Karen Gardner

Most runners in Frederick Running Festival seemed happy

Originally published May 11, 2008

The 2008 Frederick Running Festival, featuring the Frederick Marathon and Half-Marathon, is history. Nearly 4,000 of the registered 5,000 runners ran, and most seemed happy with their experience, according to various on-line blogs.

The marathon, with its steep hills in the last third of the race, still brought about some fast finishing times. The top man, Brian Baillie, of Washington, finished in 2 hours, 34 minutes, 48 seconds. The top female, Melissa Tanner, of Bethesda, finished in 2:56:14, two minutes faster than her second-place finish in Frederick in 2006.

Still, the hills took their toll, at least on Frederick's top male finisher, Jay Silvio, 38, of Frederick, who was second overall. Felicia Gudat, Frederick's top female finisher, actually enjoyed the trip through Spring Ridge, her home turf. Gudat was fifth woman finisher and 24th overall of 929 marathon finishers.

Silvio said his time of 2:41:46 was much better than expected. Silvio, a high school science teacher at a special school in Montgomery County and the father of two daughters, began running again two years ago after a 10-year hiatus.

"I was hoping to place in my age group," Silvio said. "I did not think I'd be second overall."

Silvio led for the first part of the race, spurred on by the cheers of family and friends as he ran through downtown Frederick. He was running his first marathon in 20 years, and he never knew the finishing time of that last marathon. Just before last year's Frederick Marathon, Silvio decided to train for the 2008 race.

He was enjoying his return to running, having lost weight and having seen a significant drop in his cholesterol level. Slowly, he began adding miles to his training. He joined the Frederick Steeplechasers, and began running in local races.

To train for the marathon, he ran on his lunch break at school and did long runs of 16-22 miles with the Steeplechasers on weekends. Sunday evenings, he'd cross train by pedaling his bike on a bike trainer. He overcame a foot injury last summer.

He felt good through the first 16 miles of the race. When he reached the hill at Md. 144, his early fast pace began to haunt him. "My quads started to burn," he said. Still, he held on for his second place finish. "It's a challenging course, but you don't run marathons because they're easy," he said.

He praised the race organization, saying "Corrigan Sports did an amazing job." He plans to run the Baltimore Marathon in October "hoping to improve my time from Frederick." He also plans to try ultra races in 2009, specifically the Hat Run, a 50K, and the JFK 50 Mile, if everything works out. He also hopes to be back on the Frederick course for the 2009 marathon.

He expects to be back out for local road races by the end of May, participating in Steeplechaser Grand Prix events.

Silvio also did some fundraising for the Religious Coalition for Emergency Needs, which is still ongoing. Information about that is at http://marathonguide.com/jaysilvio.

Felicia Gudat improved her best marathon time by 20 minutes in Sunday's race to be the top local woman finisher. Gudat, 37, finished in 3:16:13. Gudat, a mother of two, had been injured last year and cut back to two days a week of running. Last fall, she ran very little. She ran the Marine Corps Marathon with no training. She accompanied members of her running group, running what she described as a nice, slow pace.

After the Marine Corps Marathon, she decided to return to marathon training with the goal to run better than a 3:30. She increased her training to six days a week, running 7-10 miles on five of those days, and long runs on the sixth day at goal marathon pace.

"My thinking was it's too hard to overcome pace and distance," she said. She also added in an hour of core work and jump roping several days a week. She has become a jump rope advocate, and teaches a class in jump roping at the Frederick YMCA, where she is a fitness floor supervisor.

"It gets different muscle groups," she said. "It trains you anaerobically. You go fast for three minutes, and then ease up, and then fast again. It's a different way of breathing."

She also added in core strengthening exercises, working her abdominal and back muscles. "I don't do a whole lot of weightlifting; a little light weights, and I use the rowing machine," she said.

She attended a training seminar on jump roping. "It's a fun cardio workout, something I can do with my daughter," she said. "It ended up paying off in spades."

She included interval and tempo runs, and alternated those with easy runs. She also changed another part of her training. "I stopped stretching," she said. "I think it made a world of difference. I used to overstretch."

During the race, she walked through each water stop. "In my mind, I'm running to the next water stop, so I'm thinking I only have another two miles each time," she said.

When she got to Spring Ridge, miles 18 through 22, she said the hilly sections didn't bother her. "I felt an immense amount of energy," she said. "It helped to have faces I know. I ran into someone's bathroom on the course. I knew where it was. I ran by my house."

She liked the race's hills. "I think flat wears you out more than hills," she said. She plans to run in Steeplechaser Grand Prix events, and run the Baltimore Marathon in October.

The marathon is likely to be much the same next year. Rachel Ridgway, race director, said comments on the race and course have been running mostly positive. Race officials plan better signs and advance directions to help address pre-race traffic problems. One problem, an accident on I-70 as runners were headed to the start line, couldn't be helped.

Ridgway said race organizers will also use better signs to point runners to the bathrooms at the fairgrounds before the race. Most runners were happy with the course, and next year's race will likely follow the same path.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display_comments_columnist.htm?storyid=74887&section=kGardner&&refresh={ts%20'2008-05-11%2007:17:50'}#postComment

ps - The email address listed for my fundraising was incomplete.  If you would like to make a donation to the Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs In Frederick County, the full address is: http://fundraising.marathonguide.com/jaysilvio