My Running High

Top 12 Things That Helped Improve my Running in 2012

2012-12-26T19:07:00.003-07:00

While out on a run a few days ago I realized that it's been quite a few months since I last posted on RunKennyFoster.com. I never had the opportunity to post anything following my latest performances at the Army 10-Miler and the Marine Corp Marathon because I've been back in the Army school-house for the Captain's Career Course and outside of running 14-16 miles a day plus "school stuff" I didn't have much extra time.

This past year has had some great improvements in racing performances. These performances include: a victory at the Penn Relays in my debut 10k on the track with a 63 second last quarter, two low 1:06 half marathons at the U.S. Half Marathon Champs in Duluth and the Tuscon Half Marathon a little over a month after finishing 2nd at the Marine Corp Marathon, and the week before MCM, finishing the Army 10-miler in 7th place overall in a new personal best 10-mile time of 49:11.

Below is a list of 12 things I believe helped me out this past year and I think can help you too!

#1. Coach Simmons
Easily my #1 pick. Since having Scott as my new coach, I've set personal bests in the 5k, 10k & 10-mile distances. He knows so much about the sport and has two great books to read, Take the Lead and Canovathon.

#2. Having 7-9 hours of sleep at night
Obvious yet important. More sleep equates to better workouts, better races, better everything. I remember doing a 25 x 400m workout this past summer in which I think I had less than 5 hours of sleep the night before and I could barely make it through trying to stay under 70 seconds on each lap. By #19 I was completely smoked. I've done that same workout before with 8-9 hours of sleep and 68 seconds feels like a trot.

#3. Having dedicated teammates to run with on the American Distance Project
The benefit of having Coach Simmons in Colorado Springs was having 8-10 other dudes who run exceptionally well. Check these awesome runners out here!

#4. Iron supplements
In 2009 I had a ferritin level of 12 ng/mL. Since taking iron tablets with orange juice and eating red meat as much as possible, I haven't had that issue since. If you're excessively tired at the end of your runs, I suggest you get a ferritin blood test. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, do a "low ferritin + running" google search and you'll have all the information you need.

#5. Having a great support system
My wife is also a runner and she's had a great past year of performances. She just recently ran a 1:14 half marathon and is on track to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials in the Marathon. We both know the time and effort required to perform at a high level. Whenever I'm having a tough day or struggling in workouts, it's great to have someone like her to pick me up.

#6. Routinely doing a long run on a given day of the week
I used to do long runs when I'd be closing in on my marathon. That all changed when I started working with Coach Simmons. Every Sunday is my long run day of anywhere from 16 to 22+ miles depending on what's upcoming. After the Marine Corp Marathon this year, I took a break from my speed workouts, but the one thing I kept was my Sunday long run. Six weeks after the Marine Corp Marathon I had not done a single speed workout, but was still able to run 1:06:05 solo at the Tuscon Half Marathon just from doing my Sunday long run.

#7. Special blocks
I would say that my 49:11 at the Army 10-miler this past year was a direct result of the special blocks I had done during the summer. A special block is used primarily for marathon training, but when I went through 5 miles in low-24 and still felt fresh, I knew it was because my legs could handle it from the the special blocks. Scott talks about special blocks in his books I previously mentioned.

#8. Increasing my double run days / Increasing Weekly Mileage
This will be the first year in which I exceeded 5,000 miles. Running twice, sometimes even three times a day in the afternoon following a speed workout has helped me keep a high level of aerobic fitness.

#9. Zinc Lozenges
Zinc lozenges with Vitamin C is just like the supplementing I never knew about previously with iron. Zinc has helped keep my energy at a high level even when I'm doing workouts 3 times a week and sustaining over 120 miles a week. These are the exact ones I use.

#10. Living at different altitudes
Three weeks before the Penn Relays and three weeks before the Army 10-miler the Army sent me for training away from where I lived at 6,600 ft. in Colorado Springs. The first time was in March before the Penn Relays and I thought it was just luck and good 'ole hard training that prevailed. I'm sure hard training helped, but the second time was before the Army 10-miler and other than moving down to 4,500 ft. I had done nothing different. I have no other scientific data to back this up, but I think there's got to be something substantial to switching altitudes weeks in advance before a big race.

#11. Sweating it out with layers
Going for a run in 95 degree heat with multiple layers on this past summer helped me sweat out all the toxins in my body. It helped me sweat out that extra water in my body that I probably don't need and this helps keep an extra pound or two off.

#12. Not having external stress
Fortunately this past year I was not plagued by having someone tell me I needed to run a certain time by this certain date "or else." I didn't make the 2012 Olympic Trials and life still went on.

Waldo Canyon Fire

2012-07-03T22:41:00.002-07:00

This past week has been a lesson that I will never forget. Even as I write this on a Sunday evening, still currently displaced with Christie from our home at Grand Centennial, the Waldo Canyon Fire is still burning and you can smell the smoke practically anywhere you go in Colorado Springs. The lesson I learned this past week is to never take anything for granted, even your own home. I've never before been affected by a natural disaster and to experience the Waldo Canyon Fire and how it affected not just me, but well over a hundred thousand of other citizens in the Pike's Peak region, it's something that I will never forget. This article isn't about my training and progression in the sport of running, but one ironic aspect of this story is that I somehow managed to run the most miles in a week for the 2012 year. I ended up running over 120 miles this past week while dealing with smoke inhaled lungs, displacement, relocation, more displacement, followed by more relocating, all while continuing my work and daily job in the Army. I believe that it is experiences such as this that develops and humbles you as a person. I haven't quite had an opportunity to yet look back on this experience, but it's easy to say that this will be one I remember for the rest of my life.

Saturday, June 23rd - 85 minute recovery run (13 miles)

This all begins last Saturday, which wasn’t apart of my most current training week, but is when the Waldo Canyon Fire first began. That Saturday, June 23rd, began with me sleeping in and opting not to run in the morning prior to my friend, Tommy Neal’s and Adrian Chouinard’s wedding. I had just completed my first of many tempo runs to come the day before in training for the upcoming marathon season and decided I needed a little extra rest.

The wedding started at 10 a.m. and Christie and I ended up arriving frustrated because we were unable to find a parking spot at Garden of the Gods. It was a perfectly normal day, but extremely hot at over 100 degrees, with lots of tourists checking out the beautiful site in the Garden. Below is a picture of Tommy and Adrian after they had said their vows and congratulations to you both!! It was such a beautiful day for a wedding and Christie and I had an amazing time!

After the wedding we all headed over to the reception. It was a very cool experience and basically like a who’s who of American Distance Running in celebration of holy matrimony for Tommy and Adrian. Matt Williams, who is a 3000m Steeplechaser for the Air Force, had amazing taste in clothing that day and obviously we had to take a picture together.

As we headed over to the reception we were all asking each other about the past track season and how it went for everyone and we were all excited for many of the athletes in the area who were competing at the Olympic Trials up in Eugene, Oregon. At some point between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday we noticed a smoke bloom up in the air across from where we were all gathered within Garden of the Gods. We had heard of the fire up north in Fort Collins and with it being as hot as it has been lately with not precipitation, of course we were all concerned, concerned enough as my friend and teammate, Robby Young, called 9-1-1, only to hear a “uh, yeah we know, you’re caller #20.” Unfortunately, Robby didn’t win a prize that day, but we did have our first golf outing scheduled for later that afternoon/evening.

This is what we saw and the first picture I snapped of the Waldo Canyon Fire.

We ended up leaving the reception shortly after 12 that day after Tommy and Adrian had cut the cake. Christie and I were able to get a picture with the bride and groom before we left.

After Christie and I left the wedding we went home and could not believe how much the fire had grown in the amount of time it took us to drive from the Garden of the Gods to Grand Centennial, which is only about 3 miles. I snapped this shot right before I left for my recovery run.

Christie and I were obviously concerned so we decided that one would stay at the apartment while the other runs. So I just ran from the apartment that day and went on an 85 minute recovery jog and made my way back over to the Garden to see if and how much the fire was spreading. By the time I was on my way back to the apartment, fire marshals were clearing everyone out of the Garden. I decided that golfing was not a good idea that day and had to cancel my golf outing with Robby. I think that was probably a good decision considering how the smoke looked on my return.

Sunday, June 24th – 20 1/2 miles

Although there was an ever growing fire practically in our back yard, Sunday was just another normal day. Christie and I decided that we would both do a long run and head up to Gold Camp Road. I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea and maybe we’d be able to get some good glimpses of the fire. I was scheduled for 18 miles or 2 hours of running that day, but I ended up running over 10 miles up Gold Camp Road to almost the peak of the mountain because from the vantage point of the peak you could see down and get a fairly clear view of exactly where the fire was at. By the time I got back to my original starting point, Christie was waiting with a fire marshal. They were kicking people out of Gold Camp Road as well and evidently I was the last one to leave. As Sunday progressed and the temperature again began to rise, the fire worsened, but Monday was going to be another day on the job and a normal week continued.

Monday, June 25th - AM – 3 1/2 miles

Monday morning was still somewhat normal except you could really start to begin smelling smoke from where we were at in Grand Centennial. I was pretty tired from my mountain climb up Gold Camp the day before and only ran for 25 minutes in the morning. I try to run at least 25 minutes in the morning before work, even if I’m exhausted because it helps flush out my lactic acid from the day before.

PM - 12 miles

I spent a full day at work on Monday and even though I could clearly see the fire growing from Fort Carson, I still decided to do my evening run on the Monument Valley Trail. My next speed work was scheduled on Tuesday, but by Monday night the smoke was getting to an almost unbearable point.

Tuesday, June 26th - AM - 12 x 800m repeats + 3 x 200m repeats (13 miles total)

Monday would end up being the last “normal” day of the week. Tuesday morning I woke up at 5:45 a.m. smelling like I had been to a bon fire the night before. I put on my go-fast clothes and track spikes and headed over Cheyenne Mountain High School for our morning workout. I met up with Robby Young, Sean Brown and one of Coach Simmons’s college athletes from Queens, NC who was spending the summer out in Colorado Springs. Upon arrival at CMHS we originally decided that we were going to cancel the workout because the smoke was just too much. We then decided that we would travel up north to higher elevation and see if could still nab the scheduled speed workout in. We ended up driving 30 minutes up to Briargate near Sean’s home and did 12 x 800m repeats on the Classical Academy track. Needless to say, we were slow on our repeats. We typically hit our 800’s in between 2:15 and 2:20 and averaged about 2:21-2:23. Not sure if this was a result of the smoke in the area, although it was tolerable from where we were at, but at least we got the work in. We decided since our 800’s were slow, we’d run some extra 200’s at 30 seconds or under to make up the difference.

After the workout, I put on my ACU’s (Army Combat Uniform) and headed into work at Fort Carson. I was worried all day because Christie was up in Denver for her medical rotations and I was about 25 minutes south of where we lived. Wynn, our little pup, was all alone in our apartment.

I broke for lunch at noon and although the fire looked worse than ever, I still had not seen any flames up until this point and it didn’t look threatening at that point to where we lived in Colorado Springs. If given another opportunity, I would’ve taken work off the rest of the day and packed everything I possibly could have, but decided that I would just leave a little early. Below is a picture I snapped from work on Tuesday afternoon.

The rest of the day at work I was nervous and checking for updates about the fire on my computer. I ended up leaving Fort Carson at 4:30 that evening to see the fire like never before. This time I didn’t even take a photo of the fire on I-25 and just tried getting to Grand Centennial as soon as possible. Flames were easily visible and traffic was horrific on the drive up and by the time I arrived, smoke consumed everything so much that you couldn’t see any further than 50 feet from where you were standing.

Considering how much smoke enveloped the area, I figured that the fire was across from us. Turns out I was right. Reported 65 mph winds didn’t help that day and the fire raced down the ridge across the street from our apartment in the Mt. Shadows neighborhood and along the Flying W Ranch Road. I didn’t give myself any time to pack. I grabbed Wynn, a safe with our social security numbers, my book bag and lap top and left. I didn’t even think to have locked the door on my way out. By the time I got in my car and up on Centennial Boulevard, traffic was at a standstill and you could barely see anything in front other than car lights. I took this picture on my drive out of Grand Centennial.

During this time, Christie was still on I-25 headed south from Denver on her way home from her clinical rotations. I told her that I got Wynn, but nothing else other than our wedding photos and a safe with our personal information. As she told me that she was going to drive up and attempt to gather as much of our stuff as possible, we both hear on the radio that Centennial Blvd had become a one-way traffic street headed outbound.

PM – 4 miles easy

Luckily, I had talked to my American Distance Project teammate, Sean Brown, at Tommy and Adrian’s wedding and he told me that if the fire had gotten any worse, he would gladly provide a place for Christie and me to stay at for the night. It took roughly 2 hours to drive up to Sean’s from Centennial Blvd which is no less than 15 miles from where I live. Once Christie and I got situated at Sean’s, we headed over to Target to buy a few supplies for the next couple days. That night I did a nice and easy 4 mile jog with Sean and Christie to try and relieve the overwhelming stress from earlier in the day. This isn't my picture, but similar to what we saw Tuesday night.

Wednesday, June 27th - AM – 80 minute recovery run – 11 ½ miles

Sleeping that night was not the greatest, not because we were uncomfortable at Sean’s, but because we didn’t know whether or not we still had a home or if everything we’d ever owned had been burned in the fire. Sean and I decided to get our morning run out of the way early that day and run outside of his apartment. When we initially started our 80 minute recovery run, the air was smoke-free with helicopters and planes all flying over to the fire to help contain it. By the time we got to our turn around point the smoke was getting almost unbearable. We figured that it would get better once we turned around but the wind was with us on the way back so the smoke just stayed with us the entire time. That might have been one of the few days where running actually negatively impacted my fitness rather than hinder it.

After the run was completed, I left Christie and Wynn at Sean’s and traveled down to Ft. Carson for work. I still had not heard of anything regarding our apartment, but from the news channel, we learned that the Mt. Shadows neighborhood directly across from Grand Centennial had be decimated by the fire. I don’t think it was confirmed until later that evening that approximately 346 homes had been lost.

Once I arrived at Ft. Carson, work just carried on like nothing had happened. There were a few other Soldiers displaced as well, but other than a few conversations regarding the fire the night before, work just carried on.

PM – 60 minute recovery run – 7 miles

That night after work I headed back up to Sean’s and did a very light recovery run with Christie and Sean. I could really feel the stress from the day before on my legs, not to mention a speed workout on top of everything. Probably one of the slowest recovery runs I have done in a long time, but it was what I needed. I figured that night I didn’t need to strain my body any more. After the run, we got some quick showers and then Christie and I decided to head over to UCCS (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) where they were providing free housing for 3 nights to evacuees. It didn’t take long for us to gather our things and get situated in the dorm room. One piece of information we learned that night was that Grand Centennial was still standing. We didn’t know if there was significant smoke damage or not, but at least our home was still there.

That night we checked in at UCCS and got the keys to our new home for a few days. I hadn’t slept in a dorm room since my Freshman year of college at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania and I forgot how hard the mattresses are for students. In addition to sleeping on a rock, there was no air conditioning as well. Regardless, it was a free place to stay at for 3 nights and we figured that by Friday afternoon we would possibly be able to head back to Grand Centennial.

Thursday, June 28th - 12 mile trail run

Thursday morning I woke up so exhausted that I opted to try and catch up on a few hours of sleep before heading into work. Christie and Wynn spent the day monitoring the news trying to find out when we would be lifted from evacuation, but the fire was still burning and containment on the fire was only at 10%. Christie would've rather had gone up to Denver for her medical rotations, but the physician she was shadowing told her to take the rest of the week off. After resting the legs all day at work I decided to go exploring during my run and find out how close I could get to my apartment and not infiltrate the evacuation zone. UCCS is less than 3 miles from Grand Centennial, but I only got about a mile and half before I would run into a police road block. Each road block I would come to I would go down a different street to see if I could get any closer, but I never even got close to visible sight of Grand Centennial.

Friday, June 29^th – AM – 7 miles easy

Friday morning Christie and I woke up hoping that Friday would be the day we would no longer be evacuated. Little did we know that we were still quite a ways out from that. Friday’s are typically my “Predator” run days. I’ll describe what a “Predator” run is later, but I decided not to do a workout that morning and give my body one more day of recovery before I strained it again in a workout. That morning though I could tell my legs were starting to bounce back as I was easily running under my 7-minute recovery pace.

PM – 7 miles easy

As soon as I was finished with work that night I called Christie to see if the evacuation had been lifted on our area. No luck. There was a scheduled 8 o’clock press conference that night, so I went ahead and completed my evening run to hurry back and listen to the press conference. During the press conference we started to lose any sort of confidence in returning home shortly because the evacuations weren’t even mentioned. Frustrated with not knowing how long we would be displaced, we decided to grab to our favorite late night snack at Yo-Yogurt. The one encouraging aspect was that the week was over and we could just spend the weekend trying to relax in the dorm at UCCS, but we only had one more free day left to spend.

Saturday, June 30^th – AM – 8 mile Predator Run (14 miles total)

A “Predator” run is something like a tempo run where you start off at below threshold pace, which for me at altitude is somewhere between 5:20 – 5:30 pace. During the Predator run, you gradually pick up the pace as you go along. Training at altitude you have less oxygen to work with, so your body isn’t capable of running as fast as it does at sea level. I think the percentage is somewhere around up to 75-85% of your original VO2 max capacity. So the idea of a Predator run is to start off controlled and relaxed, then gradually pick up the pace, without going into oxygen 10 minutes into the workout. The 8 mile course Sean and I had mapped out would take us uphill gradually for the first 4 miles, turn around, and then use the downhill to assist in picking up the pace on the way back.

By this time, the smoke was starting to clear south of Colorado Springs, so fortunately we no longer had to suffer through fire smoke. The course we run is fairly challenging. It’s definitely not what I would consider a “fast” course and my best average pace on the course was 5:17 per mile for 6 miles when training for the 10k back in the winter and spring. I would be nowhere near that pace today. I was able to stay with Sean for the first 2 miles only. The first mile felt surprisingly fast and when I looked down at my watch and saw 5:34, I knew today it was going to be a battle to even maintain that pace. By the time I hit 4 miles I was just over 22 minutes. One thing about running at altitude in Colorado Springs, it definitely humbles you. Even with the slight downhill on the way back, I managed only to run 44:19 for the 8 mile course. Not my best effort, but I figured considering the week I had just experienced, it was still some money in the bank. After the predator run was finished, Sean and I completed an easy 3 mile cool down and I headed back to UCCS dorm.

Once I returned to UCCS, I found out that we had to be out of the dorm by 1:00 p.m. or Christie and I would be charged $50 to stay for an additional day. Christie had a free hotel stay for one night at a Hilton hotel, once again up by Briargate, which she had won at local 5k road race earlier in the year, so we decided that now was the right time to use it. The one thing Christie and I didn’t understand upon leaving from UCCS, was that there was a 3-day time stamp for evacuees at UCCS, whereas after those 3 days were up and if you were still evacuated, I guess you just had to find someone else to take you in. Luckily in our case, we were fortunate enough to have a free hotel for a night, but I guess if you were evacuated for any longer, you were just out of luck.

PM – 7 ½ miles easy

That night Christie and I checked into the Hilton at Briargate and sleeping on a real bed that night was amazing. I ended up waking that morning at 4:30 with an unquenchable thirst so I ended up driving to a local gas station, picking up a gallon of orange juice, a liter of water, as well as two 32-ounce vitamin waters. After that, I didn’t get out of bed that morning until after 9 a.m. Christie had woken up at 8 a.m. for the news press conference and once again, they didn’t even mention anything about Grand Centennial and whether or not or when we would be let back into our home.

Sunday, July 1^st – AM – 2 hours easy (18 1/2 miles total)

That morning after I woke up I met up with Sean and we did 2 hours easy on the Air Force Academy trail, which is roughly above 7,000 feet. The legs surprisingly felt pretty good and I was to hit a few sub-6 minute miles in the last quarter of the run. After the run I hurried back to the Hilton because we had to check out by 1:30 p.m. Christie and I didn’t have much belongings to pack up so we checked out and went over to the Starbucks across the street, where I am now typing up this story. At 2 p.m. we listened to the news conference and they had finally mentioned about the over 10,000 evacuees still displaced in Colorado Springs. We never quite heard anything regarding Grand Centennial, but on the evacuation map it looks as if we are no longer on the evacuated portion. It looks like we’ll finally be able to return home tonight at 8 p.m!

When we arrived in Grand Centennial that night, there was very little smoke damage. Across the street from us, much of the ground was black. I was surprised to look across the street to see how many of the homes had been saved by the fire. That night I did an easy 4 mile jog around our area. It never felt so good to run around Zachary Grove, Centennial Blvd and around Vindicator Road back to Grand Centennial. During my run, although it was getting dark outside, I was able to see firsthand some of the devastation. One home I saw looked as if a sledge hammer had been taken to it for a few days. You could tell that the firefighters had attempted to save the home, but I’m sure the fire was too severe where the home was located. As I continued on my run, all I could imagine was that the Colorado Springs Firefighters did as much as they could have possibly done. Although 346 homes were lost, I’m certain that well over a thousand probably would have perished had it not been for them, including perhaps our own. Finally, here is photo (not mine) that was taken of the Mt. Shadows neighborhood shortly after the devastation of Tuesday into Wednesday morning.

ASICS Men's GEL-Nimbus 13 Running Shoes, Lightning/White/Fire - 8.0

06 March 2012

2012-03-06T20:47:00.002-07:00

After seeing my last post from back in December I know I have been well overdue for an update on my website. It’s hard to believe that the California International Marathon and my marathon PR of 2:19:49 was already 3 months ago. There have been many changes and new happenings over the past 3 months that I’m eager to share on RunKennyFoster.com.

After the marathon in December at Sacramento, I didn’t know exactly which route I wanted to take with my running. I definitely had some options ahead of me, but the direction was uncertain. I hadn’t really planned for anything past the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, so after I missed the Olympic Trials A standard for the marathon by 49 seconds in Sacramento, I had to take some time and think of what I wanted to accomplish next. I’ve always been the type of person to set goals and try to achieve the goals I’ve laid ahead of myself. So, for the first time since 2008, I actually didn’t have a goal directly in front of me that I needed to attain in the near future. It was a weird feeling at first, but also a little bit of a relief. I took the rest of December to collect my thoughts, enjoy the holiday season with friends and family, and then get back to work in January.

What actually ended up happening was a hugely unexpected 5k road PR on New Year’s Eve, where I ran 14:48 by myself from the gun, then suffering from bronchitis for the first half of January. Although January was a rough month and start to 2012 for me, I dedicated the rest of the month to doing hill repeats and strength workouts that I’ve been seeing the benefit from as of late.

After a few consecutive weeks of solid workouts, my new coach, Scott Simmons, has persuaded me to train for the Olympic Trials in the 10k. This happens to be two of the new and exciting changes that has occurred over the past 3 months. One, being that I’m training under Scott Simmons with the American Distance Project, and two, being that I’m currently training for the 10k. The 10k is brand new ground for me and I have actually never even run a 10k on the track before. It is still not official when my 10k debut on the track will be, but it will definitely be in the coming weeks. Right now, I’m more than likely looking at my first 10k on the track being at the end of April.

Training has been going great under Scott Simmons and with the other athletes on the American Distance Project, mainly Joseph Chirlee, Tommy Neal, Robby Young and Edwin Sang. It just so happens that the American Distance Project is coming directly out of Colorado Springs and I’m luckily in the right place at the right time. Scott Simmons has me currently team up with the same guy I ran with for much of 2011, Joseph Chirlee. The only difference is that I’m in much better shape than I was back in 2011 and I can actually consistentyl push Chirlee in the workouts. I don’t know what the 10k will bring for me, but training with Chirlee and the other guys on the program has been a blessing. Especially now that I’m working a full time job again in the Army, which is another of the changes - “post-WCAP training.”

Two of the workouts we’ve done as of late is a 6 x 1 mile repeat workout w/ 3 minutes recovery ranging from 4:38 to 4:44 and a 12 x 800m repeat workout w/ 2 minutes rest ranging from 2:09 to 2:22. The one trick Scott has us doing in the workouts is a “hammer” repetition where we go all out, typically during the 2nd to last rep. So on #5 of the mile repeats, Joseph and I went all out for the mile and both ran a 4:38...during the 800m, #10 was the hammer rep, clipping off a 2:09. Hard to believe that I’m running this fast, late in a workout now, at altitude, but running sub-2:10 in an 800m event in high school would take such a huge effort out of me.

The workouts that Coach Simmons has been giving me seem to be working. I just recently ran a 10-mile altitude PR of 51:53 in Pueblo, Colorado at the Colorado State 10-Mile Championships. Although it was a huge effort and I tried my best in the race, Scott wanted me to focus on it more as a workout and not as a race. I wasn’t able to taper for the race and I think I ran just shy of 100 miles for the week when I toed the starting line. Still, I was happy to have placed 4th overall in this hugely competitive field. Along with my ADP teammates, Tommy Neal and Robby Young, Robert Cheseret, Patrick Rizzo, Justin Ricks, Alex Nichols, Brian Dumm and Matthew Levassiur were in the field. Even had I tapered for the race, I think 4th place is what I would’ve ended up with regardless, and it’s always nice to get paid in prize money for a workout. My next hard workout I have on the schedule is coming up this Thursday, which is 25 x 400m repeats. I’ve never done this many 400’s in a single session and I’m eager to see how I’ll do and also, if I finish the workout, how my body will respond. My goal is to run all of these 400s under 70 seconds and I believe the rest is somewhere between 30-45 seconds.

The other bit of exciting news recently announced is that my wife and I will be representing the Mancos Project at our future races and also heading be heading down to Mancos, Colorado in September to train for a month with the group before I have to leave for Fort Huachuca, Arizona to attend a 6-month Army school. The Mancos Project is a brand new group for elite distance runners who want to live a sustainable lifestyle. The group is headed by a good friend of mine, Ben Hahn, who studied and ran track as well as cross country at Edinboro University. After our marathon performances at CIM, Ben contacted my wife and I about possibly joining the group and now we’re officially project members along with John Yatsko (1500m, Northern Arizona University), Julian de Rubira (Steeplechase, UC-Santa Barbara), Chris Marker (5k, Allegheny College), Tony Dipre (1500m, Allegheny College), Dylan Kleinberg (Environmental Coordinator), and Dustin Stein (Tour de France Cyclist, Farm Manager).

I can’t think of any better group to run for and I can’t think of any better, more simple lifestyle to live. Throughout the majority of my life I’ve kept my political, economic and environmental ideas mostly to myself. I’ve never went to a political rally or demonstration. I’ve never held a sign for a particular cause and I don’t have a huge background with environmental activities, but I believe the Mancos Project is a great way for myself and other athletes to voice these issues and actually do something to help the cause. Even if it is simply constructing a garden, living off the land and making our own food while representing what we do at U.S. Championship events as well as the Olympic Trials, I think this is a proactive option than just holding up a sign.

Aside from being a sustainable, eco-friendly group for elite American distance runners, it’s also in my eyes a new way of life and a great way to train as an elite runner. My wife and I are both very excited to take this new journey and see where it takes us, both in running and in helping out the environment.

Final Stretch for the California International Marathon

2011-11-27T18:11:00.008-07:00

It's crazy to think that I'm already one week away until my final marathon for the 2011 year. I was hoping that I would not have to run another marathon after my failed attempt in Rotterdam, but I was simply unable to get under 1:05. Not yet, I guess. I'm very excited to be going back to the California International Marathon. I had such a good experience here in 2009 that it only seems right to come back here to accomplish this goal I've put forth since I saw Ryan Hall cross the finish line in the 2007 US Marathon Olympic Trials.

The goal next Sunday, December 4th, from Folsom to Sacramento is to average 5:18 miles for 26+ miles. One advantage I have is that I know the course layout pretty well and it does have a net downhill. Even with the net downhill, the course is challenging with constant undulating country roads from start to finish. That has been one aspect of my training that I have incorporated for my preparation into CIM. The majority of my tempo, steady state and progression runs have all been on courses in Colorado Springs where I'm constantly running uphill or running downhill. Hopefully I'll see the benefits this coming Sunday.

From where I left off last month, below are my last few weeks of training in preparation to the California International Marathon:

Sunday, 10/23 – 14 ½ miles at Woodland Park in 1:32:30 (Controlled effort), 8 miles easy in the evening.
Monday, 10/24 – 12 ½ miles recovery
Tuesday, 10/25 – 4 mile w/up, 7 x 1 mile @ 4:56 avg. w/ 1 lap recovery jog, 2 mile cool down. 40 minutes easy in the evening
Wednesday, 10/26 – 11 mile recovery run in the morning, 7 miles in the evening.
Thursday, 10/27 - 13 miles easy, no PM run.
Friday, 10/28 – 3 mile w/up, http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124888027. followed by 15 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 3 mile cool down
Saturday, 10/29 – 13 miles easy in the AM. 5 miles easy in the PM.

Week Mileage: 124 miles

Sunday, 10/30 – 21 mile progression run in 2:05:43
Monday, 10/31 – 13 ½ miles recovery in 1:30:40
Tuesday, 11/1 – 4 mile warm up + strides, 3 x 1 mile repeats in 5:00, 4:59, 5:01 (Windy, didn’t feel good, tired) did a very long and slow 4 mile cool down jog
Wednesday, 11/2 – 14 miles on the treadmill (snow), 4 ½ miles outside in the elements
Thursday, 11/3 – 4 mile warm up, 1 mile hard in 4:47, 20 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 1 mile hard in 4:53, 3 mile cool down
Friday, 11/4 – 12 ½ miles recovery

Saturday , 11/5 – 11 miles easy w/ a few striders at the end of the run (Race the next day).

Week Mileage: 106 miles

Sunday, 11/6 – 5 mile w/up + strides, ran the Golden Gallop in a course record (32:27) for 1^st place. 7 mile cool down w/ Japheth. 5 miles in the evening
Monday, 11/7 – 13 ½ mile recovery run
Tuesday, 11/8 – 11 miles easy starting out, but progressively increasing the pace
Wednesday, 11/9 – 4 mile w/ up + 200m pick-ups, 4 x 1 mile repeats @ 4:49 avg. (4:49, 4:51, 4:50, 4:47), 2 mile cool down
Thursday, 11/10 – Traveled to Santa Barbara, California – ran a little over 8 miles in 1 hour
Friday, 11/11 – 5 miles easy + strides in the morning, followed by 3 mile shakeout run in the evening
Saturday, 11/12 – 2 mile w/up. Ran the Santa Barbara International Half Marathon in 1:07:24 (3rd place).

Week Mileage: 91 miles

Sunday, 11/13 - 40 minutes easy
Monday, 11/14 - 25k progression run in 1:42:09
Tuesday, 11/15 - Ran 6 miles in the morning for the Fort Carson Change of Command Division Run. 20 kilometers in the evening in 1:32:02.
Wednesday, 11/16 - (Treadmill) 3 mile w/up, 8 x 1 mile repeats @ 5:02 avg. 2 mile cool down
Thursday, 11/17 - 72 minutes on the treadmill in the morning. 5 1/2 miles easy in the evening.
Friday, 11/18 - 90 minutes easy
Saturday, 11/19 - 20 mile endurance run in 1:58:35 (very windy)

Weekly Mileage: 106 miles

Sunday, 11/20 - 20 miles easy in 2:09:21

Monday, 11/21 - 65 minutes easy

Tuesday, 11/22 - Treadmill workout - 2 mile w/up, 17 x 1 minute hard 1 minute easy, followed by 5 x 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy. (12.5 miles total in 1:20:35)

Wednesday, 11/23 - 70 minutes easy
Thursday, 11/24 - 3 mile w/up, 5k Turkey trot in 15:35 @ 7,000 ft. elevation, 5 miles cool down

Friday, 11/25 - 85 minutes easy on the monument valley trail

Saturday, 11/26 - 5 miles easy, 5 miles at marathon tempo (5:12, 5:14, 5:11, 5:17, 5:10) 2 mile cool down

Weekly Mileage: 86 miles

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Regardless of my performance this coming Sunday, this will probably be one of my last marathons for a while. If I do make the 2012 Marathon Olympic Trials, then of course I will be traveling to Houston to run the trials, but after that I will be focusing on primarily the 5k and 10k. Other than the US 25k Championships and the occasional half marathon, I won't be running in many races over 10 miles, at least until I start my preparations for 2016.

There's no doubt, summer is gone and winter is here or quickly approaching. It's hard to believe that after a summer full of hard training, I'm down to a 3 x 1 mile repeat maintenance workout before my marathon. As a tribute to the summer season and the hard work and sweat that we've all put in during that time, here's an inspiring August mix by DJ Steve Porter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9KH5yyB250

Sendeku and Dengera Capture the 27th Army Ten-Miler By George Banker

2011-11-16T20:22:00.003-07:00

Below is a complete recap of the 2011 Army 10-Miler by George Banker. Very honored and thankful he quoted me in a few paragraphs on the write up as well as the first two.

SENDEKU AND DENGERA CAPTURE THE 27TH ARMY TEN-MILER By George Banker

“WCAP for me this past year has helped my running tremendously. When I first came into the program, my personal best time in half marathon was a 1:09:39, in which I ran back in 2009. In less than a year's time of being on the program and training in Colorado Springs, I've lowered that time to 1:05:32. I'd say that's been my best accomplishment thus far, but I'm still hungry and know that I can run MUCH faster. WCAP has let me know that I do have a future as a professional distance runner and that with the right training, other athletes, and coaching, I can make it”, stated Captain Kenneth Foster, Army World Class Athlete Program (WCAP).

Foster was a participant in the 27th Army Ten-Miler (ATM) on Sunday, October 9, 2011. and is produced by the U.S. Army Military District of Washington. The ATM is the second largest 10-miler in the United States. The race posted the largest field of finishers or 22,074 (12,377 males, 9,697 females). Since 1985 there have been 256,728 finishers.

As a result of a loss of the South Pentagon Parking (permit request was disapproved) some major changes were implemented. The start of the race shifted from Route 27 to Route 110 and the finish line shifted from the South Pentagon Parking to a narrow roadway along Boundary Channel Drive. The finish line experienced congestion but a back up was avoided.

The top runners had their eyes on the event records. The open record for the men was set in 2009 by two-time winner Alene Reta of Ethiopia with 46:59. The women record was set in 2009 by Samia Akbar of Herndon, Va., with 55:25. The master record for the men was set by Army Sgt. Sammy Ngatia of Fort Carson, Colorado in 2000 with 48:50 and he was the overall winner and the oldest to date. The woman holder is Firaya Zhdanova of Russia in 2007 with a time of 58:31.

There were a few prior winners on the start line which include three-time winner and two-time record holder Dan Browne, Army WCAP (’97-47:44, ’98-48:52, ’04-47:32). There were two Brazilians, Jose Ferreira (’07-48:59) and Reginald Campos, Jr. (’08- 48:59).

There was only one female prior winner, Alisa Harvey the only four-time winner (’98- 58:56, ’99-56:40, ’03-59:29, ’06-59:00).

The prior master winners included John Colpeck of Stow, Mass., (’03-53:14), Marty Muchow (’06-53:25), and Mike Scannell of Grand Blanc, Mich., (’07-54:31, ’08-53:04).

In addition to Harvey (’06-59:00, ’08-1:01:00) there was the only three-time winner Martha Merz of Mystic, Conn., (’02-59:49, ’03-1:00:36, ’04-1:00:57).

1The three waves lined up along the southbound lanes of Route 110 and the journey began for a short stretch up to the ramp to get the runners up on to Memorial Drive near the first mile and then across the Memorial Bridge into Washington. The lead pack was still thick up to that point as it was anyone’s race to win. Leading the charge was 2010 runner up (47:58) Tesfaye Sendeku of Ethiopia. Last April he ran 46:53 at the 39th Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run.

The chase pack included Army World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) runners, SPC Augustus Maiyo who at the Cherry Blossom was the third American (49:56). In the mix was SPC Robert Cheseret the brother of Bernard Lagat. Last year he placed third at the ATM (48:20). Close on the heels was the Brazilian runners Frankc de Almeida who has a marathon personal best of 2:12:32 (2008). Teammate Clodoaldo de Silva who has a marathon personal best of 2:13:12 (2005) and last year he placed sixth at the ATM (48:39). The Brazilians were trying to up seat WCAP to regain the International Army trophy.

The women had not completely thinned out as a pack had formed which included teammates from I Run For God (IR4G) Serkalem Biset of Ethiopia who ran a 1:03:25 last year at the ATM. Shiferaw Tiringo-Getachew who ran 2:42:40 at the Napoli Marathon in 2008. Tezata Dengera born in Ethiopia and now a Turkish citizen placed third at the 2010 Blue Cross Broad Street Run (56:10), the largest 10-miler in the United States. The leading American was Navy Lt. Amada Rice of North Bethesda, Md. At the 2011 RnR Philadelphia Distance Run Half Marathon Rice was the eighth American with a time of 1:14:36. Within eyesight was Erin Koch who holds the indoor school record for the mile at American University (4:46:19).

The race continued the progression along Constitution Avenue and turned at 19th Street towards Virginia Avenue and went towards Rock Creek Parkway in the direction of the Kennedy Center. The runners passed the Lincoln Memorial along Independence and near the World War II Memorial they crossed the five mile mark. The race had begun to thin out as the pace was increasing.

Sendeku was setting the pace for the males as he passed five miles 23:24 with Maiyo and Cheseret in close pursuit with 24:02. The Brazilians were still in the hunt as de Almeida crossed in 24:07 followed by de Silva in 24:23. WCAP Browne crossed five miles in 25:44.

There were a pack of females crossing five miles in 28:17 which included Dengera, Biset, Tringo-Getachew, and Rice. Koch crossed in 28:45.

The top master was Edmund Burke of Team Pacers/New Balance in a time of 26:15. WCAP team manger LTC Liam Collins crossed in 26:50. Collins was running for his 12th time and has posted a best finish of 52:48 in 1997. In 2010 he ran 54:22 which placed him seventh in the 35-39 age group. This year he was running as a master (age 40 and over). The 2003 master winner (53:14), John Clopeck crossed five miles in 27:37. In the

mix was the 2006 winner (53:25) Marty Muchow and the two-time winner (’07-54:31, ’08-53:04) Mike Scannell.

The defending master winner (58:52) Peggy Yetman of team Potomac River Running crossed five miles in 29:47 followed by Harvey in 30:42. The other masters included Martha Merz and Linda Sawvell.

The race course proceeded up the long stretch of Independence Avenue to 4th Street for a left turn at the 10K mark prior to reaching Jefferson Drive. The dominate leader was Sendeku crossing in 29:18. Maiyo and Cheseret both crossed in 29:57. Trailing not in the far distant was de Almeida in 30:05 followed closely by da Silva with 30:21. The race was slowly being put out of reach of the chase pack.

Going into the 10K mark were Dengera, Biset, and Tringo-Getachew crossing in 35:13. Rice was holding fourth place with a 35:15 and still in the hunt. Koch trailed in fourth place with 35:46.

Once back on Independence Avenue the runners had over a mile of flat surface before a turn was to be made at 14th Street to reach the rolling hills of the HOV Lanes going back to the Pentagon. The stage was set as the leaders for both the males and females were holding down their positions.

Sendeku was not to be denied a second year as he sailed across the finish in 47:51 the fifth fastest winning time. Dan Browne was the last American to win the event in 2004. Maiyo took second place followed by Cheseret both with 48:21. Frankc de Almeida was third with a time 48:42. In fifth place was Clodoaldo da Silva with 48:56.

“Overall the Army 10 Miler was great, lots of fans throughout the course, which makes you work that extra hard, especially when they are cheering you and saying 'Go All Army", it is the best spectator race that I have ever participate in, great. Parachute team and the singing of the National Anthem before the race makes the event that much exciting, motivating and entertaining. Watching the wounded warriors compete makes you appreciate their efforts and makes you want to go out there and do the best just for them” stated Cheseret.

Tezata Dengera was able to maintain the lead and took top honors with a 56:35 and the fourth fastest winning time. Biset was second with 56:40 followed by Tiringo-Getachew in third with 56:44. Amamda Rice was first American and fourth with a time of 57:17. Erin Koch took fifth in 57:48.

“I was nervous at first knowing there were several top runners from the other armed forces competing, but I found myself keeping up in front fairly easily. The top three finishers, I have to admit, were unexpected. But I held on to them as much as possible during the race. The Washington post wrote in their article I was the “uninvited guest" and was able to keep pace until the last mile”, stated Navy Lt. Rice.

“I was looking for a good race after my Philly half marathon to see where I was at in my training in terms of conditioning. Being an active duty naval officer, I had a keen interest in running with the other armed forces and wounded warriors. It was a privilege to run amongst these men and women. I am a chaser. I love dueling with another runner at the end of a race. This tests both physical and mental strength. There are a lot of mental tricks I use to defeat exhaustion and fatigue. This has been the hardest and most rewarding part of racing. I still have a long ways to go to becoming a better runner”, Rice added.

This was the second closet winning time between first and second place. The closest was in 1990 between Russian teammates Olga Markova and Albina Galiamova who had 58:15 and Markova was credited with the win.

The winning master was Edmund Burke of Pacer/New Balance with 52:57 the 11th fastest winning time. The runner up was Mike Scannell with 53:39 followed by Liam Collins in 54:13.

Peggy Yetman made a successful defense of her master’s title by running a 1:00:04 the fifth fastest winning time. The time Yetman ran in 2010 (58:52) was the second fastest winning time. In second was Alisa Harvey with 1:02:00 followed by Martha Merz in 1:05:23.

“My plan was to start out comfortably and conservatively in pacing, hold onto that pace and possibly negative split if feeling good the second half. I had a very small taper going into ATM this year due to training for Ironman Cozumel next month. Going into the race I wanted to keep my ironman training momentum going while having a respectable ATM race performance. ATM always brings out a very competitive field with many talented runners to keep me on my toes”, stated Yetman.

Yetman continued, “First of all this has become one of my favorite DC area races. ATM is very well organized and supported given all the logistics required in running a large race. ATM is also one of my family's favorite races. While Mom is in race mode, my husband and two young children enjoy visiting the various Army booths learning new advancements in technology and collecting souvenirs as they thank our troops. Our 8 year old son carried around his bag of goodies at ATM this year saying, "This is better than trick or treat."

The closest competition in the history of the International Army as WCAP made a successful defense with 3:16:05 to 3:16:09 over Brazil. The WCAP scoring members were Augustus Maiyo, Robert Cheseret, John Mickowski, and Charles Ware III.

The Brazilian Army team members included Frankc de Almeida, Clodoaldo Da Silva, Reginaldo Campos, Jr., and Cicero da Rocha.

The Commander’s Cup for the men was captured by Fort Bragg with a team time of 3:42:29. The scoring members were Hilary Cheruiyot, Jeffrey Glick, Jordan Ritenour,

and Matthew Taverner. The record was set in 2000 by the Fort Carson men with a time of 3:19:36.

The Fort Bragg women captured the Commander’s Cup for the 10th time since 1997 with a time of 4:24:20. The scoring members were Ashley Keller, Amy Walters, Kala Stahl, and Katie Durham. The Fort Bragg team set the record in 2004 with 4:19:16.

“My plan heading into the race was to run fairly conservative for the first five miles. It was a new course and I did not want to get myself into to much trouble early on in the race where I would be struggling to hang on to the pace. I wanted the last mile of the race to be my fastest. I was lucky to be able to execute my plan the way I wanted to. The level of competition at the 10 miler gets better every year. More and more talented runners are entering the race so you have to improve your time every year or get left behind”, stated WCAP Captain John Mickowski finishing in 10th place with 49:37.

“For me place is definitely the most important aspect of the race. Race conditions change every year as far as the layout of the course, the temperature outside, and other factors such and wind. Place is the most important factor in determining the outcome of race because conditions can greatly effect your time regardless of what kind of shape you are in. WCAP has allowed me to train and maximize my ability. Without it I definitely would not be at the level I am at today”, Mickowski adds.

“I wanted to start off running around 5:05/mile and get quicker as the race went on. That strategy worked, for the most part, and I ran a 49:46. The competition was very solid and 12 people ran under 50:00 is quite good. My motivation when I race is to seek to glorify God in all that I do, including running. I wanted to run for the All-Army Team” stated 1LT Charles Ware III, WCAP, finishing in 49:46.

“My strategy was to go out in the first mile in a mid-to-low 4:50 mile and just try to hold on to sub-5 minute mile pace as long as I could. I had previously run a 1:05:32 and a 1:06:09 in two half marathon previously, so I knew I would be close to 5:00 pace or hopefully under. The Army Ten-Miler is one of the biggest 10-mile races, just not in the country, but in the world. Being on the All-Army team, our main competition is against the Brazilians. I can always count on the Army Ten-Miler being a very competitive race, especially with the Brazilians. We've been fortunate to beat them the past two years, but they keep bringing a better team each year. Luckily, both teams the past two years have brought their A game” stated Captain Kenneth Foster, Army WCAP finishing in 50:20.

Foster adds, “I would say I'm not overly concerned about place, unless it is a specific event. Most of the races I do are road races and each road race is different in varying difficulty. What I'm most concerned about when I come to a race is usually time, but as long as the effort is 100%, I'm never upset if the time isn't there in a race. I've learned a lot about myself and about my running just in the past year of being on WCAP. I know what my body can and cannot do, or at least has trouble doing.”

“The number of guys working in the high 49s low 52's seems to have gotten much deeper 5

recently. Used to be lonely after the first 2 or 3 miles if you were running 51-52, now there's 4-6 guys right around you and a pack of 4-6 charging just in front of you. I used to sneak into the top10 every couple years. Don't see 51:00 being top ten anytime soon”, stated LTC Keith Matiskella of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas finishing 3rd age group 35- 39 in 51:18 (18th place). Matiskella made his ATM debut in 1997 (50:49).

Matiskella continues, “I'm always looking for time since I'm my biggest competition. I do get stoked about racing the other Army guys so getting ahead of as many of them as possible is something that pushes me during the race. As I've gotten older and had life (kid, deployments, job) affecting how much/well I can train, taking the fitness I have on that day and getting as close to the maximum effort I can do has become more important than what the clock actually reads (faster is better though)”.

“The level of competition was top-notch of course, and while the top guys are out of my league at this point, even the local competition was tough. Our club has a friendly rivalry with the Pacers so it was a great opportunity to compete against those guys. My motivation is to continue to improve while I still have opportunity to train at a high level. I'm in a situation right now where I have a good club and a great coach, and I've been lucky to stay healthy for a long stretch of time, so I just want to make the most of it while things are going well:, stated Sam Luff of GRC finishing in 51:18 (3rd age group 20-24).

“I picked the Army Ten-Miler because outside of MCM, it is the marquee event of the fall racing circuit in DC. It's a well run race, and it's inspiring to see the service men and women come together and compete. Seeing them stand at attention during the national anthem, and seeing the wounded warriors out there on the course definitely sent some chills down my spine. It's a powerful reminder to be thankful for all they do for the rest of us”, Luff adds.

“My strategy for the 10 miler this year was to start off a bit conservatively and pick up the pace every mile. This year there was plenty of competition for me, it always seemed like there was someone near me, and usually someone for me to try to chase down. Place in a race with competition is more important because I'm racing other people, not the clock. My motivation in a race is the same as everything I do, to do my best. I know how disappointed I'll be later if I don't race hard, so I make sure I don't give in to tiredness. I really enjoy the Army 10 miler, that's why I chose it. I don't view myself as a long distance runner, I like 5Ks. The Army Ten-Miler does not make me cringe like some other 10 mile races do”, stated Will Viviani of Team Pacers/New Balance finishing in 51:24.

“My strategy was to make sure I start at the front to go out with the leaders and hang as long as possible. I always like to compete to win, not to get a faster time. My challenges were mainly trying to keep up with athletes coming from the back and passing me. My motivation is hoping and thinking that someday I can make the WCAP. The ATM is a very organized race. Lots of Armed forces competition. And it is very close to New York, where most of my family is” stated Captain Elias Gonzalez of Tampa, Fla., finishing in 52:42.

“My strategy was to find the lead Masters runners - there were about 5 of us - and compete head to head with them. By the 800, I had found the top 3 or 4 master’s and we ran in a pack. From there, the pace, the race, is controlled more by the decisions of the pack (and competitors) than by me. But my initial thoughts were that we would run 5:15 pace and that panned out. We were on that pace for the first 5 miles or so” stated Mike Scannell, first 45-49 and second master in a time of 53:39.

Scannell adds, “You get a solid group of master guys at your race every year. Heck, my teammates alone provide a very competitive field each year. There are few 10 mile races in the US that have better masters runners competing. I love being a part of a team. My motivation is to lead my team as I feel obligated to run well and place well for our team score. We have been fortunate to have several guys with this mindset so our team has won the Masters Men's event a few times. 'I'm hooked.' You only need to run it once before you get hooked on the event. My teammates are hooked as well. We'll be back until you kick us out”.

“My strategy for this race was to run a nice consistent race and not get caught up going out too fast. My strategy was to run the first half at 5:20 pace and see if I could hold it. I ran right on pace through 5 or 6, but then slowed down a little over the last few miles, so my strategy worked. Ultimately, my motivation comes from within. I enjoy the competition and like to push myself. When I'm in the race, I try to push myself to run the best that I can given my level of fitness. I passed more people over the last 5 miles than passed me, so I know I ran a good race”, stated LTC Liam Collins, Army WCAP team manager finishing in 54:13 as the third master. In 1997 Collins ran 52:48 which was good for seventh place.

Collins adds, “I think it is the ATM is the best race in the world, at least for an Army runner. I've done everyone since 1993 (with the exception of 2000 when I had a broken leg). It is like a reunion to see friends from around the Army at the race. The best part is the team competition within the race. If I only do one race a year, this is it which is saying something because the ten-mile distance is not my favorite. I learned once again that I'm fighting a losing battle with age, but I'm holding up fairly well.”

“The Army Ten-Miler is one of the best managed events in the DC area, and I've always liked the 10 mile distance. It came into line with my marathon build up, so I was happy to go out and experience the event. I was impressed with the level of organization that was put on display, despite the race being so large. I was also excited to be a part of the team competition for Potomac River Running, as groups like Pacers & Georgetown Running Co. have a much more substantial record of participating in team oriented events. Over the next year or two I hope that our store can begin to show up and all race consistently at these types of events”, stated Dave Miller finishing in 54:15.

“The level of competition at Army Ten-Miler was phenomenal. I am from Jacksonville, FL, home of the Gate River Run 15k - a USA National Championship race. I placed 71st

there this year and 79th at Army 10. I had a better race at GRR, but I still think that says a lot for the Army 10 Miler. The course was difficult; it was deceivingly hilly. I also had to bring it in hard to not get "girl'ed" at the end of the race. I believe I was the last guy to not be beat by a girl. Haha”, stated Tripp Southerland finishing in 56:34.

“My strategy was to run a smart race like I did in 2010 (59:36). I was hoping to run the second half quicker than the first half. I ended up running even pace, maybe slightly faster depending on what finish time you go by, the first five miles was 30:10. The level of competition featured a number of outstanding athletes. My main goal was to try to defend my title as M55 age division champion, which I was fortunate in doing so. I'm proud to have done as well as I did this year as well as 2010”, stated Maurice Pointer of Baltimore, Md., finishing in 1:00:20 for first in the age group 55-59. In 1997 Point ran 57:17.

“For me the most challenging part of the race was the stretch from when I turned on to 395 HOV Lanes to the finish because it was a battle within my self to preservere when I was feeling fatigued from the hard effort as well as using mental strength to get me across the finish. My main motivation when I race is give my best effort. I feel that if I gave it my best effort, no matter where I ended up, I would accept that. I enjoy running the Army Ten-Miler. It is a great event. You and all involved do a great job putting it on. I look forward in coming back in 2012 to run again”, Pointer adds.

“My motivation to run this was race was to achieve a new 10 mile PR in preparation for the US Olympic Trials Marathon 2012. I also love running this race because it is especially inspiring to run past the Wounded Warriors. Their determination to finish the Army 10 Miler inspires me every time! It also really helps put my own running into perspective; I am eternally grateful to have the opportunity to run every day”, stated Caitlin Chrisman of Charlotte, NC finishing in 9th place with 58:34. In 2009 Chrisman placed 10th in 1:00:50.

“My strategy going into the race was to go out conservatively (between 5:50-5:55 pace) with my best friend Meagan Nedlo and to negative split. Time was important, while place really didn’t matter to me. I wanted to have fun racing and pushing myself against my teammate. Each year the competition at Army Ten-Miler seems to get stronger and stronger, so I just wanted to achieve a new PR”, adds Chrisman.

“My best friend and training partner, Caitlin Chrisman, had run the race before and had nothing but positive things to say, so when she asked me if I'd like to run it with her this year I said yes without hesitation. Without knowing it at that time, this would end up being a very special race for the two of us as it was the last race we were able to run together before I moved up to Boston”, stated Meagan Nedlo of Charlotte, N.C., in 10th place with a time of 58:56 ( a personal best).

Nedlo adds, “Caitlin and I looked up some past results the night before and noticed that in recent years it has gotten significantly more competitive. I believe I could've won or placed in the top three of some previous years' races with my time, but this year I was

fighting for a top 10 spot. I think that says a lot about the quality of the field and the current depth of women's distance running in general”.

“To be honest I hadn't given much thought to time or placement, until around mile 7 when I saw Jordan (coach/boyfriend) on the course and he shouted that I was in the top 10. (I think I was actually 11th or 12th at the time, but he was well-intentioned.) At that moment I resolved to not let anyone else pass me so I could hold that top 10 spot. As it happened, I passed two more girls but still ended up finishing 10th”, stated Nedlo.

“This is the first 10 mile race I’ve ever completed. My goal was to run just under 6 minutes per mile and break one hour for the entire race. I’m proud to say that I was successful! I ended up running 59:04...I was so close to breaking 59 minutes, so my goal for next year will have to be to break 59! The Army 10 miler hosts some excellent competition! The top athletes were either Ethiopian or Kenyan (runners renowned for their endurance and speed). The superb competition offered at the race was one of the primary reasons I was interested in competing in it”, stated Sara Petrick of Apollo Beach, Fla. (University of Florida).

Petrick continues, “I often feel I have something special to share with others through my running. I know that I am very fortunate to be able to run as there are several others who can’t do so. This actually reminds of a moment in the Army 10 miler when I passed a double amputee on artificial legs...I normally don’t talk during races in order to conserve energy, but I was so touched by his strength and courage that I voiced a surprisingly loud, “Great job...keep it up!” The mood was infectious and other runners around me started to voice (between deep and labored breathing) their encouragement as well! It was a very special memory that I have of the race.”

Petrick comments on place versus time, “Some races offer prize money to the top male and female athletes; in these types of races, placement is often more important than time. However, in other races, I may be more focused on time. For example, last year, I set a goal to break 2:46 in the marathon in order to qualify for the Olympic Trials. I eventually did qualify at the Houston marathon running 2:45:23. In that race, I didn’t care at all about what place I was in...my only concern was whether I was at or under the pace needed to qualify. In the Army Ten-Miler, I made both a time and place goal. As I mentioned earlier, one of my goals going into the race was to break one hour”.

“My coach, Jerry Alexander of Georgetown Running Company, suggested this race to me. I usually race between 5 and 10k, and we thought this would be a great opportunity for me to try something longer. The level of competition at ATM was excellent! I had plenty of people to run with during the race. I go into every race with a set of goals, but I also try to enjoy the experience. At ATM this year, the enthusiasm of the crowd made it a really fun race”, stated Anna Holt-Gosselin finishing in 59:31 (13th place).

“This race was definitely a challenging one for me. Mainly because within the first mile I felt like it was not a good race day for me. My body was not feeling 100%, which eventually lead to my mind not being 100% on my side. I just felt flat from the

beginning, which was probably to be expected with me racing it in the middle of my marathon training. Early on I fell off my pace and our pack broke up a bit, which was frustrating. My negative thinking about how I was performing and feeling got the best of me at times, but around mile 7 I started to feel a little more 'together' and picked myself up mentally to finish with negative splits for the last 5k. This felt pretty good in retrospect because I was able work hard through some negative thinking and start racing the last 3/4 of the race. I learned that sometimes your mind is stronger than your body and when you put it to good use it can strengthen your body. This was a great learning experience for me bbecause I know I am not going to feel 100% at every race”, stated Kate Dart of Team Georgetown Running Company (GRC) finishing in 1:01:44 (19th place).

Dart continues,”The competition, hard work, inner strength and determination are what motivate me to race. I am also motivated by constantly wanting to challenge myself and try to improve. Another big motivation is the running community in this area that keeps me coming back for more runs and races. I selected ATM bbecause it is a large local, competitive race. It is also a really great race bbecause it acknowledges our military - seeing them out there running or volunteering is very encouraging.

“My goal was to remain comfortable and steady for the first five miles and then to slowly build the last five miles. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a great day, so the race wasn’t executed as planned. The Army Ten-Miler always has great competition. I was in a really nice place this year, having three of my teammates (with the Georgetown Running Company) racing with me, so I knew that I would have some great competition and support from them,” stated Susan Hendrick finishing in 1:04:23.

“I didn’t perform nearly as well as I wanted, so I faced a lot of mental challenges on that particular day. No matter how any race day plays out, there were some great lessons learned, and it just feeds the fire for the next race. I love the Army Ten-Miler. I did it once when I was in high school and have been fascinated by it ever since. In my mind, it is the epitome of a great D.C. road race, with so much hometown support. Also, the course is flat and fast – and there is always competition,” Hendrick add.

“It was inspiring to look ahead and see thousands of heads bobbing along the course, all with one common goal - make it to the finish, as fast as possible! More inspiring still were the moments I caught sight of wounded veterans running on prosthetic legs or hand cranking their way alongside the masses, most of whom were clapping and cheering while fighting tears at the strength of these warriors' courage”, stated Megan Finck of Washington finishing in 1:32:18 (net time).

Finck continues, “As expected, I didn't PR at the race. However, I did beat my most recent 10-miler time by two minutes, and I felt strong at the finish. I also finished within the top 25% of all females who raced that day, which I count as a personal victory. Given that I was an obese child/teenager and ran my first complete mile as a freshman in college, I continue to be amazed by the achievements I've been able to accomplish over the past few years as I've become increasingly enthralled with running. It's truly been one

of the best discoveries of my adult life, and I look forward to many great races - the likes of ATM - that lie ahead. Looks like next year I'll be setting my alarm for midnight of registration day”.

Last Upcoming Races for 2011

2011-10-27T16:18:00.010-07:00

Like I said in my last update, I've made a few adjustments in my training. I have 3 races left for the 2011 year and we'll see if the training adjustment will come to fruition. Regardless of the outcome of these final 3 races, 2011 has been a great year. I've seen improvement like never before and I've been able to increase the training load from years past. I've adopted some of the training that Renato Canova has his athletes focused on which is progression runs. I've been doing that for my hard days as well as my easy days. I might start my recovery run at 7:30 pace, but by the end of the run I'm going to try and hit my marathon race pace for the final mile, two, or three. Below is what I've done since my last update:

Sunday, 10/16 - Endurance Run with Chris Barnicle (21 miles total), Ran 45 minutes easy in the evening

Monday, 10/17 - Easy run for 90 minutes (No PM run)

Tuesday, 10/18 - 3 mile w/u, 5 x 2k Bear Creak Loops (6:25 - 6:28), 2.5 cool down - (Jack Quinn's run in the PM)

Wednesday, 10/19 - 80 minutes at Woodland Park w/ Chirlee, 40 minutes easy in the PM

Thursday, 10/20 - 80 minutes very easy on the Monument Valley Trail (No PM run)

Friday, 10/21 - 3.5 mile w/u, 3 x 2 mile repeats (9:58, 10:01, 10:19), 2 x 1 mile (5:15, 5:05), 3.5 mile c/d

(45 minutes in the PM)

Saturday, 10/22 - 1 hour 50 minutes easy on the Monument Valley Trail

Week Mileage: 121 Miles

Unfortunately, I will be no longer be with the Army WCAP program effective November 4th. It was a great opportunity and a great experience. Their standard for me was to break 1:05 for the half marathon or 2:22 for the marathon. When I ran my 1:05:32 half marathon back in June, my coach at the time, informed me that it was an equivalent standard. I knew I still needed to run under 1:05 for a half or 2:19 for a full to get the Marathon Olympic Trials standard, but in terms of WCAP, I thought I was good to go. A week before the Philadelphia Half Marathon in September, I was informed that I had to break 1:05 or I would be off the program. Not sure if it was a lack of training or just mental, perhaps both, but I ended up running over 30 seconds slower in Philly than I did in Seattle.

It's unfortunate that the people who govern WCAP are not distance runners. When I had entered the program back in July 2010, my personal best for the half marathon was 1:09:39 and I've lowered that time by over 4 minutes. In basically less than a month's time as well, as I was out for 3 months last year due to a random disease (Rickettsia Typhii) that I ended up getting while traveling to the 2010 Army 10-Miler.

After the 2011 Army 10-Miler, I've been able to hit the reset button a little bit, not focus on running for WCAP, and just focus on what is best for me. Here are my last upcoming races for the 2011 year:

Golden Gallop 10k - November 6th

Santa Barbara International Half Marathon - November 12th

California International Marathon - December 4th

Training in Colorado Springs has been great and I'm excited that I'll be here for at least another year until I have to attend the Military Intelligence Captain's Career Course in Fort Huachuca, AZ starting November 2012. After that, Christie and I are hoping to relocate back to Colorado, possibly even Colorado Springs. I'm hoping that training for the 2016 Olympics will be much better in the sense that I'll have a consistent group of people to train with. Below is a video I just saw recently of the Hansons-Brooks training video for the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials. I've heard mixed reviews about running for Hanson's, but I think it would be a perfect fit for me if only this group would be at altitude.

Hansons-Brooks

Plus I wish I had moves like this dude!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXO-jKksQkM

October - Army 10 Miler

2011-10-17T10:57:00.011-07:00

I've made a few adjustments in the past few weeks with my training and I believe that I am starting to feel the benefits. I'm finishing workouts feeling strong and in control. It hasn't paid off in any races yet, but I believe I need to simply have patience and the improvements in racing will come. My races haven't been necessarily bad, but I guess like all competitive athletes, we just want more from ourselves.

October has been a pretty good month of training thus far. I've been able to train consistently with some of the guys from WCAP in speed workouts such as Robert, Augustus and John. In addition to training with these great athletes, I've been able to do endurance workouts and progression runs with some athletes from the American Distance Project, including Tommy and Chris.

Although training started picking back up from after my calf strain in August, I can definitely tell that I had lost a step or two in my stride. Although September and October thus far have been two great months of training, both races I've done in these months have not gone as I had planned. The half marathon in Philly was a pretty big disappoint although it was my 2nd fastest half marathon I've ever run. My goal heading into the race was to improve upon my 1:05:32 in which I had run in Seattle and maintain 4:57 per mile pace for a sub-1:05. I started falling off pace as early as 8 miles and although I went through 10 miles in a PR of 49:56, I was only able to manage 5:06 pace in the last 8 kilometers. I'm hoping that the increase in long runs of 16-24 miles will help build the strength that I am lacking for late in these races. Regardless, I'm happy with the improvement I've made in 2011 in the half marathon:

2011 Half Marathons:

January, US Half Marathon Championships: 1:09:01

April, Half Marathon in Rotterdam: 1:07:53

June, Seattle RnR Half Marathon: 1:05:32

September, Philly RnR Half Marathon: 1:06:09

It was basically the same story, different distance in the Army 10 Miler. Thankfully, we were still able to win the team title for the 2nd straight year against the Brazilians. I felt strong at 8k 24:35, but shortly after I went through the 10k in 30:46, I started to fall off pace. I don't know if I start to get lazy towards the latter half of a race or if I'm just putting that type of work in during practice. Hopefully the training I'm doing now will help fix this issue for the coming races in November and December.

I'm currently training for the Santa Barbara International Half Marathon on November 12th. I plan on going into that race with relatively high mileage the week before so when I go into the California International Marathon on December 4th with fresh legs, I'll feel that much better.

------------------------------------------------------------------

October 2011

(Week before the Army 10-miler)

10/2: 14 mile recovery run with Robert and Augustus (1:37:08)

10/3: 12 miles easy + 5 x 100m strides

10/4: 3 1/2 mile warm up, 8 x 800m repeats (2:22 - 2:26), 2 mile cool down

PM: 5 1/2 miles easy in the evening (40:12)

10/5: 11.5 miles easy in 1:22:08

10/6: 8.5 miles easy in 1:02:41 on the Monument Valley Trail

10/7: Flew into Washington D.C. for the Army 10 Miler

PM: 6 miles easy with Robert, Augustus and John in 45:12

10/8: Pre race-day jog - 5 miles easy with the All-Army Team in Washington D.C. + 5 x 15 second striders

72 miles for the week

------------------------------------------------------------------

10/9: Army 10 Miler in 50:20 (14th place overall) + 3 mile w/u and 3 mile c/d

10/10: AUSA Conference - Took the day off

10/11: Flew back to Colorado Springs in the morning

PM: 14 miles in 1:30:01 on the monument valley trail

10/12: 16.2 mile endurance run (1:45:39)

PM: 7 miles easy in evening

10/13: 2.5 mile warm up, 8 mile progression run with Augustus (5:52, 5:42, 5:31, 5:28, 5:27, 5:12, 5:13, 5:22 - averaged 5:28) 2.5 mile cool down

PM: 5 1/2 miles in the evening easy

10/14: Ran 13.3 miles with Christie on a hilly course around our apartment up by Blodget Peak

10/15: Ran 14.6 miles easy on the monument valley trail in 1:34:45

100 miles for the week

September Workouts

2011-10-17T10:13:00.009-07:00

I don't know if I'm going to continue posting my workouts and weekly mileage in the future, but my plans are to run the 2011 California International Marathon on December 4th, so up until that race, I'm going to update my audience (hopefully on a weekly basis) on my progress in training.

Below is what I've done since the Philadelphia Half Marathon on September 18th.

September 2011

9/18 - Philly Half Marathon in 1:06:09 - 28th place overall

9/19 - 12 1/2 mile recovery (1:29:50)

9/20 - 16.1 miles - long recovery (1:48:30)

9/21 - AM: 3 mile warm up, 15 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy (30:12), 2 mile cool down

PM: 6.1 mile easy run in 43:35

9/22 - AM: 10.7 mile run with Tommy and Chris 1:14:09

PM: 5.4 mile easy run in the evening (40:28)

9/23 - 10.4 miles easy in 1:11:21

9/24 - AM: 12.5 miles easy in 1:25:44

PM: 4 miles easy in the evening

106 miles for the week

9/25 - 15 1/2 mile endurance run in 1:43:45

PM: 6 miles easy in the evening (39:12)

9/26 - 11.4 miles in 1:22:49

9/27 - 3 mile w/u, 8 x 1k all between 2:52 and 3:00, 3 mile c/d

9/28 - 13.5 mile recovery run in 1:37:05

9/29 - 12.4 miles total with 4 miles at 5:29, 5:19, 5:16, and 5:28

PM: 5 1/2 miles easy in 40:05

9/30: 8 miles easy

10/1: 2 1/2 mile warm up, 6 x 1200m Broadmoor loops (3:38 - 3:52) 3 1/2 mile cool down

96 miles for the week

What a Roller Coaster!! My One-Year Overview

2011-06-25T17:45:00.006-07:00

June 25, 2011

As I laid in my hotel bed with the legs propped up on pillows, relaxing my body after a taxing 1/2 marathon earlier today, I decided it was time for an update on the website. It’s crazy to think that it has been almost one full year that I’ve had the privilege of being a member of the US Army’s World Class Athlete Program. This has definitely been the best year of my life with all the adventures as well as living in the state of Colorado. I feel that my fitness level has achieved a level that I have never even come close to before. As I think of all the races I’ve done this past year, I can’t think of what a roller coaster the past 12+ months have been. Today in Seattle for the 1/2 Marathon, I averaged exactly 5:00 per-mile pace, running well over a 2-minute personal best with an official time of 1:05:31. Exactly one year ago today, June 25, 2010, I was out in the New Mexican desert on a 30-day field training exercise. This time last year I remember was pretty crazy. Running wasn’t even close to a priority at this time with the responsibilities of leading Soldiers. However, my orders for WCAP had just come down the pipe from Army Human Resources Command and in less than a month I would be moving up to Colorado. I was so excited to start this new journey in my life, but at the same time I felt like I was letting down my Soldiers. I had been in charge for a little over 9 months and our platoon was finally getting to a point where everyone was on the same page and things were clicking. After a long talk with my Troop Commander and Platoon Sergeant, we new the incoming PL would be fine and that was easily the most reassuring part of having to leave my platoon. By mid-July 2010 my time was over in Fort Bliss and my new journey in Colorado was about to begin.

What a roller coaster this past year has truly been. Once I arrived in Colorado Springs, I adjusted to the 6,000 - 7,000 ft. elevation as quickly as I could and literally “ran with it.” The next month, August, Christie and I married, honeymooned in Jamaica for 4-1/2 days, then I was back to business. September was filled with great training in preparation for the Army 10-miler in October. Trying to keep up with WCAP teammates - Robert Cheseret, Nate Pennington, Troy Harrison, and John Mickowski greatly benefited my running and I prospered that next month in competition. At the Army 10-miler I ran a personal best time of 50:26 for 10-miles and finished 4th on the team to give us the edge over our Brazilian rivals. What transpired next I don’t think anyone could have predicted.

One short week after the Army 10-miler I was still suffering from joint pain and muscle fatigue that I figured was simply post race symptoms mixed in with a bad cold/fever. One week later with the same symptoms and I found out that I had somehow contracted an infectious disease known as Rickettsia Typhii. This disease is contracted by a flea bite (.....yep) that has a bacteria known as rickettsia rickettsii. Little did I know I would spend the next 6 weeks either on the couch or in bed with over a 103-degree fever. I would wake up in the middle of nights with a pool of sweat around me. Horrible, horrible, horrible disease. By Christmas I was back to doing speed workouts, but I had easily lost all fitness as well as all of the red blood cells I had accumulated through workouts at altitude. The beginning of 2011 was tough. My first race back I opened up with the US Half Marathon Championships. Perhaps not the best idea to run your first race back. Although I technically did run a new personal best time, I felt my 1:09:01 performance was well below my capabilities. I’m not even sure what I placed...I never checked, but maybe top-50. The NEXT week I did another race....this time the US Cross Country Championships for the All-Army team. I’m not even good at cross country, but they didn’t really have anyone who could take my place. Once again, maybe a top-50 performance, ran 39:58 for 12k. After that, I was able to train hard for 6 weeks and get ready for the US 15k Championships in Jacksonville, FL. By the time mid-March rolled around I was finally getting some good leg turnover and I had a performance I was satisfied with. Although I still placed high (36th) I ran 46:31 for 9.3 miles averaging 4:59 per mile.

By April, my coach and I thought I was ready to tackle a marathon. We traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to Rotterdam, Netherlands only to find out I was not ready to run a marathon just yet. I did accomplish a PR at the half marathon distance (1:07:53), but I fell the $*&# apart at 30k. Not just going from 5:15 pace to 5:20-5:30-5:40, but from 5:15 pace to practically stopping. Never had my legs felt so bad in a race. My legs locked up....my arms locked up....every muscle just STOPPED in my body. I basically had to walk and jog from 30k to the finish. Unfortunately can’t quit out of a race that WCAP funds. Rotterdam was a learning experience and I treated it as just that. I didn’t look at it as a complete failure. Although I didn’t get my Olympic Trials ‘A’ Standard, I did come away with knowledge about the marathon I never had before.

I took a restorative training period of 2 weeks with very easy and light running. By the first week of May I was ready to train hard again and get back into the weekly training routine. Opened up in Cleveland with a 30:49 10k, which was a high note. I was happy to run 4:57 pace with only 2 weeks of speed training prior to that race. Went to Boulder for the Bolder Boulder 10k. Low note. Ran 32:48....at altitude, but still...had great workouts the next 2 weeks after Bolder Boulder, then traveled to Carmel, Indiana for the US Men’s 8k Championships. I could not sleep at ALL the night before this race. I was literally scared $#!*less going into this race. I’m not sure of the exact number of athletes registered for the championship race, but I’m not really known for my speed...so running the 8k distance is a sprint for me and I max out at 4:55 pace with distances over 5 kilometers. Luckily the conditions weren’t favorable with the humidity and the course wasn’t a scorcher. I placed 16th overall, which wasn’t bad and I maxed my pace with a time of 24:27 (4:55 per mile). I was actually looking to run a sub-24 that day, but didn’t quite have it in me. I wasn’t overly excited about that race, but I wasn’t entirely disappointed either.

After Carmel, I came back to Colorado Springs, ran easy on Sunday, then had a killer workout on Monday, June 13th. I ran myself so hard that I was buried on the couch for the rest of the day. My next scheduled workout was Wednesday....woke up Wednesday morning and I knew I wasn’t feeling it so I pushed it back to Thursday. Wasn’t feeling great on Thursday but went to the track anyways. The workout was 10 x 1k repeat at goal half marathon pace...so, anywhere from 2:58 - 3:05 w/ 200m jog in between. Went 3:02, 3:06, 3:12...done. Didn’t even cool down that day...no stretch, nothing...I was really irritated my body hadn’t recovered yet, but I did do the smart thing by taking the rest of the day off and running very easy on Friday. Luckily I had two great workouts before the Seattle Half Marathon so I did come into the race today with some confidence.

Today, however, things just clicked. I was planning on running a conservative first mile and going through in 5:01-5:05. Didn’t know the first mile would be as fast as it was. I was probably not even top-10 through the first mile and I went through in 4:51...the leaders went out in around 4:40. After seeing the first mile mark, I zoned out until 5k...I remember trying to tell myself to just slow down and be calm, but I would go through the 5k in 15:08. Mile 4 was a 5:16 and definitely the slowest mile of the day with the majority of it uphill. Mile 5 was the exact opposite and I believe I clicked off my fastest mile of the day with a 4:45. After that though the course was honest and generally flat until the big hill after the 8-mile mark. Ran miles 6-10 all around 4:58 - 5:08...crossed the 10-mile mark in 50:01. I knew at that moment I needed to run a sub-15 minute last 5k in order to get my Olympic Trials standard. Honestly I didn’t come into today’s race with the expectations of running under 1:05. I simply wanted to PR and I felt if I had a good day I’d run in the 1:06 range. I hadn’t done any tempo runs prior to the half marathon today after Rotterdam, just interval work, and I was really surprised to go through 10-miles today in a PR of 50:01. I ran as hard as could that last 5k but mixed with the lactic acid I simply didn’t have it. I ran the last 5k in about 15:30 and stopped my watch at 1:05:31. I was ecstatic when I crossed that finish line today and it was really good to have that feeling again. The feeling of knowing what you’re doing is actually paying off and you’re not wasting your time chasing dreams. Today was kind of like a validation for me. Up until this race today I knew I was running some faster time than I had previously, but I didn’t feel like I was really improving all that much.

(Start of the Seattle Full and Half Marathon - I'm on the far right in the yellow US Army jersey)

Well, to PR by over 2-minutes was definitely validating enough for me to know that I just need to stay on the path I’m on and things will continue to progress. My PR before today’s race was the 1:07:53 I ran half way at Rotterdam back in April and before that was a 1:09:01 that I ran after recovering from my sickness at the US Half Marathon Championships back in January.

It has definitely been a roller coaster these past 12 months, but I’m crossing fingers, praying at night and hoping the path I’m on continues to prosper. My next race will be a 10k in Atlanta, Georgia on July 4th (humidity...yep)....after that I’m going to try the half marathon distance again, heading to San Francisco on July 31st. Was hoping to run the Boilermaker 15k in Utica, NY but evidently I’m not good enough to get a bib number there so I’ll be dedicating that time back in the Springs. Had to give them a little shout out.

Cleveland Rite Aid 10k

2011-05-17T16:25:00.003-07:00

May 15, 2011

I recently ran in this year’s Cleveland Rite Aid 10k on May 15th in Cleveland, Ohio. It was good to get this race under my belt and get the taste of Rotterdam out of my mouth. I’ve always believed that you’re only as good as your last race and as harsh as that is, that’s also why I scheduled my next race as soon as I did. Rotterdam was a learning experience for me and I hope I benefit with my next marathon from it.

With the expectations and preparation I had for the 10k in Cleveland, I believe this race went as well as it could have for me. I was only 1 of 2 Americans this year in the elite field with Mario Macias from Alamosa, Colorado being this other American. Within the first 800 meters of the race, the lead pack was made up of 8...4 Kenyans, 1 Ethiopian, 1 Moroccan, myself and Mario. The first mile was generally uphill, but I had completely missed the mile marker, (if there even was one, but I heard from the other runners we were just under 5 minutes for the first mile) before I knew it we were already at two miles, but I was astonished when the clock said 9:55. Immediately the pace quickened. I latched on the back and went for the ride. One of the other runners went out the back door and we rolled the next mile going through 3 miles in 14:40. By the turn around en route through 4 miles I was starting to feeling the lack of speed preparation for this race and I fell off pace myself. From 4 miles until the finish I was in no-man’s land trying to close as much distance between me and lead pack. Between mile 5 and 6 I saw my old cross country coach, Mike Fraley, and it helped provide me with a second wind and I hammered home to the finish in 30:49, 9 seconds off my 10k best time in which I ran through the 10k split in Jacksonville at the 2011 Gate River Run (yes, my 10k PR is still a 10k split in which I ran in another race).

I have the Bolder Boulder 10k coming up at the end of May and then I’ll be traveling to Carmel, Indiana for the US Men’s 8k Championships. For the rest of this month I’ll be doing much more speed training and I’ll be looking to improve my 8k PR from 24:28 down to under 24 minutes.

Perhaps the best thing about this latest trip to Cleveland was the joy I had seeing college friends for the first time in a very long while, especially all of my teammates from MCXC!

2010 Army 10-Miler Personal Best Time!

2011-01-16T13:37:00.003-07:00

On October 26th, 2010 I competed on the All-Army Team in Washington D.C. for the Army 10-miler. This was the second consecutive year in which I had competed for the All-Army Team and ran in the Army 10-miler. In 2009, I ran my first 10-miler race and placed in the top 30 with a time of 52:26. For the past three years the All-Army team has been dominated by the Brazilian military team and this year was finally OUR year! Our team was led by Robert Cheseret, US 5k National Champion, posting a time of 48:20. Right behind Robert was Olympian Dan Browne with a time of 48:22. Brazil placed two runners after Dan Browne, posting times of 48:38 and 48:47. John Mickowski, 2012 Olympic Trials Qualifier was next for the All-Army team with a time of 49:40. Luckily, Brazil had not placed any more runners in between John Mickowski and myself. After passing 4 Brazilians at the 4-mile mark, I never looked back. I was hoping to run a sub-50 10-miler that day. I was on pace running right at 40 minutes at the 8-mile mark, but mile 9 was a killer and I ran a 5:20 9th mile. Finishing the last mile in 5:06 sealed our team's fate and I rounded out the scoring (top 4 score) with a 50:26.
Below is the competition scoring:

1	All Army Team			OAll: 1	03:16:47
	Name	Sex-Age	Time	Overall	Bib
	ROBERT CHESERET	M 27	0:48:20	3	11
	DANIEL BROWNE	M 35	0:48:22	4	1
	JOHN MICKOWSKI	M 24	0:49:40	10	7
	KENNETH FOSTER	M 24	0:50:26	12	6
	DARIN SHEARER	M 36	0:51:58	22	9
	NATE PENNINGTON	M 34	0:51:59	23	8
	BRIAN BUTZLER	M 27	0:52:17	24	5
	TROY HARRISON	M 35	0:53:22	31	10

2	Brazilian Army			OAll: 2	03:19:32
	Name	Sex-Age	Time	Overall	Bib
	CLODOALDO SILVA	M 34	0:48:38	6	23
	WILSON LIMA	M 21	0:48:47	7	21
	JOSE FERREIRA	M 35	0:50:52	15	3
	CICERO ROCHA	M 26	0:51:16	17	22
	PAULO SILVA	M 25	0:53:29	32	24
	REGINALDO CAMPOS	M 23	0:59:59	176	4

Still Here, Still Running

2010-03-06T17:35:00.003-07:00

The Marathon

I know it has been a very long time since the last time I posted on this blog, but I believe it is time to finally try and play a little catch up. Where to start?

I am currently at Fort Polk, Louisiana helping out as a T/M (trainer/mentor) @ the JRTC (Joint Readiness Training Center) with a unit who will be deploying soon to Afghanistan. I have not yet obtained orders for the World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), but I am anticipating they will be here in the near future. Aside from the time down here in Louisiana, training (running) has been going quite well in El Paso (Fort Bliss, Texas). I arrived in Louisiana earlier this week and I have been able to log in a decent amount of mileage, but unfortunately I have not been able to find a nearby track to do any type of speed workouts. I got in Wednesday morning and I have so far been able to do an 8 mile foundation run (Wednesday night), a 13 1/2 mile run on Thursday, a 60 minute fartlek workout on Friday - (2 minutes @ 5:00 minute pace or faster, 1 minute off, 1 minute @ 5:00 min. pace or faster, 5 minutes off) totalling a little over 13 miles with the warm-up and cool down, then another 12 1/2 mile recovery run today (Saturday). I am planning on doing another 6 miles easy later on tonight.

The past six months of training has been going extremely well and I am closer to my goal of qualifying for the 2012 Marathon Olympics Trials than ever before. I have been able to average somewhere between 70-90 miles a week with a few weeks eclipsing 100+ miles. In the past six months I have had three "breakthrough" races along with a very disappointing performance at the USATF Cross Country Championships in Spokane, Washington which took place last February over Valentine's Day weekend.

The first of the three "breakthrough" races took place at the Army 10-miler in Washington D.C. in early October. At that point in time I had been training underneath my newly appointed head coach, Lisa Rainsberger, for a little over 5 months. I had really only just scratched the surface with her training regimen, but I took the guidance she gave me via www.traininggoals.com and ran with it. I had been primarily doing 2x1x2 mile repeats and 4-mile tempo workouts on the track @ UTEP with 8-12 mile foundation efforts and 15-20 mile endurance runs. Although I was preparing myself for the Army 10-miler, the key race I was gearing towards was the California International Marathon in the first weekend of December. The Army 10-miler went out extremely fast led by Dan Browne with a couple Ethiopians. I tried my hardest to stick to my pace of 5:10, but still came through the first mile in 4:55 around 40th place. I continued my pace going through mile 4 and 5 in 20:20 and 25:25, would later suffer the consequences in miles 7-8. By mile 9 I knew I was close to the finish with a personal best time and finished respectively in the top 30 with a finishing time of 52:26 (5:15 pace). I felt content with my time of 52:26 considering I had set my college 5-mile (8k) personal best time twice over (26:18 - 2007 Roberts Wesleyan Invite).

The second of three "breakthrough" races came about 6 weeks later at the San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Half-Marathon meeting up with a few of my WCAP teammates, 2LT Nate Pennington and SSG Troy Harrison. I also got the pleasure of meeting the 50k American record holder, Josh Cox. I drove down to San Antonio from El Paso with a training partner and friend, Ibrahim Brashar, who actually used to run cross country and track for UTEP and qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Athens for the 1500m. The San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon was an interesting experience for me personally as an marathon runner, and it came with a bitter sweet finish. I went out in San Antonio with the same mind set I had in the Army 10-miler and I was expecting more or less the same outcome. I expected a fast start, to hold on for dear life at the end and come out with another personal best time. I had stuck to the same training plan I did in preparation for the Army 10-miler, I did a 5k or two on one of the weekends in El Paso, and I had tapered properly before the half marathon, running a little over 50 miles going into the race. I ended up going out in the first mile of the half marathon ironically right on pace in 5:10. What I didn't realize that day until after I finished the race was the humidity factor. Although the race was in mid-November in San Antonio, humidity at the start was a blistering 96% and I quickly paid the price for it along with everybody else. Times that day were all about 2-3 minutes slower than normal, so when I finished that day without a personal best time, initially I was confused and upset, but only in hindsight did I realize I had run rather respectively. I ended up 10th place overall right behind SSG Troy Harrison with a finishing time of 1:10:42. My goal was to get somwhere between 1:08:30 and 1:10, but sometimes the exterior forces just simply won't allow it.

My final "breakthrough" race came when it mattered most for me. I had run a respective 10-miler and half marathon, but none of those wouldn't have counted for anything if it didn't end with the marathon performance I was expecting. Because the marathon is such a long and enduring race, I went into Sacramento with a number of goals set aside for me that I knew I was capable of completing. My first goal was perhaps a little naive at that point in time, but definitely achievable. I wanted to qualify for the 2012 Marathon Olympic Trials. The only way to do that was to successfully get under 2 hours and 19 minutes for the 26.2 mile course, which is somewhere close to 5:18 per mile pace. My second goal was to get under 2 hours 22 minutes, which is currently the WCAP standard for the marathon. Since I am not officially on the WCAP program until I arrive in Colorado Springs, WCAP did not hold me to that standard. Although they politely paid for my air travel and hotel, they basically told me to just go out, have fun, and run your ass off. Easy enough. My third goal I had set for myself was just to simply get a personal best time, thus proving to myself that the past 6-8 months of training I had done after my bitter performance in Belgrade, Serbia during Armor Officer Basic Course was worthwhile. My previous personal best time for the marathon was 2:29:59 which I set at the Marine Corp Marathon back in October of 2008. I had run horribly in Belgrade, Serbia with a time of 2:39:50; however, after going through Armor Officer Basic Course, looking back I now know it was just not a realistic goal to train for the marathon and go through the 5-month course at the same time.

The starting line was freezing in December in Sacramento. Luckily I was in a heating tent with other elite athletes and it was extremely comforting to have Nate Pennington and Troy Harrison alongside to share the anxieties of the upcoming adventure. Since I had run relatively close to Troy Harrison for the majority of the San Antonio Half Marathon, I knew it would probably be in my best interest to try and pace off of him for the marathon. Little did I know before the start of the marathon, Troy and I would run side by side for the first 20 miles. Looking back on the 2009 California International Marathon, it was really quite a blur. I remember going through the first mile with about 50 athletes all within about 5 meters of me at 5:25 trying to find Troy. It wasn't until after the first mile did I finally find Troy and when I finally did find him he was already right beside me. Troy and I would work off of each other for the next 20 miles, using each other as a mental crutch, saying little encouraging phrases to one another, and also as a physical crutch, drafting off of each other, which was extremely beneficial after the headwind we hit at mile 15. Troy and I went through 5k in a little over 16:30, 10k 32:50, 10 miles at 53:00 and through the half marathon in exactly 1:09:39. I would actually hit both my half marathon and marathon best times this day. Going through the half marathon, I knew Troy and I were close to possibly getting under the 2:19 Marathon Olympic Trials standard, but it would take a negative split to get there. I had been conserving as much energy as possible at that point and although there were plenty of times where I just wanted to start sprinting up ahead, I also knew this was a 26.2 mile race. Troy and would hit all of our first 13 miles (except for mile #1: 5:25) under 5:20 pace. We continued our pace up to mile 15 when we took a left turn and hit a strong head wind. We ran our 15th mile at 5:40 and although we drafted off of each other specifically after that point, the damage had already been done. Although I felt stronger than ever between miles 15 and 20, the head wind was relentless and our miles grew longer.

I specifically remember hitting mile 20 and watching Troy create his space between me. Troy would increase his spacing between me to about 15 seconds apart in distance. At that point I had to make a mental decision to myself. I could throw in the towel and probably still end up with a respective time, or I could suck it up this last 10k and do what I came to Sacramento to do. All of this happening and going on in my head within about 10 seconds, I had already decided. New goal: Keep Troy Harrison in sight! For the next 5 miles I still felt "fast", but I also could feel the previous 15 miles of lactic acid accumulating in my calves, quads, and hamstrings. Somehow or another I was able to stay in control and keep Troy in my sights. Finally at mile 25, for the first time since mile 10 I had another runner come up on heels. Ironically enough, it was another Pennsylvanian, Kevin Poole who used to run at Allegheny College and was an All-American I believe. Having Kevin pass me at that point was perhaps the best thing that could have happened. After all those miles I still had a competitive edge and as I saw Kevin run by, I tried keeping on his heels with everything I had left. With close to 800 meters to go I noticed Troy Harrison coming closer and closer to me and by that point I was in full stride trying to gain as much time on him as possible. Knowing the finish had to be close, I used whatever energy I had left to surge ahead with finishing "kick", although realistically I had been kicking for the past 6 miles. Rounding the turn to the finish I saw the time read 2:22:50-51-52-53. Kicking with everything I had I finished the 2009 year with a personal best marathon time of 2:23:03 (12th place overall).

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

2010-01-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

Garmin Connect - 10 of my 20 x 1-min hard 1-min easy

Part of a 20-mile day in preparation for the USA Cross Country Championships!

AOBC, Serbia, and WCAP Update

2009-04-27T16:45:00.002-07:00

I am actually headed out for a run, so I will be quite rapid and forceful, as the lingo goes in Fort Knox at AOBC. My time has been extremely limited here in Fort Knox, Kentucky. I have been here since 11 January 2009 and haven't had a whole lot of extra time on my hands. In fact, I haven't even had extra time to normally continue my training. Armor Officer Basic Course has been rather demanding at times, if not physically, definitely mentally, and at least to the point where I have simply had just massive amounts of information jammed in my head.

As of right now I have completed all graduation requirements. I leave for the Gauntlet, which is a 10-day field training exercise, on Wednesday and the only thing keeping me from graduating on May 19th is a simple "GO" on my leadership evaluation. But I'm sure that "GO" is not going to be easily accessible and it is going to take all of the knowledge I have learned up to this point and I will have to apply it in a field-oriented, combat-tempo situation.

I'm praying that I have a good mission and that nothing disastrous happens out at the Gauntlet.

Even though running has possibly for the first time since I started had to take a backseat, I have ran 2 half-marathons, one in a personal best time of 1:09:53 and I participated in the 42nd annual CISM Marathon Championships, which was held in Belgrade, Serbia. I have also been accepted into the WCAP Program to begin training for the 2012 Marathon Olympic Trials. My training partners will be Nathan Pennington (2:19:35) and Troy Harrison (2:27) who will be running with me out in Fort Carson, Colorado. I couldn't be more pleased to have this opportunity in Colorado and it is honestly a dream come true. In my eyes, this is what I have worked so hard for up to this point in my life, and although I have posted some descent times and had some great highlights thus far in my career, I believe that once I begin my training in Colorado, I will reach a level that would never have been dreamed possible for me otherwise. It is almost as if God is standing by my side saying, "Alright Kenny, here's your chance." Coach Lisa Rainsberger, Olympic athlete and the 1985 Boston Marathon Champion and actually the last American female to win the Boston Marathon, will be my coach.

At this point in time, other than the fact that life has been a little tough here in Fort Knox, I have everything going in my favor for 2012.

Kfo.

I promise as soon as I get the opportunity to write more on here I will do so, but I have my own PCC to conduct later tonight and I want to get some running in before I go out to the field for 10 days.

Running to Catch Up - Marine Corp Marathon & the Army Marathon Team

2008-11-06T19:49:00.008-07:00

So here I am, back again. The last 2 months have been incredibly busy and there is a lot for me to catch up on. The Marine Corp Marathon...what I have been training for since the beginning of summer, was ultimately a success. I recorded a personal record time for myself, 2:30:01, but my tracking time online recorded a 2:29:59...regardless, it's faster than my 2:32:50 recorded less than a year ago. Although I feel that my 3rd marathon (Philadelphia Marathon 2006; 2007) was a success, I definitely made some vital mistakes that cost me big time in the end. Below and to the right is a picture of me during the Marine Corp Marathon, taken by a photographer. I am in a white Army tank top with black shorts, out front in the lead pack, second from the right. This was mistake #2, which was at around mile 8 during the marathon. I will go in depth about this and other lessons learned later on throughout the discussion.

Before I go into my Marine Corp Marathon experience, I would like to first like to go into something just a little more important. Christie and I decided to take our future together into the next level, and on our big anniversary, I proposed! We decided to travel down to Pittsburgh for our weekend anniversary and check out Station Square, preceded by an amazing dinner at the Belle Vista Ristorante. It just so happened to be that our anniversary landed on the same weekend of Pittsburgh 250th Anniversary, so we were able to enjoy massive fireworks, evidently larger than the July 4th fireworks, later that evening. We stayed at an incredible hotel for the weekend with a very relaxing jacuzzi. Definitely the best weekend we've ever had together!! Although we have not yet set a date, we have a pretty good idea on the the time frame of when we want to tie the knot. To the left is a picture of Christie and I during our weekend anniversary and engagement.

There is quite a bit for me to catch up with, but I am still determined to one day publish this online blog as a book, we'll see where it takes me, but at least I have a lot to discuss and examine. If you would like to view the results of the Marine Corp Marathon, please go to the top-ten results page.

So about 2 months ago I finally got a response from the Army Marathon Team. I had been trying to contact the coach for the team and was unsuccessful on several attempts. At one point I had nearly given up, but I located one of the athlete's e-mail and decided to make contact. I finally got a response and within 2 weeks I received orders to run the Marine Corp Marathon for the team. It turned out to be extremely convenient for me because I had already signed up to run the Marine Corp Marathon through a charity organization, Team Semper Fi. Once I got the orders, it was game on. By the time I received the orders, I already had less than a month left before the marathon, and I was scheduled to go down from 23 October until 27 October, having race day on Sunday 26 October. The training had went extremely well leading up to the marathon. I did my last race before the marathon on 28 September, which was the "10k Great Race" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I knew I was in pretty good shape after the 10k.

The Great Race had well over 6,000 competitors, and I finished a respective 4th place overall in a personal record time of 31:33, according to the online results. After the race was over, my feet were on fire. I used the Asics Gel-Piranhas, also know as "white fire." It is Asics fastest racing shoe, but it was a worn down pair and there was definitely not adequate support. It was the same shoe I used in 2007 for the Philadelphia Marathon as well as the Marine Corp Marathon in 2008, which was Mistake #1. I will discuss later.

Anyways, after the finish of the Great Race, and before I elaborate on the overall experience, I would just like to clarify that I felt that absolute, most immense pain ever after a 10k race. It wasn't the fact that I had run a PR by over 2 minutes, but rather my feet felt like they were literally on fire. Even prior to the race, I was a little distraught because I did not get very much sleep the night before. It was a Saturday night at Mercyhurst College, which happened to fall on alumni weekend. All my college friends were up to visit, and since I don't get to see most of them now as much as I like, I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible.

I ended up going to bed at around midnight and woke up a 0600 the next morning for a 2 hour drive down to Pittsburgh. I had near perfect directions, or so I thought, to the exact location of the race, but I am not sure if anyone has ever tried to navigate in Pittsburgh without a GPS, but it's damn near impossible if you aren't familiar with the area. I arrived in downtown Pittsburgh at approximately 0800, but I needed to get on the other side of town to arrive at the starting line. Inevitably, I ended up getting lost, but I still had a good hour and a half before the start of the race. Well, minutes went by and I was still lost.

I decided to call my mom for further directions, thinking that she would be more familiar with the area than I was, but I was without any luck for the time being. By 0900 I was still lost with only a half hour before the start of the race. At this point in time, I was starting to panic a little, thinking to myself, "I am going to drive down here to Pittsburgh for 2 hours, miss the race, and then have to find my way back to the highway and drive another 2 hours back." The thought made me furious and my adrenaline started to boost. Five minutes went by and I knew I was at least in the area, but I did not see any runners, or signs for the race. Exactly 15 minutes before the race started I saw a lone runner jogging around with a bib number on his tank top and I asked him frantically, "where the hell is the starting line for the Great Race." I didn't mean to sound rude, but he obviously took it that way and just simply pointed up ahead.

I quickly found the nearest parking spot, slapped on my flats for the race, ripped off my shirt, and bolted towards the starting line. I didn't even care at that point about going to the registration and finding my bib number, I just wanted to run the 10k, be done with it, and make the journey back home. I was lucky however, and to the right of the thousands of runners in front of me was the registration. I knew I didn't have any more than 5 minutes before the race would start. I pinned on my bib number in a fury and luckily the race had the new technology of a "sticker-chip" to put on my shoes so they could record my time, rather than untying my shoe laces for the old fashioned timing chip. By the time I stuck my chip on my shoe, the starting gun was fired and I bolted towards the front.

Practically running over slower runners, I made my way up to the lead pack. My adrenaline was like never before and the pace of the lead pack seemed rather slow for my liking, so why not just take the lead. I went through the first mile in a brisk 4:52 and felt great. I maintained throughout the race, going through the second mile in 9:45 and then 3 miles in 15:00. At around the 5k mark, I was passed by Ryan Place, the eventual winner, and then by a Georgia Tech alumni. Mile 4 was slightly uphill and I fell from a 5 minute pace down to a 5:22. I went through 5 miles in 25:22 exactly when another runner tried making a move on me for third. Starting to falter a little bit, I answered his challenge and we ran neck and neck up through mile 6. With close to 400 meters left in the race we were both in a dead sprint for third. Unfortunately he has just a little more in the gas tank than and I ended up getting out-kicked, as usual, and finished 4th overall with a time of 31:33.

Now, as I was before, once the race was over I kept pacing around from various spot to spot, trying to get the burning sensation out of feet. I would walk around for 3-4 minutes, then sit down on a bench for another 3-4 minutes, trying to alleviate the pain. Neither tactic seemed to be a valid solution. I decided to get some water bottles and dowse my feet, but not even cold Aquafina could cure my ailment. In the midst of my dilemma a lady approached me and asked if she could sit down with me and ask a few questions about the race. Of course I agreed, hoping it would take my mind off of my fire feet. She informed me that she was from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and wanted to ask me how the race went. I could have told her my entire story, but I decided not to take up the entire article. Ryan Place had finished first place overall with a very respectable time of 30:45, and it was his day and his race. I won't go in great detail about the interview. It was short and to the point. Below is the short excerpt she wrote online for the Tribune;

Foster, 22, of Brookville, finished fourth.

"I started closing in on the third-place kid, but he outkicked me at the end," said Foster, also racing in his first Great Race. "My legs were just shot at the end. There wasn't much I could do."

Well for now I'm going to take a short break. I ended up covering a little more than what I thought I would have about the Great Race, but it was a great experience, a fast race, and I highly recommend anyone who wants to run a fast 10k, do the Great Race in Pittsburgh. Just be sure that if you do not know the area, either take a GPS, or get better directions than I on Google Maps.

I will write another blog post later on down the road about the Marine Corp Marathon. I was interviewed after that race as well, so I am just going to simply leave that article on my blog, be lazy, and not type my own experience....for now. I will be back, but I want to dedicate these last couple of thoughts to Christie. The time now is 0137 in the morning and today she will be running the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) Regional Championship in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Horribly, I am not able to attend the race and cheer her on because I am currently at Fort Benning, Georgia for Army training. It's been a whole 8 days since the last time I saw her and it seems like an eternity. She has had one incredible cross country season, placing 4th at the Notre Dame Catholic Championship with a time of 18:11 for 5,000 meters, and last week she placed 3rd overall at the PSAC Conference Championship with a time of 21:21 for 6,000 meters. I want to wish you good luck sweetheart and I know you will do amazing. Regardless of later today, you have had the most impressive cross country season and I am so proud of all of your accomplishments. I will be thinking of you all day tomorrow! I love you always!

Marine Corp Marathon Interview:

Tim Hipps summed up the interview with an online article saying,

U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Kenneth Foster set the pace for a lead pack of five runners through the first 11 miles. He finished 10th overall in 2:29:59 and was the first Army Soldier to cross the finish line.

‘‘I just started running for the All-Army marathon team and this is my first Marine Corps Marathon,” said Foster, 22, who ran four seasons of cross country for Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., where he holds the 10-kilometer school record of 33:25. ‘‘I’m also trying to qualify for the Army World Class Athlete Program.“

Foster ran the 2006 Philadelphia Marathon in 2:43:41 and completed the 2007 chase around the City of Brotherly Love in 2:32:50. At Marine Corps, he knocked almost three more minutes off his personal-best time.

‘‘I was on the lead pack for the first 12 miles — then my pace started to drift off, but I was really happy with the way I performed today,” said Foster, whose sights are set on qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials. ‘‘That’s been my goal ever since I was a freshman in college. When I was younger, I was a little bit naive and I wanted to be the new Steve Prefontaine and dominate the 5K, but I just never had that turnover, so that led me to the marathon.”

The Great Race

2008-10-07T19:26:00.001-07:00

http://kdka.com/video/?id=46785@kdka.dayport.com

Marine Corp Marathon - Team Semper Fi

2008-09-14T14:44:00.004-07:00

I must say, it has been quite some time in which I have been able to dedicate a solid block of time and update some of the information in my blog. Recently I have been hard at work across the board. At the job and running as well. I have increased my mileage to about 80 miles a week. I'm running at least 11 -15 miles a day, with my longer runs reaching upwards of 18-20 miles. I have decreased the amount of racing to about once every 2 weeks, concentrating on tempo mileage and speed workouts of 1 and 2 mile repeats. Frankly speaking, I can run a sub-5 mile on the track in my sleep and I feel rather comfortable running a 2-mile in under 10 minutes. I've ran a couple of cross country invites the past few weeks as an independent runner. I felt apart, however, 2 weeks ago at the Cal U XC Invite, running a 27:44 on a moderately hilly course and coming in 15th place against moderate competition. Here are the results: Cal U
Just this last Saturday, however, I ran about the same mileage for the week, (80) and still found enough strength in my legs to take the individual title. Here are the results: Penn State Behrend

I am finally all signed up and ready to go for the Marine Corp Marathon on Sunday, October 26th, 2008. I am running for a charity organization, called Team Semper Fi, which benefits injured Marines from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as their families. Since I am affiliated with Team Semper Fi, I am required to raise a total of $300.00 for donations. If anyone is interested in donating for this charity organization, please visit my website at http://www.active.com/donate/teamsemperfi08/KFoster103

So far I have raised $565.00 and over my $300.00 goal, but the amount of funds needed for our injured troops is limitless. Thank you very much for any donations made through my website. I have almost exactly a month and a half left in Erie, Pennsylvania before I leave for Georgia. I must admit, it is not the most exciting feeling. I have lived in Erie, Pennsylvania for nearly 4 1/2 years now, going to college and working in the area...I will be sad to say goodbye to Erie, Pennsylvania. More importantly, I will be extremely sad to tell Christie, "I will see you soon."

Out

The Kinzua Country Tango

2008-08-14T10:30:00.006-07:00

I can't believe it has almost been 2 weeks since I competed in the Kinzua Country Tango, two Saturdays ago, on the 2nd of August. What an event! The Friday before the race, one of my college friends and cross country teammate married my other college friend and cross country teammate. I would like to congratulate Nate Smith and Carrie Franze on their marriage and future journey through life together! The reception was amazing and I wish I could have stayed a lot longer, but I had business to take care of the next morning in Warren, Pennsylvania. I took Christie down with me to the reception in Pittsburgh, stayed until 8:00 p.m., and then I drove up to Warren while Christie headed back up to Erie for work the next morning. It was not the most convenient time for me to be doing upwards of 20+ mileage the next morning, especially with all the driving involved, but I had already committed to my tango team as their half-marathoner, their land navigator (orienteering), and 4-miler. The Kinzua Tango is comprised of a half marathon which starts at approximately 7 a.m., then a 20 mile bike consisting of non-technical mountain bike trails and National Forest roads. The next leg is a 2.2 mile swim followed by a relatively elevated orienteering course spanning over 6 miles of wooded area. The final two legs of the tango is a 4.5 mile run and an 8 mile canoe. There are individual and team entries. The photo above is an image of the Kinzua Dam, which the half marathoners run by around mile 10.

I did not arrive in Warren, Pennsylvania until after midnight on the eve of the Kinzua Tango. Thanks to Thad Turner, the executive director of the Warren YMCA, I was able to sleep in the gymnasium of the YMCA so I did not have to wake up until 30 minutes before the half marathon started. I have known Thad, when he was the exec. director at Brookville, since I was in elementary when I would go to the Brookville YMCA and play basketball at all hours of the day and night. I ended up sleeping on a gymnastics mat that night in the gymnasium, texting Christie and telling her that I had made it up to Warren OK, and I eventually fell asleep on the gymnastics mat later on, using my running t-shirts as a sad excuse for a pillow. That night I was just hoping to get as much sleep as possible for the long day that awaited me in less than 7 hours.

Unfortunately, I was awakened before 6 a.m. by a frightened morning worker who Thad must have not informed that I was sleeping over. Evidently she saw a limp body on the floor of the gymnasium and thought I was either dead or homeless. Nope, just a tango runner who didn't feel like driving the morning of the race. Needless to say, I didn't get back to sleep after I was startled by the bewildered morning worker. I decided it would be best to grab a vitamin water and a banana and start preparing for the 13.1 miles that awaited me.

The half marathon started right on time at 7 a.m. and by mile 3, the race was between me and a runner from Duquesne, Mike Stolar. I felt pretty damn good in the earlier portion of the race. I ended up gapping Stolar by 6 miles only to have him close back in on me at the only hill of the half marathon at mile 9. I don't know what the hell happened to me running up the hill at mile 9, but my running collapsed and my 5:30 pace quickly fell. I didn't recovered completely until about 800 meters after I crested the hill, and by that time instead of looking towards the finish line, I was looking at the back of Stolar. I still had 10 miles of racing after the half marathon, so I closed the gap as much as possible, but still finished behind Stolar at the end of the half marathon. I finished the half in exactly 1 hour and 13 minutes, tagging my cyclist at the finish line. By the time our swimmer came in, our team had taken over 1st place and I went into the woods with my orienteering partner. We struggled to find the first point, which ended up costing us a good half hour, but we trekked through the hilly terrain pretty quickly and found points 2,3, and 4, back tracking a few times until we found the points. It ended up taking us another 15 minutes once we arrived at the first point again and locate it, and another 15 minutes to run back to the start so I could run my additional 4.5 miles. We came out of the woods in 4th place, with an orienteering time of 2 hours. By that time I had run over 20 miles, the latter half all in wooded terrain. I grabbed a gatorade, half a banana, and headed back out on the road. I was pretty disgusted at myself for letting my team down in the orienteering, so I tried making up for whatever time I could in the 4.5 mile run. I crossed the line and tagged the canoe team in the same place in which I had left. Our team ended up finishing the tango in 4th place overall as a team and I was happy to have run over 24 miles within a time frame of 4 hours without too much difficulty, or at least without an injury.

I highly recommend the Kinzua Tango for anyone interested in competing in an adventure race of some sort. The half marathon portion of the race is on a paved road which goes through the Kinzua National Forest, passing the Kinzua Dam around mile 10. The Kinzua Tango was a great stepping stone for myself. It was excellent training for the Marine Corp Marathon I will be competing in on October 26, 2008. I have a solid 2 1/2 months before the Marine Corp Marathon, so this next month and a half will have plenty of training miles to come.

Semi-Serious

2008-08-04T09:10:00.003-07:00

I have not recently had the chance to post a new blog for a while, mostly because my summer schedule has been pretty hectic and I'm constantly active. I think actually taking the time to record my thoughts and insights on this web-page will be a true challenge, but I will try my best to stay consistent. Before I begin my story on the recent adventure in Warren, PA, the Kinzua Tango, which I will blog about later on this week, I am going to give whatever audience I have at this time a little insight on the book I will hopefully be authoring in the years to come. Right now it is at the very beginning stages, but the title of it is Semi-Serious. I have not yet conjured up the subtitle of the book, but it will be based on exactly what I am typing here on the blog.

Semi-Serious will include not just the joy of running and winning the races, or going the extra mile, but it will also focus on the hardships of running. Hardships such as the injuries, the defeats, the muscle soreness, and the days when running just seems illogical, but also necessary when you're goal-oriented and are not deterred by cramps and fatigue to accomplish what you have sought out from the beginning. What I have learned from running cross country and track in high school to running now after the collegiate level is that if you are true to bettering yourself and have a passion for what you do, your goals will change and reach limits unfathomable compared to earlier stages. For instance, my first two-mile in track of my sophomore year, I ran 12:26. That was the first time I had ever run a race longer than a mile, and I thought it would be rediculous to run anything under 12 minutes. But the other veteran track athletes on the distance squad were running under 11:30, which to me at the time seemed ungodly.

That (sophomore) year of track I ran 11:55 in the last regular season meet, not even coming close to qualifying for the two mile event in the District IX track and field meet. After cross country in the fall of my junior year, I returned to the track and ran a respectable 11-flat in the two mile scrimmage against a rival Bradford team. I would go on that year to qualify for the District meet, placing 2nd in the 2-mile at Districts, running an astonishing 10:23 in the two mile and breaking the 5-minute barrier in the one-mile. I could have never been happier about my performance that junior year of track, but I was just getting a taste of things to come. I wanted the school record, which at the time of my sophomore year, seemed as if it were impossible. A 10:04 two-mile record was held in the two-mile by a distance runner from Brookville back in the early 1980s. I was only 20 seconds away, so that summer I decided to set my goal for a sub-10 two mile, and with a solid cross country season and a little extra cardio-work in the winter, my name is now on the Brookville track record for the two mile with a time of 9:51. However, I missed the state-qualifying time of 9:48 by a meager 3 seconds, and since I was out-kicked at the end by Ben Hahn, who now runs for Edinboro University, I can honestly validate the bitter-sweet story of running. I never could have imagined at the very beginning of my sophomore track season of running a 9:51 in the two-mile, but I also think it is a considerably difficult goal to run a sub-9 two mile. But can it be done? Of course!
So, I decided that I am going to post all of the races that I have done online here at this blog site. Whether the time is respectable or not, I will share with the audience my ups and downs of racing competitively. You can see the races in which I absolutely bombed, and the other races, when comparing times, I faired well. Any race that I happen to find in which I competed and my overall time is posted online, I will share on this site.
Before I leave I will share a favorite quote. "
Perhaps one of my favorite not stated by Steve Prefontaine is one by Tom Fleming:

"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."

Presque Isle Half Marathon

2008-07-20T19:32:00.005-07:00

Today was the half marathon that I have been waiting for since the summer began. The conditions today were almost perfect for the middle of July. There was a light drizzle in the morning, but held off by the time the race began to keep the air cool, but damp. The half marathon took place at Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania at 7:30 a.m. Before the start of the race I did not see anyone who seemed like they would give me much competition, but then a fellow runner I have raced against before joined me at the starting line by the name of Jake Walker. We shook hands before the starting line and asked each other what times we were shooting for. I was in hopes of a sub-1:10 half marathon earlier today and he was looking for a 1:08. As the gun went off we ran the first third of the race side-by-side. We went through the first mile in 5:08, but I knew I should have stayed honest to myself and stuck to my 5:20 pace. I have been running quite well as of late, but I have been running 5k's and doing 400m/800m repeats with 3-4 mile repeats at the track, not the kind of workouts fit for a half marathon. I felt great at the start and wanted to see how long I could stay with this guy and maybe I could surprise myself. I tried staying on Jake's heels at the beginning, clipping through the 3 mile mark at 15:30 and through 4 miles in 21 flat. The next two miles my breathing started to increase more than my liking, and my pace started to slow by 6 miles, coming through at 32 minutes flat. By the 7.5 mile mark, I had lost pace with Jake and I started to really feel the consequences of going out at a faster pace than I had expected.

I had a fellow cross country team member, Leif Schmidt, bike the half marathon at my side when Jake was...well...just too fast! Leif kept me honest with my pace for the most part, but he really helped me out when he told me that he noticed my form was going to shit. With Leif biking at my side, I went through 10 miles in just under 55 minutes, but I really didn't break completely until mile 11. Between mile 11 and 12, I ran just under a horrid 6-minutes for my mile split, and I felt as if there was nothing I could about it. Probably one of my worst attributes as a long-distance runner is the fact that I run up on my toes. So as I am sitting here typing, it is not my quads that are in extreme pain, it's instead my much smaller calve muscles. Every step began to hurt, but I could not believe that this extremely flat, 13.1 mile course was taking as much a toll on my legs as it was. If it had been another 5k, I could have gutted on the pain in my calves because it would only last me for a little over 15 minutes. However, I didn't adjust to the half marathon distance, and I paid the price. I finally finished in 2nd place overall with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes and 43 minutes (5:33 per mile). Jake continued his grueling pace and finished first, for what I later found out was his first half marathon ever in 1 hour 7 minutes and 54 seconds (5:11 per mile).

I was a little disheartened that I did not hit my sub 1:10 time for a half marathon, or even come close to it, but I did run a personal best for a half marathon, and I dropped almost a full 3 minutes from my half marathon in Cooks Forest in late March. I will be heading back to the track later on this week to continue my "speed" training. I ran a 15:29 5k at the Fredonia 5k last Wednesday, and I would like to get under 15 minutes by the end of the summer. I have a little over a month to go until September rolls around to accomplish my 5k goal. September will be my highest mileage month as I prepare for my marathon in October. As for now, I am running a 5k in about two and a half weeks, with plenty of speed workouts in between.

I will call this a night since I have work in a.m.
Out.

Blog Training - Day 1

2008-07-10T19:28:00.007-07:00

So today is my first day of training and also recording some insight. I've concluded that this (blogging) is an excellent tool for runners to let themselves disperse their thoughts in a collective way. Although this is the first day of recording some of my running online...although I also use "Google Docs" to record my mileage...I am in the midst of my marathon training for the summer. I'm going to be well over 70 miles for the week. Yesterday I did some mile repeats. I notice that yesterday was definitely by far the most sluggish my legs have felt thus far this summer. Regardless, I was still running my splits a hell of a lot faster than in June. I've grown akin to not just doing mile repeats, but incorporating 200 meter repeats, along with 400s and 800s. I don't usually do 1200 meter repeats though for some reason. I guess I would just rather go that extra lap.

Yesterday I was hitting my 200s in about 30-32 seconds. I only did 4 total. I figure 200s are a good way to wakeup the legs. It wasn't until halfway through my 800 meter repeats until I realized that my legs did not feel fresh at all. Nonetheless, when I went through the first lap in 67 seconds, I was under my 2:20 mark for an 800 meter repeat. I did 2x800m repeats. The first in 2:16 and the second in 2:20. In between the 800s I did 2 mile repeats. The first in 4:50 and the 2nd in 4:49. They weren't the fastest mile repeats I've done this summer, but at least I ran them at a consistent pace. After the 2 mile repeats I took some extra time on the track to let my legs recover for a bit. I wanted to run this last mile repeat at least in the vicinity of 4:50. I took off a little faster than normal...I knew this would be my last mile repeat for the evening. Went through the halfway point exactly in 2:20. Great! The third lap was a little slower feeling the lactic acid starting to settle in. I push forward however and ignore the quickening of my respiratory system. This hasn't been one of my superman workouts, but I'm determined to finish strong. As I hit the final 100 meters of the track I just let loose. Click the watch as I cross the line in 4:44. I'm happy...or content would be a better word I guess. I finish with a cool down and stretching. When it's all said and done I put in a solid 10 1/2 miles for the day.

Usually the day after I do a good speed workout I like to run at a long distance and at a fast tempo. Penn State Behrend is approximately five miles from where I currently reside, so I have created a nice 10 mile loop for myself. I've run this loop probably about 4 times so far this summer. I usually do it once every other week and like to run it faster each time. As soon as I started my watch today I could tell that this run probably wasn't going to be as promising as I would typically like. Usually when I do a speed workout the day before, the next day my legs do feel a little tired, but also responsive in a sense because in stead of running at sub-5 minute pace, they are now running at either a high 5-minute pace or a low 6-minute pace. Today felt as if I was going at 7-minute pace, but hell, I cross the half way point in a little over 29 minutes, and the 2nd half is a little quicker on the way back. I pick up the pace a little on the way back, feeling revived by the notice of my watch that even though I feel like a slug, I'm running like a stud, haha. I finish the 10 mile loop in exactly 57:38 and start my cool down.

Maybe this is a good sign for the half-marathon coming up in exactly 10 days (July 20th). I'm running the Presque Isle half-marathon next Sunday. I want to get myself over 70 miles for the week and then take next week easier than the norm. I do notice a slight twitch in my achilles-tendon. I'm hoping to run the half-marathon in 1:12 at least, but I would really like to run a sub-1:10 and start hitting the pace for the qualifying time for the Marathon Olympic Trials. I ran a half-marathon in late March in 1:15:39, but the course had a nasty hill at the end and I ended up puking my Gatorade infested stomach half-way up. You can check out the results below:

http://runhigh.com/2008%20Results/2008%20Results%20A/R032908BD.html

I think I am going to stick with the speed workouts and tempo runs for right now. I would really like to get my 5k time down to sub-15. My PR just came a little over a week ago in 15:24 back near my hometown in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. My girlfriend, Christie, also ran her PR for the 5k. She's definitely the most impressive story between the two of us. She decided to run cross country for the first time in her life a little over a year ago. She had never been in a competitive race before her first cross country race last fall. In fact, she passed out the first race from the heat, but then came back the next race at the Notre Dame Catholic Cross Country Championships and ran a respectable 20:57. Last Wednesday...in Punxsutawney...she ran 18:26! Hopefully the success continues and the times keep getting lower for us both. Out.

This will first be an experiment.

2008-07-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Wow. Pretty cool stuff. I've read about blogging(i.e. "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman great book!), heard about blogger.com, but have never really felt the need to create a blog. Since this is my first blog I'm not going to bother typing any questions, comments, gripes or complaints. This is quite new to me right now and I'm sure I'll become more accustomed to this whole new way of exercising thoughts, experiences and virtues, but I guess I'll just kind of tell the audience reading a little about myself.

My name is Kenny Foster. I'm originally from a small town called Brookville, Pennsylvania. I recently graduated from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania. I graduated with a degree in Intelligence Studies, and I now currently work for the US Government. I ran four exciting years of cross country at Mercyhurst and now I'm faced with the challenge of still bettering myself without the hopes of collegiate competition. What helps more than anything with this challenge is the fact that I have an amazing girlfriend who shares a common passion with me. We both love to run. Since I titled my blog "My Running High", that is primarily what this blog will be about. Perhaps I will even publish these blogs one day and make a book out of it, who knows.

I'm currently training for the Marine Corp Marathon in hopes of joining a marathon team that I may or may not discuss later on down the road, but for right now...it's just a "marathon team." I've ran the Philadelphia Marathon twice. My first time running the 26.2 mile course I finished with a time of 2:43 and the next year in 2007 I ran the course in 2:32 (5:49 avg. per mile). I have high hopes of running in the Marathon Olympic Trials in 2011, but we will see how things pan out. If I can get under 2:30 for the Marine Corp Marathon I'm confident that I can drop it down to sub-2:20 before 2011.

But that's still a few years down the road, so in the mean time, I'm going to catch a little rest. My legs are pretty sore from the mile repeats I did just a few hours ago. Out.