But in Portland, coming in as the #1 team in the country, they ran into tradition and the very fast, very talented boys of York, Illinois. That day, after finishing 2nd, the Fayetteville-Manlius guys accepted their 2nd place awards with class. They weren't happy.
But they accepted the cheers. They did every interview. With two seasons and a summer between that muddy December race and the promise offered by a new season, Aris hasn't changed his opinion on what occurred. "We did not run as well at NTN as we did at Feds. I'm not saying York wouldn't have won, but we would have liked to have represented ourselves, rather than have an off day. We know we were better than we ran. And yes, York deserved to win."
That was then, and this is now.
It was back to open voluntary runs three days a week this summer.
There were a few weekend mini-camps. And of course, a return to Stotan Week (see Meet the new 'stotans' ), a week of team- building, reflection, focus, and running. Because of conflicting schedules, not every member of the team made the week. But the top four returning from last year – Tom Gruenewald, now a junior, and seniors Owen Kimple, John Heron, and Andy McCann, were there. The group trained in town, and then used the Tromptown Half Marathon on August 11th as a litmus test to see what their training had produced.
This was actually Litmus Test #2. At Litmus Test #1, the Utiica Boilermaker 15K on July 9th, Owen Kimple had run 52:56, about a 5:40 per mile average. They didn't race the half marathon, but used it as a training run, taking four of the top five places (with grad Burdick winning, and taking the other spot.
As Aris explained to TullyRunners.com, "the 1/2 marathon was nothing more than a strong training run for ALL FM'ers. That was their instruction from me, and that's what they did. Each could have run faster if I let them, but that would have been pointless at this time. In Lydiard vernacular, it was between 1/2 effort and 3/4 effort for all; in Daniels terminology the run for each was between marathon pace and tempo pace effort. Nothing more than a verification (to
ourselves) of the effect of our summer base work thus far."
In fan language, Aris translated: "Guys were talking through most of the race."
Then it was off to their favorite training ground in the mountains for a few days of Stotan fine-tuning.
What's more, if pre-litmus tests are any indication, the Fayetteville- Manlius Distance Medley team ran 10:14.1 in April, and Kimple went
9:14.05 for 3200 meters at the NY state meet.
And now the journey to try to return to the form of 2004.
This season, FM raced first at the South Jefferson Invitational September 17th, site of their Section 3 meet. The FM boys went
1-3-5-6-7 for 22 points. Owen Kimple won in muddy conditions in 16:39 with a 58-second compression. They will train through the 24th, and then follow the plan that worked in 2004, race at the McQuaid Invitational on October 1, followed by the Manhattan Invitational on the 8th. Then it's back to training before leagues and sections October 29th and November 5th, followed by States and Feds.
So what is Aris' strategy for this team for this season?
"We will rely on front four running significally faster."
All results from TullyRunners.com
2004 Manhattan Invitational
1 Tom Gruenewald Fayetteville-Manlius 12:41.9
2 Owen Kimple Fayetteville-Manlius 12:48.4
3 Jarred Burdick Fayetteville-Manlius 12:49.5
4 John Heron Fayetteville-Manlius 12:50.7
5 Andy McCann Fayetteville-Manlius 12:53.2
27 Jeoff King Fayetteville-Manlius 13:47.0
83 Bayes Fayetteville-Manlius 14:47.4
2004 NY Federation Championships
1. 34 Fayetteville-Manlius (16:15.2 81:15.6)
=============================================
1 3 Tom Gruenewald SO 16:09.5 6
2 4 Andrew McCann JR 16:12.8 7
3 8 Owen Kimple JR 16:16.8 14
4 9 John Heron JR 16:17.7 15
5 10 Jared Burdick SR 16:18.8 16
6 ( 44) Danny Marnell JR 17:14.6
7 ( 72) Geoff King SO 17:32.4
2004 NY State Championships
------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 3 7 315 Jared Burdick-12 Fayetteville Manlius 16:11.1
8 4 8 317 Owen Kimple-11 Fayetteville Manlius 16:14.9
13 6 13 318 John Heron-11 Fayetteville Manlius 16:23.8
15 7 15 319 Tom Gruenewald-10 Fayetteville Manlius 16:26.9
23 12 23 316 Andrew McCann-11 Fayetteville Manlius 16:38.3
51 28 51 321 Geoff King-10 Fayetteville Manlius 17:13.8
52 29 52 320 Danny Marnell-11 Fayetteville Manlius 17:14.4
August 11, 2005 Tromptown Half Marathon
Place Name Age S Half Pace
===== =================== === = ==================== ======= =====
1 JARED BURDICK 18 M FM - grad 1:14:53 5:43
2 OWEN KIMPLE 17 M FM 1:15:15 5:45
3 TOMMY GRUENWALD 16 M FM 1:15:42 5:47
4 JOHN HERON 17 M FM 1:17:24 5:55
6 ANDREW MCCANN 17 M FM 1:18:38 6:01
9 ROBIN WHEELESS 45 M Westhill coach 1:22:17 6:17
10 GEOFF KING 16 M FM 1:22:36 6:19
11 DANNY MARNELL 17 M FM 1:23:36 6:23
13 KRIS BARNES 15 M FM 1:25:23 6:32
17 BEN KIMPLE 15 M FM 1:26:51 6:38
18 ANDREW SARGRAD 15 M FM 1:27:36 6:42
24 DAVID RICCARDI 17 M Westhill 1:29:32 6:51
26 GREG PALLOTTA 16 M Westhill 1:30:15 6:54
�
|