Dont Call It A Comeback

Five years....Its been a total of five years since I have raced competitively. To go from high intensity training with weekly mileage hitting 120 miles to nothing. Its been a roller coaster of a ride between injuries and misguided priorities in life. I am happy to say that I have positioned myself where I can pick up where I left off in the pursuit of my dreams. Starting February 2017 I began consistently training to achieve my goals in running. Its been a slow start and I understand its going to take some time to get back to the level I was once at, but I am already starting to see the old runner in me coming back. This time around I have been focusing a lot on strength training at the gym for injury prevention. My weekly mileage at the moment is hitting around 30-40 miles a week while taking some rest days. I am slowly increasing weekly mileage while including strength training. I may be slightly cautious in my training at the moment but I would rather not add too much too soon at this point. So far I am happy about the way my body is feeling and the progression of my runs and pace. I am feeling strong and excited to race again. I am very optimistic about the focus and vision that my coach and I share. I couldn't be happier to have Joel Pearson as my coach, he has been there and supported me through the highs and lows of my running career. I fully trust that his training will help take me to even higher levels of my running career!

I currently have my first race scheduled for the Torchlight 8K Run in Seattle on July 29, 2017. This will be a great rust buster. My goal is to break 27:00.

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