A couple of horse races

One of my favorite events every Spring are the DCRRC Triple Crown Races. Its a low key event run at Ft. Hunt Park featuring 3 different races...one for each distance of the better known Triple Crown. The first race, the Kentucky Derby is 1.25 miles long. After a brief break, we move on to the Preakness at 1 3/16 miles. Then, after another short break, we run the Belmont at 1 1/2 miles. Many runners can run these races as if it were a speed workout. For me, these races a)allow me to run multiple races in a day and without having to drive to multiple locations and b) serve once again to show me how out of shape I've gotten.

The race director for this event is Jim Scarborough. This is the 4th year I have run these races and he has cocnsistently done a really nice job with it. This year he wrote to me about a month before the race and asked if I would be willing to volunteer and help sign people in the morning of the race. I immediately agreed as I was happy to help. I should have checked my schedule though as June 7 was also the day for the Armenian Festival in Alexandria. I'm a member of Alexandria's City Council sub-committee for the Armenian Sister city of Gyumri. This was our biggest day of the year as the festival serves as our big fundraiser for grants that we send to organizations in Gyumri. What was I thinking! It was going to be a long, hot day at the festival and I needed my rest. I probably shouldn't even run these races, much less get up early and help sign people in. Oh well, a committment is a committment so volunteer I did.

Other than getting to the park an hour sooner than I needed to, the assignment Jim gave me was easy. We only had a bit over a dozen show up for the race so it wasn't like I was overwhelmed at any point.

It was a hot, muggy morning with a haze hanging over the park. A heat advisory was in effect for the weekend and a warning had been issued about pollution as well. To make matters worse, a catering company was setting up for a later party in the same shelter we were in and they were getting half a dozen grills fired up. The smoke from the grills just hung in the air and the smell was a bit overwhelming. Peter Blank mentioned to me that he was having a lot of trouble with the smoke.

The start time of the race had been posted incorrectly on the DCRRC website so we started a little late for anyone that only checked that website. That was a problem for me as I needed to be at Market Square by 11 to help setup for the festival.

When we were finally called to the gates (starting line) for a post time of about 845. Ft Hunt Park is almost exactly 1 1/4 miles around so this race had a starting line very close to the finishing line. In subsequent races, we moved the starting line but kept the same finishing line (just like the horse races). Just before the start I told Christina Caravoulias that she would be beating me today. She disagreed but I was soon proven to be correct.

As usual, I started slow and then went slower. After about a 1/4 mile I heard footsteps approaching quickly from behind. It ended up being Shirley Sameshima, who had arrived late due to the erroneous time on the website. She said hi and moved by me quickly. It wasn't long ago when I was only a little slower than Shirley. Not anymore...she has gotten faster and I have gotten a lot slower. She finished over 2 1/2 minutes ahead of me and I had a head start!

Christina and I ran close together for most of the race. I managed to stay in front of her until about .9 miles into the race when I had to stop for a walk break (I know, its pathetic). I drafted behind her for the rest of the race but I just couldn't summon the energy to pass her. As promised, I came in last of 15 contestants. Here are the full results.

1 Michael Rooney M 22 Arlington VA 6:47 1
2 Dan Eddy M 56 Alexandria VA 7:36 2
3 James Engle M 47 Arlington VA 7:42 3
4 Kirk Gordon M 52 Mitchellville MD 8:12 4
5 Keith R. Campbell M 48 Springfield VA 8:22 5
6 Peter Blank M 53 Annandale VA 8:36 6
7 James Scarborough M 50 McLean VA 8:39 7
8 Jay Jacob Wind M 58 Arlington VA 9:24 8
9 John Haubert M 65 Alexandria VA 9:41 9
10 Janet Townshend F 44 Vienna VA 9:48 1
11 Shirley Sameshima F 41 McLean VA 9:56 2
12 Bernadette Flynn F 50 Springfield VA 10:59 3
13 Tami Graf F 71 Lusby MD 11:56 4
14 Christina Caravoulias F 53 Silver Spring MD 12:29 5
15 Tim Ramsey M 49 Alexandria VA 12:34 10

Now, the worst thing about being slow at this event is not the humiliation of coming in last. No, it's the short amount of time for recovery. Most people had at least 2 more minutes to recover and the leaders ahd 5 or 6. I only had time to walk back to the shelter, fill out my finisher card, and drink a cup of water before it was time to line up for the next race. Let's see a horse try to do that!

I knew with the heat and the delayed start I could only run 2 races. With the Preakness being the shortest race and also the next race the choice was easy. (BTW - It's amazing how much longer the Belmont is. That extra 1/4 mile is huge. No wonder we don't see horses winning all 3 races).

I really struggled with the Preakness as the time below shows. It took me over a minute longer than the Derby and it was a shorter race! The conditions were clearly difficult though, as I was not the only runner to slow down in the 2nd race.

I totally lost contact with Christina in this race. I may have been able to suck it up and get a bit closer but I didnt think I could ever catch her and I had to think about saving some strength for the festival. So it was a disappointing finish.

Preakness 1.1875m
1 Michael Rooney M 22 Arlington VA 6:31 1
2 Dan Eddy M 56 Alexandria VA 7:27 2
3 Kirk Gordon M 52 Mitchellville MD 7:47 3
4 James Engle M 47 Arlington VA 7:53 4
5 Jay Jacob Wind M 58 Arlington VA 8:02 5
6 Keith R. Campbell M 48 Springfield VA 8:17 6
7 David Hayes M 44 Alexandria VA 8:23 7
8 Peter Blank M 53 Annandale VA 8:54 8
9 Janet Townshend F 44 Vienna VA 9:12 1
10 Shirley Sameshima F 41 McLean VA 9:25 2
11 John Haubert M 65 Alexandria VA 9:32 9
12 Bernadette Flynn F 50 Springfield VA 10:17 3
13 Tami Graf F 71 Lusby MD 11:39 4
14 Christina Caravoulias F 53 Silver Spring MD 12:27 5
15 Tim Ramsey M 49 Alexandria VA 13:39 10

I said my goodbye's to Jim right after handing in my finisher card for the race. It looks like I missed a good Belmont though as evidenced by the results below.Shirley managed to beat Janet Townshend in this last race and Jay Wind continued to move up in the standings with each race.

Belmont Stakes 1.5m
1 Michael Rooney M 22 Arlington VA 8:03 1
2 Dan Eddy M 56 Alexandria VA 9:33 2
3 Jay Jacob Wind M 58 Arlington VA 9:59 3
4 David Hayes M 44 Alexandria VA 10:49 4
5 Keith R. Campbell M 48 Springfield VA 11:10 5
6 James Engle M 47 Arlington VA 11:11 6
7 Peter Blank M 53 Annandale VA 11:31 7
8 Shirley Sameshima F 41 McLean VA 12:06 1
9 Janet Townshend F 44 Vienna VA 12:12 2
10 Kirk Gordon M 52 Mitchellville MD 12:40 8
11 Bernadette Flynn F 50 Springfield VA 12:41 3
12 Tami Graf F 71 Lusby MD 15:35 4
13 Christina Caravoulias F 53 Silver Spring MD 17:51 5

As always, it was a fun event and I plan to be back next year...hopefully carrying less weight on a cooler day!