Distance: ~12 miles
I was back to the marathon expo for the second day after spending the night in lovely Waynesboro. The marathon and half marathons started at 6:30 am which had me pondering the idea of competing, but opted against it in hopes of getting in a good run with Max Smith who was in attendance for Puma. I know Max Smith from my days up in Providence. I'm not sure if we raced each other much as I'm sure he was busy getting ready for bigger competitions. But, the year after I graduated Max put together an amazing campaign and toured Europe the summer of 2007. Check out this gem of a mile he got to compete in where he finishes second (he's the blonde dude in a white Providence College singlet and black shorts):
Watch more video of Atletiek Vlaanderen on flotrack.org
Our run this morning took us through campus and over to the trails that I saw on Thursday. They didn't really go anywhere so we hopped back on a small bike path to discover a dirt road. The dirt road took us to the Rivanna Trail System that runs all the way around Charlottesville. At one point we had to run through a "panda preserve" as Max called it and cross a creek. The bamboo and water made for crappy footing but the trail was soft and scenic. It was great catching up with Max as he has some good insight on the running industry after working for a big company like Puma. I also enjoyed hearing about his comeback after a 3 year battle with an achilles injury. He might be running the Penn Relays in a couple of weeks.
We returned to the expo with some time to spare before having to break down. Eventually we said our goodbyes to Keith Dowling who was in attendance on behalf of Reebok. Keith is friends with my buddy Keith Kelly who also works for Uncle Reebok. I got to hear a little about Dowling's training and when he was the top American finisher at Boston with a 2:13:28 performance. If you have a moment click on the link to listen to how and why Keith stepped away from the sport.
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