Schedule
Results
Griffin's Column
Newsletter
Membership
Race Directors
D. Herlocker
Baltimore-
Washington
Athletic Club
News
Links
Weisenborn gets recognition she deserves
By: Kevin Spradlin
FOUNTAINHEAD REGIONAL PARK, Va. -- Westminster Road Runners Club web master and club half-marathon director Beth Weisenborn rarely gets the recognition she deserves.
After all, most of her contributions take place behind the scenes. Other than the awards ceremony at the annual Main Street Mile, little is known about the Gettysburg, Pa. resident's complete contributions to the club and local running community.
Weisenborn, 33, got all the recognition she needed, perhaps, on Saturday when her training paid off and she earned a top-20 finish in the 16th annual Virginia Happy Trails Running Club Women's Half-Marathon trail run at Fountainhead Regional Park. It was hot and humid over the challenging 13.1-mile course but Weisenborn managed her way to the finish line in 2 hours, 7 minutes and 52 seconds, a pace of 9:45.6 per mile. The time was good for 18th place overall among 195 finishers and ninth in the 30-39 age division.
"I ran a strong trail half," Weisenbern said in an e-mail and added of her unusual front-of-the-pack finish, it "was totally unlike me."
"It felt nice, though," she said.
Weisenborn also was the second Pennsylvania runner to stop the clock. Kari Brown, 34, of Bedford, finished seventh overall in 1:59:43. Weisenborn has little time to rest as she enters the final week of preparation before the Bachman Valley Half-Marathon in Westminster on Sunday, Sept. 21. Though in its 26th year, 2008 is the first year in which the two-loop road race will be dedicated to the memory of the late Dave Herlocker, a WRRC co-founder and longtime advocate of the regional running community. Click here for more information - http://tristaterunnur.com/article9.html.
Competitors should have more runner-friendly weather to look forward to compared to this weekend, where temperatures topped out in the high 80s but the heat index tipped the scale to about 93 degrees. On Sept. 21, The Weather Channel's seven-day outlook calls for a high of 79, partly cloudy and humidity level of about 55 percent.
Complete VHTRC women's trail half-marathon results can be found online at www.vhtrc.org/half/2008/res08.htm