by Brad Jaegerbjaeger@digitalsports.com
First time race director, Tim Gosnell, looked up at the sky and saw lightning and heard rumbles of thunder heading over the race site. “I think it’s gonna clear up”, said Gosnell. About seven minutes into the race, the skies opened up and a hard cold rain descended down upon everyone. Gosnell looked over at me and said, “Today, I end my career as a race director.”
After a humid day, the temperature and conditions at Runnymede Elementary School in Taneytown were almost perfect for running. The parking lot was full of people eager to take part in this traditional 8K, but eyes were pointed upward as the storm clouds approached. Eighty people almost said in unison, “I don’t know about this….”
There were plenty of high quality runners at the race. Winters Mill high school brought most of their varsity squad and Francis Scott Key also had many of their runners on site also. Arthur Leathers and Jordan White, recent graduates of FSK, were there to test their summer fitness. Greg Jubb, ex-Loyola and current UMD runner and Jesse Jaeger, York College, were there preparing for their seasons.
The course is an out and back course on a two lane country road with no flat stretches anywhere. About five minutes into the race, the skies opened up on the runners and not with a gentle summer rain, but an all out downpour – and it was cold. There were a number of runners who turned around and headed back to the start saying that it was raining so hard that they couldn’t see.
The combination of numerous turns and the two lane road made it difficult to maneuver the roads in order to cover the race and once the rain started, coverage with any type of electronic equipment made it impossible to follow the race.
Jubb and Jaeger took off together at the start of the race and were talking through the first 800. Jaeger was there to run the race as an interval workout so Jubb let him go. Jaeger passed through the first mile in 4:52 and the 2K mark in 5:22. After the 2K, Jaeger was going to slow down to 7:00 pace for the next 1000 before returning to 5:00 mile pace, but the rain and conditions put a stop to that. Jubb caught Jaeger at the 3000 and they were going to work together through the next 2000.
“It was raining so hard and cooled down so much”, said Jaeger, “that I just couldn’t get my legs moving again after the easy 1000.” Jubb hit the turnaround mark at the 4K in 13:20 and just wanted to maintain the pace.
Jubb said, “The rain was actually refreshing for me. I was running a constant pace, so I didn’t cramp up like Jesse did.” Jubb was able to hold his pace through the last 4K finishing in 26:25. “I was real happy with that time. This was a tougher course than I thought it would be”, said Jubb.
White pulled ahead of Jaeger in the last 1000 for second in 27:56 with Jaeger third in 28:05. After third, the rain once again picked up in intensity and the ability to track runners through the finish was difficult at best. Runners were trying to write their names down on index cards, but between the cool temperatures and driving rain, most of the names were washed away.
We are hoping to get results later this week so we can give credit to all runners who braved the conditions.
