Chicago and Long Beach Wrap Up
By Liz Anjos
On what is known as one of the most competitive weekends in fall US road racing, Rose City Track Club took the Chicago and Long Beach Marathon by storm, with six RCTC members toeing the line at their respective events.
Chicago Marathon
Clear skies and a cool 56 degree temperature boded well for Shauna Dool, Fionna Fallon, Dominique Lopez-Stickney, and Alejandro Fallas, who all competed in the 40th annual Chicago Marathon Sunday morning.
Dool smashed her previous best of 3:19:25 from the 2016 Boston Marathon, finishing in Chicago with a time of 3:05:01. She said she had been running with the three hour pack until mile 21 when she rolled her ankle slightly, but is happy with the time. Of the event she wrote, “Amazing race in an amazing city.”
Lopez-Stickney’s hard work and preparation this season paid off as she ran at a smart, consistent pace and finished strong with a time of 3:18:31.
Fallon ran with guts and grit as she got out fast at the start and held on to finish well under the three hour mark at 2:57:53.
Fallas displayed patience and precision with his race execution, running the first half of the race in 1:22:40 and second half in 1:21:49 for an impressive negative split. His plan paid off as he ran a personal record of 2:44:29. He wrote, “Thanks Chicago for a great race and a PR!”
Alejandro Fallas after nabbing a new PR in Chicago
Long Beach Marathon
Meanwhile in Long Beach, California, Jaime Musgrave and Angela Vinton set out to race in the Long Beach Marathon and Half Marathon, respectively.
Following a stellar season of training and racing, Musgrave had high hopes for Sunday morning. Unfortunately, stomach issues forced her to start walking at mile four and she made the tough call to drop out at mile six. She wrote, “Today was just not my day…I know I had a great training cycle and I know that I can meet my marathon goals. But today has been really hard and to struggle to run six miles was very humbling.”
After running a personal best of 2:02:00 at the Oregon Wine Country Half Marathon five weeks earlier, Vinton was determined to break the elusive two hour barrier at the Long Beach Half Marathon. She got out quickly from the start, cruising through 10K at 53:51 and clipping along at the same pace through mile 10. Even with an uphill portion thrown into the later miles, it was no match for Vinton’s determination as she absolutely crushed the two hour mark with a time of 1:58:26.
Next up, Ashley Meagher will be competing in the second edition of the Stumptown XC Series this Saturday.
We had a ton of fun live tweeting the races this past Sunday! For more updates on the fly, give us a follow on Twitter at @rosecitytrack.