Who could have predicted this?

August 23rd marked the annual PG County Road Runners Womens distance festival followed by a predicted time 5K. Anyone that reads these blogs knows the only way I will ever win anything is if I run in a "gimmic" type of race. I came in 2nd a couple of years ago at the DCRRC predicted time 5 miler. I think I looked good again last year until I fell and broke my foot (still finished though).


This was the first time I had run this race which made predicting a time even more difficult than usual. I asked the nice folks when I checked in what the course was like and I was told it had a lot of turns but was pretty flat. Turns don't really hurt someone as slow as me so this all sounded good. I thought about my time in the 3K on Wednesday and considered the temperature (not too bad) and came up with a time of 35:16. I thought that should be a tough time to get but do-able.

I knew I wouldn't be able to take a lot of walk breaks.


I misjudged the start and had to jog over to the start line just as we were being sent off. I had about 30 seconds to recover though so I can't complain about that. The start took us parallel to the runway at College Park airport. Then we veered into a park with a large lake. It was so weird to not have a watch on to see how I was doing. I started taking walk breaks pretty early on...perhaps only 1/2 mile in. But I tried to keep them short. It seemed like I was the last runner before a pretty long break to the walkers. I could see a guy in front of me for most of the race but I just couldn't catch up to him. However, as I got to within 1/2 a mile of the finish, a woman appeared behind me. The sight of her pushed me along and helped me finish a little faster than I probably would have otherwise. Where was she earlier?


I was convinced that I ran a very slow race...perhaps something around 40 minutes. But when I got back to my car I saw that it was 9:40 and the race started at 9. It took me several minutes to get to the car and I had stopped for a bagel so I started thinking maybe I wasn't as slow as I thought. I waited through the awards for the women and then they finally awarded the prizes for the predicted time race. The woman that finished behind me actually won the race! If she is anything like me, seeing me ahead of her at the finish probably pushed her to run a little faster which enabled her to win the race! A couple of guys tied for 2nd and that was it for the prizes so I went home.

Imagine my surprise when I checked the results the next day and found that I came in 4th! The 2 guys ahead of me missed their prediction by 22 seconds. I missed mine by 23.97 seconds! If I had pushed myself to start running 20 yards sooner at the finish I would have come in 2nd! The winner was within 16 seconds of her prediction. A 100 yard push would have been good enough to beat her! Argh!!

Nonetheless, it was a fun race and I'll plan on running this again next year. This race marked my 36th race of the year. A prolific month of September should put me within spitting distance of 50 races for the year. It will be nice to get it out of the way so I don't have to worry about injuries like the one I suffered at the end of last year.

Place Name Age S City State Predict Time Diff
1 Mary Contreras 37 F Arlington VA 36:00 36:17 0:00:16.40
2 Malcolm Lester 41 M Washington C 17:11 17:33 0:00:22.00
3 Kent McCullough 51 M Lanham MD 19:56 19:34 0:00:22.46
4 Tim Ramsey 48 M Arlington VA 35:16 35:40 0:00:23.97
5 Katy Wareheme 26 F Boonsboro MD 25:00 25:30 0:00:29.02
6 Ian Wright 33 M Laurel MD 30:00 29:28 0:00:32.52
7 Manuel Legaspi M 20:00 20:36 0:00:35.53
8 Clifford Bedore M 27:00 27:38 0:00:37.53
9 Vennita Harris 24 F Laurel MD 45:00 45:49 0:00:48.62
10 Shawn Gilleylen 40 F Laurel MD 45:00 46:02 0:01:01.18
11 Nicole Greene 30 F Frederick MD 40:36 39:35 0:01:01.27
12 Jason Morancie M 30:00 28:52 0:01:08.28
13 Ben Lipovsky 60 M Hyattsville MD 28:00 26:50 0:01:10.27
14 Kirk Gordon 52 M Mitchellville MD 20:50 22:11 0:01:20.49
15 Eileen Spear F 31:00 29:39 0:01:21.91
16 DeNita DeLano 32 F Temple Hills MD 49:20 47:56 0:01:24.51
17 Tammy Colandrea 32 F Greenbelt MD 43:21 41:53 0:01:28.42
18 Ethica Kumsa F 17:00 18:29 0:01:28.98
19 Laurence Daniels 41 M Mitchellville MD 50:00 48:31 0:01:29.64
20 Mary Ester 47 F Washington DC 30:00 28:27 0:01:33.50
21 Valerie Barnes 31 F Greenbelt MD 46:45 44:58 0:01:47.45
22 Sally Bolenger F 31:00 32:54 0:01:53.50
23 Richard Vickers III 45 M Silver Spring MD 25:00 26:59 0:01:58.28
24 Olivia Payton 51 F Laurel MD 45:00 47:36 0:02:35.75
25 Ernest Brown 51 M Washington DC 43:00 45:45 0:02:44.74
26 Heather Burroughs 24 F Burtonsville MD 36:00 38:46 0:02:45.56
27 Philip Zenchoff 80 M Silver Spring MD 46:30 49:33 0:03:02.40
28 Sharlene Deskins 44 F Seabrook MD 32:45 36:20 0:03:34.72
29 Valerie Ballard F 40:00 36:22 0:03:38.76
30 Loretta Henry 44 F Laurel MD 45:00 41:16 0:03:44.08
31 Risa Ryan 26 F Odenton MD 33:45 29:46 0:03:59.49
32 Gerard Alleyne 27 M Bladensburg MD 33:54 29:21 0:04:33.53 33 242 David Ferris M 30:00 25:18 0:04:42.12 34 212 Moneta Strickland 27 F Montgomery Village MD 37:00 42:26 0:05:25.75 35 209 Jodi Lethbridge 26 F Burtonsville MD 42:00 47:32 0:05:31.53 36 213 Henson Rara 26 M Montgomery Village MD 36:50 42:27 0:05:36.35 37 232 Jackie Nitowitz 44 F College Park MD 1:30:00 1:23:35 0:06:25.12 38 210 Elissa Lethbridge 53 F Burtonsville MD 55:00 1:01:41 0:06:40.64 39 234 David Palomino 28 M Riverdale MD 42:00 34:52 0:07:08.94 40 211 Mandy Lethbridge 21 F Burtonsville MD 40:00 49:33 0:09:32.53 41 225 Irene Park 32 F Baltimore MD 1:00:00 49:29 0:10:31.37 42 224 Sarah Park 29 F Baltimore MD 1:00:00 49:29 0:10:31.40 43 221 Netta Henry 39 F Laurel MD 45:00 56:42 0:11:41.51 44 219 Denise Henry 48 F Laurel MD 45:00 56:42 0:11:41.57 45 246 Dave Rapp M 45:00 30:01 0:14:59.63 46 243 Laurie Fisher F 35:10 1:23:35 0:48:24.33