by Brad Jaegerbjaeger@comcast.net
“I’m
not ready for these hills yet”, said Stephanie Bryan of Thomas Johnson
high school. “Actually, I’m not liking this heat and humidity too much
either”, she continued. Like it or not, at least 40 athletes of all
ages lined up on the starting line at the second race in the
mocorunning.com summer cross country series.
The series which is
run at a variety of Montgomery County high schools is the brainchild of
Kevin Milsted, the webmaster for mocorunning.com. Along with assistance
from the DC Roadrunners club and Addison Hunt, Landon high school cross
country coach, the second race in the series saw the numbers in the
race almost double from the first event earlier this summer.
The
course at Watkins Mill high school was well marked, but grass that was
eight inches high in spots and a wooded section that had to be cleared
of downed trees two hours before the race, made the race challenging.
Add on 87 degree temperatures, brutal humidity and a never ending swarm
of mosquitoes and the athletes were getting more than they bargained
for.
Damascus brought a full contingent of athletes and many
other Montgomery County high schools were well represented in the
field. Nathan Timm, Magruder high school coach, also found himself on
the starting line. “I’m definitely just using this as a tempo run”,
said Timm. Considering that he was standing there dripping sweat after
a three minute warm-up, the desire to run fast was quickly leaving his
thought process.
Jordan Sawadogo, ex-Springbrook and now
Princeton Tiger runner, was using the race as gauge for his
conditioning. “I just want to see where I am in my training right now”,
said the chemical engineering major. Sawadogo was obviously in decent
shape for this time of the summer as evidenced by his 17:50 win.
Sawadogo ran the first part of the race in fourth or fifth place and
took the lead just before the two mile mark and came away with a thirty
second win.
Will Zahrodnay, of Damascus was pacing teammate
Thomas Arias through the lead during the first part of the race until
allowing Arias to take off on his own. Arias finished second as
Zahrodnay fell back to fifth at the finish.
Jennifer
Chichester, ex-Archbishop Carroll, took the lead from Bryan with 1200
meters to go and won the girls race going away in 21:56.
Hunt,
the Landon coach is hoping for the series to grow even bigger next
year. “We’re hoping to get other Montgomery area coaches involved so
there is a race each week,” said Hunt. “This way if you are on vacation
or just can’t make a race there is always another one the next week
where you can participate. It’s all about getting people to
participate”, said the coach.
As the athletes were heading up
the hill to their cars and a well-deserved shower one athlete was heard
saying, “At least I know what I have to work on - EVERYTHING!” The next
race in the series will be at the Landon School on August 10.