March 19, 2009
I’m a huge fan of the team aspect of running, therefore relays are one of my favorite types of races. In fact I’m going to try and add a relay race section to my Race Schedule page in the near future. If you have never taken part in a relay race I would highly recommend you give it a try. There is no better way to bond with a group of fellow runners. One great relay race in our area is the Rainier to Ruston Rail-Trail Relay on June 6, 2009 (National Trails Day).
The Rainier to Ruston Rail-Trail Relay begins at Mt. Rainier National Park and runs 50 miles along the Foothills Trail to Ruston Ruston Way in Tacoma. According to the race website the course “passes through pristine wilderness and communities, following the old Northern Pacific railroad grade that once brought settlers and supplies to the west”. The race is broken into 12 legs and you can enter as a teams of 2, 3, 4, or 6 runners. There is also a 50 mile or a 50K solo option (the race is a qualifier for the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run) and a 27 mile walking relay. Please check out the Rainier to Ruston website for more information. Hopefully I will see you at the race.
I would like to thank race founder and co-director John Selby for getting me the information about this year’s race. If any of you know of any races that you think should be mentioned on this site please let me know.
March 16, 2009
Over 7,000 participant braved the snow, rain and cold to take part in the 2009 St. Patrick’s Day Dash in downtown Seattle. This year’s event had a completely new (well not quite, the start was still the same) course. Instead of running on the Viaduct, runners now did an out and back on Aurora (Hwy 99). I have to admit, I really was not excited about the new course. But after running it I didn’t think it was that bad.
Basically, the new course is uphill on the way out. Then you turn around and run down hill back to the finish. The course is still an odd length, so really can’t compare you time to other races. I guess that gives the race a kind of XC feel, in that your time isn’t really important instead its all about the competition. And this race always brings out a lot of good runners so you can count on a lot of competition. I would love to hear what other runners thought of the new course, if you ran this year’s race and want to share your thoughts please leave me a comment.
Here are the results for the top 10 men and women (full results).
Men’s top 10
| 1. |
Mark Mandi |
19:14 |
| 2. |
Jesse William |
19:53 |
| 3. |
Joshua Ricardi |
19:56 |
| 4. |
Bruce Jackson |
19:59 |
| 5. |
Tahoma Khalsa |
20:00 |
| 6. |
Steve Dekoker |
20:07 |
| 7. |
Tony Young |
20:15 |
| 8. |
Nick Hird |
20:18 |
| 9. |
Jim Jurcevich |
20:30 |
| 10. |
Mario Farioli |
20:41 |
Women’s Top 10
| 1. |
Lauren Matthews |
22:35 |
| 2. |
Sally Bergesen |
22:58 |
| 3. |
Rose Wetzel |
23:03 |
| 4. |
Lyudmila Vasilyeva |
23:29 |
| 5. |
Jeanine Stewart |
23:31 |
| 6. |
Diane Lacki |
23:34 |
| 7. |
Amy-Eloise Neale |
23:50 |
| 8. |
Jodie Isomura |
23:55 |
| 9. |
Regina Joyce |
24:02 |
| 10. |
Shelly Hack |
24:21 |
March 2, 2009
Over this past weekend Tony Young of Redmond won a masters 1500 meter race that was held as part of the USATF Indoor National Championships in Boston. Tony’s time of 3:57.91 was almost 10 seconds ahead of the second place finisher and beat the world record for the 45 and over age group by about 4 and a half seconds. This was Tony’s third world record this year! On January 30th Tony ran a 4:13.25 for the mile, which is the fastest mile by a 45 and over runner ever, indoor or outdoor. However, since it was on the oversized UW track it doen’t actually count as a world record. Then on February 14th Tony ran a 1:55.70 800 again beating the 45+ age group world recond. But once again, since it was on the oversized UW track it will not count as an official world record.
February 10, 2009
With just under 2000 finishers, I think the 2009 Love ‘em or Leave ‘em 5K at Greenlake was the largest running of this event so far. Yet due to the new course (course map) that is primarily on the roads around Greenlake and the great job of the event staff there were no problems handling the larger crowds. Not only does this race have a fun and festive atmosphere, but thanks to the flat, certified course it also draws some very fast runners. If you are looking for a fast and fun early season 5K I would highly recommend the Love ‘em or Leave ‘em 5k.
Besides the individual age group and overall winners there was also a team competition. There were two runners per team and they were scored based on their combined time. Below are the winners of the team competition (full results).
Women under 79 (combined age)
1. 41:27 Just Friends (team average 20:44)
20:22 Veronica Sackett
21:05 Laura Ruppert
Women masters (combined age over 80)
1. 37:52 Team BS (team average 18:56)
18:16 Sally Bergesen
19:36 Elizabeth Stahl
Men under 79 (combined age)
1. 32:51 Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Cupids (team average 16:26)
16:11 Leif Kohler
16:40 Chris Tremonte
Men masters (combined age over 80)
1. 32:13 seattle running club (team average 16:07)
15:29 Greg Crowther
16:44 Henry Wigglesworth
The individual winners ran some amazing times that will surely be showing up on the NW Runner Best Times List. Below are the top 5 men and women (
full results).
Female overall results
1. Heather Gallagher 18:00
2. Sally Bergesen 18:16
3. Christina Feliz 18:39
4. Erica Pitman 19:00
5. Karen Demartini 19:10
Male overall results
1. Brett Winegar 15:03
2. Greg Crowther 15:29
3. Joe Darda 15:33
4. Bruce Jackson 15:53
5. Eddie Stickler 15:56
February 2, 2009
On January 31st at the UW Invitational at the Dempsey Indoor track 46 year old Tony Young of Redmond, WA ran a 4:13.25 in the mile. This was not only faster than indoor world record for age 45 and over but the fastest mile indoor or outdoor that a runner 45 or older has ever run. Unfortunately, since the UW indoor track is an oversized track Tony’s time will not count as the official world record. The official indoor mile record is 4:21.90 by Albin Swenson. The previous fastest indoor or outdoor mile was a 4:16.09, which Tony ran outdoors last year down in Gresham, OR. If you would like to see a video of Tony’s indoor world record, it is at Flotrack.com. Also, you can see a post race interview with Tony at Runnerspace.com.
January 29, 2009
I am currently working on putting together a list of outdoor track meets in Northwest that will be available to open and masters runners to compete in this spring and summer. Hopefully I will have that up soon. But I do want to let everyone know that one of the best masters track meets around (don’t forget that you only have to be 30 to compete in masters track meets), the Hayward Classic in Eugene, OR has been cancelled for 2009.
According to an e-mail I received from Ruth BreMiller of the Oregon Track Club, they were unable to secure the use of Hayward Field and the other options that were available were not adequate to put on a high quality meet. However, Ruth did go on to tell me that they already have a firm commitment to use Hayward Field in late June 2010. So the Hayward Classic will be back next year.
January 19, 2009
If you do enough workouts on the track eventually it can become difficult to come up with new and interesting ideas for what to run (although personally, I believe any time I get to run on the track its fun no matter what the workout is). Therefore, I decided I would post some of my favorite track workouts to help give you some ideas.
Today’s workout is 4 x 1000 meters/300 meters. The 1000 meters is run at or just faster than 5K pace followed by the 300 meters at mile pace. I heard of this workout in a Running Times podcast interview of Pete Rea (coach of ZAP Fitness) called Your Last Hard Workout. The podcast actually lists a few workouts that Pete uses with the ZAP Fitness team, this happens to be my favorite of the bunch.
What makes this workout so fun for me is the mixing of different paces, which is also what makes it challenging. I always seem to have a hard time getting back to 5K pace after that first 300. I really like to use this workout as part of my training for a 5K or shortly before a 10K (makes the 10K pace feel much easier). As far as rest goes, I use a 200 meter jog between the 1000 and the 300 and then a 400 meter jog between the 300 and 1000.
I hope you find this workout as enjoyable as I do. Please let me know what you think of it. Or if you have any favorite workouts you would like to tell me about feel free to leave me a comment. I will try and post a new workout every so often.
January 12, 2009
A friend of mine has helped to develop an application for iPhone and iPod Touch that allows you to select your goal distance and finishing time and it will show you your pace per mile, per kilometer, per 400 meters an in MPH. This could be very helpful for planning your next race or workout. The application is for sale on iTunes for $0.99, here is the link to it if you are interested.
iPace Application
January 6, 2009
Have you made any running related New Year’s resolutions for this year, or are you one of those types that doesn’t believe in resolutions? The way I look at it, resolutions are just goals for the year. When it comes to running setting goals is major part of improving. Below are some pointers on setting running goals (resolutions).
To help explain my tips I will use one of my running resolutions for 2009 as an example. My resolution is to run sub 4:00 for the 1500 and sub 16:00 for the 5000 (either on the track or in a certified road race).
Tip #1: Make your resolutions measurable. Some common resolutions might be to run faster or further or to loose weight. While these are great goals, they are very ambiguous. This makes it much harder to stay focused on your goal. Instead you should say specifically how much faster or farther you want to run or how much weight you want to loose. Before I picked my resolution for this year I had already decided I wanted focus on developing my speed in 2009. So then by picking goals that will require me to improve my speed I now have a specific goal that I can measure my progress towards.
Tip #2: Put your resolution in writing. By putting your resolution in writing you make it a bit more official than if remains just a thought in your head and you will be more likely to stick to it. Ideally you would right your resolution someplace like in the front of your training log where you will see it everyday as a reminder of what you are working towards. I actually prefer to take it a step further and let other people know what my resolutions are. This puts a bit more pressure on me to stick to the resolution. For some people this might add a bit too much pressure. Also, I never know who might have a suggestion that could really help me achieve my goals. So by talking about them with people I have more chances to get some help.
Tip #3: Make your resolution realistic. This is probably the most important of the three tips. If you make your resolution so outrageous that there is absolutely no way you will ever achieve it you will loose your motivation very quickly. Of course the flip side of this is also a problem. If you make your resolution so easy that it doesn’t require any effort on your part to achieve it you won’t have gained anything. For me a sub 4:00 1500 and sub 16:00 5000 is a very ambitious goal. In fact, I this will now be the third year I have made this resolution (this will be my year to reach my goal, I can feel it). Even though I didn’t actually achieve these times the past two years I have made them my resolution I still honestly believe that I am capable of running those times so I have never lost my motivation to work towards them.
Hopefully you find these tips at least a little bit helpful. When you have something specific that you are shooting for it makes your running much more enjoyable and meaningful, plus it is much easier to motivate yourself to get out and train. If you are like me and like to let other people know what your resolutions are please leave me a comment stating your goals. I wish you all the best of luck in reaching your running goals for 2009.
