Recent Race Results

Here is a catch-up on some of my race results for the summer/fall:

DWD Devils Lake 50K	1st	3:43:55
Cheese head half marathon	1st	1:09:42
TNF ECSWI 50K	1st	3:24:21
US Half marathon Trail Champs - Birkie	3rd	1:13:02
PNC Milwaukee Marathon	1st	2:20:53CR
TNF ECSCA 50 Mile	TBD	TBD

This was the first year that I ran the PNC Milwaukee marathon, it is in its 3rd year of existence.  For only being in its 3rd year and with this year being ran by a new organization, the race was pretty well run.  

The eve of the race the skies let loose and it rained the whole night and into the early hours of the morning.  About an hour before the 6:30am start the rain let-up, the winds picked up (20mph) and temps were in the mid 50's.  All in all, it was a pretty decent day for racing.

The race boast a 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon with the 5k/10k starting at 7:30 and the half and full marathons starting at 6:30.  The half and the full shared the same route for the first 11 miles before the half marathon route took a shortcut back to the start/finish area.

As the race got under way the elite half marathoners pulled away and I settled into 2nd/3rd place with Patrick Jenkins (was in the same college conference as me).  We chit-chatted a bit and slowly reeled in the leader, Nicholas Kirui from Kenya.  The three of us ran together through about 15 miles with the only excitement being a high speed police chase that went flying past us at mile 11 (Turns out a couple of teens stole a van, crashed in an intersection shortly after passing us and took off on foot but were shortly after apprehended.).  At mile 15 Patrick started fading and Nicholas put in a surge to get a 50 meter lead.

Over the next 5 miles I held consistent effort, trying not to pushing it to hard (the goal for the day was to get a solid workout in and not push to hard and set back training for ECS CA).  Nicholas remained about 50-100 meters ahead of me and I thought that he was running just hard enough to win so that he could race again in a week or so for more prize money... that is until mile 23.

Nicholas hit mile 23 and ran out of gas, shortly after I caught up to him and encouraged him on as much as I could before putting in a surge of my own to take the lead.  I went on to hold the lead through the finish, picking up my 1st ever marathon victory, I've ran faster times in the past but never got the victory.  

All in all I'm happy with how the race went.  I got in a solid workout, ran a solid time and I still got my legs under me.  The race was a good tester as to where my fitness is at and it re-assures me of my goal of being top 3 at ECSCA.  The race also brought back the itch to try and hit the 2020 US Olympic marathon trials qualifier time of 2:19:00.... I'm thinking to give it a go at Cellcom Green Bay Marathon in 2018 because it'd be cool to do it on my home town course.

Chuckanut 50K

CHUCKANUT 50K RACE REPORT

03/18/2017

The 2017 running of the Chuckanut 50K celebrated its 25 year anniversary by being selected as a qualifying race for the 2017 US World Trail Championship team (for the Canadian team as well).  As I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from the 2016 trail world champs that did not go so well (thank you C-diff) I made the trip to Bellingham, WA to take on the Chuckanut 50K and to earn a spot on the 2017 team.

The day before the race I did a mini course pre-view and did some promoting for “Bigger Than The Trail”, a non-profit organization that a friend of mine started.  Bigger Than The Trail is an organization that focuses on advocacy for mental health with the mission of enriching the lives of individuals struggling with their mental health.  If want more information you can find Bigger Than the Trail on facebook and instagram.

The forecast for race day called for 43 degrees and rain.  Mud and I usually don’t get along all too well when it comes to racing so I wasn’t feeling overly optimistic about having a great day on the trails.  Usually when the trails are muddy the faster I try to run the slower I seem to go from all of the slipping.  None the less I kept a positive attitude and hoped for the best.

Race day weather predictions held true and it was 43 degrees and rain for the start.  I and five other speedsters (King, Canaday, Laney, Hawks, and Morrison) get after the flat 1^st section of the course that runs along the inter-urban trail for roughly 10K meters.  Our group averages 5:50/mile for the first 7 miles.  As we begin the climbs that make up the 2^nd section of the course I settle into 5^th place not far behind Canaday and Hawks.  On the climbs I’d lose some ground on the front runners and on the downs I would close the gap back up.  Once we reached the top of the climb up Cleator road I lost visual of Canaday and Hawks.

 I did my best to keep it close through the technical section of the course and then use my leg speed in the last 10K of the course on the inner-urban trail back to the finish.  As I pull into the last aide station and the start of the inner-urban trail I find out that I succeed in keeping Canaday and Morrison within striking distance but King and Hawks were running out of their minds and there was no catching them.  I grab a couple of chips at the aide station and go to make my move and the move never comes.  The spark is gone from my legs.  The sub 6-minute miles that I want to be runner are ticking off in 7+ minute range.  With 3 miles to go I start to see starts, somewhere along the line I was off in my fueling, and I fear of an epic meltdown.  To make matters worse I hear cheering for Laney who has closed the gap on me. I somehow manage to stave off the epic meltdown and hold on to finish in 5^th place in a time of 3:49:55.

All in all it wasn’t the most spectacular race that I’ve ran but it was a good solid performance.  I was able to start the race healthy and injuries free (thanks to USANA health sciences and my PT wife Jessica) and I was able to finish the race the same way.  With how muddy the course was and the technicality of some of the trails I was a bit worried about walking away from the race in one piece.  I wore the Salming T3 trail shoes for the 1^st time in a race and I couldn’t have been happier with my shoe choice.  I got great tracking the whole race, never slipped, never fell and I didn’t get any blisters.

Having not been the race champion I did not garner an automatic bid for the ’17 US world trail team so the waiting game begins.  I submitted a resume along with a bunch of other very talented runners in hopes of being selected to the team.  The team will be announced no later than March 31^st.  Fingers crossed you’ll get to see me in Italy in June.

Gear worn:

Salming T3 trail shoes

Salming top and bottom

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Nutrition:

                Prerace-USANA peanut bar

                Race- Tailwind (20oz), 4 cliff gels

                Post Race – USANA my smart shake