JTV Running Group

The Knoxville Marathon had most of the elements to challenge all of the runners to test their limits. You'd think the hilly course would be what everyone was talking about that day, rather it was the blistery start with wind gusts up to 22mph. Noelton hill looked like a breeze from what I saw on the run. It seemed as the runners were glad to be within tree cover.

The JTV running alumni set out to reach their individual goals of completing a 1st marathon, setting new PRs, leading a pace group, running a good race, volunterring and making a comeback from injuries.

Travis Honeycutt successfully completed his 1st marathon in 5:08:29 with some added support from Radu Stoica who said this about it, "Having a 3 minute PR while injured - $67, watching Travis's glorious suffering at the end of his 1st full marathon - PRICELESS! :)". Travis worked really hard these past few months by training countless miles and sacrificing time to meet his goal. There is more to say about it, but all I can say is we're proud of you Travis!

Brad Adams set a 30 second PR in the half marathon with a 1:21:40 time, he finished in the top 20. He was also featured in the KnoxFocus publication that you can read at http://www.knoxfocus.com/pdfarchive/wk1.pdf. Let's not forget about his brother Bob Adams who was also listed on the half marathon elites list finished a fast half in 1:16:49, that's 5:52 minute miles and a top 15 finish! The Adams brothers will be running the Boston Marathon this coming week.

Robin Auerbach just seems to run every race in the Knoxville area. That's why she's been labeled the "Human Metronome" by Knoxville Marathon pacing team coordinator Nicole Howe. This was Robin's second year to pace the 5:00 group, she even passed the 4:45 pacer. She help runners achieve their goals by leading them to a 4:57:26 marathon. I'm sure she was all smiles as usual! Her next race will be the Flying Pig in Cincinnati where she ran an official ultra last year with running friend Wayne Lambert.

Wayne decided not to run the race this year in hopes to be 100% for the Flying Pig, but he did volunteer at the Expo and answer running questions by edger first timers. Good luck at the PIG Wayne.

Radu Stoica the human training cog seems to find time to train with his busy work schedule, budding family and recent injury. Radu set a 3 minute PR in the half marathon with a 2:07:52 time. From what I hear he rather enjoyed watching "watching Travis's glorious suffering at the end of his 1st full marathon - PRICELESS! :)". Radu is continually running, biking, swimming and motivating runners like myself. He'll probably run another Ultra or something, just as a training run you know. ;)

Ramesh Balasubramania decided to run a half marathon on a whim, he received invaluable advice from his running friends Shahin Hadian and Radu Stoica. He finished the half marathon in 2:16:11 and finished within the first 100 of his age category. Congratulations Ramesh and keep up the running!

This ends my short recap and I'm sure I left off valuable information and details, I hope I represented all of the runners accomplishments.

Safe travels.