so they changed around the course to avoid the puddles. both courses (6 and 8k) were supposed to be short by under a hundred meters. but did anyone think that the women's course might have been a little long? times for more than a few runners didn't seem to match up. i'd be interested to hear from anyone who ran it.
the course really was not adjusted all that much, the only change they made was one slight shift that made it... maybe 5 meters longer per loop. The course was very close to the original, and I highly doubt that it was long. The girls course I can't say as much, but it was messy in the back part of the loop, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was slowing people down.
The guys times seemed a LITTLE slower then expected for everyone, including myself, for the amount of effort put in. The girls times seemed to be extremely slow. I think the womens course must have been long. I heard the mens course was 40m short. The back strecth had a lot of soft squishy mud and there was a sharp turn that was puddled. Besides the wet course, it was a really nice day. The soft mud slowed me up, I remember trying to surge in the last mile and the soft mud almost took away my will to get some steam going.
The whole race was the hill. If you didn't hang up that climb, you were done. People were walking up it.
Definitely an exciting race for the guys. DeShane had a great sprint to come from behind and take the win. Also a tight race for the team title.
And of course, I was being facetious about the hill. But I guess the softness made up for the lack of hills.
Where was Shoppman of SUNY Potsdam?
She was there. Walking on crutches.
I actually really liked that course. Its too bad it got wet, because I had run the course about a week before the meet, and it was nice and firm the whole way around. I don't even want to know how fast it would have been had the course not been muddy in that back stretch.
That course would have run faster if it was dry, but the turns along the woodline in the back slow it down regardless. I dont think deshane and abdallah were going all out the whole race, the 4 guys got about 25 yards and then just watched each other. Without the mud abdallah might have tried to make a push sooner and get away, since deshane is obviously faster over the last 100.
I ran the course the same day of the regionls. It was not that bad and no the front two were not holding back. It was just a slow day. Maybe the Atlantic Region needs to just suck it up and face the light... They are not top contenders in the Nationals this year. But the region is young and will improve with time. Dont worry about it. Just do your best.
teammates said the course was muddy
im assuming you ran the course in the morning before the races because all the markings and flags were torn down right after the finish of the race, and i will agree with you that the course was not that bad in the morning, but if you take 200+ people and run them over the course twice, girls first then guys, all waearing spikes it gets pretty torn up
the course wasn't really that bad, its just there there was that back section that was about 300m long that was all sloppy and muddy. There were other crappy spots too, but the course really wasn't all that slow. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the first mile went out in something like 4:45, and there were probably 30-40 people in that front pack. The pace really stagnated after about 1.5 miles, and everyone started dieing off after about 2.5. Hell, I was 25th at 3 miles, my last two miles were about 10:20, and I ended up 10th. A lot of people really crapped out in that 4th mile, especially in the chase pack. At that point, the front was just those 4, then there was a long string of individuals. There wasn't actually a pack until about 20-25 runners had finished. I'm not saying that Mid-Atlantic is a hotbed of talent, but there certainly are good runners here, and I think the region is certainly better than this race indicated. I think part of the problem is that there is so little representation at nationals, people have to peak just to make it to nationals and then crap out once they get there. Certainly not the case for the best runners, but for people like myself, even if I would have qualified, I would have been in no shape to run there.
I agree much more with RFXCrunner than the rest of you. Everyone acts like they ran slow because the course prevented them from going any faster. Bull. You ran slow because you ran the race wrong. You dont go out in 4:45 and expect to stay there unless you trained for that all year. And I know only the top 3-4 in the race train that way. Everyone needs to stop making excuses and just say "I ran poorly." There will be other chances for most since almost everyone in the top 20 was a junior or younger. For those seniors great year and keep running after college. College is not the end of a career.
Peaking is not a 1 week thing. If you have consistent mileage under your belt it can last 3-4 weeks, sometimes up to 6.
I do not think that the first mile was that fast. I was in up there in the lead pack. And i heard two splits, one was 4:50 and one was 4:58. No clue which is correct but the leaders didn't go out faster then 4:50. I personally don't think the race went out that fast being that i can't run under 4:50 too easily yet i was at the front. I think it was closer to the 4:58. Not sure why the course was slow, combination of the mud. I don't think it was a case of going out too fast for the top 4 guys because the pace did not change too much for the first 3 miles or so. Not sure what that means but if you look at the other regional results there were only one or two regional races where people went under 25. I think that all of the 4 individuals have legitamit shots at All American, and should represent the region much better then the individuals did last year.
Look at the places regionals has been run on in the past. Slu last year was flat but below freezing, Geneseo the year before the course was way short and flat, and CNJ in 2002 was muddy and hilly as balls. Each of those years has only seen 1-3 of the top 3 at regionals be all american. This course was flat and pretty fast on saturday and there were still some slow times. Like I said before, Deshane has the best shot at making all american but he wont make the top 20. He will be the only all american from the region if there are any at all.
Are you kidding, did you watch the race? Deshane wasn't even breathing hard the whole time and then just decided to out kick abdallah at the end.
actually they went out in 4:57 the person misspoke on the loud speaker
I highly doubt that. I was way back at 1 mile, there was a crapton of people ahead of me, and the clock read 5:03. I know they weren't that fat ahead, but I was more than 5 seconds back.
maybe I'm mistaken the person that told me 4:57 wasn't in first but he was in the lead pack