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Written by Bwana Bwana

December 4, 2014

It was cold and cloudy, but not too windy. So those who absolutely can’t stand to run inside - Torrie Raisch, Meira Minard, and Seth the Pool Boy, stayed on the outdoor track while Tom Cali, Judd Michael, Lance Bland, Randy Jepson, Mike Casper, Costas Maranas, Dana Todd, Michael Goldfine, Andrew Maguire, Mike Renz, Mike Martin, Rich Harter, David Lloyd, Sara Noss, and Marty Mazur headed indoors.

Everybody’s tapering. Some are tapering for one last big race, the Nittany Valley Half-Marathon, coming up on Sunday. And some are “between-tapering”: resting from their Philly performances while girding for the NV Half. And some are tapering off their year and aren’t even thinking about running. Maybe upping their Christmas Party training instead, downing some cold ones instead of hitting the cold pavement. But one of our old running friends, Beth Herndon, is pretty good at keeping up both sides of her training. Beth is a former Penn State grad student who ran for PSU in grad school during her last year of NCAA eligibility. She was also a member of the NVRC and excelled in our Indoor Mile Series (2012 champ), the Draft Challenge Relay (Two-time captain and 2nd place in 2009), and won numerous local races. She also participated in our unofficial Martha Miles, which were beer miles. What’s that you say? Run a mile broken into quarters, drinking a beer before starting each quarter. Well, Beth is the new Flotrack Women’s World Champion beer miler. On Wednesday, she dominated a strong field including the world record holder, and won by over 11, smashing the World Record on the way. Congratulations, Beth! Or shall we say, Cheers!

To help the taperers, and in honor of Beth’s record, Bwana gave a 4 X 400 workout. Runners were encouraged to hit the water fountain hard before each lap, and down a good 12 ounces of water to have some idea, by rep 4, of what Beth felt like nearing the end of her record run.