Two weeks have passed since my last blog update with a couple of my own races and nearly half a dozen high school track meets! The last week of April I traveled home for the Penn Relays 10,000m on the track. From the last blog post you can tell I was excited to race at Penn Relays again and see my former coach at Penn State as well as a bunch of former college teammates. I was feeling a little fatigued going into Penn and was staying positive trying to “fake it until I make it.” The race began in the pouring rain during a short hard rain shower, and after a 74 second first lap we started hitting around 71s/lap.
Photo taken near halfway in the 10,000m run at the Penn Relays. Check out PrettySporty.com for more pictures during the Penn Relays! Cheryl Treworgy does a fantastic job taking race photos!
Unfortunately, after running about 9:27 for the next 3200m, I bonked. It was ugly. It felt like a small relapse of the ‘lack of power’ I’ve felt before. After struggling through the next two miles, I was able to finish in an awful 30:33 for 10th place. Although this is an embarrassing race for me, I was proud of myself for fighting through and finishing. I learned a valuable lesson: I’m still not 100% recovered from the ‘over-training syndrome’ and when I go out too hard I can have blow-ups. Instead of the vision I had of competing well in front of family & friends, I had one of the worst races in my life. Before even cooling down I thought, “Hey, if I can be positive NOW, I can be positive during anything. This is a test of my character if I can accept this race, learn from it, and stay positive.” The positive: I blew up to a 30:33 and still got in a ‘good workout’ that I couldn’t have done at 5200ft here in Boulder.
Next came the bad – muscle soreness. My legs certainly didn’t remember what it was like to run a 10k on the track. On Friday and Saturday I was quite sore. I practiced good hydration and nutrition, but I woke up Sunday morning with still sore calves and had a half-marathon in three hours. I put on my Mizuno singlet, shorts, and the now necessary calf sleeves and drove to J.Birney Crum Stadium. The St. Luke’s Half-Marathon finishes with the last 300 meters on the track. My last track race there was possibly the greatest race of my life – the District 11 3200m Championship where I won and broke the 20+ year old district record set by Jack Cuvo. Check out the 30s TV clip of that race here… Television coverage of high school D11 Championships – 2005 – 3200m win and D11 Record 9:13.01
I had also raced the St. Luke’s Half in 2008 – then called the Lehigh Valley Half-Marathon. I was red-shirting that year and ran to a nearly 4 minute win in my first longer road race. This year’s race included two former champions besides me: the winners from 2009 & 2010. I warmed up 20 minutes and felt average. I knew I needed to be conservative after being sore and racing the 10,000m 57 hours before. The race started and immediately a pack of four of us developed. All of us traded off leading for the first ten miles, with me leading the least amount.
The first 10 miles felt aerobically easy. Clipping along 5:10-5:15s felt slower than marathon effort. On the uphills I felt great, on the downhills my sore legs struggled to run fast. After 10.5 miles I saw a chance to make a move up a hill. At that point I decided to hammer to the finish. I was able to pull away for a 30s win over those last two miles. My final time showed 1:09:22, but after splitting 5:07-5:19 with the majority around 5:12s, we had a two mile split from 8-10 that was 11:31. I know we picked up the pace during that segment, so I assume that the course was a touch long. The last 2.5 net uphill miles I covered in just over 5:00/mi. Finally, this was ‘the good!’
There’s a lot I learned from these races. First and foremost, this was great training 15-13 days out from the USA 25k Championships which I’ll be racing at this Saturday. Second, if you stay positive you can regroup after a poor race to perform well. Third, nothing is more important than the positive folks you meet during races. I’m lucky to have supportive parents and friends, and very fortunate to meet new people doing amazing things each race. I met a mom of four who ran the race after running the Boston Marathon. She trains each morning at 4AM to get her miles in! Thanks for the inspiration!
Shaking hands with 2nd place finisher!
My mom and I after the race.
My high school coach, Megan Duerring, and I after running the race. She's been an incredibly positive friend in my life and taught me the simple message, "have fun, no limits."
Time to head out and go for a run with Jason Hartmann – top American and 4th place finisher at this year’s Boston Marathon. Once again, I’m lucky to have met good friends through this sport! A couple light workouts this week and then the USA 25k Championships on Saturday. These two races have definitely helped me mentally and physically prepare for what the 25k is going to be like. Normally 5:00/mi average will be around 5th and 5:10/mi average will be around 10th. This is a great opportunity to finish top ten in a USA Championship!
Thank you to everyone at the St. Luke’s Half-Marathon & the Penn Relays for organizing spectacular events. Did you know that St. Luke’s Half is one of the only races in the country organized entirely by volunteers???? #Inspiring!
Morning call Newsmaker Q&A from Sunday’s Paper
Past Two Weeks Training…
| Monday | 23 |
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| Tuesday | 24 |
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| Wednesday | 25 |
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| Thursday | 26 |
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| Friday | 27 |
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| Saturday | 28 |
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| Sunday | 29 |
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| Monday | 30 |
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| Tuesday | 1 |
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| Wednesday | 2 |
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| Thursday | 3 |
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| Friday | 4 |
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| Saturday | 5 |
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| Sunday | 6 |
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Nice read! Keep looking up and listening to your body.