Chuckanut Foot Race

In place of the half last week, there was a local 7 mile race here in Bellingham today. It was a point to point race that followed the interurban trail From marine park down to larrabee state park. I have to say the Chuckanut Foot Race is on my list of favorite races. There were slightly less than 800 runners this year and the weather was fantastic. There are a couple challenging hills to get up, but for the most part it's a fairly flat course. I finished in 2nd place with a time of 38:31.

All-Comers

Monday night the HTC ran the 5k at the community all-comers in Bellingham WA. Overall the team did well. I got 1st in 15:42, Mark ran 15:54 in 3rd, Aron ran 16:16, Tom was 16:22, Brad was 19low, and Emily was 19:18. It was a slow start but got moving later in the run. All-Comers meets are always a fun event to be a part of.

Training June 20-26

Good week in training. Hit a Total of 90 miles this week with Mark Burke. Also had a good workout and semi-long run. The workout was 6 times the mile on the track with 3 mile warm up and 3 mile warm down. My semi-long run was 16 miles averaging just over 7 minute pace. Overall I felt pretty good about this week.

USATF Half Marathon Trail Championships

I competed in my second trail race ever at the USATF half marathon trail championships in Bend Oregon. Overall the race was a success! I spent a total of 15 hours driving from Bellingham WA to Bend OR and back. The event check-in/packet pick-up was on Friday 11am-6pm. We left B-Ham at 11am and arrived in Bend just before 6:00pm. I walked into the footzone store to get my race number at exactly six o'clock. Talk about cutting it close!

I knew going into this race that the field was going to be stacked with some superstar runners. My main goal was pretty simple: get out strong, stay tough, and compete with some of Americas great distance runners. As the race got under way I got out and hung on to the lead pack with Max King, Mario Mendoza, and Kris Houghton. I was feeling pretty relaxed as we hit the first mile marker around 5:35. Coming up around 3 miles is where they started to pull away from me but I still had a visual on them. Eventually King and Mendoza were out of sight but Houghton was still in striking range. From about miles 4 to 7 I was slowly gaining on Houghton but then we hit the first hill of the race and then the gap seemed to just maintain in distance. After the next hill I felt like he was slowly getting away from me, but it was slightly hard to judge the distance with all the twists and turns on the course. The last couple miles were pretty tough but I knew Tim Van Orden was in 5th and had me in his sights. Mile 12 was on a long dirt path out in what seemed like an open dirt field. That felt like the toughest part of the race with fatigue in the legs and the bright sun blazing down. I kept the positive thoughts rolling through my mind which helped me get through that section then eventually turned off the trail onto the road for the last mile stretch to the finish. There were people cheering and directing runners at the corner where you turn off the trail to the road. When I went by they cheered and then I listend for the cheers to know how far back Van Orden was. It was shortly after going by that I heard the people cheering for him, actually it was about 15 seconds. The last mile was gradually uphill and within the last 600 meters was one last moderate hill you had to get up before the final 300 meter kick to the finish. I felt pretty good on the road in this section and had a really strong finish in this race. Shortly after hitting the road I started my final drive to the finish. I picked up pace but with about 800 to go is when I started my final kick. I was flying up the last hill. It was really a great feeling crossing the line in a 4th place finish.


Place: 4th
Time: 1:18:11

Some Training

Mileage was alright this week hitting around 85 I think. Had a great workout on Saturday may 22nd. It was a team half marathon time trial on the track. For the workout I was pacing Mark Burke for a 1:14 half marathon. We ended up crossing the line in 1:14:50 and instead of stopping I decided to keep going. I was feeling good so figured I would take advantage of the feeling. I started to drop my mile pace down to around 5:30 for another 4 miles. In total I ran 17 miles in 1:36

USATF 15k Trail Champs

On Sunday May 14 was the USA 15k Trail championship race in Spokane WA. This was my very first trail race and it was a crazy experience. I competed in the race along side two of my teammates Oliver Bear Don't Walk and Emily Uhlig. We left Bellingham at 11am on Friday and arrived in Spokane roughly 6 hours later. The drive seemed to go by pretty fast, probably because I spent most of my time being a good student and studied (boring).  While going through the mountain we had to make a stop to play in what little snow is left up there. When we arrived in Spokane our first stop was the packet pick-up then shortly afterwards we headed to the course for a preview. The weather was dry and around 75 degrees I think, which is much hotter than what we've been getting here in the pacific northwest. The distinctive feature of this course was the one massive hill! It was a monster! 

Middle section of the hill. 

Overall the race didnt go too well for me. The legs were feeling kind of sluggish and combined with the temperature my body wasnt cooperating with me all that well. The course was pretty flat for the most part aside from one big hill. Whenever I think of trail races all I picture are hills so I was expecting a really mountainous looking course. The course consisted of two loops to complete the 15k. The first loop felt a little tough but I figured I would be able to make up any lost ground on the second loop. The big hill was at the start of each loop which made it somewhat easier to get up on the first loop, but the second time was brutal! I managed to keep running all the way up the hill despite seeing other runners around me walking up it. From that point on my body was screaming at me! I was doing everything to keep a positive mindset and not slow my pace. When I saw that the time on my watch was at 55 minutes I started my final drive to the finish. I knew I was in 9th place and 10th place person was fairly close behind me. I was able to hold off 10th for the last portion of the race. The course ended up being long by .3 miles this year.

Overall I had a good experience with my first trail race! Ive learned from the race and expect to redeem myself the next trail race I do.

Place: 9th

Time: 59:54

Track Meet

Its been a while since ive raced in a track meet. Last weekend I ran the 5k at the Western Washington University Twilight meet here in B-Ham. The weather was amazing compared to how it has been lately. It felt slightly weird running in a track meet considering ive been focused on the road. I had a fun time with it and ran a season pr! well, i guess its only been my first 5k of the season, but eh. Racing 5,000 meters was quite a bit different than racing 50,000 meters lol. The pain was much more sharp and came on a lot faster, but it was nice to get my wheels turning like that again.

Time: 15:34
Place: 5
Pace: 5:00.6

Vancouver Sun Run

My First Blog Post! Well here it goes...

Last weekend on April 17th, 2011 I ran in the Vancouver Sun Run 10k. It was a fairly early morning getting up around 6:00 to get ready for the race (Im not really much of a morning person). Put on my race gear, packed up some other race day necessities, took my Udo's Oil, and left the house to go meet up with my teammates. There were four HTC runners in the race. Myself, Mark Burke, Oliver Bear Don't Walk, and Emily Uhlig all made the hour and half long drive across the USA-Canadian border with the HTC assistant coach Jim Pearson.

When we arrived to the race site to pick up our bib numbers the reality of the size and magnitude of this race hit me. I was racing against 50,000+ people!

Although the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy, I was so excited to get this race started! While preparing for the race in the warm-up area, elite runners from around the world were running by us, and along side us also preparing. It was a humbling moment for me, these were the kind of runners that I watch on tv or online, and that day I was part of that field.

The first 1,000 meters of the race was downhill so naturally the race got off to a fast start. My first 1k was at 3minutes and went through the mile in roughly 5:02. After that first mile the race around me seemed to settle down a bit, but I kept pushing forward at my own pace. Sometime around 2.5 miles I had worked my way up enough where I found myself in a good group of five or six guys. At this point I could see Oliver quite a ways up rolling with another group. I felt pretty relaxed for most of the race and led my group up until 8k. There were two moderately big hills in the race I had decided to be slightly conservative on. The group would open a little gap on the two hills but I would always catch back up and regain my position. We hit the 8k mark in 26:00. With 2k to go the pace started to pick up a bit, and thats where I started to feel the pain of racing a 10k. Over the next 1k negative thoughts started to enter my mind, and I was just hanging on to the back of the pack. Eventually I was able to flush those thoughts out before I hit the 9k marker. It was at roughly 1k to go when I started to shift gears and get ready for my kick. I could just feel the tension in the group; I knew everyone was thinking - ok whos going to make the first move. I knew if I was going to beat this group I had to be that guy to make the move. In my head I counted down to get my self going. 3, 2, 1 Go Cory Go! As I was kicking in I could see the finish line down the road, and all the while knowing there is a pack of guys trying to chase me down. I felt like I was running scared. At 200 meters to go I was able to pass one more runner before finishing. 

The Weather was fantastic, the competition was amazing, and the entire atmosphere of the race was absolutely exhilarating. This was my first Vancouver Sun Run and I would definitely recommend this race!

Vancouver Sun Run 10k
Place: 29
Time: 32:26
Pace: 5:13
Results

Emily Uhlig, Oliver Bear Don't Walk, Cory Jenkins, Mark Burke