Ok, I know this isn't really someone I know. But, I still find this race result pretty amazing. Alex Vanias ran a 49:58 15k on July 12th in Traverse City, Michigan, winning the race. I was in this race as well. The course was flat with the exception of a 1 mile hill from mile 4 to 5. This hill was a killer and the humidity conditions were excessive (this comes from someone who lives in St Louis during the summer and had to ditch my singlet at the top of the hill -- for more on this hill and the weather you can see my report --
http://dandy.fastrunningblog.com/blog-07-12-2008.html ). This time isn't significant in a general way. Given the course and conditions this is a solid run in a race that generally draws a few thousand people. Don't know how this compares to the course record, but the fact that Alex is only 17 years old puts this in a whole new light. Alex just graduated from Pine River High School. Put into perspective, Alex's PR for cross country was set at his state meet in November with a time of 15:57 (5:19s) for 5K. His 5:22 pace for a 15k is quite impressive for a 17 year old.
Race results can be viewed at
http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=66339
