Team Blitz Invitational 3000 Meter Race Report

By Billy Bylund, November 18, 2004

After much debate over start-time, and whether to run with the team or not, Team Blitz made a very respectable showing Thursday afternoon.  

Running with the WM team certainly altered the race dynamics, and all of Blitz went out under 70 seconds for the first 400.  Trevor Cable and Bert Jacoby took an early lead, and continued to work together throughout the 3000 meters to finish a very strong 8:47 and 8:51, respectively.  Chris Healy, after running a stellar 2:55 marathon on Saturday, led the majority of Blitz for the first 1200.  Brian Doherty held a few meters on most of the Blitz pack which comprised of Beiter, Miller, McGinnis, and Bylund for the first mile.  

During the last mile, the pack broke up, but all the Blitzers ran a solid race. Bylund started to gain on Doherty until the last 200 meters, when Doherty was able to seize an opportunity to beat another WM runner and finished in 9:14.  Without Doherty's leg-speed, Bylund continued at the same pace to finish in 9:18.  Miller and Beiter worked together, running 9:24 and 9:25 respectively.  McGuinnes finished with a respectable 9:35 time.  

For several Blitzers, this was a breakthrough race.  Beiter, after taking off the entire summer, firmly refused to follow the "dropped beiter" stereotype.  Both Bylund and Beiter posted their best 3ks since high school.  Cable also managed an impressive feat, running about as fast as the year before.  Perhaps the most impressive was Jacoby, posting a 50 second PR.  

In general, Blitz runners were excited to test their current fitness, but look forward to even stronger performances in the near future.