RunWashington Magazine Spring 2015

COVER PHOTO BY DUSTIN WHITLOW/DWHIT PHOTOGRAPHY. Matthew is wearing J.E.B. Stuart cross country gear by Gildan.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 MILITARY RUNNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 FINAL 2014 RANKINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 UPCOMING RACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 CHRISTO LANDRY COMES HOME IN STYLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 MATTHEW HUA WON’T SLOW DOWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 TEAL BURRELL DREAMS BIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 A WARMUP BEFORE A DATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 MEET UP WITH THE STRIDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 FAREWELL FAIR CITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 CELEBRATE RUNNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

SPRING 2015

PUBLISHER Kathy Dalby RunWashington Media LLC EDITOR IN CHIEF Charlie Ban charlie@runwashington.com SENIOR EDITOR Dickson Mercer dickson@runwashington.com 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 Š2015 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 six times yearly by RunWashington Media LLC, 4544 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22304. Complimentary copies are mailed to subscribers, area businesses and events.

Be advised that running is a strenuous sport and you should seek the guidance of a medical professional before beginning an exercise regimen.

/runwashington @runwashington

NEW LOGO. NEW WEBSITE. NEW RACES. SAME GREAT SERVICE!

#ForEveryRun runpacers.com NOVEMER DECEMBER 2014 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 3

FIND YOUR FIT. Need help stepping into the perfect size?

PHOTO BY BETH YOUNG/TIMMY WELLINGTON PHOTOGRAPHY

Visit newbalance.com/GetFit and find the Local Run Store nearest you.

I hope you like motivation, because that’s what you’re going to get in this issue. From a local high school graduate who has become a four-time national champion and American record holder, despite years of injuries; or a kid from a school a few miles away who is thrilled to be part of a team and run after spending much of his childhood in the hospital, there’s no shortage of commitment, focus and a little bit of a stretch leading to amazing results.

Here’s a story: After a disappointing Chicago Marathon in 2010, I shuffled around Millennium Park with a few old college track teammates. One remarked that he thought he saw another one of our teammates, Colette. She was there because her younger sister ran the race. Though her sister would describe her reaction to the race as “devastated,” she had run better, relative to her PR, than almost everyone I knew who raced that day and if she could do that in heat that forced me to sit next to a water stop and pour cups onto my head until I felt human again, she could do an awful lot.

Now, she’s Teal Burrell, an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier who ran her qualifying race faster than anyone I know would have the courage to try.

RunWashington will only be publishing four issues in 2015, but I promise they will be chock full of great stories.

I hope some of you are picking up this magazine in pursuit of New Year’s to exercise more. Good luck! Stick With it. I personally am planning to do more strength training and watch my diet. So far, I’m one for two.

See you out there, Charlie

Contributors Emily Rabbitt (Dream Big) is a freelance writer living in Alexandria. She started running marathons in 2011, and thinks, after seven completed, each slightly less slow than the last, she might be able to call herself a ‘real runner.’ She is currently working on her first novel.

Corrections com/GetFit

In the November/December 2014 issue, the story What’s Up with Tracks in this City? neglected to mention two—Gonzaga College High School, which in the process of building a new track once a parking garage is finished. It will likely be done in Summer 2015 and short, roughly 350 meters. It’s private, though, so you don’t have to worry about it. We also neglected the 400-meter Spingarn High School track, which is public.

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6 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

BY CHARLIE BAN You’ll never have a still enough day to see it quite that way, but the Potomac River is a mirror.

On one side, the C&O Canal Towpath, ranging from sandy with a few puddles to vast, flat and smooth, all the way to Cumberland.

Across the span, however, you’ll find the opposite — rugged, rocky and halting. The Potomac Heritage Trail. The name means a lot of things — primarily a network of trails flanking the river between the Potomac and Ohio river basins — but in D.C., it means the towpath’s sinister sibling.

Its trailhead alone lets you know you’re in for something a little edgy and dangerous.

From the Teddy Roosevelt Island parking lot, it skulks over in the corner, like it’s hanging out with older guys on the edge of the playground eyeing up a pack of Kools one of them found in the street.

“Nah, kid, you don’t want this. Go back to the Mount Vernon Trail. It’s paved, nice, more your speed.”

If you’re looking for an easy run, you’d be wise to listen. For the sake of the experience and to quench my curiosity about the trail I’ve only run in pieces, I’m going on.

It starts out pleasantly enough, single track down along the river. It’s more in tune with the Potomac than the towpath. Rocky portions pop up intermittently, but they’re runnable. There’s a way onto Donaldson’s Run and Potomac Overlook Park, another way onto the trail, off of Military Road in Arlington.

After two miles, the ground changes, and I ask nobody in particular if they’d like some trail with their rocks. As usual, nobody laughs, but this time it’s because there’s nobody else out here. It seems like a good place to run if you have a grudge against your ankles.

The scant number of hikers (three) have now surpassed the even-scanter number of runners (two) on the trail, a strong suggestion that I should be doing the former. For a roadcentric runner such as myself, I need to tie myself down to whatever chair I’m sitting in, because this section is going to be a rough...

ride, to paraphrase a former local college student. If I was training for, say, the JFK 50 Mile, I’d mark this stretch on the map and head back frequently.

Approaching the Chain Bridge, it’s easy to miss the trail’s left turn, and doing so meant even more rocks and a somewhat-perilous creek crossing, when temperatures dipped to the point where soaking wet shoes would become a problem. I only realized where I went wrong when I met back up with the trail and saw where I went wrong.

After the Chain Bridge, roughly four miles in, which you can cross beneath or on top of the bridge and then over to a parking lot to pick up the trail again, the choice presents itself to go straight ahead and jump on the Pimmit Run Trail into McLean or turn right, cross Pimmit Run, and head toward Fort Marcy. Proceed.

I found the rocks and relative flatness replaced by smoother, muddier hills.

Emerging into Fort Marcy, head toward the George Washington Parkway to pick up the trail, marked by green blazes.

The trail follows the parkway for a while, and I’m conflicted. If someone asked me what road I’d want to close to traffic so I could have carte blanche for running, I’d say the length of the Parkway between Rosslyn and the Beltway, no hesitation. So while I should relish the chance to almost have that, something was missing. After a while, I had to cross the parkway’s off-ramp near Chain Bridge Road; thankfully there was a crosswalk. The trail dives back into the woods and returns me to the proximity to the river that I had early on.

By now, my missteps have cost me enough time that I have to bail out at Turkey Run Park (where you can find restrooms and water), about seven miles in, instead of going the entire 10 miles to the American Legion Bridge, which carries I-495 over the river. But I’ll be back, to finish this segment and later to explore between Great Falls and Algonkian Regional parks.

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 7

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BY ERIN MASTERSON Last May, Army veteran Adam Silver hit a low.

He was out of shape, overweight and battling a serious drinking problem.

Silver had enlisted in 2008 and, in October 2009, deployed to Mosul, Iraq for a year in combat that impacted him both physically and emotionally. After he separated from the Army in 2012, Silver experienced family problems, a broken marriage and a brush with the law. Topping the scale at 315 pounds, the six-foot-five-inch Silver couldn’t even run a mile.

“I was messed up in the head…had a lot going on,” he said. “I was out of shape and suicidal when I got out of the Army.”

But it was in May that Silver signed up for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and met a few members of Team Red White and Blue, which aims to reconnect veterans to their community through physical and social activity. Intrigued, Silver joined, showing up to the group’s Tuesday night run in Alexandria.

It was hard at first, but he kept going back, unlike the man — so resigned to his fate — that he used to be.

“When I first started, I couldn’t go up the stairs without getting out of breath,” said Silver, who is 27 and now works in electronic and

mechanic repair in the food service industry.

Physically, Silver isn’t a stereotypical distance runner, but his teammates kept encouraging him.

“They kept pushing and pushing, and I got up to three or four miles,” he said.

Silver quickly became an active group member, attending activities in Bethesda, Arlington, and D.C., and coordinating hiking, rock climbing and kayaking events.

Team RWB’s Chris Bridner became a good friend. The two signed up to run a 5k at Walter Reed hospital on Sept. 11, what would be Silver’s first timed race in many years.

“I’m diabetic, not super fast myself,” Bridner said. “His knee was hurting, though. I slowed down for him. He thanked me for staying with him, and for always staying with him.”

After his debut race, Silver was hooked.

When someone offered him a bib a few days before the Army Ten-Miler in October, he hadn’t run more than four miles in over three years. But he took the bib, and the chance.

“Everyone gave him flak for not training,” Bridner said. “But Adam’s the sort of guy you don’t say no to.”

Though he started out running the race with a group of friends from Team RWB,

PHOTO BY DUSTIN WHITLOW/DWHIT PHOTOGRAPHY

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 11

Silver felt so good he took off on his own. “I felt like a million bucks,” he said.

Thirty minutes after finishing Army in 1:52, Silver signed up for his first half marathon, held just six weeks later. He prepared for a hilly course in Annapolis by working out at 5:30 a.m. and racing the steps up to the Lincoln Memorial with the November Project.

Silver also put in a grueling fall schedule, both running and volunteering for Team RWB. One day in November, he ran the Potomac River Running Veteran’s Day 5k, joined by 70 Team RWB members, then drove to Bethesda and ran 12 miles in the Old Glory Coast to Coast, an Olympic torch-style relay in which 800 people carry an American flag across the country from the Veteran’s Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., to Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda. “You could tell he was hurting, but he had a lot of grit and determination, and he wasn’t going to quit,” Bridner said.

His other fall races included Nation’s Triathlon in D.C., the Rocky Balboa 10K in Philadelphia, and the .US National 12k in Alexandria, in which he carried the American flag.

He was joined in the Annapolis Half Marathon by Laura Drake, another teammate.

“He ran really strong at least the first 10 miles; I don’t think he complained once,” Drake said. “He was in a lot of pain during the later miles of the race as some injuries flared up but he’s so mentally tough; maybe he walked a minute or two during the whole race.”

Silver had a goal to finish the half in under two hours. He nearly made it, finishing in 2:04 and running 21 minutes faster for 10 miles than he did at at the Army Ten-Miler.

Silver hopes to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll D.C. Marathon in March, if his knees hold up.

“I have a ridiculous pain tolerance, so some people worry about me,” he said.

He has been upping his mileage to 20 to 25 miles a week to prepare. “My mileage just depends if it’s a ‘race week,’ which is another term I’d never thought I’d say,” he said.

He also plans on the X-Terra Offroad Triathlon, the Appalachian Trail Four-State Challenge, the PA-VA (a 45-mile hike to Virginia from Pennsylvania in April), and the Bataan Memorial Death March, a 26.2-mile march carrying a 35 pound pack.

Team RWB has changed his life, he said.

12 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

“I spend most of my time and make most of my decisions based on how it impacts my time with Team RWB.” The organization has 120 chapters and roughly 56,000 members nationwide, but only nine paid staff members. Volunteer contributions, then, by people like Silver, are essential to RWB’s success.

“Adam is a super-duper recruiter for Team RWB.” Bridner said. “He even got a RWB tattoo on his leg because it meant so much to him.”

Drake agreed. “He wants to be a part of everything and get others involved, too,” she said. “He embodies the overall mission of Team RWB: get involved with your community and build genuine relationships with people.”

Silver said the group offers something for everyone — with both civilian and military backgrounds.

“It’s a chance to be part of something larger than yourself, and for veterans, it’s hard to find that once you leave the military,” he said. “The community is accepting of everyone, regardless of what branch you served in or if you’re a civilian.”

Being a part of Team RWB has helped Silver in other ways. He still enjoys brewing beer as a hobby, he said, but running has helped him reduce his drinking, “which is probably why I’ve lost 50 pounds since May.” “To say that Team RWB has made Adam a healthier and happier person is an understatement,” Drake said. “He’s proud to show his friends the before and after pictures of himself. He’s lost weight. He smiles more.”

Recently, when Silver lost a friend, an old Army mentor, RWB’s support helped him cope.

“You have that camaraderie you have in the military that you don’t have in the civilian world,” he said. “But we’re not trying to start our own community. We want you to integrate [into] in your own community, and learn how to give back.”

Silver’s personality, as it turns out, ends up being a recruiting tool.

“He has an openness about himself that lets others feel comfortable to be themselves,” Drake said. “He doesn’t judge and he really listens to people. I think that’s the reason why he’s become so popular in Team RWB. He’s one of the most genuine people I’ve met since moving to the D.C. area.”

SOME THOUGHT WE WERE CRAZY TO INVENT AN OVERSIZED RUNNING SHOE BUT IT’S CRAZY FOR A REASON BECAUSE CRAZY ISN’T CRAZY CRAZY IS SMART CRAZY CAN’T GET ENOUGH CRAZY IS CHANGING THE GAME CRAZY IS CONTAGIOUS CRAZY NEVER QUITS CRAZY LIVES THE DREAM

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BY CHARLIE BAN Susanna Sullivan went out hard and closed hard to claim the highest RunWashington runner ranking in 2014.

Despite missing several months, and her planned marathon debut at Twin Cities because of a stress fracture, she recovered just in time to compete twice more on the roads in ranked races(both victories) and get the requisite number of races.

This year added a few new wrinkles to RunWashington’s rankings. Course difficulty and weather conditions on race day figured into the baseline pace and subsequent scoring.

Runners had to run at least six races, three in each half of the year, to be eligible for the endof-year standings. The 2013 rankings required just three races, and the change puts a focus on local racing throughout the entire year. It’s also meant some local notables didn’t make the cut, including three-time Army-Ten Mile champion Kerri Gallagher (who won each of the four local races she entered), and Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier Teal Burrell, neither of whom had enough ranked races to qualify.

A total of 654 runners met the criteria for a year-end ranking, and those runners ran a total of 5,845 ranked races.

Chris Kwiatkowski retained his top men’s ranking and repeated as the overall runner-up, capturing victories at the Love the Run You’re With 5k, George Washington Birthday 10k, Crystal City Twilighter 5k and Veterans Day 10k along the way. He only fell below the baseline once — at Cherry Blossom — and he made up for his 10-mile deficiency at the Army Ten-Miler, a little more than a month before he qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials by running 1:04:43 at the Philadelphia Half Marathon.

D.C.’s residential ebb and flow flushed out a few of last year’s top-tier runners. Topranked Claire Hallissey departed for her native England; Kristin Swisher (ranked sixth last year) moved to Dallas and Chris Mills, eighth last year, picked up for Florida. (Read more about how the D.C. area’s transience extends to the running community on page 46).

Kwiatkowski was joined at the top of the men’s rankings by two newcomers to the Pacers-New Balance racing team — Landon Peacock and Andrew Brodeur. Peacock, a former Wisconsin Badger, racked up eight top-two finishes, including three victories, in 10 races. His only fifth-place finish was at the George Washington Parkway Classic, and he raced that conservatively because it was his

14 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

longest race thus far in his career, shooting to run 5:20s before abandoning that after the gun and running six seconds per mile faster.

Former Duke runner Brodeur ran consistently toward the front of every race, falling short of the baseline only once — by a single point — and winning five of 10 and finishing a close second to Kevin McNab in two races in the first half of the year. A casualty of the new ranking criteria, McNab fell one firsthalf race short of being ranked. Brodeur’s 10 overall races gave him a cushion in his fourthoverall, third-place men’s ranking.

Minnesota alumna Amy Laskowske made her racing comeback after a year off, picking up wins at the first Crystal Run 5k and the Freedom Four Miler and second place finishes at the Four Courts Four Miler and Crystal City Twilighter 5k. She was the fifth-overall ranked runner and second woman.

Most of the second half of the top 10 broke up their years with a marathon.

Sandy Spring, Md.’s Chris Pruitt, sixth overall and fourth man, demonstrated his range throughout 2014, running 15:35 for 5k at the Crystal City Twilighter, 31:37 at Pikes Peek and 1:10:24 at the Wilson Bridge Half before finishing seventh at the Marine Corps Marathon in 2:31:08. He also picked up a win at the Lucky Leprechaun 5k in March to start the year off.

Seventh overall (and fifth man) Patrick Fernandez ran 2:25:07 at the Endhoven Marathon, but locally, he dominated the NavyAir Force Half Marathon in 1:07:53 Paul Balmer not only cracked the top 10, but did so during a season that included his first competitive attempt at a marathon, in his native Portland, where he ran 2:35:53. Three weeks later he was back tearing up the roads, winning the Walk to End HIV in 15:53. He also scored highly at the Love the Run You’re With 5k, RRCA Club Challenge Ten Miler and Crystal City Twilighter 5k. That made him eighth overall and the sixth man.

Columbia, Md.’s Julia Roman-Duval scored identical 986s at Cherry Blossom and Pikes Peek, but those paled compared to her six-minute win at the Frederick Half Marathon a week later. She was ninth overall and the third woman.

Jerry Greenlaw closed out the top 10, sending ‘em at 10 races with three scores above 990 — the Van Metre 5 Mile in March, Pikes Peek a month later and a runner up at the Navy 5-Miler in September. Like Balmer,

Top-ranked SUSANNA SULLIVAN powers to a win at the Alexandria Turkey Trot.

PHOTO BY CHERYL YOUNG

OVERALL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Susanna Sullivan Chris Kwiatkowski Landon Peacock Andrew Brodeur Amy Laskowske Christopher Pruitt Patrick Fernandez Paul Balmer Julia Roman-Duval Jerry Greenlaw

23 25 26 23 26 32 26 24 32 26

F M M M F M M M F M

1010.805 1007.715 1007.33 1005.665 997.665 994.6 994.33 992.55 989.395 988.665

7 6 10 10 7 7 6 10 7 10

WILLIAM FURLOW raced more kilometers than years he has lived at the Leesburg 20k.

PHOTO BY CHERYL YOUNG

MEN OVERALL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Chris Kwiatkowski Landon Peacock Andrew Brodeur Christopher Pruitt Patrick Fernandez Paul Balmer Jerry Greenlaw Charlie Ban Philippe Rolly David Wertz Dustin Whitlow Jacob Green Baisa Moleta Jeffrey Redfern Nicolas Crouzier David O’Hara Dan Martin Vinnie DeRocco Nick Pasko Lavar Curley Brian McMahon Patrick Murphy Keith Freeburn Karsten Brown Raul Lopez

25 1007.715 26 1007.33 23 1005.665 32 994.6 26 994.33 24 992.55 26 988.665 31 987.23 41 986.615 38 986.5 28 986.165 29 983.665 25 979.67 30 979.615 28 979.035 38 976.5 24 974.47 34 971.67 22 971 33 967.95 31 966.165 30 964.545 40 961.995 39 960.47 29 959.835

WOMEN OVERALL 6 10 10 7 6 10 10 9 8 8 10 12 6 10 9 9 6 9 12 9 11 7 13 7 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Susanna Sullivan Amy Laskowske Julia Roman-Duval Rachel Clattenburg Maura Carroll Perry Shoemaker Trish Stone Cindy Conant Erin Masterson Jessica Chin Jessica Mcguire Tiffany Hevner Lauren Shaub Emily Pollock Courtney Perna Jessica Zdeb Lisa Chilcote Cathy Ross Veronica Tinney Christina Guzzo Lisa Gallagher Dawn Gillis Julie Sapper Julia Taylor Jennifer Sample

23 26 32 29 25 43 38 52 30 27 34 33 30 26 36 32 43 43 27 30 30 29 41 42 39

1010.805 997.665 989.395 975.065 972.735 970.75 965.33 964.72 959.14 953.16 950.67 949.565 944.935 944.835 944.58 943.165 943.025 943 942.835 940.835 939.335 930.835 930.375 928.955 926.18

7 7 7 12 6 9 8 11 21 7 9 6 8 13 7 6 7 9 8 7 8 10 10 9 7

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 15

he too debuted in the marathon, running 2:31:24 at California International. He was the tenth overall and the seventh man.

Some of the Rest of the Top 25 Like a big road race, RunWashington recognizes the top 25 runners in each gender and breaks down the next 10 in each 10-yearage group.

Philippe Rolly was the top-scoring men’s masters runner, with Keith Freeburn behind him. Perry Shoemaker, at 43 and spreading her talents among the bicycle and the pool, held her own at number six among women.

She won the masters race at the .US National 12k in November. Fifty-two-year-old Cindy Conant once again finished in the top 10 for overall women and she started out the year with her best score, on the hardest course, the RRCA Club Challenge 10 mile.

Dustin Whitlow and Jacob Green raced each other eight times, with Whitlow taking the advantage five times, including a one-second victory at the Lucky Leprechaun 5k. Green paid him back with a four-second margin at the Veterans Day 5k, but the damage was done.

Dawn Gillis, 22nd, scored a victory at the Runners Half Marathon of Reston, on a miserably cold day at the end of March that saw runners trudge through rain, freezing rain, sleet, a little hail and beautiful, fluffy snowflakes. Gillis was long done by the time it started.

On a more trivial note, the women’s top 25 included three named Jessica and three named Julie or Julia.

The Teens and Tweens C.D Hylton graduate William Furrow got some extracurricular miles this spring compared to his peers, running the Reston 10 Miler and finishing 25th. He interrupted his steady diet of 5k races once more, finishing ninth at the Leesburg 20k.

James Madison High School freshman Donovan Foley’s performances over 5k peaked after his cross country season, breaking 18:00 minutes at the Veterans Day 5k (17:59) and the Vienna Turkey Trot (17:55).

Five years behind Foley, Fall Church’s Reinhardt Harrison’s high point rankingswise was the Vienna Turkey Trot, but at the Alexandria Running Festival’s half marathon

(1:35:22) he broke the world record for 10-year-olds, and again at the Urban Cow Half Marathon in Sacramento (1:31:33).

Only two girls qualified, eight-yearold Kai Wheeler, who ran three of the four Crystal Run 5k races on Friday evenings in April, and 12-year-old Rachel Kulp, who ran three different four-mile races: Four Courts, Freedom Four and Fairfax.

Millennials and Beyond Not to be confused with the quarterback protagonist from The Program, Joe Kane led the age group with a strong race at the Walk to End HIV 5k and a pair of June outings at the Lawyers Have Heart 10k and Hugh Jascourt 4 Miler. He was also the runner up, just breaking 30 minutes, on a difficult Langley 8k course in February. Timothy Snyder ran his best at Clarendon Day’s 5k, finishing in 17:02, but he also had a strong showing the Frederick Half Marathon — dipping under 1:20 by two seconds — and the RRCA Club Challenge, breaking 60 minutes on a course with a tough second half.

The 20-29 age group was 13 of the top 25 men’s overall spots, but only eight of the women’s. Katherine Gomer broke a 900 average, with a big boost from her performance in the Lawyers Have Heart 10k.

Running group leader extraordinaire Elyse Braner scored consistently in the 900s, but one of her three scored second-half races was a slow Lost Dog 5k, where she ran with her canine pal, Chucho.

Exavier Watson edged Miguel Perez for the 30-39 men’s age group win. Though Perez had an edge at the RRCA Club Challenge and the Germantown 5 Miler, Watson’s performances over 5k, at the Crystal City Twilighter and at Rockville, gave him the edge.

Michael Lynch was tied for the secondmost prolific racer, finishing 26 ranked races.

Christina Papoulias raced consistently throughout the year, with a great streak from April through June at Cherry Blossom, Pikes Peek, the St. John the Jogger 5k and the Run for the Roses 5k. Runner-up Rachel Smith picked some hard courses, racing at the RRCA Club Challenge, Freedom Four Miler and Riley’s Rumble.

Masters and Grandmasters Dave Cahill didn’t let late nights managing Four Courts keep him from getting

DAWN GILLIS withstood awful weather to win the Runners Half Marathon of Reston.

PHOTO BY BRIAN KENT

PAUL BALMER does it in the park — Rock Creek Park — during the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Half Marathon.

PHOTO BY BRUCE BUCKLEY/ SWIM BIKE RUN PHOTOGRAPHY

16 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

MEN 19 AND UNDER 1 2 3 4 5

William Furlow Donovan Foley Rheinhardt Harrison Jason Parks Cody Wakenight

18 15 10 8 11

947.835 940.165 905.83 867.165 731

MEN 30 - 39 7 11 8 17 7

WOMEN 19 AND UNDER 1 2

Kai Wheeler Rachel Kulp

8 12

748.67 718

6 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

MEN 20 - 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Joe Kane Timothy Snyder Sean McLaughlin Miguel Matta Dustin Renwick Gabriel Olivero Matthew Feeley Andrew Majcher Samuel Brummitt Karthik Krothapalli

27 27 26 29 26 27 23 28 28 28

Miguel Perez Exavier Watson Amos Desjardins Andrew Killian Brad Holzwart Jonathan Ferguson Pat DeRocco Allen Denson Danny Godin John Turcotte

31 34 32 35 33 32 30 32 39 32

948.515 948.82 945.33 944.83 943.385 941.825 941.5 940.4 938.785 936.5

6 7 10 10 6 7 9 7 7 7

924.42 921.5 920.33 906.835 906.5 903.235 896.715 896.33 894.67 891

11 7 13 6 6 6 6 15 13 10

WOMEN 30 - 39 954.535 952.55 946.44 934.985 933 930.92 886.165 883.835 882.065 878.03

16 7 8 13 9 6 9 10 6 10

904.115 898.335 894.5 887.845 886.335 880.015 872.5 866.74 861.665 857.93

6 8 6 7 12 7 7 8 10 8

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Christina Papoulias Rachel Smith Kelly Buroker Elizabeth Clor Stephanie Efron Tiana Fallavollita Francesca Duffy Melody Peppard Susan Marshall Jessica Franta

33 34 32 35 33 32 30 34 37 31

WOMEN 20 - 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Katherine Gomer Elyse Braner Eva Greenberg Joanna Russo Laura Drake Abby Mcintyre Hanna Pillion Sophie Greene Natalie DiBlasio Vanna Dela Cruz

26 29 26 28 24 25 25 24 23 25

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 17

JULIA TAYLOR’s race at the Parks Half Marathon helped her reach the top 25.

PHOTO BY MARK SCHADLY

DAVID KENT finished 23rd at the George Washington Parkway Classic, and fourth among men 40-49.

PHOTO BY KYLE GUSTAFSON/ SWIM BIKE RUN PHOTOGRAPHY

in the training he needed to lead the 40-49 age group. He ran nine of his 13 ranked races in Arlington County, topped by his sub-6:00 pace at the Arlington Turkey Trot 5k, two seconds ahead of his season-opening Love the Run You’re With 5k time.

In a close second, Antonio Eppolito rarely ran either low-key races or big affairs, ranging from the 66-person Run After the Women 5k to the 26,345 finisher Army Ten-Miler, the area’s largest race.

The masters women had five in the overall top 25. Shannon Smith, who won the age group, demonstrated good range, running well at both the Crystal City Twilighter and the Wilson Bridge Half Marathon. Second-place Yuko Whitstone had a strong first half of the year at the Love the Run You’re With 5k, Run for the Children 8k and National Police Week 5k. Paige Waterman, in third place, stuck to longer distances, never running a ranked race shorter than 8k.

Men from Montgomery County manhandled the 50-59 age group, with Mark Neff, Paul Jacobson and Dave Haaga sweeping the top three places. Blake Rushin edged Mary Lowe Mayhugh for the women’s age group title for the 50s, but Mayhugh prevailed in their two head-to-head matchups, the Capitol Hill Classic 10k and Army Ten-Miler.

Bill Stahr didn’t make the top 10 in his age group, but he did run the most ranked races (28), and, by virtue of his 369 races overall throughout 2014, he broke Ted Poulos’ 2003 record of 337 races in a year, according to statistician (and fourth place man in his 60s) James Moreland’s records.

Karsten Brown (the 24th-ranked man) offered some context: “Bill is, of course, not the speedster that Ted was and is, but Bill was no slouch back in his younger days, and he’s faring respectably well for a casual middleaged runner who I believe had surgery on his knee a couple years ago. Bill is also running more longer-distance races than Ted did; Ted’s 337 races added up to about 956 miles raced, while Bill is at 1164 miles raced this year and counting (as of late October).”

Superfluous 60s and 70s Runners in their 60s made sure they got their races in. Top-ranked Ken Krehbiel ran 21, and right behind him, Jay Wind ran 22. Less prolific but still no slouches, Paul Bousel and Moreland ran 13 and 12, respectively.

18 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

That went for the women, too. Betty Blank, never shy about elbowing her way to the front of a starting line, did so 12 times to warrant her top rankings, though Alice Franks, with 17 races, was close on her tail.

Maynard Weyers scored an even 800 points at the third Crystal Run 5k in April, a little ahead of his 797 at the First Down 5k in February. He was the top male at 70 and up.

For the 70s women, runner-up Mandy Whalen was one of our most profile racers, finishing 26 ranked races to finish behind Ecris Williams for their age group. Williams ran her best race at the PR Firecracker 5k.

Overall racing statistics While RunWashington ranked races that were part of just 100 events, more than 600 road races, ranging from 1500m to 50 miles, were conducted in the Greater Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Here are some findings from a look at those races: • In 2014, at least 328,272 runners crossed finish lines of more than 605 local road races (and three limited-distance indoor track races). The average, 540, would be the 104th largest race in the region.

• Five races had more than 10,000 finishers; 55 more had more than 1,000 finishers. The Herndon Turkey Trot 5k fell one short.

• Fifty-two races had fewer than 10 finishers, most of them Tidal Basin Runs.

• Solonei Da Silva had the largest chase pack — 26,344 people finished behind him at the Army Ten-Miler, the region’s largest race.

• John Way had the smallest chase pack — zero — when he was the only finisher at the Jan. 20 Tidal Basin Run 15k. It was the region’s smallest race.

• A large proportion of runners, 55.8 percent, were women--183,135 compared to 140,557 men. Ten races that didn’t record runners’ genders accounted for 4,580 finishers.

• The MLK 5k, AOL Spring into Summer 5k, Pedro’s Run, Zack’s Race, Soaring Eagle 5k and Run from Killer Zombies all had equal numbers of male and female finishers.

• Eight races finished within one percent of a gender balance.

• Of the 595 races that recorded gender, 332 had more female finishers and 252 had more men.

MEN 40 - 49 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Dave Cahill Antonio Eppolito Stephen Crago David Kent Theo Haast Vladas Navagrudskas Bill McNary Russell Inman Lee Firestone Anthony Drake

42 45 46 42 46 47 41 41 48 44

MEN 50 - 59 944.535 944.26 939.45 939.2 931.18 928.335 927.69 926.67 917.6 914.99

13 9 10 11 6 11 10 15 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

WOMEN 40 - 49 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Shannon Smith Yuko Whitestone Paige Waterman Kim Isler Luz Blakney Ruth Taylor Cathy Bergdahl Christine Westcott Karen Young Janet Braunstein

48 42 46 46 46 45 47 43 45 47

Mark Neff Paul Jacobson Dave Haaga Ted Poulos Kevin Boyle Duane Williamson Joseph Baremore Chris Johnston Allen Haywood Craig Greene

51 50 53 52 50 50 50 50 50 50

952.25 946.5 943.135 931.775 926.5 913.285 913.2 909.8 909.455 908.835

10 12 6 12 14 6 8 12 9 9

894.335 893.335 892.17 878.5 876.33 866.375 859.665 850.59 847.67 847.615

10 10 8 7 19 8 8 7 9 9

WOMEN 50 - 59 924 922.165 920.8 917.165 909.665 901.845 896.335 886.75 887 881.92

11 7 8 7 10 7 9 7 19 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Blake Rushin Mary Lowe Mayhugh Ofelia Perotti Paula Galliani Hunter Benante Donna Lekang Marcy Foster Liza Recto Linda Kennedy Sharon Griffing

52 57 57 54 50 50 59 58 53 55

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 19

Largest races of each distance: 5k — Jingle All the Way 5k: 4,836 8k — St Patrick’s Day 8k: 4,041 5 Mile — Alexandria Turkey Trot: 3,955 10k — Marine Corps Marathon 10k: 7,647 10 Mile — Army Ten-Miler: 26,345 Half Marathon — Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Half Marathon: 16,724 Marathon — Marine Corps Marathon: 19,689 Number of races, and finishers, of each popular distance: 5k — 351 — 135,584 finishers 4 Miles — 13 — 7,565 finishers 8k — 20 — 10,793 finishers 5 Miles — 19 — 8,782 finishers 10k — 59 — 33,574 finishers 12k — 2 — 1,061 finishers 15k — 5 — 83 finishers 10 Miles — 22 — 25,215 finishers 20k — 2 — 1,088 finishers Half Marathon — 23 — 46,644 finishers 20 Miles — 2 — 241 finishers Marathon — 11 — 23,524 finishers 50k — 5 — 897 finishers 50 Miles — 3 — 781 finishers Race locations: Alexandria 25 races — 16,212 finishers Arlington 55 — 81,453 Ashburn 25 — 9,411 Bethesda 13 — 7,753 Carderock 11 — 1,378 Fairfax 32 — 13,180 Reston 27 — 15,465 Washington 144 — 109,380 George Washington had a bad year.

His five-race standard dipped to three, with the one-year cancellation of the George Washington Birthday Marathon because of ice and the dropping of the By George 10k when the 5k was forced onto an indoor track. The George Washington Birthday 10k and George Washington Parkway Classic prevailed, though.

Rankings were compiled and maintained

by Josh Merlis of the Albany Running Exchange, and Chris Farley of Pacers Running Stores.

LANDON PEACOCK made quite an impression in his first year of racing in D.C., ranking third overall and second among men.

PHOTO BY KYLE GUSTAFSON/ SWIM BIKE RUN PHOTOGRAPHY

PERRY SHOEMAKER cracked the top 10 for women, finishing sixth, and winning the masters’ race at the .US National 12k along the way.

PHOTO BY DUSTIN WHITLOW/DWHIT PHOTOGRAPHY

20 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

If you ran three ranked races between January and June and three between July and December, you have a ranking.

In 2014, 654 runners qualified under those criteria. In 2013, 9,451 runners ran at least three ranked races to qualify under the old criteria.

We ranked roughly 100 events, some of which have two races, between 5k and half marathon. All courses had USATF-certified courses.

We follow the USATF rule that if you’re 59 during the year, that age counts all year.

For better or worse.

Your top three scores in each half of the year are considered; the rest are tossed out.

Each race is assigned a baseline pace, a composite of three measures, evaluated by our panel of experts: Competitiveness: George Banker, one of the region’s foremost running historians, examined races’ histories to determine reliably competitive winning times.

Course difficulty: Bob Thurston, a venerated course certifier, evaluated the courses for degree of difficulty.

Race conditions: Alex Liggit, a meteorologist who maintains the Running Weatherman website, evaluated weather conditions on race day to determine if they negatively impact running performance.

If you run the baseline pace, you get 1,000 points. If you run faster than the baseline pace, you get more; if you run slower, you get less.

Advantages: By establishing baseline paces for men and women in each race, the rankings reflect a runner’s overall level of competitiveness more than raw speed. In the overall top 10 for the yearend rankings, there are seven men and three women. Among grandmasters, Cindy Conant once again came out on top, edging Mark Neff.

But you can still easily compare yourself to your peers, pals, rivals, what have you. The rankings allow you to search within each 10year age division and break it down among males and females.

You can even compare yourself against other runners and see how you matched up when racing head-to-head. For example, if you compare Landon Peacock, who ranked third, with fourth-place Andrew Brodeur, you will see they had three races against each other, and that Brodeur won two duels.

All rankings are based on information in our system as of Jan. 18. If you suspect an error or omission, please contact rankings@ runwashington.com.

See the list of ranked races at www.runwashington.com/runner-rankings/

MEN 60 - 69 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ken Krehbiel Jay Jacob Wind Paul Bousel James Moreland Marc Wolfson Dennis Patrick Stephen Nettl Richard Turner Craig Brightup Robert Blaine

60 64 60 61 64 61 61 63 60 60

MEN 70+ 880.85 878.015 877.335 844.67 843.65 817.105 808.67 771.215 760.82 754.01

21 22 13 12 8 9 7 6 8 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

WOMEN 60 - 69 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Betty Blank Alice Franks Carol Hansen-Vessa Ann Rosenthal Laurel Clement Peggy Davis Maria Nusbaum Carol Gruenburg Carol Truppi Saleema Ross

61 65 60 64 66 62 61 60 60 60

Maynard Weyers Lou Shapiro Chan Robbins Ken Quincy Bill Sollers Earle Fingerhut Jim Verdier Chet Coates Ralph Bayrer John Finney Jr

77 72 76 76 74 71 72 73 74 75

787.5 779.05 774.5 749.17 746.53 742.335 724.36 684.435 672.5 667.215

9 11 19 13 8 10 15 7 8 9

749.5 687.17

14 26

WOMEN 70+ 892.205 889.16 848.165 831.5 826.67 817.685 813.335 807.835 798.15 795.74

12 17 13 9 10 7 9 11 8 10

1 2

Ecris Williams Mandy Whalen

75 74

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 21

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24 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

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CHRISTO LANDRY, before the .US National 12k in November 2014.

PHOTO BY DUSTIN WHITLOW/ DWHIT PHOTOGRAPHY

26 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

BY DICKSON MERCER It wasn’t a bad showing. He had placed fourth at the inaugural U.S. 12k championships, the culmination of the 2013 American professional road racing circuit.

For Christo Landry, who runs professionally for Mizuno, that year included three more top-five finishes in U.S. championships. That included the marathon, held just six week earlier. But this race was special for him — because the Northern Virginia native was racing on his home turf in Alexandria.

“This race exceeded all of my expectations,” he said.

You have to wonder, then: What if Landry had known what was coming in the next year.

Imagine he knew, in April, he would return back to this place he still calls “home” for the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, another national championship.

He would take the lead among Americans, hearing spectators say things like: “Wait a minute?

Was that …? Go Christo!?”

Yes it was. The tall, lanky kid who led the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to a state cross country title was performing on the big stage.

The race organizers planned to have separate tapes at the finish line for the American and overall winners unless there was a sprint finish. And so excited was Landry that he was about to capture his first national title that — in the final stretch — he let an East African he’d been running stridefor-stride with zoom ahead.

A month after Cherry Blossom, at the

next national championship, Landry tied the American record for 25k. After the race he drove back to Ann Arbor, so giddy, so pumped beyond belief, that he belted out whatever classic rock tune came over the radio. And in the morning, after only a few hours of sleep, he reported for drug testing, confirming that USATF rules do actually allow for professional runners to experience a very rare night out on the town.

Then it would be Independence Day and Landry would be in Atlanta for the Peachtree Road Race, host of the national 10k championships.

Coasting into the lead, he’d think to himself: ‘Are we going that fast? Because I’m feeling good.’

Imagine, in Alexandria that day, if Landry had known that the slow-but-steady success of his first three years on the national road racing scene was fast approaching a tipping point.

Three national titles in one year.

About a year later, the day before the second running of the 12k championships, we had lunch at the Railstop Gastropub, at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Old Town Alexandria.

I was concerned, for Landry, that the menu only seemed to offer items like burgers covered with fried eggs.

“This is fine,” he assured me.

At 6 feet 1 inch, Landry is on the taller side among professional runners. I’ve seen many lean, hungry-looking runners sport dark shadows under their eyes during periods of hard training, but Landry’s look more like tattoos. His training log, as it happens, is full of 130- and 150-mile weeks and marathon-

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 27

length-and-longer long runs.

As for his personality, Landry — and I agree with his coaches and friends on this point — is the following in roughly equal parts: pure jokester; the most serious person you’ll ever meet; and hyper-logical all the way through.

He was drawn to running “because I was good at it,” he said. “That’s what started me at it. I’m a very competitive person, and you can’t be competitive in every aspect of life — that’s just not how the world works. So you pick and choose your spots, and running was the sport I chose.”

His 2014 breakthrough, he said, was no mystery, either.

In high school and at the College of William and Mary, Landry was injured about as often as he was healthy. Rather than build fitness year by year, he would get injured, cross train like an animal, complete a crash course in training, repeat.

This didn’t stop Landry, now 28, from leading TJ to a state title. It didn’t stop him from becoming an All-American in college, either.

But it always left him wondering … What if I could just stay healthy?

For all of the high points of 2014, though, Landry, when we met, was also bouncing back both physically and psychologically from his last race, the Chicago Marathon, where he was 13th in a disappointing personal best of 2:14:30.

Making matters brighter, Landry’s second USARC Running Circuit title was officially in the bag. Regardless of how he did in the 12k – regardless of if he even finished – he would receive a $25,000 check for winning the series.

His goal for the 12k, he said, was to “to go out there, compete, see what happens – anything I do is icing on cake.”

Landry comes from what he describes as an “athletic family.” His mother ran track.

His dad played basketball and volleyball. His brother, to give you an idea of the endurance genes that run in this family, ran about 9:15 for two miles even though he could only train every other day.

After setting a kindergarten record for the mile in nine-plus minutes, Landry first went out for cross country in middle school at Falls Church City Public Schools.

But he liked soccer — a spring sport in Virginia. And while that at least opened up the door for high school cross country, the freshman-year Landry signed up for golf instead. When winter came around, he went out for indoor track, but only with hopes of getting in shape for soccer.

After flunking out of 500 meters, he turned to longer distances, breaking five minutes in the mile on a slow track.

“I don’t think I ever had a kid do that; it’s pretty rare,” said Matt Ryan, who coached cross country and track at Thomas Jefferson from 1997 to 2009.

There was no big speech needed to convince Landry to skip soccer and set aside his golf clubs. Landry, himself, got the message.

28 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

“By the end of my freshman year outdoors,” he said, “I was running 4:30 for the mile and figured, ‘Yeah, I should stick with this.’

It was the early 2000s, and the Northern Virginia high school scene, with runners like Alan Webb, who would become the fastest miler in American history, was experiencing something of a renaissance.

This also was true, in a sense, of TJ, a state magnet school that grooms its students for careers in science, math, and technology.

The 2002 team, which would win a state title, included a junior-year Landry; Keith Bechtol, who was a year older than Landry and would also go to William Mary; Chris Mocko, who would run at Stanford (and paced D.C.’s Teal Burrell to an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon, see page 36); and Brian Hanak, who would run at Yale.

“My comment usually about the ‘02 team,” Ryan said, “is that my daughter could have coached them to a state championship.”

Landry considered Bechtol and others in the class above him as his mentors, he said.

“Keith,” Ryan said, “was very much the taskmaster; Christo was more of an extrovert.”

“There was an understanding,” said Bechtol, “that to win a state championship as a team, we needed team depth, and all the training and workouts were geared towards that effort.”

And to that end, the team not only trained together – “we started doing everything together,” Mocko said. “We went to summer camp together, trained together in the offseason … shared pre-race meals together — we were around each other all the time.”

School. Practice. Dinner and homework.

Sleep. “That was pretty much what I did,” Landry said. “[Landry] may have been slightly underdeveloped physically, but mentally I was probably having conversations with him in the spring of his senior year” – while he was establishing himself as one of the top prep runners in the country – “that a college coach would be happy to have with a senior,” Ryan said.

Bechtol, by the way, is now an astrophysicist searching for the highest energy particles in the universe.

He’s also run 2:16 in the marathon.

Landry at first struggled in his transition to college running. “I was getting my butt kicked,” he said.

In his freshman cross country season, while most of his teammates raced at NCAA Pre-Nationals, Landry raced a home invitational meet.

He finished second, earning a spot on the conference team. There, Landry, again, finished second, earning himself a spot on the team for regionals.

At regionals, Landry finished seventh and qualified for the NCAA nationals.

At nationals, Landry made All-American.

Fast forward to his senior season, when Landry was able to improve upon that result.

Much of the time in between, though, was frustrating, he said. “I basically found a

way to get hurt every winter.”

In his fifth year, Landry earned a master’s degree in accounting, and in his sixth year completed a year towards a Master’s in Business Administration. That winter he of course got injured.

“I said, ‘This can’t be it, there’s more left.

I know I am better than this.”

Then-Tribe coach Alex Gibby seemed to know it, too “I wouldn’t call it a do-over,” he said, of the opportunity to coach Landry after college, “but it was nice to get some extended time with him to correct some of the things that weren’t identified early.”

Landry planned to stay in Williamsburg. But when Gibby took a job at the University of Michigan, Landry followed him there.

“That turned out to be a lifesaver for me,” Landry said. “Moving up there, setting new rhythms – it’s where the [weights staff] figured out what had been ailing my knees for the past few years: my hips were out of alignment.”

“Knock on wood,” he added, “but it’s been four years now and you can see the results.

Every year you are building on the past instead of starting from scratch every year.”

In the 2014 12k, Landry finished eighth in a more competitive field. For winning the series, Landry was not only given a check, but a big trophy-slash-road sign that he held up proudly and more than once described as sweeet.

A month later, Landry was named the USATF men’s long distance runner of the year. That same month, American runner Mo Trafeh received a four-year doping sanction and had to forfeit all of his results after January 1, 2012.

Landry, we would learn, did not win his first national title in Washington, D.C., or tie an American record for 25k. Because of Trafeh’s disqualifications, Landry won his first national title in 2012, at 15k in Jacksonville, Fla., and the American record is now all his.

On Dec. 19, Landry would tweet: “Glad that the cheat is being removed from the books. There is no place [for] drugs in our sport. Next step: stopping EPO users in routine testing.”

Landry’s drug, it seems, is not getting injured. The question is: How far can he go if he stays on it?

When Gibby took a new job in Charlotte, N.C., Landry upped and moved again, setting them for up an 11th season that’s all part of a long drive towards making an Olympic team in either the marathon or 10k.

Landry’s sweet spot — his results will tell you — is somewhere in the middle of those distances.

Gibby, however, believes — though “it’s probably two or three steps ahead of him,” he said — that Landry will have his greatest success in the marathon.

“I think for young distance runners,” he added, talking about Landry’s focus and drive, “if they don’t understand it’s a long-term commitment, I think they’re missing the point.”

CHRISTO LANDRY navigates the turn at mile four of the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, which served as the 2014 U.S. 10 Mile Championship.

RUNWASHINGTON PHOTO BY CHARLIE BAN

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 29

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32 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

BY KAT IE BOLTON Matthew Hua relished his first season of cross country at J.E.B. Stuart High School. With no prior athletic background, his 24-minute three mile time is a point of pride. Lifelong health problems have been an obstacle in his running career, but they haven’t stopped him from fully participating as part of the team — except maybe in the team dinners.

Matthew’s gastrointestinal system has never functioned normally. He is unable to eat at all and drinks very little. In fact, virtually every one of his bodily systems is compromised. He is deaf in his left ear and his left vocal cord is paralyzed. Underdeveloped lungs have led to chronic conditions such as tracheomalacia (softened cartilage around the trachea) and asthma. He has ongoing orthopedic problems and his immune system is compromised, leaving him susceptible to infection and illness.

Each of these conditions would be a challenge to a runner’s career. At times, these complications have threatened Matthew’s life.

“He was in the hospital for quite a long time at birth,” recalled his mother, Lori-Beth Hua, including more than two months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. “[He] had his first surgery at 31 days, and since then, he has spent probably the better part of three-plus years of time in the hospital and has undergone more than 40 surgical procedures.”

Managing this complex series of conditions has become familiar to Matthew, if not exactly comfortable.

“I guess I’m not ‘used to’ this,” he said.

“It’s more like, well, how am I going to adapt?”

At school, Matthew is accompanied at all

times by private-duty nurses. Before this year, his parents and nurses kept oxygen on hand at all times. He’s reached a point where he’s strong enough to keep the oxygen at home.

He also carries a small backpack attached to feeding tubes for at least 16 hours each day.

A pump in the backpack provides his body with a specially-prepared nutritional formula, while a separate decompressor in his stomach relieves him of what he calls “the sewage,” a term at which his mother balks.

Because of his frequent trips to medical centers, Matthew’s childhood was somewhat solitary. But he nonetheless has a rich personal life, playing the violin in the Stuart orchestra and taking college courses each summer through the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. He plays video games, reads John Grisham novels and likes fantasy stories like Harry Potter. In middle school, he began archery lessons to help develop his upper body strength. His mother remembers the early lessons resembling “20 minutes of archery skills … and 40 minutes of weightlifting.”

Now 14 and a freshman at Stuart, Matthew said he has “always been optimistic, following my mom’s example plus my family’s and doctors’. I can’t recall a time when I’ve said, ‘Well this is just impossible, I cannot do it.’”

As he approached high school, knowing his health had improved over the years, Matthew wanted to be part of a team. Most team sports — carrying the risk of contact dislodging his feeding tubes — were not an option, so Matthew looked to his older siblings, Michael and Megan, for suggestions. Michael was a soccer player who ran cross country for

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 33

conditioning and camaraderie. Megan, also on the soccer team, ran indoor track. Running would give Matthew the physical security and team support he so desired. He signed up without hesitation.

Megan helped Matthew pick out his own running gear and shoes. Then Matthew and Michael began running together, first at home, then later at the team’s summer workouts. Michael “taught me how to run, in a way,” Matthew said, “and also transitioned me so the teammates felt comfortable and the coach felt comfortable.” Thanks to Michael’s support, Matthew immediately felt welcomed onto the team and at his new school.

Meanwhile, the Hua family worked with Matthew’s medical team and the Fairfax County School District to ensure Matthew’s safety at practice and during meets. It’s tough to say whether his mother taught Matthew his can-do attitude or she espouses it because she’s seen him beat the odds over and over again, but her motto is, “No is simply a starting point of negotiation.”

Their biggest challenge was making sure Matthew stayed in his nurses’ sights in case of emergency. For practices, Matthew has to train almost entirely on the school track, alone.

“It would be nice if I could run with somebody,” Matthew said, but added, “The individual training always helps me. The more individualized I work, the more I focus, sometimes.”

He also carries a cell phone at all workouts and before races.

At meets, though, Matthew has more leeway.

His parents come to every race and assume responsibility for him, while his nurses wait near the finish line with his medical equipment.

“Standing at a meet and watching Matthew running the race and seeing Matthew in a team uniform. That one was huge for me,” his mother said. With two athletic older children, “this was the first time that we got to be a bit overrun with Matthew’s cross-country uniforms and smelly socks and shoes and stinky stuff.”

Lori-Beth says they were thrilled to have the opportunity. At the end of each race, the nurses check Matthew’s vitals to make sure all is well, perform any necessary interventions, help him hydrate and send him off to cheer for his teammates.

For both situations, Matthew’s doctors adjusted the 16 hours of each day that he wears his feeding pump so that he could train and race without it. And they constantly finetune the nutrients and calories contained in his formula to maintain his weight and hydration.

The formulas are medically prescribed but his nutritional needs won’t surprise experienced runners. “There’s an enteral version of Gatorade,” Lori-Beth mentioned.

“I can’t imagine not running,” Matthew said, after just one season.

It was humbling to learn not to be arrogant or “overdo it” keeping up with his more experienced teammates, but the highlight of his season was that he could keep up with them and even race alongside them. He is

34 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

hoping to keep working with his brother next summer, when he returns home from college.

“I think I will start to hate [Michael’s training ideas] at first, and then I will realize how right he is,” Matthew said. “That has always been the pattern.” But he’s grateful to his brother for showing him the ropes, believing in him from the start, and introducing him to his friends on the team. This sounds typical for Michael. “He’s always there for people,” Matthew said with pride.

Overall, Stuart cross country coach Ron Kronlage doesn’t hesitate to call Matthew’s season a success. He recites some of Matthew’s times along with the distances, terrain, and weather conditions from the season, including a 25:17 finish at their first meet at Burke Lake’s 2.98 mile course, a minute improvement over the week between two home meets, and a personal record at Franconia Park of just over 24 minutes.

Kronlage has the usual coach’s caution when asked about Matthew’s potential. A “typical” first-year runner dropping almost two minutes would probably continue to progress each year, but that depends on the runner’s consistent, hard work each year.

Matthew is eager, enthusiastic, and “very coachable,” so Kronlage expects he would do the work, but his physical limitations as a runner are unpredictable.

“I’m not sure, if [Matthew] puts in the work, if he’s going to have the typical improvement curve that others are going to have,” Kronlage said. “That’s hard to judge.

But he doesn’t seem to be one to get into any kind of handicap he has, so I wouldn’t want to bet against him, either.”

Rightfully so: since cross country season, Matthew has been running 300 and 500 meters for the winter track team and he speaks expectantly of spring track and of next year’s cross country season. His goal for next fall is to be “fast for the slow group,” a goal his mother prodded him about. He sighed, still shy about his ambition, and amended, “to beat my time and be fast for the slow group.” But he is already planning how he can improve next year, making the most of his track experience and his brother’s knowledge to train harder and get faster.

Doctors and specialists are shocked to learn that Matthew runs at all, let alone miles at a time, according to his mother. But he would like to one day run longer distances if his caloric intake can keep up. “Even beyond the cross country, Matthew has definitely pushed the norms for a whole lot of issues within the school system,” Lori-Beth said. “We have been very appreciative that people have been very willing to set aside some skepticism and knee-jerk reaction to say no, to [instead] say, ‘Well, maybe so.’”

That Matthew can run is less remarkable than that he should choose to: that his health has not bent him, but has steeled him for challenges so many others never confront. Truly, the most remarkable thing about Matthew Hua is that, at 14, and with so much already behind him, his story as a runner is just beginning.

TEAL BURRELL crosses the finish line at the 2014 California International Marathon.

PHOTO BY SPORT PHOTO

36 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

People watch the Olympics and get inspired to try a new sport, or to work out a little harder than they already do. Some even have a fleeting memory of past glory and say, “yeah, if only I hadn’t quit my sport early, if only I had worked harder, I could have done that.”

Not a lot of people say: “I’m going for it.”

Even fewer shave 36 minutes off their marathon PR in five years and actually qualify to run with the most elite marathon field in their country at the Olympic Trials.

Teal Burrell did. On Dec. 7, 2014, at the California International Marathon in Sacramento, she finished in 2:42:13, a 10-minute PR and in a qualifying time for the trials by a handy cushion of 47 seconds.

Going by her recent times, Teal (named for the duck, not the color: her parents were hippies, her father an ornithologist) would appear to be among the elite. These are the runners, it seems, of superhuman sinew, who are finishing while people in the last corral are still waiting for a porta-pottie.

Teal is an elite runner, but she started out as one of those mere mortals, a member of the middle of the pack, chugging along the streets of Charlottesville in a cotton t-shirt, finishing her first marathon in 2005 in 4:07. She was still a college student, and that “beer and burritofueled” marathon was going to be her last.

Until it wasn’t. A few years later, she started back up, with an idea that she would qualify for Boston (3:40 at the time). She thought lowering her time that much would take a while, and kept preparing family and friends, and herself, for setbacks. On her first try, though, she qualified for Boston by 11 minutes.

From there, the goals she set for herself became progressively more challenging, but she continued to doggedly chip away at them in sometimes agonizingly slow increments. Though she ran in high school, Teal claims that she didn’t have any real competitive drive then; even today, her only real sense of competition is with herself.

“I’m not someone who will just run if I’m not working towards a goal,” she said. “I guess I’m just really competitive with myself. … I have an amazing support system, no one’s telling me ‘You’re not going to make the trials,’ because I don’t have jerky friends.”

What keeps Teal fighting is the part of her that says she can’t, a voice she constantly strives to silence.

She has been climbing the ladder towards the Olympic Trials since her first Boston Marathon in 2009. Living and training in Boston at the time, that’s when she became obsessed with the running lifestyle, when running really absorbed her. She first set her sights on breaking three hours, a feat she accomplished in 2011 partly due to the pacing efforts of her brother, Blake Connor, whom she enjoys an encouraging rivalry with (Blake is the reigning 10-mile family champion, a title that she mentions came in a post-marathon race that only he was really training for).

The concept Teal uses to describe her progression from a recreational marathoner

to an Olympic Trials qualifier is “chiseling,” and it’s such a perfect description. Because what runner hasn’t felt, at some point, as futile as a rock hammer against a mountain, and in the same year, month or breath, hasn’t seen a line of muscle or a log week and thought – is this the same person who once said, “I’ll never be that fast?”

Teal’s secret to the next great achievement is setting small goals between the big ones. She knew she wasn’t going to get to the trials from one race to the next, or in one season, that it was going to be important to keep moving forward, keep challenging herself, and keep bouncing back.

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Teal has had plenty of races where her performance didn’t meet her goals, where her times didn’t match up to all the hard work she had put into her training. Her teammates say that she channels that disappointment into working that much harder for the next time.

She likens it to her years in the lab as a scientist. You try experiments over and over and it’s incredibly frustrating and they don’t go as planned, but you just keep trying. Running, to her, can be similar – you keep expecting something to work and many days it just doesn’t.

In 2013, Teal suffered a hip injury, the first time she had really been hurt. She came back cautiously, after using physical therapy to learn that some of her stretching techniques needed some tweaking. She also added yoga and foam rolling to her routine after her comeback.

In June of 2012, Teal joined the Georgetown Running Club. She said the improvement she’s seen from track workouts, the accountability, the support and caliber of her teammates and the positive encouragement of coach Jerry Alexander have been the high points of running with a group. The biggest thing, she said, is “having another voice, when you have a bad day or a bad race, another person there that knows what he’s talking about” and can override the internal voice that tells her she’s not good enough.

Alexander has seen her improvement since joining the team most dramatically in track workouts. Not having run competitively in college, Teal was uncomfortable, nervous, and lacked confidence. But she knew that she needed to do the work on the track to reach her goal, so she kept at it.

He thinks that the team atmosphere helped Teal work towards her goal because it gives her an added incentive to show up and suit up after setbacks. He thinks the other women on the squad helped reinforce one of the toughest truths of running, which is that sometimes you put in all the work, have a perfect day, a great plan, and it’s just not your day. He noted, as an example, Teal’s performance in Boston in 2014, when she was primed to break 2:50 with a great training cycle and finished in 2:58.

After that, the message Teal heard from her coach and the other women on the team was that a bad race doesn’t make you a bad

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 37

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runner. She would be ready when her day did come, and come it did.

Alexander framed her Sacramento performance as an upset victory of willfulness over hesitation. Her eventual marathon pace was faster than the pace at which she ran her best half marathon only weeks before.

“Teal is an example of setting a goal and going after it,” he said. “On paper, she had no business running that fast, but she was 100 percent focused on doing it. She put in the work, and on the day it was meant to be she took advantage, and it was an incredible accomplishment: the kind of performance that galvanizes a team and humbles a community.”

While Teal has certainly benefited from the energy and camaraderie of the other women on the team, they draw equal if not greater inspiration from her.

Teammate Kerry Allen goes to Teal for advice on marathon training, and plans to emulate her incremental mileage increase and the long run strategy Teal used that had her working up to 16 miles at marathon pace effort.

Kerry joined GRC shortly after Teal, and has found inspiration watching a teammate achieve a goal she, too, has set for herself.

“She’s a testament to the importance of believing in yourself,” Allen said.

Teammate Julie Tarallo was at the California International Marathon with Teal and crossed the finish line shortly after her achievement.

“She had put a lot into this race,” Tarallo said, and for Teal to reach her goal “says volumes about how tough and gutsy she is.”

In the same conversation she also talked about Teal’s patience. That’s the difference between people who only dream big and those who achieve big dreams. Logging the thousands of small steps in between, and being ready to go all out when the dream is within reach.

If you’re stuck in the mid-winter motivation lull, or have given up for the umpteenth time on your stupid, too-bigto-dare-dream-of goal, then Teal’s blog, MilestotheTrials.com is required reading.

If you find yourself dialing back your goals for the race season, or diminishing what you think you’re capable of in the long term, know that, in five years, Teal Burrell set and achieved the goal to do what only around 200 women in the United States in each Olympic cycle will achieve.

Next time you’re talking yourself into giving up, read her post on the day she qualified, and try to keep telling yourself to never give up. Chances are, you’ll end up daring yourself, Teal Burrell-style, to “Dream Big.”

38 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

2015

10k

3k

CAPITOL HILL

Fun run

36th Annual

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3k

36th Annual

May 17th

May 17th 2015

Fun run

Timed, USATF-certified courses Age group awards Benefits the Capitol Hill Cluster School ( a DC Public School )

www.capitolhillclassic.com

36th Annual

10k

3k

May 17th

Fun run

Timed, USATF-certified courses Age group awards Benefits the Capitol Hill Cluster School ( a DC Public School )

www.capitolhillclassic.com

36th Annual

10k

3k

May 17th

Fun run

Timed, USATF-certified courses Age group awards Benefits the Capitol Hill Cluster School ( a DC Public School )

www.capitolhillclassic.com

36th Annual

10k

3k

May 17th

Fun run

parksandrec@ci.waynesboro.va.us Timed, USATF-certified courses Age group awards Benefits the Capitol Hill Cluster School ( a DC Public School )

www.capitolhillclassic.com

PHOTO BY SWIM BIKE RUN PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIARS

BY JACQUELINE KLIMAS

40 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

Next time you’re getting ready for a blind date, going out for a run may be more helpful than changing your outfit for the third time or calling a friend for a pep talk.

RunWashington played matchmaker and sent two local runners out on a date in December after each went out separately for a run. They said getting in some exercise before meeting up for dinner helped them clear their minds and not stress so much about the details of the date.

While running helped them loosen up predate, the two hit it off and found other things to talk about while they were at dinner. But will there be a second date? Keep reading to find out.

The daters Anna Miars calls herself a “pretty casual runner,” averaging about 15 miles a week when she’s not training for something specific. She runs two or three times a week and competes in a couple races a year.

Chris Kwiatkowski is an Olympic Trials qualifier who runs about 100 miles a week, works part-time at a Pacers running store and is the assistant coach for track and cross country at American University. He was RunWashington’s second-ranked runner for 2014 (see page 14)

Before the date Both Miars and Kwiatkowski went on a run before the date to get the endorphins flowing.

Miars ran about three miles before getting ready and meeting up for the date. With not much time between getting out of work and meeting at the restaurant, the run initially left her stressed about not getting ready in time. By the end, however, she said it made her much less nervous and stopped her from stressing about the little things she would normally obsess over before a blind date.

“Running for me does really calm me down and makes me very smiley and happy,” she said. “Initially when I started, I was thinking I need to get this done, get cleaned up and get across town. Into the run and by the end, I was sort of thinking, I’ll get there, don’t worry so much about being there immediately on time or every hair has to be in place.”

Kwiatkowski did a 10-mile run in the neighborhood around American University before meeting up with Miars. Since he runs every day, he said if he hadn’t run before the date, he probably would have been more nervous or on edge, but just used the time to mentally relax.

“I was definitely excited,” he said. “But I think when I run, I just kind of clear my mind of everything and focus on what I have coming up next, focus on races and training. It’s a good time to think and work on the mental side of things.”

The venue Barrel, a bourbon bar on Pennsylvania Avenue in the Eastern Market neighborhood

First impressions Miars said her first impression of Kwiatkowski was that he was very friendly from the moment she walked in the restaurant.

“We just hit it off right from that moment.

He was very warm and welcoming,” she said.

Kwiatkowski said he was impressed with Miars from the beginning of the date, too.

“I feel like she’s much smarter than I am, she was very well put together, she looked good,” he said. “She had a great attitude and she was just kind of laid back, which I liked.

That’s my style, too.”

The conversation The two had a lot in common: both are runners, both grew up on the West Coast and while Kwiatkowski coaches at American University, Miars used to work there and got her masters there.

The similarities allowed the small talk to go beyond work and the weather – leading to a very long first date with no awkward lulls or silences.

“We were there for three hours, we just talked and talked and talked; it flew by,” Miars said. “I had a really great time. There was no moment I was ready to go.”

Miars said working out before the date also helped her be a little more comfortable talking about her running with someone who was so much faster and spent more time logging miles than her.

“I think it made me open up about my running a little more, since I’m nowhere near his level or dedication,” she said. “It maybe helped me to not feel a bit less hesitant to sort of share where I come from when it comes to running.”

Kwiatkowski said the two were so outgoing that they didn’t have to rely on their shared interest in running to keep the conversation going.

“It was just easy enough for us to have a conversation about anything, running or not,” he said. “I feel like the two of us are pretty outgoing as it is, so it was pretty easy.”

Second date?

Both said they would like to see each other again, but worried that the timing of each of them leaving town over the holidays could complicate making plans for a second date “I certainly think one of us may get in touch after we get back from the holidays and are settled,” Miars said. “I would definitely go out again for sure, but I don’t know how much either one of us will pursue it, especially with three weeks that we’ll be doing our own thing.

That’s no one’s fault, that’s just timing.”

Kwiatkowski said he planned to call Miars when he got back in town in early January.

“I told her I’d give her a shout when I get back in D.C., so we definitely plan to stay in communication,” he said.

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 41

D.C. Capital Striders offers multiple athletic flavors around the metro area

BY DUSTIN RENWICK

DAN GOPMAN (in red) meets up with D.C. Capital Striders members at a Dupont Circle run.

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW LEHNER/ MATTHEW LEHNER PHOTOGRAPHY

42 | RUNWASHINGTON | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | SPRING 2015

In an area that boasts plenty of regional restaurants directed by big-name chefs, Rick Amernick leads a string of franchises that burn more calories than they dish out.

The D.C. Capital Striders started in 2006 as a few people who met at the Smithsonian Metro to run one night each week, and has expanded into 16 running groups.

“Washington is a haven for athleticminded people,” Amernick said, who wants to set the barrier to entry as low as possible.

No dues, no membership form, no judgment if you miss a day.

Unlike some cheekily-named restaurants, Amernick’s franchisees take a more conventional approach: Dupont, Vienna, Friendship Heights. The Metro-accessible pattern is intentional.

“At first, D.C. Capital Striders was to find people to run with,” Amernick said. “To become physically fit. To enjoy things that are wonderful about this District. Now the most important thing is building healthier running communities.”

Amernick used to commute into the city for work and said he saw people running all over the city. An opportunity to lead the Smithsonian group arose shortly after he joined the weekly runs. The leader at the time was on her way to a busier schedule and she handed the group to Amernick.

People kept showing up, and more runners joined the original crew. Amernick applied a simple set of values: Runners of all abilities should have a group that provides a non-competitive atmosphere and a way to give back to the sport that brings the members together.

Running animates Amernick, a school psychologist with Fairfax County Public Schools. His hand gestures grow bigger. The volume of his voice escalates.

“There’s these pockets,” he said, pointing to different spaces of the air above him. “I see the whole group as runs, volunteers, charitable races, and happy hours or social events.”

The runs’ hosts plan routes and anchor the groups as the point people for each of the 16 sites. Anyone willing to show up and lead can talk to Amernick about starting a new group location.

“The key ingredient with all of them is being part of a bigger family that speaks first and foremost of giving back to the running community. I feel like volunteering at a race, we’re helping people get to the finish line. You roll into an aid station and all you need is a pat on the back or ‘Good job number 472.’ I learned as a runner how valuable that was.”

Groups are autonomous beyond the straightforward vision Amernick lays out for each leader.

“Every run has its own vibe,” he said.

“People take the mindset of the run host. I can only tell them my philosophy. I’m not going to tell them how to lead that run. Lead the run that you think is going to make that group come back.”

SPRING 2015 | RUNWASHINGTON.COM | RUNWASHINGTON | 43

Amernick now leads the Wednesday trail running group at Great Falls Park in Virginia, something that started a few years ago when he led a training program for the North Face Endurance Challenge. Whether trail or road, Amernick almost always has a crowd to join him in the miles.

“I severely dislike running by myself now,” he said.

He doesn’t have to, and neither would most anyone in the area with the selection of D.C. Capital Striders groups across the Beltway that cover mornings and nights at varying distances.

SMITHSONIAN Where: Capital Bikeshare station at the Metro When: Mondays and Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.

Typical distance: 5 miles Alexandria resident Pete Brondos attended his first Smithsonian run in 2009, back when Amernick still led the foundational group. Brondos has led the Monday crew for about two years now.

“Striders is a social group based around a common love of running,” he said. “Runners socialize really well. They’re active, energetic people. I’ve been in other Meetups that were sometimes kind of socially awkward.”

D.C. Capital Striders started, and continues, as a Meetup group. Meetup is a website that brings together like-minded people, from French speakers to craft brewers to runners.

Anyone can create a group page that serves as a hub for online and real-world activity.

Amernick first found the Smithsonian running group on the Meetup site. Striders run hosts post routes there and gauge their group size based on RSVPs. They spend an hour or two each week organizing and then leading the runs on their designated day.

What the role doesn’t require is a degree in exercise physiology or a background in elite road racing.

“I’m not a running authority,” Brondos said. “Be willing to show up. Welcome the new people. It’s kind of hard for some people to just walk into a group and not know anybody.

You have to be willing to meet those people and introduce yourself and make them feel comfortable. And then just kind of explain the route and let people go.”

Brondos rotates through a half dozen course configurations that all pick up most of their mileage around the Mall, with a few that stray into Virginia.

DUPONT Where: Dupont Circle fountain When: Saturdays at 9 a.m.

Typical distance: 4-7 miles

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A runner has 10 starting points down the five streets that intersect at Dupont Circle.

“It feels like all roads lead to Dupont,” said run host Dan Gopman. “It was an obvious choice for a place to start a run.”

The group can head west to the path that parallels the C&O Canal. Or south through Georgetown to the Mt. Vernon Trail.

That route can lead back east and north into D.C. or further south to Alexandria. The site started in 2007, and Dupont was one of the first locations beyond the Capital Striders’ downtown origins.

Gopman commutes down from Bethesda to lead the weekend run, and he took over leadership of the group in summer 2014 after alternating weeks with the previous host.

“Before I knew it there was a suggestion that I might like to lead the runs,” he said.

“It gave me the opportunity to learn about different places to run in D.C. I became a lot more sensitive to the different types of running people do in the District.”

On one of the first cold days of the late fall, Gopman welcomes a group of first-timers and familiar faces. The stiff wind sprays the fountain, still gushing water into the belowfreezing morning air.

“Think about that activity you like doing in warm weather and let it carry you,” Gopman said before the group starts.

Gopman said his bunch balances a core of regulars and a steady rotation of new participants that find a common ground through running.

“Those are the two halves of our Dupont family. A lot of times we have people passing through the D.C. area. We welcome them.

It brings a lot of diversity to the group. An investment banker, a congressional staffer, a physical therapist, as well as a physicist — it’s been a real humbling experience to see there are so many things that tie us together.”

BETHESDA Where: Icebreaker store on Bethesda Avenue When: Mondays at 6 p.m.

Typical distance: 6-7 miles Gopman lives in Bethesda, but it’s Madeline Dolente who leads the run at that Red Line stop. She, like Amernick when he first started, sought a running group that met during the week. When she couldn’t find anything, she volunteered to host. Some gyms in the area held shorter fun runs, but Dolente was training for a marathon.

“I wanted it for myself,” she said with a laugh. “If you’re running half marathons or marathons, three miles is nothing.”

That reasoning keeps Dolente pushing her group. She acts in a coaching role.

“I love taking people outside their comfort zone. I think it’s an avenue for people

to see how capable they are. That to me is the most exciting thing.”

She spends some time at the start of each run reassuring people who haven’t attempted longer distances, and she said she strives to keep the atmosphere positive.

Her one rule: Put away the headphones.

“When I first joined the Montgomery County Road Runners Club to train for a marathon, they said no one was allowed to wear headphones. I thought that was ridiculous. I had a 20 miler, and I talked with seven different people and had really good conversations. It made me more aware that just because you’re running in a group, if you’re listening to music, you’re really not with that group.”

Dolente said that rule plays into how she organizes her workouts. She tries to pair people with similar effort levels to ensure a buddy system where everyone has at least one person to run with.

“You feel more of a part of the community,” she said. “You get to know people on a much deeper level.”

DCCS LOCATIONS MORE INFO AT WWW.MEETUP.COM/DCCAPITALSTRIDES DC 14th Street 19th Street Adams Morgan / Columbia Heights Chinatown Dupont Georgetown Lincoln Park SE/SW Waterfront Smithsonian Stanton Park Tenleytown MARYLAND Bethesda Friendship Heights Silver Spring VIRGINIA Great Falls Park Vienna

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BY JAMIE COREY

I rolled over on an air mattress in my empty apartment and glanced at the clock that read 4 a.m. I couldn’t fall back asleep — my entire body ached, chills ran through my bloodstream and I had severe nausea. I was just hours away from a 15-hour car ride to Wisconsin and there I was — grappling with the flu. But the car ride was the least of my concern. In just a few hours, I was supposed to lace up my shoes to go for my last run before I moved to Madison.

The sky got lighter but my body still ached. The nausea had only gotten worse and the thought of going outside exacerbated my chills. Nevertheless, it was my last opportunity to “run the District,” the phrase I’ve used throughout the years as a Washington running blogger, and I planned on taking full advantage.

So I layered up and stepped out the door.

While the first few steps were painful, the thought of heading back to my warm apartment didn’t cross my mind for a second.

I ran down 16th street, past the White House. I ran up and down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and then circled the Washington Monument where I looked out at the Jefferson Memorial and U.S. Capitol. Albeit a few structural changes, these historical buildings haven’t changed, they’re still the same landmarks with the same purpose — but the way I looked at them had changed.

I stopped seeing these structures as important buildings that changed history and eventually thought of these landmarks as mile markers for runs. The Lincoln Memorial: my halfway point of a five-mile route after work. The Washington Monument: a bathroom stop and a beacon for water fountains. The Jefferson Memorial: an indication that I’m in for a long run that day.

These buildings will always be the iconic

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symbols of Washington, but to me they’ll always be routes along a run that hold athletic import.

I’m not the first and definitely won’t be the last person to part with this town. The revolving door is part of living in Washington.

Many runners like myself have escaped the busy streets of D.C. and found themselves running in quieter parts of the country.

After living in Washington for six years, former D.C. runner Doug Hay moved to North Carolina with his wife. His runs now mostly consist of exploring the mountains and trails of North Carolina, but he says he’ll “forever miss the familiar singletrack (trail)” that was one of his only constants during the six years that he lived in D.C. “There is something magical about having Rock Creek Park as a natural oasis in the middle of a bustling city,” Hay said. “The rush I got from the instant transition of horns and crowded sidewalks to dirt trails and swaying Beech trees is unmatched here in Western North Carolina.”

While Hay still runs and trains for races, after leaving D.C., Jake Marren’s life took a different turn. He went from constantly complaining about 90-degrees and smog to bundling up and exploring quiet snowmobile tracks in single-digit temperatures.

After living in D.C. for three years, Marren and his wife moved to Vermont, where they started a family and bought a house in Montpelier. The 2013 Boston Marathon was his last competitive race.

“Georgetown Running Club was the center of my social scene and the central part of my life while I was in D.C.,” he said. “It’s a very different lifestyle (in Vermont). I still run quite a bit... but it’s definitely not the same running scene that D.C. had. I really do miss

PHOTO BY SARA ALEPIN/PHOTOS FROM THE HARTY

having a club and things like that — on the other hand, my lifestyle is so different. I still run six days a week, at least. But I probably put in less miles because I’m not putting in a 20-miler with the club on Sundays, which would be the kind of thing I’d do when I was in D.C. But now when it’s Sunday, I want to drink coffee and hang out, and if I go for a run, great.”

Marren and I aren’t the only ones who are welcoming the escape from 90-degree temperatures. According to the D.C. Office of Planning, 44.1 percent of millennials (individuals between the ages of 20-34 years old) from other states moved out of the city in 2012.

But that same city data also showed that 51.5 percent of millennials from other states are moving into the city. There’s a reason so many of us move to D.C. in the first place. From vibrant neighborhoods to numerous career opportunities, D.C. has lots to offer. The same is true in terms of running. D.C. gave me the confidence and resources to complete 26.2 miles. If I was ever lacking motivation, I could tap into any of the numerous running groups.

If I ever needed a race to gauge my speed, I could choose from dozens of races in the area every month, no matter what time of year it was. The top-notch running stores alone make this town a runner’s heaven. I’m well aware that every other city I live in will never come close to the running community in D.C. Ellen Gilmer is back in D.C. after attending graduate school in Portland, Ore., another community where running is pervasive. As great as Portland was, her career steered her back here.

“Portland is a running mecca, but when I returned to D.C., I remembered how much I love running in the glow of the Capitol building and the monuments. I’ve rediscovered other local gems like Rock Creek Park, the National

Arboretum and the Potomac Heritage Trail, and I’m always inspired by my surroundings and fellow runners,” she said.

After making a loop around the Washington Monument, I made my way back north toward my apartment. I stopped in Logan and Dupont Circles. I purposely ran in the middle of side streets lined with brownstones, the roads covered in fallen Ginko Tree leaves. I ran every corner of Meridian Hill Park, and took a sip of water out of my favorite water fountain in Mitchell Park.

One of the last stops on my run involved sneaking on private property: Just a few blocks north of U Street lies a street filled with several townhomes. If I’m able to get on the edge of one of the properties at the right time in the morning, I can usually see what I think is one of the best views of the city. Fortunately, none of the residents were awake yet, and I arrived just in time to watch the sunrise stretch across the monuments, various buildings downtown, the row houses of Adams Morgan and parts of Virginia for one last time.

Just as I saw the sun stretch across the entire city, I thought about how my life — running life, that is — in D.C. stretched across the city: When my running shoes and I made the most out of the closed streets to traffic as the rest of the city followed the president on the parade route or stayed at home and watched on TV. When I conquered the last hill of the Marine Corps Marathon in 2011 and then again in 2013; or that time I live-tweeted a 20-mile run.

Nearly every run, every race and every speed workout the last four years took place in D.C. And that’s why it was so important to ignore my fever and nausea that morning — I had to run through my city one last time for a proper goodbye.

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BY CHARLIE BAN Nothing was going to stop Yvonne Merriweather.

Certainly not Stage 4 lung cancer.

Though she had less than a month to live, she lined up with her training partners from the Beginners and Re-Beginners Ladies Running Club at both the Richmond and Philadelphia half marathons last November.

She passed away Dec. 10 at age 45.

She came to the B&RB club at the Alexandria Pacers and told coach Sandy Timmons, “I have to run.”

“She never stopped,” Timmons said. “She always walked into the store with a smile on her face and a goal she wanted to meet. It might have gone from finishing a marathon in five-and-a-half hours to finishing a half marathon in five-and-a-half hours, but she set her mind to it. That’s just what she did.”

Yvonne was a healthcare consultant, and she expressed adapted her professional focus to her personal situation on her blog.

“She insisted most stage 4 cancer patients do not run,” she wrote in October about a checkup with her oncologist, with every intention to defy that statement. She joked about keeping some extra steroids in her running pants for Philly, where she grew up.

When given her second cancer diagnosis — she had earlier been treated for breast cancer — a different doctor told her to keep running.

“I like him,” she remarked on her blog. “I told him I want to live, not just survive and I have two very busy daughters that I need to see go to college and get married and by the way I have all of these marathons on my calendar this fall.”

Though her husband, Jason’s, military career temporarily took them to Charleston, S.C. in 2010, she was back to the D.C. area often for work with client from Booz Allen Hamilton.

Before the family, which included daughters Chloe and Sydney, returned to Arlington last summer, she had helped stabilize a Black Girls Run chapter in Charleston, where more than a dozen gathered to run in her honor the night of Jan. 24.

That afternoon, the B&RB club established the “Queen of the Road” award to the club member who best reflects Yvonne’s pure joy and positivity for the sport of women’s running.

That may someday be her daughter, grader Chloe, who wrote in a school project years ago, “When I am an adult, I want to run too. My mom is very inspiring because she is strong, powerful and awesome. My mom is my hero.”

Read more about Yvonne’s fight against cancer at https://teamyvonne.wordpress.com/ YVONNE MERRIWEATHER runs the 2010 Crawlin’ Crab 10k.

PHOTO BY BRIAN W. KNIGHT/ SWIM BIKE RUN PHOTOGRAPHY

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