PRTC Weekly: 06/03/2019 (Sub 4, RunFest, and More)
Time to Plog!
Philadelphia's Zero Waste & Litter Cabinet is again offering local community groups $0.50 for removal of any illicitly posted sign throughout the city (up to $250 or 500 signs). This means it's time for PRTC to get Plogging!
The plan is to cover Brewerytown, Loft District, South Philly, and West Philly. Qualifying signs for $0.50 returns include predatory "Cash 4 Houses" advertisements, old political campaign materials, and much more. The city is especially interested in groups collecting hard plastic and coroplast signs.
We did this event last year and it was a lot of fun. We'll plan to meet as a team for brunch afterwards. Collecting 500 signs should be easy and we can all get a few miles in during the process!
When: Saturday, June 15th at 9 am to 10 am
Starting Points: Fairmount (Led by Kevin at Pennock and Poplar), Center City (Lauren at City Hall), and West Philly (Chris at TBD)
Brunch: Will survey participants before selecting location!
Sign up here!
Race Results
Nashville, TN: PRTC put on a show at this year's Music City Distance Carnival. We anticipated leading our race report with RunFest or Scott Coffee, but two star performances from Nashville have our ringleaders eager to share big news from this circus!
Chris Hatler took the club into SUB 4 MINUTE MILE territory for the first time! He did it in the best possible fashion as he claimed the OVERALL WIN in the highly competitive Elite Men's City Auto Mile heat. His time of 3:58.52 was a lifetime PR and his first foray below the 59's. Congrats Chris! We're all very proud.
Fellow Penn alumni, Carey Celata, followed up Hatler's performance with a stellar race of her own as she made her club debut in the 1500m. Her stated goal was very fast. Run somewhere between 4:20 and 4:22. She did exactly that! Her 4:21.30 set a PRTC record and earned 4th in her heat. She landed at 27th in the wider field which included professionals like Emma Coburn and Corey McGee. Great race and welcome to the team, Carey!
Results
Chris Hatler: 3:58.52 (1st)
Carey Celata: 4:21.30 (27th)
Full results here.
Philadelphia, PA: The quickly emerging hometown Philly RunFest event was held in front of the Please Touch Museum in Fairmount Park on Sunday morning. Runners were greeted with fair weather (if a bit humid) and much local support.
The half marathon was the premier race of the day. The course billed as, "Philadelphia's most scenic half" lived up to its promise as runners passed the Smith Memorial, Mann Music Center, Japanese Teahouse, Laurel Hill Cemetery, and more. Participants were treated to a fast finish on MLK alongside the Schuylkill.
Matt Herzig recorded a strong sub 70 effort and captured the overall win. He was followed by Paul Matuszak who set a quick pace from the start. Joe Binder claimed 5th after working alongside Nate Ennist for much of the race. Nate, who was just visiting, entered the race after discovering he'd be in town for a conference. He placed 6th before returning to Seattle. Breandan Lyman and Cain Leathers were 10th and 11th respectively. They won bragging rights as first Philadelphia Runner employees to cross the line. Evan Skalski ran much of this one alone and still managed to turn in a quality time. This race caps off a great spring season for him. Ethan Hermann and Joe Foley ducked under 1:30 in service of their roles as 1:30 pace leaders. They turned in even 1:29:34's. Alex Tozzo rounded out the scoring for men on the day at 1:45:14.
Christy Cohick, Lauren Kelly, and Irene Kalbian claimed 5th, 6th, and 7th in what was essentially a dead tie at 1:36:14. It is unknown how Christy managed to get the lead on the group. We suspect a secret last minute lean. She, alongside Lauren, was hardly removed at all from their recent Vermont City Marathon effort. Meanwhile, Irene is getting back into training and provided quality selfies to all lucky enough to be around her.
Kieran Sutton won the festival's 5k race. He turned in a solid 15:31 and took advantage of favorable course dynamics including a fast downhill into the finish on MLK. Blair Biggins followed in Kieran's wake for 3rd at 17:18 while a trio of women from the team claimed first through third. Christine Ramsey was at the front of this pack as she dipped under 17:30 for the overall win. Christine Eisenberg was next for 2nd and Maura Ryan took third in her second race of the weekend (see West Chester recap!).
Post-race beer from Yard's Brewery and a wide array of outdoor games including ping pong after the race were enjoyed by all. Thanks to Philadelphia Runner for the entries! We'll see you next year!Maura Ryan highlighted PRTC results at this one as she overtook her own club record in the 800m. She bested her previous season fastest by several seconds and placed 7th. The new time to beat is 2:14.93!
Paul Matuszak was 2nd in his three person 1500m field. He ran a 4:03.79. Not quite a PR (which would have required sub 4), but nevertheless an impressive show of range after a very strong spring season.
Liz Barrett kept the fast times coming after her excellent Broad Street result. She took on the 5k where she met her goal of closing in on 17:30. She won the women's race which was combined with the men's for efficiencies sake. This meant she had to deal with the likes of Paul who made a spur of the moment decision to jump into the event. Paul did so only after realizing (from the parking lot) that he had time to run it when the announcers notified the crowd of the imminent start. He did well and held his own against overly ambitious high school athletes that set record pace for 6 laps before falling off. He won the race in 15:29 giving PRTC dual wins in the event.
Results
Maura Ryan: 2:14.93 (7th) 800m
Paul Matuszak: 4:03.79 (2nd) 1500m
Paul Matuszak: 15:29 (1st) 5k
Liz Barrett: 17:32 (1st) 5k
Full results here.
Simsbury CT: Max Krall headed back to his home state of Connecticut to run the UConn Health Half Marathon, dodging the PRTC competition at Philly Runfest and other weekend races. He ran 1:18:03 (PR) for 3rd place and $100. The weather was quite muggy, with humidity at 90% making it a very sweaty day. Post-race food was a banana, gluten free granola, and a grilled cheese sandwich. It was a quality 5/5 yellow banana with slight brown mottling, but the gluten free granola and grilled cheese both rated poorly at 2/5.
Results
Max Krall: 1:18:03 (3rd)
Full results here.
Bryn Mawr, PA: Harsha Thirumurthy finished 2nd in the Run for Our Schools 5k yesterday in Bryn Mawr. His time of 17:08 on the hilly course left him optimistic as he begins to get back in shape. He was happy to support the cause and it came with the bonus of appeasing his children who were clamoring to follow in their father's footsteps and take on the "Tot Trot."
