A great deal of action this weekend…

TL;DR - Lapp with solid racing in a road mile; Gragg crushes the 10,000m; Raneri & Latter go 13.1 in Brevard; Armstrong hits 52-low for 10 miles; Williams gets in a BQ marathon

On Friday, Javan Lapp travelled to his old stomping ground in Cincinnati, where he earned his law degree, for his third go at the Little Kings Road Mile. Each successive year has brought a more competitive field and some great mano-a-mano tactical racing through downtown Cincinnati. For the second year in a row, sub-4:00 miler Jake Edwards earned the win after making a strong move with 400m to go that broke up the tight lead pack. Javan ran strong after the move and made a late bid for 3rd, but ran out of room and had to settle for 4th place.

Javan chasing down 3rd place in Cincinnati

Also on Friday, Justin Gragg donned his Mars Hill University singlet for the last time at the Hillsdale College Gina Relays up in Michigan. This meet has been kind to Justin in the past - it is where he ran his 5000m personal best last season. This year, he kept his Hillsdale PR streak alive by popping off a huge one-minute-plus personal best in the 10,000m (and Mars Hill University school record) of 30:00.13. This was sweet redemption for Gragg, who struggled with a few ill-timed injury and illness setbacks in his spring campaign. We are really excited to see him take his talents to the roads in the coming months. Also, shout-out to Justin’s Mars Hill teammate, Alex Griggs, who finished just 3 seconds back in 30:03, as well as ARC’s Blue Ridge Relay teammate Harry Dixon for his 2nd-place finish and personal best of 29:35. Great racing all around.

On Saturday, John Raneri and Phil Latter represented the ARC at a new half marathon in Brevard, the Legacy Run. A nice prize purse brought out a competitive field and some strong racing. After an unexpectedly quick start (sub-5:00 pace through 2 miles), Raneri was able to settle into a groove and grab the W in 1:08. Phil also had a decent showing on his home-town course. He crossed the line 4th in 1:14.

On Sunday, Chass Armstrong lined up for the Broad Street Run 10 miler up in Philly. Recently, he has strung together a series of solid races. This was no different as he finished 17th in 52:15. Shout-out to his close friend David Fuentes, who placed 3rd in 49:28.

Chass and David - Boerne HS (TX) represent!

The final result in a packed weekend for the Collective was Scott Williams’ 2:49:10 at the Eugene Marathon. This was another controlled long effort in his build-up to a 100k later this spring.