Back to Standard Time

I'm feeling groggy after a weekend of spectating, and even though we all gained an extra hour "falling back" to standard time, I feel like I'll need a lot more than that to process all the events of the last three days.

The MSTCA Coaches Meet was originally scheduled for Saturday but was pushed back a day to avoid the remnants of Hurricane Noel. Many teams ran JV teams or skipped the meet entirely to focus on preparations for the State qualifying meets on Nov 10. However, Carolyn Ranti represented Newton North, and ran a wonderful time of 18:43, finishing a close second in the Div I Jr/Sr race. Third in the race was Framingham's Camille Murphy in 19:52.

Another Bay Stater making a big statement was Brookline sophomore Brendan Grove, who won the Div I Boys Soph race in 16:53. In the girls Div I Soph race, Brookline's Mariana Liebman-Palaez finished third in 20:22. Weymouth's Christian Bianco was 10th in 21:06.

Thanks to all for the words of support for the "Fighting Chameleons" of Concord Academy. The CA boys won the EIL Championship meet on Friday afternoon at Franklin Park, relying on a terrific group of seniors and great depth. Although CA's top runner, David Wilder, finished "only" 7th, CA took four of the next nine places to secure the low score. The CA girls team also finished well, despite losing two of its top runners to injury in recent weeks. In fact, just prior to the team competing, CA's #1 runner was having surgery to address a long-standing knee issue. CA's final race is the NEPSTA Div III Championships on Saturday, Nov 10. Unfortunately, this means I won't be able to watch the EMass Championships at Franklin Park.

My co-coach at Concord, Karina Johnson headed down to NYC after the EIL meet, and ran the NYC Marathon on Sunday. Karina, who competes for the New Balance racing team, recorded a personal best 2:56:22, and finished as 42nd woman in the race. Congratulations, Karina!

NNHS alumnus Tom Burkly also ran New York to raise funds for Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation. Tom completed the race in 4:00:55, running slightly negative splits. Congratulations, Tom!

And speaking of Lance Armstrong, he seems to have learned a lot from his marathon debut last year, in which he suffered but managed to sneak in just under three hours. It appears he trained harder for yesterday's race, and after running conservatively for the first 10K, picked up the pace on his way to a 2:46:43 finish (6:21 pace).