Now I am generally not cruising the Boston Commons at 7:45 AM on a Sunday, but these ladies can straight up fly, and I competed against one of the runners in college...well...she spanked our team every time but, you know what I mean. Melissa White track and XC for Geneseo State back in the day, so a bunch of us from SLU thought we would lend our support. Melissa currently trains with and runs for the Brooks Hanson Project in Michigan. Not bad...Here she is hammering along:
Although she started out really strong and hung on until mile 18 or so, she eventually dropped a bit and finished out of the running for a spot in Beijing. Hey, she made it to the trials and was in the running up and to the end so I give her nothing but props. Well done, Melissa!
I have never been to a marathon before, especially not the Boston Marathon, which is THE race of races. I have to say that so far, everything has lived up to the hype. Even non runners get psyched about Marathon Monday in Boston, even if it is just another excuse to booze and get lit. I have to say that these Women did a great job kicking of the festivities and blew me away at their ability to just out and out HAMMER for 26.2 miles. Check out this pace:
Yeah, that would be 16 miles in an hour and a half.
WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! That is flying! The buzz around this woman was that she was relatively unknown, and that she put the hammer down and stretched her lead to 2 minutes over the rest of the field, including Deana. I seriously was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to tackle Deana, screaming at her about getting punked. But, what I came to learn, was the Deana is Deana and she is world class for a reason. Fast forward to mile 24 and the once 2-mute lead had shrunk to seconds and saw Deana just put the hammer down and blow by the leader. Now, some were saying that Magda, the second place finisher, died and went out to fast.
Wrong.
She didn't die, she ran 5:45 miles almost the entire way. Deana just decided that she was going to negative split the second half of her race and run 5:30's like they were a jog in the park. Her she is kicking it in for the win:
Yep, she crushed and took her bagillionth title. I would say that I wasn't surprised as her qualifying time was a 2:19, way ahead of the pack but she was so far behind. I guess that is why she is going to the Olympics and I am not.
And before I close, I have to tip my hat to Joan Benoit, who ran what most say is her last competitive race, which she finished in 2 hours and 49 minutes
At the age of 50!
So here is to you, Joan; Thanks for being a pioneer for the sport (and nice hat :) )
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