior The last two years of Rachel McArthur’s cross country career have taken her all over the emotional spectrum. An incredible streak toward the end of her sophomore year carried her to state and Nike Southeast titles. She and Kate Murphy ran the national race side by side, not pushing the pace because, as 10th graders, they were looking at two more chances. “I just blew through everything and didn’t have a care in the world,” she said. But as a junior, a quad tear bedeviled her for weeks, forcing the Pioneers to gamble on trying to make the state meet without her and allowing McArthur another week to recover. It didn’t pay off, but she was able to make it back for the Nike Cross Southeast meet. “I was feeling fine and then in the last
TOP TO BOTTOM: ROHANN ASFAW, RACHEL MCARTHUR, BRANDON MCGORTY BY WHITLOW
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stretch I collapsed,” she said. “I crawled around then got up, walked across the finish line and passed out. “Just a little.” She made it, but the national meet was a long shot that again didn’t pay off. “It was really tough to be sitting back and watching people run so well and not be able to be in those races,” she said. To add more injury to that, she later broke her sacrum when a friend jumped on her back. “I felt the crack, and knew I was going to be out,” she said. “I just didn’t know how much pool running I’d end up doing. It was awful. It was just really upsetting.” That said, she came back in time, and in shape, for the indoor state meet, where she ran on the winning 4x800 team, then carried that success into the outdoor season, finishing second in the Penn Relays mile and winning the 800 state title, and edging Murphy en route to running 2:06.55. Throughout, though, she was still not mentally present in a lot of races. “I didn’t feel like I was racing, sometimes,” she said. “If I’m not mentally there, it feels like the race didn’t happen.” Then she avoided a fall at the Brooks PR Invitational mile to finish third in 4:45.72 before also finishing third in the US junior championships in the 1,500 meters. Even with that happy ending to the season, she knows the next season will be hard, with her friend and rival Murphy running so well, and there are pieces left to put together, especially in her mental approach to racing. “I don’t really have faith in what I can do,” she said. “I know I can push myself, but after the last year, I need to prove to myself that I can run the way I remember.” Brandon McGorty - Chantilly - Senior Of all of the high school runners in the United States, only one can claim to having beaten Hunter in the last year. That’s Chantilly senior Brandon McGorty, who edged him in a mid-season 800 meter race. That was much more McGorty’s wheelhouse than more than three miles of cross country racing. But toward the end of last fall, he started to value the sport for its opportunity. “I basically use cross country to get in shape for track,” he said. “It’s not my strong suit.” The night before last year’s 6A state championship, his father Kevin, a two-time Olympic Trials decathlon qualifier, convinced him to give the grassy race a chance on its own merits. He was in the championship, why not try. “I was about ready to get started with TOP TO BOTTOM: KATE MURPHY BY WHITLOW, PETER MORRIS AND COLTON BOGUCKI. BY CHARLIE BAN, HEATHER HOLT BY VAN DEN NESTE
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indoors, but he reminded me that this race was an opportunity and I came in with a clear head,” he said. “I used to hang onto the pack and then give it what I had at the end, but I kept fading. I think I’m going to start hanging back and kicking more.” Derek Johnson - Tuscarora - Junior Derek Johnson doesn’t go in for that. He sat and kicked early on in his career at Tuscarora, but that was just as much due to his inexperience. He signed up for the team with little experience. And it was a little rough. “For the first couple of weeks, I was sleeping all the time. It was so hard,” he said. He stuck with it, though, thanks to the influence of his teammates and his coach, Troy Harry. “He’s the best coach I’ve had in any sport,” he said. He embraces cross country for the chance it gives him to work on his strength and use a course’s difficulty to his advantage. “It’s tough to compare times in cross country,” he said. “You see the times people run — someone’s in the low 16s and you wonder if it’s the kind or the course. If we just wanted fast times, we’d run 5ks on the track. I love Oatlands, with its hills. It’s a real cross country course.” Colton Bogucki - Loudoun Valley - Junior Peter Morris - Loudoun Valley - Junior Loudoun Valley likely has a better team now than when the country’s best runner wore its uniform. Despite Drew Hunter’s graduation following an undefeated cross country season, most of the remaining Vikings are underclassmen. Without Drew, the Vikings swept the top seven spots in the conference 3,200 meters, with five of them underclassmen and all of them under 10:10. Hunter was the only top-five scorer, at the Virginia 4A state meet, older than a sophomore last fall. Colton Bogucki, Peter Morris, Jacob Hunter and Chase Dawson are setting up a foundation for another two years, at least, of dominance. Bogucki and Morris, both juniors, ran nearly identical times this spring and finished fifth and sixth at the cross country state meet, then ran very similar times in the spring, with Morris hitting 4:20.64 and 9:23.21 for 1,600 and 3,200, respectively, and 4:21.20, 9:23.65 for Bogucki. Bogucki discovered his affinity for running at summer camp, where, at age 10, he finished a five mile run feeling much better than expected. “For a 10-year-old, I did pretty well,” he said. “I don’t know why I tried it in the first place.” Following his brother to the sport, he joined Vikings coaches Joan and Marc Hunter’s year-round Nova Athletic Club, which has
TOP TO BOTTOM: SARAH DANIELS, EMILY SCHIESL BY WHITLOW, DEREK JOHNSON (LEFT), BY BAN
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spawned the careers of many of the top runners from Loudoun County recently, including TJ’s Velleleth. Nova is basically a sophisticated farm team for the Vikings’ program, including sponsoring indoor track at Loudoun Valley — a first for a Loudoun County school. Over the past two years, Bogucki has added mental strength to his physical growth. “I learned how to push myself mentally,” he said. “That confidence gives you a great advantage because you know you can go a little deeper.” Morris also followed a sibling into the sport: his twin sister, Natalie. Like Grimm, he left baseball behind. “She wanted to do it, so I went along,” he said. “I hadn’t run competitively before.” “It was a sport we could do together,” Natalie said. Peter gets a lot of his confidence from looking back at the longer runs he has logged. “Getting to longer runs helped me build a lot of strength,” he said. The team’s success isn’t a surprise to Morris and Bogucki. “We have some of the best coaches around,” Bogucki said. Morris looked outward. “We’re a dedicated team, and when we do well, people notice,” he said. ‘They want to be part of a great team.” Sara Daniels - Junior - Lake Braddock Kate Murphy - Senior - Lake Braddock Emily Schiesl - Senior - Lake Braddock Sarah Daniels has a similar rationale to Morris’ as to why Lake Braddock’s girls team has grown. “We’re the most successful team in the school,” she said. “People want to be a part of that.” That’s the way coach Mike Mangan likes it. He tells runners to bring their friends out for the team, even if they aren’t fast. Then again, many end up becoming fast. Lake Braddock has three girls on the AllRunWashington team and one on the Virginia team this fall. The Bruins return all of their scorers and all but one of their top seven, and figure to be one of the best teams in the country. Kate Murphy has been a part of that, but she’s just one scorer. That said, she will be probably be first in most races. She has seen a lot in her three years of running. Portland twice, Hayward Field, Bydgoszcz, Poland. There’s still more, though. “Tokyo 2020,” she says with assurance, looking forward to lining up to race the 1,500 meters. And she didn’t see the postseason of her first indoor track campaign, after Mangan didn’t see the kind of preparation and effort in practice he thought she was capable of. It’s not exactly
TOP TO BOTTOM: PAGE LESTER, CASEY KENDALL, BY WHITLOW, SEAN GRIMM, BY VAN DEN NESTE
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Michael Jordan being cut from the basketball team, but it got her attention. The race that stamped Murphy’s ticket to this year’s Olympic Trials showed a lot of promise for where she can take her running career. The 62-second last lap, for example, that carried her to 4:07.21 and the third-fastest time in high school history. “When you get somewhere in a race you’ve never been before, it’s a little scary to push, because you might blow up,” she said. She didn’t blow up when she took over for the rabbit ahead of schedule, and the experience on the national and international stages will only make her more dangerous on the cross country course. While she considers herself a track runner primarily, Murphy appreciates the strength building that is the routine in the cross country season. “They complement each other: track makes you faster, cross makes you tougher and builds your form,” she said. “No matter what season, I just have to put in the work.” She was formerly a field hockey player and if she wasn’t running, she says she’d be “ballin,’” but cross country and track, in retrospect, seemed pre-ordained. “I think running found me,” she said. “I’ve always been athletic, but this is a sport where you can take control and be in touch with what your body can do.” As her ambitions for the track grow, she uses the cold numbers as a grounding mechanism. “You need to be confident but remember that there’s always someone better than you,” she said. Though she is near the pinnacle of high school running, Murphy doesn’t draw her inspiration from the professionals. She gets fired up among her peers. “I look up to my teammates when I see how much pain they push through,” she said. “Every day you see someone do something they couldn’t do before.” Daniels and Emily Schiesl were 11th and 10th, respectively, at the 6A state meet, and they’re back, with hopes of finishing higher and driving the Bruins’ score lower. As much as they want to win, the team has built a positive atmosphere, which is tough when only seven runners get to lineup at championship races. Schiesl saw it during her first days on the team. “I was excited,” she said. “I thought it would be more cutthroat but everyone was supportive of each other. It’s more of a family than I expected.” Daniels pointed to the team’s tradition of writing letters to the other members of the postseason team as something special to her. “It’s motivating to know how many people support you,” she said. “You don’t forget that on race day when things hurt and you’re looking for a reason to go on.
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All-RunWashington Rohann Asfaw Sr. Richard Montgomery Colton Bogucki Jr. Loudoun Valley Derek Johnson Sr. Tuscarora Patrick Lynch Sr. George Marshall Conor Lyons Sr. Lake Braddock Sean Grimm Sr. James Madison Ahmed Hassan Jr. Oakton Brandon McGorty Sr. Chantilly Peter Morris Jr. Loudoun Valley Saurav Velleleth Sr. Thomas Jefferson Top DC-area BOYS team Loudoun Valley
Danielle Bartholomew Sr. Osbourn Park Sarah Daniels Jr. Lake Braddock Abigail Green Jr. Walter Johnson Heather Holt Jr. George Marshall Casey Kendall Sr. Oakton Page Lester Jr. National Cathedral School Rachel McArthur Sr. Patriot Kate Murphy Sr. Lake Braddock Emily Schiesl Sr. Lake Braddock Emma Wolcott Jr. Tuscarora Top DC-area GIRLS team Lake Braddock
All-D.C. John Colucci Sr. Gonzaga Queston Grannis Sr. Wilson William McCann Sr. Gozanga Harry Monroe Sr. Gozanga Christian Roberts Sr. Sidwell Jackson Todd Sr. Georgetown Day School Philip Wright Jr. Sidwell TOP DC BOYS TEAM Gonzaga Isabel Boyer Sr. Brennan Dunne So. Ellie Leape Sr. Michaela Kirvan Jr. Allison McKenzie So. Arrington Peterson Sr. May Robison Sr. TOP DC GIRLS TEAM
Georgetown Day School Georgetown Visitation Sidwell Georgetown Visitation Georgetown Visitation Wilson Georgetown Day School Georgetown Visitation
All-Maryland
Joachim El Masry Sr. Richard Montgomery Josh Engels Sr. Walt Whitman Josh Fry Sr. Bethesda-Chevy Chase Simeon Mussie Sr. Albert Einstein Adam Nakasaka Sr. Bethesda-Chevy Chase John Riker So. T.S. Wooten Jimmy Vazzana Sr. Good Counsel TOP MD BOYS TEAM Northwest Virginia Brown So. Bestheda-Chevy Chase Heather Delaplaine Sr. Damascus Zoe Nuechterlein Sr. Bethesda-Chevy Chase Julia Reicin Sr. Winston Churchill Nandini Satsangi So. Poolesville Claudia Wendt Sr. Good Counsel Sofia Zarate Sr. Northwest TOP MD GIRLS TEAM Bethesda-Chevy Chase
All-Virginia
Zachary Lindsey Sr. West Potomac Jack MacKay Sr. TC Williams Yared Mekonnen Sr. Edison Alex Pierce Sr. McLean Conner Prosser Sr. Brentsvile District Matthew Sapsara Sr. Stone Bridge Eric Speeney Sr. Patriot TOP VA BOYS TEAM Lake Braddock Kiera Bothwell Sr. West Springfield Kira Buttrey Sr. Oakton Katherine Fox Sr. James Madison Ava Hassebrock So. Tuscarora Samantha Schwers Sr. Lake Braddock Chloe Tran Sr. Fairfax Faith Zolper Sr. South County TOP VA GIRLS TEAM PATRIOT
COACHES PANEL John Ausema Gonzaga Anthony Belber Georgetown Day School Steve Hays Walt Whitman Kevin Hughes Georgetown Visitation Mike Mangan Lake Braddock Chris Pellegrini West Springfield Kellie Redmond T.S. Wootton Scott Silverstein Winston Churchill Cindy Walls Bishop O’Connell
You think picking a college track team is hard? Try building one... BY C HARLIE BAN
BRANDON BONSEY coaches the Georgetown men’s distance runners, but also fits in a lot of recruiting. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY PAMELA HERSCH
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Georgetown’s coaches already know about you. They’ve studied your form, tracked your times, seen how you handle competition. If they like what they see, you’ll hear from them. Most likely, from Brandon Bonsey, the men’s cross country coach and the men’s program’s prime recruiter. “We try to look beyond just times,” he said. “We’re interested in biomechanics, leg speed, how much they’ve been training, who they’re racing. I think we do a good job of looking beyond their times to get a much better feel for the athlete.” Consistency, though, is crucial for teams aiming for the top 10 at the NCAA cross country championships, year after year. “We want a guy who can run (the mile) in 4:10 every day of the week, not run a 4:05 and then 4:15 at the state meet,” he said. And other considerations enter the rubric. “If you get someone from a state that doesn’t have particularly strong distance running, we weigh that,” said assistant coach Julie Culley. “Or if you’re able to train yearround. A kid from Maine isn’t the same as a kid from California.” As the roughly 60 high school juniors he starts out with whittles itself down to the six or so who end up committing, Bonsey eyes a success rate that’s tighter than the university’s admissions rate for the entire student body (16 percent in 2015). For the thousands of high school runners trying to make up their minds about their collegiate running careers, many likely don’t realize that it’s just as tough for the coaches recruiting them. Over nearly a year, Bonsey, Culley and Mike Smith, the director of track and field, will put the kind of thought into picking runners and making scholarship offers that their prospective runners will put into picking a school. “It’s hard to get a feel for their personality or their mental skills over a 48 hour visit,” Bonsey said. “There’s a lot of communication that goes back and forth, figure out what kind of school they want, what they’re interested in academically, but every interaction gives us a chance to learn a little bit more.” It’s a balancing act — the coaches need to train the athletes they have on campus, but they also have to look a few years down the line. Coaches ignore recruiting at their own peril.
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“You could be the greatest coach in the world, but if you’re not coaching talented people you’re not going to have a very good team,” Bonsey said His coach in the mid-2000s had requested a VHS tape; Bonsey now spends his time watching online videos from national-level meets, identifying and tracking runners in the December of their junior years. By July, they can talk on the phone. By then, runners have been sifted out and about 25 will make official visits. That’s where the coaching staff has to be creative. Despite academic panache, Georgetown competes with programs that can offer more amenities. “There are a lot of things we can’t equal,” Bonsey said. “We don’t take them to the sidelines of the football games. Georgetown’s not a glamorous place, but if we do a good job recruiting, we can compete with Stanford, Villanova, Syracuse and Oregon.” Georgetown’s team works out on a 320 meter track, so in that regard, Division III Catholic University across town has an advantage. Ian Hankins, who took over the Cardinals’ men’s program in January, uses the school’s new track, due for a mid-fall completion, to attract prospective athletes. “The university is investing in our facilities,” he said. “We’ll have access to a new weight room.” After working as a graduate assistant at NAIA Baker University in Kansas, Hankins started a junior college team at Potomac State College in West Virginia. So by comparison, a lack of scholarships doesn’t seem so bad. And he sees the path he has to take — momentum. “If the guys we have race well and improve, athletes will notice,” he said. “And we have a metro station on campus and we’re close to internships, so we have great resources for their academic and professional careers.” Hankins’ recruiting field is somewhat limited by the school’s religious affiliation, but at the same time, he knows he has built-in interest on every Catholic high school in the country. Georgetown is still working on its national name recognition. Although both team’s rosters are geographically diverse, Bonsey said it’s best known in the northeast. Paige Hofstad, a Texas high schooler who finished in the top four at both Nike Cross and Foot Locker’s national meets in 2014, was injured and unsure about where her collegiate
career would go. “I was in a really tough spot,” she said. “I took one official visit, but I left feeling not great about things.” She took two others, and felt comfortable with one, and was going to forgo her two remaining visits. Then Culley called. “She was still interested in me, even with my injury, and Georgetown had always been a dream school for me,” Hofstad said. She took that visit, liked the school, felt at home with the team, but still went home undecided. So Mike Smith, the women’s head coach and director of track and field for both teams, paid her a visit to New Braunfels, outside of San Antonio. “In the recruiting process, you talk so much,” Smith said. “When you go to their house, there’s not much new information, but you’re showing the family you’re willing to put whatever you’re doing on hold, fly across the country and to sit down face to face with them. “A lot of times you’re recruiting their parents, too.” Even though a home visit can be disruptive to a packed work schedule, that didn’t show during his visit to Texas. “When Coach Mike came down, he didn’t put any pressure on me,” she said. “He was very calm, cool and he was the coach I thought I would get along with and trust.” That’s what the Georgetown coaches cite when they talk about their college decisions — a strong connection with the coach. Smith is there entirely because of former Hoyas coach Pat Henner. Smith came to James Madison University to run for him, and when Henner moved to Georgetown, Smith came along. “I knew Georgetown was where a lot of great runners were coming out of,” Smith said. “But had he called me and said he was going to a tiny school without a reputation, I’d have followed him there. It was a running-first decision.” Culley ultimately decided on Rutgers because of her coach. “I wanted to go to a place where I liked the girls and I liked the coach,” she said. Bonsey was sold on Georgetown after one visit. “I didn’t look at any other schools,” he said. “There was an intangible feel while you’re there. Coach Henner must have found something in me.”
To have the longest-lasting impact, the Hoyas target middle distance runners and build them up over a few years. “Even if you’re a great two miler, you’ll have to come through at your high PR pace and run another mile to even make the NCAA championships, that’s hard for a 19-year-old kid to do,” Smith said. “A 800 runner could improve a half second and make NCAAs in (his or her) first year. “You can’t ‘talent’ your way through a 10k cross country race, you need a few years to prepare for that.” Just as how Bonsey can now watch videos of runners in action on the internet, there’s more information available to prospective students, which already widens the scope beyond what Smith and Culley, who did their college search during the tail end of the 90s, knew. “Reading Track and Field News, you’d see some kid in California ran 8:56 for two miles,” said Smith, who grew up in Western Massachusetts. “That might as well be Mars, I was never going to go there. Now there’s so much information exchange thanks to the internet that there’s a lot more awareness of what everyone in the world of running does, and it’s not just people writing workouts for runners because that’s what their friend who coaches in the next town does.” Culley said a lot of her information about college programs came from their printed media guides, an antiquated concept. Throughout the recruiting year, Smith said, it’s important to understand both sides of the process. Walk-ons are rare, largely because they dilute the time the coaching staff has to spend on recruited athletes, and Bonsey has seen more than his fair share of guys pull off of a try-out tempo run on the C&O Canal Towpath, three miles in, when the reality of what they’re facing becomes a physical roadblock. “A kid can write an email to me about how they’re the next best thing, their GPA, their extracurricular activities, but we get hundreds of those emails a year,” Smith said. “We have a process that works for us, and there might be a few people who fall through the cracks. Abbey D’Agostino didn’t break 5 minutes in the mile in high school and she’s one of the best runners in NCAA history. “Are we going to take a chance on 100 of them to find one? Probably not.”
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BY JEN MARANZANO
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: FERNANDA YEPEZ-LOPEZ, VICTORIA PANNULLO, JACQUILINE ZITO, EMMA PANNULLO. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY MARLEEN VAN DEN NESTE
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Whether you’re first or fifteenth on the cross country team, you run. Hard. “Every single day I see everyone run until their lungs are on fire,” said Fernanda YepezLopez, a senior at Bethesda’s Walter Johnson High School. It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been one of the top seven scoring members of the Wildcats team, which will be shooting for its fourth consecutive Maryland 4A title this fall. Yepez-Lopez and her teammates attend daily practices, do strenuous workouts several times each week and wear the same uniform. A successful team needs that, and breeds that. More personalities means more fun in a sport where a lot of the conditioning is done at a conversational pace and friendships can develop over the course of all the miles. Who knows where hidden talent lies the first time a runner stands on the starting line, but more importantly, who knows what they will learn about themselves and their friends in the dayin, day-out life of a cross country runner. Jacqueline Zito, who is starting her junior year, said that at another school she might be among the top seven runners on the team, and so would some of her friends. “I don’t think we’d give (WJ) up for anything,” she said. “All the varsity girls are so supportive. And they’re so sweet; it’s not as though they are boastful. There’s a varsity and a JV team, but there’s a really cool family vibe going on.” That means, like with older siblings, lessons come from more than just mom and dad, or in this case, coaches Tom Martin and Ashley St. Denis. And sometimes those lessons resonate more personally because they come from peers. Victoria Pannullo remembered her first practice last year as a freshman. “We did the warm up and I was exhausted after that. Then we did a two-mile jog on the track. I was so tired. And it was incredibly hot. After that, I threw up. There was one girl, who I didn’t even know, and she came over to me and told me it was going to be alright and running will get easier. “It was so miserable. I came home from that and said, ‘Do I even want to do crosscountry? That was so hard.’ But everything has been better since the first practice.” One of sophomore Helena Abbott’s favorite cross country memories is the entire team getting together to talk and do core exercises in a big circle after a workout. “Immediately, everyone looks out for each other once you join the team,” she said. Encouragement from a teammate convinced Pannullo to give the team a chance. She has gained the perspective that “you’ll have good days and bad days of running.
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And they are both important.” She now relies on hard workouts to give her confidence in races by telling herself, “You finished that really hard workout; you can finish this race.” Even on hot and humid race days, “you get through it,” Zito said, and walk away “knowing that you can do it even though it looks so difficult at the time.” Yepez-Lopez and Zito have also both found that running helps them balance the stress of high school. “Running really helps me channel out all the negative vibes,” Yepez-Lopez said. Zito pointed out that, “High school is full of pressure and social status and phones, but when you’re out running, that just goes away.” There still is some competition, because when time matters, running reveals itself to be a true meritocracy. The politics of playing time are null and void. Zito often finished races last season within seconds of two other teammates. At some races, the order in which they finished would determine who would compete at an upcoming invitational. They raced hard against each other, but they also encouraged each other through the race and remained close friends regardless of their finishing order. Zito remembered a race when she thought she could not “move a step farther” and felt so grateful to hear her teammate’s voice beside her saying, “‘come on, we’ve got this.’” Some girls on the team are striving for one of the top seven spots. For many others, it’s not realistic, at least this year. Walter said, “the only person I’m racing against is myself and I’m pretty sure I can beat me.” She notes that many girls join the team “just for the love of running.” Abbott agreed that many of the girls on the team are motivated to run because “we really like the sport.” But they still set goals and run hard to attain them. “We always go out and give it 110 percent,” Abbott said. It means something when Yepez-Lopez sees every runner “putting (herself) on the line to achieve something.” “Every time we run, I see everyone is struggling,” she said. “Everyone is pushing themselves. If you are not pushing yourself to the extent that everyone else is, you’re letting them down.” Through the pain, the girls have fun and become close friends. “Even when we’re all tired, we still have enough energy to laugh together,” Yepez-Lopez said. The success of Walter Johnson’s top runners is a source of pride and motivation for the entire team. Walter said that training with the top seven runners has inspired others on
the team to believe that if “they work as hard they can be just as successful.” “Even though it isn’t the JV team winning all the titles, we still feel a sense of pride since it’s still our runners going out there and winning. … I know it’s impacted me in this way.” Pannullo said that the whole team contributes to the success of the fastest girls because, “Everyone on the team is trying to push the person in front of them to run faster.” And Zito agreed that, at the end of the season, it feels like “we all did it together.” In an act that Walter described as “an amazing display of sportsmanship,” the two runners who consistently finished right
behind the top seven girls last season and just missed qualifying to run at the regional meet organized the team to make posters for those racing at regionals. One of the girls who organized that effort, Emma Pannullo, was disappointed that she was not racing herself but still traveled to the race to cheer on the team. Each of these girls plans to continue running after they leave Walter Johnson. Zito said that running helps her feel “stronger mentally and physically.” She hopes, even, that she can replicate “the wonderful bonds” forged with her teammates on the Walter Johnson cross country team.
EMMA PANNULLO, VICTORIA PANNULLO, FERNANDA YEPEZ-LOPEZ, JACQUILINE ZITO. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY MARLEEN VAN DEN NESTE
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SEPT. 4 LARRY NOEL HALF MARATHON GREENBELT, MD
SEPT. 25 KENSINGTON 8K KENSINGTON, MD
SEPT. 5
SUSCO 8K RESTON, VA
MONTGOMERY COUNTY INTERFAITH 5K
DC ROCKS CHAPTER 5-MILE
GERMANTOWN, MD
BURKE LAKE PARK, VA
GREAT AMERICAN LABOR DAY 5K
DULLES DAY 5K/10K
FAIRFAX, VA
DULLES AIRPORT, VA STRIDE FORWARD 5K
SEPT. 10 BE BRAVE 5K SILVER SPRING, MD
RESTON, VA LAKE NEEDWOOD CROSS COUNTRY DERWOOD, MD
RACE FOR FREEDOM
PREVENT CANCER 5K WASHINGTON, DC ROCK THE CREEK RELAY WASHINGTON, DC KELLIE THOMPSON SHILEY 5K CHESTER, MD NATIONAL CAPITAL 20 MILER AND 5 MILER POTOMAC, MD RUN! GEEK! RUN! 5K ALEXANDRIA, VA RINCE WILLIAM HALF MARATHON BRISTOW, VA TEDDY BEAR 5K FALLS CHURCH, VA
SILVER SPRING, MD
SEPT. 18
PERFECT 10
ALEXANDRIA 9/11 HEROES RUN
NAVY-AIR FORCE HALF MARATHON/
RESTON, VA
ALEXANDRIA, VA
NAVY 5 MILER
CABIN JOHN KIDS RUN
HEMLOCK HALF MARATHON/10K
WASHINGTON, DC
BETHESDA, MD
CLIFTON, VA
REVENGE OF THE PENGUINS 10-MILER/
ARLINGTON POLICE, FIRE & SHERIFF 9/11 5K 20-MILER ARLINGTON, VA CARDEROCK, MD FOOD FOR OTHERS TYSONS 5K THE HOME RUN 10K/5K
SEPT. 30-OCT. 2 CRAWLIN’ CRAB HALF MARATHON/5K HAMPTON, VA
MCLEAN, VA
ROCKVILLE, MD
RUN 4 SHELTER HALF, 10K AND 5K
WILLOWSFORD TENDERFOOT BEGINNER
STEVENSVILLE, MD
ADVENTURE RACE
OCT. 1
ALDIE, VA
WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK 5K
RECESS RUN 5K
RESTON, VA
LEESBURG, VA
RACE FOR EVERY CHILD 5K
SUPER H 5K
WASHINGTON, DC
TYSONS, VA
RUN WITH THE WARRIORS 5K
MIGHTY MILE LEESBURG
MCLEAN, VA
FAIRFAX, VA
AUTISM SPEAKS WALK
SEPT. 11 PARKS HALF MARATHON ROCKVILLE, MD DAMASCUS FREEDOM 5K DAMASCUS, MD GEORGE WASHINGTON PATRIOT RUN
WASHINGTON, DC
MOUNT VERNON, VA
SEPT. 23 SEPT. 16 RAGNAR WASHINGTON DC
DIVAS HALF MARATHON & 5K
OCT. 2
LEESBURG, VA
BOO! RUN FOR LIFE 10K WASHINGTON, DC
CUMBERLAND MD TO YARDS PARK, WASHINGTON, DC
SEPT. 24 DASH INTO THE 80’S 5K
SEPT. 17 CLARENDON DAY 5K/10K ARLINGTON, VA RACE TO BEAT CANCER 5K WASHINGTON, DC
CLIFTON, VA NEON NIGHT HERNDON, VA MICHAEL PENNEFATHER MEMORIAL 5K MANASSAS, VA FREEDOM 5K WASHINGTON, DC
RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN
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NAVY MILE WASHINGTON, DC WOODROW WILSON BRIDGE HALF MARATHON & 6K ALEXANDRIA, VA KINHAVEN 5K ARLINGTON, VA RUN WITH WIFLE HALF MARATHON FAIRFAX STATION, VA
OCT. 8 GLORY DAYS GRILL 5K
NOV. 13 VETERANS DAY 10K
CENTREVILLE, VA
OCT. 30
MATTHEW HENSON TRAIL 5K
MCM 10K
VETERAN’S DAY 5K
SILVER SPRING, MD
WASHINGTON, DC
FAIRFAX, VA
MARINE CORPS MARATHON
MAKING A DIFFERENCE 5K
ARLINGTON, VA
ASHBURN, VA
SPROUT 5K
CANDY CANE CITY 5K
ASHBURN, VA
CHEVY CHASE, MD
OCT. 9 RESTON PUMPKIN 5K RESTON, VA
VIVA VETS! 5K FAIRFAX, VA
OCT. 15
DANGER! ZOMBIES! RUN! 5K
FALL IN LOVE 10K/5K
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
WASHINGTON, DC
MONSTER MASH 5K
O.U.R. RACE TO STOP TRAFFICK
MCLEAN, VA
LORTON, VA BALTIMORE RUNNING FESTIVAL BALTIMORE, MD BLACK HILL 10K BOYDS, MD
OCT. 16 ROLLER COASTER RACE 10K/5K UPPER MARLBORO, MD DMV RUN FOR THE WARRIORS FAIRFAX STATION, VA FALL BACKYARD BURN 5M/10M RESTON, VA
NOV. 5 LOUDOUN COUNTY 5K FOR THE HOMELESS ASHBURN, VA
NOV. 6 PARKS 10K WASHINGTON, DC BREAKAWAY FITNESS 5K MCLEAN, VA NATIONAL RACE TO END WOMEN’S CANCER WASHINGTON, DC ROCKVILLE 5K/10K ROCKVILLE, MD
OCT. 22 MAKE YOUR MARK MONTGOMERY 5K ROCKVILLE, MD
WASHINGTON, DC
NOV. 11 VETERAN’S DAY “RUN ELEVEN” 11K/5K
NOV. 19 FREEZE YOUR GIZZARD 5K LEESBURG, VA RUN UNDER THE LIGHTS GAITHERSBURG, MD
NOV. 20 FALL BACKYARD BURN 5M/10M LORTON, VA
NOV. 24 ALEXANDRIA TURKEY TROT 5 MILER ALEXANDRIA, VA FAIRFAX TURKEY TROT FAIRFAX, VA ASHBURN FARM THANKSGIVING DAY 10K/5K/2K ASHBURN, VA BETHESDA TURKEY CHASE 10K BETHESDA, MD TURKEY DAY 5K RESTON, VA
ANNANDALE, VA
OCT. 23 FALL BACKYARD BURN 5M/10M GREAT FALLS, VA RUN ‘N’ ROLL 5K WASHINGTON, DC CROSS COUNTRY ON THE FARM DERWOOD, MD
OCT. 29 ANTHEM WICKED 10K VIRGINIA BEACH, VA MCM KID’S RUN
NOV. 12 STONE MILL 50 MILER
NOV. 26 TURKEY BURNOFF GAITHERSBURG, MD
MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, MD WALK TO END H.I.V. WASHINGTON, DC
NOV. 11-NOV. 13
NOV. 27 FALL BACKYARD BURN 5M/10M FAIRFAX STATION, VA
OUTERBANKS MARATHON/SOUTHERN FRIED HALF MARATHON KITTY HAWK, NC
ARLINGTON, VA GHOST, GOBLINS & GHOULS SPOOKTACULAR 5K ASHBURN, VA SHELANE’S RUN 5K FAIRFAX, VA
Upcoming races is not a comprehensive listing of road races, but are chosen for their proximity to the Washington, D.C. area. Listings are based largely on information provided by race directors on the free online race calendar at www.runwashington.com. Race directors should be advised to add their races to the calendar as soon as possible to aid inclusion in this lisiting. It is wise to confirm event details with organizers before registering for an event. Date and times are subject to change. If you would like to have your race being run between November and February listed in our next print edition, please add it to our online calendar by Oct. 1.
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Pediatrics
BY L AURA SCADUTO
RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY PAMELA HERSCH
FALL 2016 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 31
The stories of women’s closets bursting at the seams with pair after pair of shoes of every style and color are legendary. Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw made the lust for Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos standard household fare. Sexy, stylish and always a fashion statement, shoes are not just a wardrobe staple. They are an expression of who the wearer is and where the wearer is going. To Claire Wood, a native Virginian, shoes are as important in her life as they ever were to Carrie. It’s just a different kind of shoe – and a different life. From high school on, running shoes, not heels or espadrilles or sandals, have been a defining factor in Woods’ existence. Earlier in life, she wore them and then sold them, and now, she makes them. Wood is the senior footwear product manager in Performance Running at New Balance in Boston and is as happy as Imelda Marcos checking out the 3,000 pairs of shoes in her closet. A serious field hockey player at Oakton High School, a young Wood had visions of becoming a collegiate field hockey player. Running was nothing more than an afterthought. She ran indoor and outdoor track to train, and she worked at Footsteps of Reston part-time to make money. Running and shoes were simply side interests that she never thought in her wildest dreams would amount to anything. Things began to change during her senior year in high school. Terry Weir, her coach her senior year of high school and now coach at George Washington University, strongly encouraged her to pursue a running career in college, instead of her intended goal of playing field hockey. Confused and unsure if she was ready to change her mind, she agreed to visit some colleges with strong running programs. She got the bug. Wood ended up walking on for cross country and track at James Madison University, and her fate was sealed. She was a runner. “I ended up a full-blown runner, running 80 miles a week,” said Wood. As her collegiate running career in college blossomed, Wood’s transformation to a running shoe aficionado unfolded. The transformation was an organic one. Wood’s
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job at Footsteps kept her working over breaks and during the summers. Owner of the local running shop, Paul Zink, was also an assistant coach at the time helping out surrounding schools, including Oakton. Zinc was impressed by Wood’s great attitude and curious nature about running and shoes. “I would teach her about the shoes and she picked up things quickly, like how the shoes worked mechanically,” said Zinc. “I would let her sit on shoe presentations when reps came in each year and she would ask a lot of questions.” Her experience from the running store began to seep into her track and field life and her track and field life seeped into how she looked at the shoes she sold. From all her time working in running stores, and running on tracks, roads and grass, she became more and more curious about running shoes and how they served the people that wore them. Wood wanted to know why shoes were made the way they were made. Her coach at JMU, Dave Rinker, capitalized on Wood’s unique set of talents and he began having her watch other teammates run and give them tips for shoes that would be best suited to the individual’s needs. “It was sort of this cheeky thing,” Wood described, “but I loved it, I was obsessed with shoes.” As her collegiate career as a runner came to a close, Wood began pondering if running at American University with her NCAA red shirt eligibility would be her next step, but in the end, she chose to defer. Still working in the running store, Footsteps of Reston, as her collegiate running career came to an end, Wood found herself with numerous connections and friends both in the world of runners and in the running industry. The path she chose to follow her heart into a career in running shoes was as natural to her as stilettos to a runway model. Wood’s first gig in the running industry was as a technical representative with Mizuno. While learning this facet of the runner’s shoe world, Wood realized that she eventually wanted to work in product design. She is the person who closes her eyes and envisions what a good, stylish running shoe will look like and how it will work.
Claire Wood while running on the Oakton track team. Photo courtesy of Wood.
She eventually got a job with Brooks Running and started selling product in Seattle as a marketing representative. Finally, in 2009, she moved to New Balance, where she’s been now for the last seven years. “I work with designers and engineers to create our global performance running shoes. If I’m the visionary, they’re the creators. Products that I was selling in high school hadn’t changed much, then this running boom hit and that is still continuing to happen. People are so curious and want information, and they expect information. It’s created a resurgence of freshness which everyone is enjoying.” As the senior footware product manager in performance running, she remains very close to the sport. She works with professional athletes who give honest feedback on the shoes and how they feel and perform. And that’s exactly where Wood found her passion, connecting New Balance to performance running. “What I love the most is the fusion of real performance with art.” All we runners see when we look at a new
shoe on the shelf is its function and, if we’re lucky, it’s beauty. If it’s by New Balance, it’s very likely a shoe that Wood had her hands on. What we don’t see is the hard work and creativity of the process. “It’s always difficult. Runners are vocal and sensitive people,” says Wood, “If you change something (in a shoe), you better change it for a reason.“ Wood believes that while runners want a shoe that looks good on their feet, they’re more interested in how it supports their running. “We’re creating a product that’s rooted in performance. If created a little wrong, you could risk injuring them. It’s a lot of pressure to make sure you really know you are updating for the right reasons. You don’t change something to change something; you change it to make it better.” Wood is not done with running or shoes by a long shot. Now she runs to clear her mind and for fitness, wearing shoes she had a hand in creating while she goes. There is no doubt the pounding of feet against pavement is inspiring her next creation.
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30 YEARS OF PROGRESS BUT THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER Join Us November 12, 2016
RUN, WALK OR DONATE TODAY For decades, Whitman-Walker Health has worked to end HIV. We’ve been part of this fight for 30 years and we know that we are so close to finding a cure. Now is your chance to RUN to end HIV! Join us November 12th on the National Mall as we honor those we’ve lost along the way, mark the progress we’ve made and aim to reach the finish line.
walktoendhiv.org
WWH-043 Run Washington Ad.indd 1
7/27/16 9:41 AM
Parents: The Built-in Fans BY MOLLIE ZAPATA
PARENTS, SIBLINGS, FRIENDS AND SPECTATORS BRAVE THE RAIN AT BURKE LAKE FOR THE 2015 MONROE PARKER INVITATIONAL. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN
FALL 2016 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 35
As a new high school cross country season begins, there are things parents of aspiring runners need to know to best support their child’s budding interest in this glorious sport. Cross country is its own unique (and painful) animal. And high school cross country, with its range of talent, experience, and intensity among athletes, parents, and coaches, requires some advance preparation and understanding before diving in. First, the setting matters. Races can range from tri or quad meets with just a few teams lining up in a parking lot, to a massive invitational with colorful tents, banners flying and packs of kids running around in every possible shade of bright matching singlets. It can feel more like a medieval fair than a modern day sporting event. “The pageantry of it really struck me,” says Margaret Carpenter, a Virginia-based cross country mom of her first cross country meet for George Marshall High School. “It’s really beautiful, almost military.” At a small meet you will find your kid no problem, but a bigger race may require more coordination. Tim Haight, another local cross country parent, advises parents to “arrive extra early — plan for traffic and parking — you don’t want to miss your child running.” Know the cell phone numbers of other parents, as your athlete may be warming up and unreachable when you arrive at the meet. The weather is also a critical factor both in how you support your child and your own spectating comfort. Cross country can start as early as August, with temps and humidity at their most sweltering. If this is the case, a prepared parent will bring lots of cold water — enough for themselves and extra for their kid — and even a cooler full of ice to help the runners cool down before and after the race. Parents coming from work should ditch the suit and pumps and bring a change of comfortable clothing (running clothes encouraged!) and sensible shoes to deal with the dirt and grass of the typical cross country course. Later in the season the tables will turn and layering will be the name of the game. Runners will want to keep their sweats on until just before the gun goes off, so one parent (check with the coach first) might volunteer to take all the kids’ sweats right as they step to the starting line. After the race, wet or sweaty-cold clothing will chill an athlete
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quickly, so encourage your kids to do their cool down jog immediately and then change into something dry. “It’s a long day for your child,” Haight says of Saturday invitational meets, “so send them with the food and clothing they will need to be comfortable in all weather circumstances.” Perhaps the most important part of coming to support is having a cheering plan. Look at a map of the course in advance and identify a few places where you can watch. While cheering at the finish line is great, support throughout the race is even better, so look where a course figure-8s, loops (and you can take a shortcut across), or doubles back to maximize the number of times you see your runner. “When you get there, scope out earlier races so you can figure out the good spectating spots so you know where to look for your child,” Haight suggests.
Pack Your (Kid’s) Bags More food than you think they need More water than you think they need An extra pair of dry socks Racing spikes or flats A blanket or sleeping bag to spread across the ground Hat Bandana or tissues Sunglasses Top and bottom layers A plastic bag for dirty clothes
Supporting high school cross country is about encouraging your kids and their teammates to have fun. As a parent you set the sportsmanship tone, so cheer for everyone on your team. “There are a lot of names to know, so write them down to learn them,” advises Carpenter. “By the end of your fourth season this is your family.” She advises parents become familiar with MileSplit.com, a high school running website with Virginia and Maryland sites. “Use it to educate yourself about some of the top runners, the ones your own kid is competing with…as well as the top teams in the state and what colors they’re wearing so that you can enjoy watching them outdo themselves at the front of the pack.” If your kid is on the junior varsity team, stick around for the varsity race. If they’re on varsity, show up in time for the JV events. “It’s such an easy sport to watch,” Haight says. “Just a few 20-minute races.” Mid-cross country race, an athlete can reach a mentally dark place, so tell them they look awesome! Tell them they’re doing great! Tell them they look strong! “They have a coach,” Carpenter says, “so it’s up to you to be their cheerleader.” There are many ways you can support your kids physically and mentally outside of the race itself. “By junior year, when schoolwork becomes more intense, realize how much the sport takes out of your runner each practice and pick up the pieces,” Carpenter says. “Get him to gear down for earlier sleep each night... we asked him often how we could help him (and) did some planning out loud to help him manage the full days and full load.” Fueling your runner is a good place to focus, so talk to the coach and consult other running resources to learn about the best eating habits for young athletes. “As my son got more serious about his sport, I saw him go for fuel more than snacks so I tried to support that.” Before the season even begins you can start preparing for the demands of cross country. “You have to go to a running store and buy the appropriate shoes,” Haight advises. “Also go to the coach for advice and look into summer running options,” as many teams have casual running meet-ups, often organized by team captains, throughout the summer. Carpenter recommends sending your kid to a running camp if possible to give them the opportunity to discover and fall in
love with running culture independent from parental involvement. Burnout is a danger for any athlete. Haight points out that, “when kids think running is not fun, it’s really the parents and coach making it not fun.” Supportive parents should “encourage all the good parts about running and hopefully then your kid matures into someone who wants to continue to run and run and run.” Carpenter echoes his sentiments. “Tune into the identity of being a runner and what being a part of this really glorious thing is all about, and the times will probably take care of themselves.” When it comes to race day, immediately before the race pressure is building, so it’s likely best to leave your athlete alone. Running is an intense sport, and your child will be dealing with pre-race jitters, focus, and team dynamics. Don’t add pressure by asking too many questions or fixating on how good (or not good) they feel. If you are nervous for them (which, as a parent, you very likely are), those nerves will rub off and add additional pressure to an already high-pressure situation. As a supporter, you are there to tell them they feel great and will be awesome. If anything, remind them before the race to trust in their training and to have fun. Afterwards, if they had a good race, celebrate with them! And if they had a rough day, celebrate with them! As long as they tried their best, it counts as a win. Success in cross county takes time. That’s time on a daily basis — time to train, time to rest, time to sleep — and also over the course of years. Focus freshmen on enjoying the experience. As they mature and build mileage and endurance they will inevitably improve, but none of that will happen if they’re not having fun. Finally, “Go to as many meets as you can,” Carpenter’s first point of advice, is echoed by many parents. “They’re long days, so you give up Saturday, but you only have so much time with the kids and it’s so beautiful what they do.” Pointing to the life lessons — sportsmanship, dedication, diligence, joy in exercise — gained from participating in cross country, she notes, “they’re finding their character in this and it’s great to see a young person discover that it’s a lifelong sport.” Haight agrees and advises parents to “nurture the interest because running is a habit and a hobby that they can live with forever.”
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A Few Miles of Their Own BY LAURA SCADUTO
Gonzaga coach John Ausema with now-graduated runners Peter Sikorsky, Jacob Floam and Will Wimbish. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY SWIM BIKE RUN PHOTOGRAPHY
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Classes. Practice. Meets, meets, meets. Training. Life. That’s the routine for most cross country and track coaches. But if anyone can balance work, family and the rest of life, it’s a runner. If there’s any one kind of person who can tell you how to do it all, you guessed it; it’s also a runner. And among runners, those who make their living in support of the sport seem to have a particular gift at figuring out how to have it all. We all know that runners are passionate and don’t like to sacrifice any part of a good life, including their runs. Cross country coaches, who live to inspire others to appreciate the value of running in a balanced life, have come up with some particularly creative solutions to work their own runs into their daily schedules. We caught up with a few local coaches, who are also spouses, parents and entrepreneurs, whose solutions to creating opportunities for their runs in their daily lives knocked our socks off. They were happy to share a few tips on how to be more like them, live happier, fuller
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lives, and get all our runs in while making it look easy. Jean Kleitz, the Centreville High School cross country coach, and an avid triathlete and runner, has mastered the art of changing her body’s circadian rhythm, a task that she truly believes anyone can do over time. Long before Kleitz is expected to show up to coach her cross country team at the end of the school day after teaching her AP Environmental Science and Biology classes, she has powered through an entire day that begins with her alarm clock blaring away at 3:30 a.m. Yes, you read that correctly, she literally functions in another time zone. She begins her day with cereal, coffee, walking her dogs, and a workout, before she heads out the door to work, and to coach the team she loves after school. Kleitz ends the day over dinner with her husband and hits the hay at 7:30 p.m. After hearing her schedule you’d think this routine is an oppressive chore for Kleitz, but it’s just the opposite. “I love doing it,” Kleitz said. “I don’t have
much of a social life, but if I weren’t doing it, I wouldn’t be happy. There are days when I’m overwhelmed and busy, but I love running and it’s my happy place.” With the help of black-out curtains and a husband that has adapted to the same schedule, Kleitz has found what works for her, even though it took some time to adapt. As for Gonzaga College High School cross country coach John Ausema, he finds any window of open time as an opportunity to run, and he’s gotten pretty creative. In addition to Kleitz’s trick of getting up early, Ausema will run to work from Greenbelt, Md. instead of driving, bust out a few laps on the track before his students arrive and run during auto appointments while he’s waiting for his car to be serviced. When Ausema started coaching, he wasn’t yet a dad and parenthood has inspired him to adjust to a new schedule with new demands. With two daughters who are 4 and 8, he uses these small windows the best he can to continue running and occasionally racing.
“The key thing is to be creative and be really proactive,” Ausema said. “Try looking ahead several days and think, ‘I’m going to have x, y, and z coming up, so how can I make this work.’” Jesse Gaylord, a track and cross country coach at the Field School, starts his day with a list. He prioritizes his daily tasks first thing in the morning and tries to stick with it as best as he can, though he admits that coaching is prioritized over his personal running these days. In the same breath, he said, “which I love.” With his competitive days behind him, he uses his list to best balance his time with his athletes, students, his online coaching business (WindsorRunning.com), his wife and young daughter, and his running. “Setting aside time for me to exercise or run allows me to be a better coach and better dad because it’s my time for me.” If there’s one common thread of advice that runs between each of these amazing people, it’s time management. If there’s something you want, you’ll find a way to fit it into your day.
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Still New to This BY MAGGIE LLOYD
Perry Shoemaker after the 2014 .US National 12k. RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY DUSTIN WHITLOW
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“I love running... It’s not a chore at all. It’s my peace.” “I love running.” Those three words by Perry Shoemaker explain a lot about her success at the age of 45. She’s won the .US National 12k masters’ championship three years in a row. In 2016 she was one of the top 10 American women at the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler. In 2015 she was the second-place woman at the Army Ten-Miler and just missed the 1:15 qualifying time for the Olympic marathon trials with a 1:16:01 half marathon in Philadelphia. “I love running,” she says. “It’s not a chore at all. It’s my peace.” At the top of the local race results, she has become a bit of a local celebrity. “Perry runs a lot of local races,” said Ray Pugsley, owner of Potomac River Running and a PRR DC Elite teammate. “To see Perry continue to improve and excel through her 40s is an inspiration to me and the Potomac River Running community.” She’s somewhat legendary in local racing circles, as of late July third overall in the RunWashington rankings, behind only Olympic Trials marathoners Susanna Sullivan and Julia Roman-Duval. Roland Rust overheard someone at a race say, “I got second to Perry, but I don’t really count her.” Up until five years ago, though, running took the backseat to her other athletic pursuits. Her high school in Annapolis didn’t offer cross country or track, so she focused on field hockey, lacrosse, basketball and sailing. Throughout it all, running helped her stay in shape. But winning her age group at the Governor’s Bay Bridge 10k back then was an early sign of the success to come
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later in life. She was a two-time All-American in sailing at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and coached lacrosse after graduation, but through it all she continued running. When she and her family lived in Pittsburgh, racing for Perry mostly consisted of small community 5ks through the neighborhood. It wasn’t until the Shoemakers moved to Vienna in 2011 that Perry began running competitively. It started with a small 5k at her middle daughter’s high school, which she won. Then there was the Run with Santa 5k, which she won, followed by their New Year’s Day 5k, which — you guessed it — she won. It didn’t take long for the Shoemakers’ oldest daughter — “she’s the research girl,” according to Perry — to find the Potomac River Running racing team application online. The seventh grader encouraged her mother to fill it out. The race locations were convenient and the community was a great fit. By April 2012, Perry was on the team, complete with a pair of racing shoes, courtesy of her husband. Perry trains on her own, averaging 45-70 miles per week on top of cross-training, core work, and strength training. She says the solo workouts suit her fine. “I’m very much an introvert,” she said. “I don’t talk a lot when I run, I’m just kind of in my own space.” “You’re not much fun to run with,” her husband once told her. She keeps in touch with her Potomac River Running teammates over email during the week, offering words of encouragement and congratulations for weekend race results and warms up and cools down with them on race days.
“Conversations during those runs are usually about families and how other people are doing, other race plans, and injuries, but never about how Perry was beating everybody, and she’s always modest about anything she has done,” said teammate Steve Crago. A preschool teacher during the day, Perry saves speedwork for her half-days, often running on the track at her middle daughter’s high school. “I’m very competitive in my own person. I’m probably my worst and best competitor,” she said. That drive has helped her shave time off her Army Ten-Miler finish year after year, culminating in an incredible 57:31 last year. “That race let me know that she could rise to another level on occasion when there was top competition,” said Rust. Perry and her husband talked about what could come next. They considered the Philadelphia Half Marathon the following month, where Perry would need to drop over seven minutes from her half marathon PR to get into the Olympic Marathon Trials in January. “Is it really ridiculous if I think about trying to qualify for the Trials?” she remembers asking him. “It’s a big long shot,” he told her, “but let’s think of a plan. Let’s try to do it.” As with all her races, he designed a workout plan and coached her through the training. She missed the qualifying time by a minute, but has no regrets. “We tried. We came close. Good experience and a lot of hard workouts. Glad I did it.” Because of an injury, she spent the morning of the marathon trials watching the race on TV from a spin bike. Some of her proudest races haven’t necessarily been her fastest. At this year’s Cherry Blossom Ten Mile, awful weather and a nagging injury left Perry questioning whether she’d even attempt the race. It would be her first run in two weeks. “I was dreading it,” she said. “It was freezing cold, it was blowing head-on wind the last two miles of the race and I did it! I didn’t have the best time, but it was great. I’m very proud I did that race.”
While she trains alone, Perry often relies on her family and team to get her through tough races. At the 2012 Marine Corps Marathon, Perry heard her husband and her three daughters cheering five times along the course and ran with a Potomac River teammate for the last seven miles on her way to a 2:52:22 finish and fourth place. She calls it a “fulfilling day” that ended with a fifth birthday party for her youngest daughter. All three of the Shoemaker daughters are now runners, with the oldest two running on their high school cross country and track teams and already wielding USATF National Junior Olympics Cross Country and Track and Field Championship experience. “Running’s always been part of our entire family,” she said. She brings her youngest daughter to the pool when she cross-trains; she texts her husband to let him know if a workout goes particularly well. She even incorporates running into work. Recess at her preschool includes students racing around the playground and field and show-and-tell includes Perry’s race medals. Last October, her students barely stood taller than her Army TenMiler masters’ trophy and thought it would make a good bowl to hand out candy in for Halloween later that month. “Wow I love your jacket! Where did you get it?” one student exclaimed when he saw her brightly-colored Boston marathon jacket one day. Perry spent the next few minutes explaining that running 26.2 miles would be like going back and forth to school about a hundred times. Last year, Perry hit a PR at every distance she attempted, but remains humble in her accomplishments. Balancing family, her work, and her training has left her thankful to have the opportunity to compete. Looking ahead, she is open to whatever racing opportunities come up in the next few years, but she knows she’ll run Army Ten-Miler again because it has a special place in her heart. “I start at the front so I get to see the marching in of the colors, see the singing of the national anthem, and watch the wounded warriors at their start. Inspiring,” she said. “The (Army Ten-Miler) is always a favorite for me.”
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Running Narratives By David Pittman The digital universe is full of writers who say that penning a book is like running a marathon. Writing a book, they say, just hurts more. Here’s another thought to add to this conversation. Many write. Many run. Many people also dream of running in the Olympics or writing a bestseller — yet the Mebs and J.K. Rowlings of the world are a very rare breed. So when three Washington-area runners set out to write books to chronicle their running lives, it wasn’t for glory or fame, nor were they expecting to do as well as the famous novelist Haruki Murakami did with his own running memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Elizabeth Clor, Tom Foreman, and Dana Ayers simply wanted to have their stories resonate with fellow runners, inspiring others along the way. Ayers took most of her stories from a personal blog, which started in the days of MySpace, she kept along the way. But it still took time on weekends and nights to polish into a publishable book. “It’s similar to training for a race,” she said. “You have to break it down into pieces.” Foreman didn’t know how many hours he spent writing his book. It took three years of nights, weekends and alone time while the rest of his family was away. And for Clor, the writing came with its own lessons that changed how she viewed her sport. When the hard work of writing the book was over, the work was only beginning. All three authors also ran the extra mile of promotion. Their stories differ, from getting back into running after a 20-year hiatus, to picking up the sport while thinking you didn’t fit in, or taking a decade to hit an elusive goal. Yet they all share a common thread of reminding us of the power that running can have in our lives.
Elizabeth Clor Clor always dreamed of being a writer. She wanted to write a book since she was 10, and carried that through to her college years, prompting her to study English. But the Chantilly resident didn’t expect to do it until she was retired, with work out of the way. A confidant — her sports psychologist, more precisely — encouraged her to share her struggles and ultimate success in qualifying for the Boston Marathon with others sooner.
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After her second marathon nearly a decade ago put her just minutes shy of a then-qualifying time for the famed Patriots Day race, Clor, now 37, became obsessed with shaving those last 11 minutes from her time. She had a variety of troubles hitting the 3:40 qualifying mark. “Once I started putting that kind of pressure on myself, I started to not do well,” she said. Her sports psychologist eventually helped her overcome that anxiety. The therapy helped Clor relax and to learn to love running not for her times but for everything else she gained from it physically and emotionally. Clor, working in marketing and public relations for a tech company in Reston, hit that qualifying goal in March 2015, and ran Boston a year later. That story became Boston Bound: A 7-Year Journey to Overcome Mental Barriers and Qualify for the Boston Marathon. “This is something I don’t want to keep to myself,” she said. “I want this story to be out there for the world to know. I think it could help other people. If people see what I went through it could inspire them.” She shopped her completed book to nearly two dozen book agents, finally being told that the running books market was saturated. But few of those books had the same approach, or audience. She felt there was a need for a book to help runners overcome their mental barriers written, not by a coach or professional, but by a runner. “If you’re reading something and like ‘yes, that’s me,’ then you’ll have a good experience with it,” she said. Clor instead self-published the book and leveraged her marketing experience in her work life to promote the book herself. And it’s worked. It ranked in the top 30 in Amazon’s running and jogging category for the first six weeks. While initially expected to publish around 200 books, it has easily surpassed 1,000. The performance anxiety that hung over her running did not set in which she was writing. “I had decided that no matter what happens I was going to be happy with the fact that I did it and published it,” Clor said. “That’s how I approach races now. Even though it would be nice to hit my goal time, I’m going to go into a race just happy that I trained for it,” knowing she worked as hard and prepared to be happy with the outcome.
Tom Foreman To promote his book’s release last year, Bethesda’s Foreman ran five marathons in five days. That paralleled much of My Year of Running Dangerously. Though it focuses on running, his story includes the evolution of his relationship with his daughter, who asked him during Thanksgiving break in 2010 to run a marathon with her, 16 weeks later. But after that race, he added four half marathons, two additional full marathons, a 50-mile ultra-marathon to go with it — with about 2,000 miles of training in between — all within the next year. “What really made the story was not what I did through running but what running did to me,” Foreman said. “It really changed me in a really worthwhile way.” Foreman, unlike Clor, didn’t have to spend as much time shopping his book. He already had a publicist through his work with CNN who could help him. The Bethesda, Md., resident’s book has since had a paper printing, a positive sign of any book’s success. “It just seemed like a story that needed to be told for an awful lot of middle-of-the-pack runners,” Foreman said. “But there are a lot of books out there for elite runners, but there aren’t nearly as many books for the middle of the pack.”
says. “I definitely took a hit in my social life,” Ayers said with a laugh. “I didn’t see my friends as much.” Promotion involved traveling for TV spots and book-signings at running stores. She pitched herself to various media outlets but was aided by a publicist she picked up later. “You’re constantly hustling to get word out,” she said. On top of that were social media plugs using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Ayers ended up dropping the publisher after three months, longing for a “normal life” again. But the tiring promotion worked. Her book sold 83,000 copies in the first three months. “One of the main reasons I think my book did well is because runners congregate, and so they would tell each other to read the book,” she said.
Dana Ayers Ayers had a knack for storytelling and a new-found love of running. She wanted to combine the two by authoring a book on the subject, hoping to inspire other less-competitive runners along the way. Ayers, on a whim, decided to run a 5k at the White House with then-President George W. Bush when she worked there in 2002. She describes herself as a childhood bookworm and never saw a stereotypical runner when she looked in the mirror. “I’m not naturally athletic,” she says. But she got hooked, completing more races and longer and longer distances. Ayers wrote about her experiences along the way, the funny, inspiring, weird, emotional and dramatic. She told the story about splitting the seam on the inside of her pants while on a 20-mile training run. A co-worker connected Ayers with a book publisher last year who saw promise in her story. The publisher had a three-month program that takes writers from idea to publication in which Ayers was placed. “I realized I could tell my stories and entertain people, but also encourage people and back-of-the-pack runners,” Ayers said. “I don’t think there’s a lot out there on those types of casual runners.” Those stories were compiled in Confessions of an Unlikely Runner, which was published in September 2015. But promoting the book was harder, she
ELIZABETH CLOR. PHOTO BY MARATHONFOTO
TOM FOREMAN. PHOTO BY STEPHEN LAICO
DANA AYERS. PHOTO COURTESY OF AYERS
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RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY DAN DIFONZO
BY DICKSON MERCER The man in the foreground is not a protester. But doesn’t he kind of look like the official race stopper? He’s not. Addison Hunt is an experienced starter who takes his job to ensure fair cross country races very seriously. That’s what he’s doing here at the Maryland-D.C. Private Schools Cross Country Championship junior varsity race at the Agricultural Farm Park in Derwood. Hunt typically positions himself about 30 meters in front of the starting line. He gives his command - runners set - and raises his arms. He pauses, hoping to see still runners, and fires the pistol. Then he does a “side shuffle” to avoid the stampede. After Hunt orchestrates a clean start, his job isn’t over. He still has to coach! “I often bring my official jacket and literally change coats, change jobs,” says Hunt, who has taught and coached at Bethesda’s Landon School, which competed in the meet, for 15 years. Hunt took up cross country himself as a junior at Mercersburg Academy in
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Pennsylvania and went on to compete for Virginia Tech. Prior to Landon, he coached in the District at The Field School and frequently had a hard time finding meet officials. He became a certified official, he says, because he found it easier to do it himself. It also helped him to better understand the rules of the sport. At Landon, an independent boys school for grades 3 to 12, Hunt leads the middle, JV, and varsity squads. “So some of these guys have been with me for seven years,” he says. In a way it was tough, he admits, to switch into race starter mode for the JV race. Many of his JV athletes in the race knew early in the season that they would not make varsity, he says. Yet they had still worked hard to run personal bests, and he was proud of them. But even if Hunt couldn’t give the Landon boys one last starting line pep talk, he didn’t worry too much. He knew he could rely on his assistant coaches, and his athletes are used to his dual role by now. Plus, says Hunt, “I do most of my coaching at practice. By meet day they should have the race plan in hand.”