PB&J
Results

Thank you all for joining us at the 3rd annual PB&J 50K, held on Saturday October 1, 2016. Special thanks to the volunteers who braved all the morning rain to make this event possible: Susan Gardner, Jesse Fuller, Jared Byrd, Tom DiLazaro, Brett Martin, Deb Cawthorn, Dave Woll, Bernadette Kilcer, Amy Zbikowski, Phyllis Tsang. Angela Russell, Rick Amernick & Brandon Hostetter.

At the front of the men's field, it was a four-way race between Peter Diak, Michael Roberts, Dave Herring and Justin Contois. This was Justin's first race in over two years. Justin pulled away on the second loop by achieving an almost unheard-of negative split in this two-loop race, finishing in 4:36. Peter Diak held on for second place overall, with a time of 4:58 for this 32 mile race; Peter was the first VHTRC finisher. Michael Roberts was third in 5 hours flat, and Dave Herring took fourth overall and second finisher among the VHTRC members in the field, with a time of 5:07.

In the women's field, Lara Zoeller led wire-to-wire with a time of 5:48 and secured 6th place overall. Suzie Spangler built on last year's strong PB&J performance with a 2nd place finish in 6:12, edging out 3rd place finisher Michele Vaughan by just two minutes.

Speaking of negative splits, in addition to Justin Contois 2:19/2:17 loops, fifth overall finisher Jim Smucker also achieved this rare feat, running his second loop five minutes faster than his first to finish with a time of 5:35. Carol Cohen ran dead-even splits between the 1st and 2nd loops (this, despite getting off to her now customary late race start).

With all the rain, the overall finishing rate was a low 53%. The DNS rate was rather high for a VHTRC Fat Ass event, as 16 runners still on the entrants list on race morning failed to make it to the start line. This likely was a result of the rainy race week, and the bands of rain that swept through the Northern Virginia area on race morning. The trails had drained well prior to race day, however. Many runners commented on how good the race conditions turned out to be despite the occasional showers and the mist that otherwise persisted for several hours during the day. Temperatures stayed in the mid to low 60s throughout the day, and the early humidity cleared out with the rain as the day progressed.

The results are posted below. Please let us know if your times are not right -- some of the timesheets got fairly waterlogged. Thanks again to all of the volunteers and to the runners for making the 2016 race a great day, and a big Thank You to the VHTRC for sponsoring the race, and to Prince William Forest Park for their support. Hope to see everyone back again next October for the 4th running of the PB&J! Happy Trails!

Race Photos by Chris McIntosh