Tri State
39 hours before Chicago Marathon, waiting game begins for locals
Hawkins hopes “it all comes together” Sunday morning
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
CHICAGO, Oct. 9 – Five area runners will join 44,995 others at the starting line Sunday morning of the 32nd annual Chicago Marathon.
Some 39 hours before the 8:30 a.m. (EST) start time, Frostburg residents Jaron Hawkins, Daniel DeWitt, Jeremy Rice, Tim Smith and Ridgeley, W.Va., resident Woody Snoberger hope the thousands of hours and hundreds of miles will pay off. They arrived in Chicago Friday afternoon and at about 5 p.m. were headed to the expansive two-day runner’s expo inside the McCormick Place Convention Center on South Martin Luther King Drive.
Hawkins hopes “it all comes together” Sunday morning
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
CHICAGO, Oct. 9 – Five area runners will join 44,995 others at the starting line Sunday morning of the 32nd annual Chicago Marathon.
Some 39 hours before the 8:30 a.m. (EST) start time, Frostburg residents Jaron Hawkins, Daniel DeWitt, Jeremy Rice, Tim Smith and Ridgeley, W.Va., resident Woody Snoberger hope the thousands of hours and hundreds of miles will pay off. They arrived in Chicago Friday afternoon and at about 5 p.m. were headed to the expansive two-day runner’s expo inside the McCormick Place Convention Center on South Martin Luther King Drive.
Thoughts, meanwhile, turned to Sunday’s plan to traverse 26.2 miles. Hawkins, 26, hopes to lower his personal best at the distance, which currently stands at 2 hours 25 minutes and 19 seconds set a year ago this month in the 2008 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C.
“I’d be really, really happy with anything under 2:30,” Hawkins said. “I mean, I’d be happy with that. I’d be really happy if I could run what I have before. I feel like if I had a really good day (and) everything went right, Dan and I couldu be low 2:20s (2:20 to 2:22:59). I think we both have that capability. It’s just a matter of if it all comes together.”
“I’d be really, really happy with anything under 2:30,” Hawkins said. “I mean, I’d be happy with that. I’d be really happy if I could run what I have before. I feel like if I had a really good day (and) everything went right, Dan and I couldu be low 2:20s (2:20 to 2:22:59). I think we both have that capability. It’s just a matter of if it all comes together.”
Hawkins has completed a handful of marathons. DeWitt, 21, graduated Lehigh (Pa.) University this spring. It will be his first attempt at the marathon distance but he said the transition has been seamless – so far.
“It was easy fo rme to keep running right after college,” DeWitt said. “It was easier to continue that mentality. It’s the group I run with all the time … it was nice not to have to worry about trying to match” their marathon training with his collegiate training.
In 2008, Hawkins placed third in the Marine Corps Marathon. He ran faster last fall but fell to fourth place. He has no illusions of winning Chicago – he’ll likely have about 5K or more to go when the winner crosses the finish line – but he does have a dream of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. The standard is 2:19, a more difficult barrier to reach than the previous “B” standard of 2:22.
Hawkins called reaching 2:19 on Sunday “a stretch.”
“2:19 really drops it down there,” he said. “That takes a 5:25 mile (pace) to a 5:18 mile. So, honestly, I’d be really happy if I could hit the old standard. I would have to have an unbelievable race. It’s above what I think I’m capable of doing. I feel like I can train at the level to do that … it just will take a lot of steps.”
“The window for (qualifying for) the Olympic Trials is open,” he said. “With that, not only are we thinking about qualifying, there’s another 100 guys thinking about it.”
Hawkins said the last half of recent marathons, in Boston and Washington D.C., he’s been alone much of the time. He doesn’t expect the same to happen on Sunday in Chicago. And it could be DeWitt he sees most.
Hawkins said he and DeWitt plan to “stay together as long as we can. We made the decision to try to latch on to a group and stay with each other as long as possible. IF we knew one of us was feeling it and one of us wasn’t, (we will) just tell the other to go ahead. We’ll cut our ties if we have to.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I can’t get to where I wan to get without being able to feed off him,” DeWitt said of Hawkins. “I think that’s true to a certain point for him as well. We’re both pretty competitive with each other.”
Both runners said training together has gone well and could pay off. As for predictions?
Said DeWitt: “I know what shape I think I’m in. How that translates into the race, I don’t know.”
For more information and to sign up for runner tracking to your wireless device, log on to www.chicagomarathon.com.
Email Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.
“It was easy fo rme to keep running right after college,” DeWitt said. “It was easier to continue that mentality. It’s the group I run with all the time … it was nice not to have to worry about trying to match” their marathon training with his collegiate training.
In 2008, Hawkins placed third in the Marine Corps Marathon. He ran faster last fall but fell to fourth place. He has no illusions of winning Chicago – he’ll likely have about 5K or more to go when the winner crosses the finish line – but he does have a dream of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. The standard is 2:19, a more difficult barrier to reach than the previous “B” standard of 2:22.
Hawkins called reaching 2:19 on Sunday “a stretch.”
“2:19 really drops it down there,” he said. “That takes a 5:25 mile (pace) to a 5:18 mile. So, honestly, I’d be really happy if I could hit the old standard. I would have to have an unbelievable race. It’s above what I think I’m capable of doing. I feel like I can train at the level to do that … it just will take a lot of steps.”
“The window for (qualifying for) the Olympic Trials is open,” he said. “With that, not only are we thinking about qualifying, there’s another 100 guys thinking about it.”
Hawkins said the last half of recent marathons, in Boston and Washington D.C., he’s been alone much of the time. He doesn’t expect the same to happen on Sunday in Chicago. And it could be DeWitt he sees most.
Hawkins said he and DeWitt plan to “stay together as long as we can. We made the decision to try to latch on to a group and stay with each other as long as possible. IF we knew one of us was feeling it and one of us wasn’t, (we will) just tell the other to go ahead. We’ll cut our ties if we have to.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I can’t get to where I wan to get without being able to feed off him,” DeWitt said of Hawkins. “I think that’s true to a certain point for him as well. We’re both pretty competitive with each other.”
Both runners said training together has gone well and could pay off. As for predictions?
Said DeWitt: “I know what shape I think I’m in. How that translates into the race, I don’t know.”
For more information and to sign up for runner tracking to your wireless device, log on to www.chicagomarathon.com.
Email Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.