The 2023 Winter Series, only a bit shorter than the NHL season, has finally come to a conclusion. Lots of great performances at this race and throughout the gambit of weather that S^3 runners encountered.
Winter Series IV:
Short Course 10k:
BJ Karlik zipped along the course securing 3rd place on this day, with his family watching. BJ knocked out a 41:29 over the 10k course (not that short if you ask me) which was rerouted to go north instead of venturing to the scruffier southern Sante Fe trail. There were whispers that front runners may have taken an alternate route, but later revealed that no advantage was gained. We hope that BJ can learn to cheat in a more advantageous fashion by the end of this season. In the overall series awards, BJ placed 2nd overall and 1st his age group! Way to rep the Striders.
Melissa Stepanowich slid under the 50 min barrier with a 49:56, good enough for 3rd overall on the day. Melissa identified no cheating, but maybe that's the key (take notes BJ). Melissa skated off with a 1st place in her age group series award, just shy of the overall podium I believe. Melissa is all set to gear up for what can only be described as a severe race schedule this summer.
Amy McDonagh knocked out a 1:00:16 time but will obviously credit the 60 min timestamp to her semi reluctant children, who ran down the finish straight and even ghosted her in the last 20 yds. Taking home the top honors in the Athena division, Amy credits the winter of creatine and power lifting. Amy might go climb a mountain in a foreign country next, who knows.
Long Course 20km:
Vitaly Stepanov had a 12~ mi battle with the overall winner placing 2nd on this day with a 1:13:40. Vitaly potentially the most photogenic member of the team behind Felix Stepanowich, managed to sneak in some races while his son Robert collects statewide running hardware. Vitaly held on for 2nd overall in the series standings 3 min back from top honors, which is pretty close if you add it all up.
Other racing (aka Adam Rich podium count):
Spring Runoff 5k: Adam Rich 1st (well yeah), in 16:34. Adam credited his time (negatively) to near hurricane force winds in his face for an extended period of the race.
Runnin of the Green 7k (Denver): Adam Rich places 6th in a time of 22:47, amongst stiff competition including Olympians. Who knows if this is a great time, isn't the metric system supposed to be all 5's and 0's? We assume this was a great placing Adam.
St Patrick's Day 5k (Colorado Springs): apparently the course was tremendously short and results near worthless. If you ran this congrats on getting to run on closed downtown streets.
