2008 Report

Sunday, October 19th was a perfect day for just about anything. For a special treat, the first couple of blocks of the 50k were closed to traffic because of a local 5K run starting a half hour later. While we briefly considered changing the course, the DC police and the 5k organizers were very accommodating, so we stuck with the original plan.

As has become tradition at the PH50K, bonus points were awarded for completion of various tasks. These tasks included consumption of doughnuts, anchovies, and spam, naming countries in a bizarre geography game, hula hooping, and other unreported tasks. This year bonus points were also awarded for various other things including volunteering in addition to running, getting very lost, but still going the distance, and giving me gifts!

Justin Faul scored a record number of bonus points, 43, for being extremely good at the aid station tasks. He also ran fast enough so that he almost took the overall win. However, Keith Knipling prevailed in a course record 4:32 running time, overtaking Justine Morrison’s previous course record of 4:33. With 5 bonus points for some pre-run volunteering, Keith easily took the win, Justine came in as first woman.

Additionally, there were so many people who got lost before the first aid station that it was impossible to keep track of them. By the time these lost folks reached aid station one, the usual back of the pack folks were long gone. David Snipes was the first of the “lost pack” to arrive at aid station one and was uncertain as to whether the others would ever make it back. Alan Gowen, Bob Combs, Chris Meanor, and Laurie Reinhart were among those who were believed lost forever until they showed up just before aid station one had packed up. Voted “most lost” by the returning runners, was Susan Baehre, who made it back with little knowledge of where she had been and how she had gotten there. Caroline Williams and Kirk Jansen took a tour through the streets of Georgetown before finally returning late in the day.

Big huge thanks to these folks who really made the day great for everyone!

• Aid Station Workers:—Special thanks to Amy Platt, Mike Priddy, Wendy Fite, and Jaret Seiberg, who have come back year after year to manage their aid stations. Thanks also to Dave Pinnick, Tim Foley, Challen Edwards, Vicki Kendall, Jonathan Snow, David Gaudette, Jim Cavanaugh, Mike Bailey, Ted Lapkoff, Gary Knipling, Bob Phillips, and Jeff Reed.
• Grill masters/food preparers/cleanup: Todd Burns, Joe Calhoun
• Pre-run—Mike Bur, and Kirstin Corris for their help with shopping for the consumables.
• Marking:- Wendy Fite and Sean Andrish

Photos

Photos by Mike Bailey and Charlie Miracle.

Other reports

Report by Bobby Gill on his blog.

Results

The results omit those whose distances are entirely unknown and those who only showed up for the party. There were plenty in both categories. Sorry to those I’ve missed.