Jesse Owens and on to the Half Marathon!

Things have continued to progress over the past 3 weeks since my last post! After Chicago we had a pretty easy week of training with only one real workout, which for some reason was killer for us. I was struggling to hit 40's for 200m and just having an off week. I woke up that following Sunday with a sore throat and cold, so I took my first real day off in months. But after 3 nights of 10+ hours of sleep countless glasses of water and tissues later it was time to slip on my spikes for my final track meet of the season!

The conditions were less than ideal, but I thought I could race well so here is how it went! I got to the track early to watch Jillian, a University of Akron Zip take to the track in the 2nd heat of the women's 5k. Jill raced smart and came up about 1 second shy of a PR despite strong winds and chilly temperatures. Then after watching the CED guys race I went to the car to get warm! I enjoyed a cup of coffee and some tunes while I waited on my teammates to get Jesse Owens Stadium. About 6:30 Jess and Nicole (our cheerleader for the evening) arrived. At 7 we went for our warm up, and we were pretty giggly and chatting about the races earlier in the day. We made the decision to tuck in an wait as long as possible not to have to deal with the wind. Back at the track we did a few final preps, and headed to the line. The gun went off at 8 right on time! I let people take the race out for us and for the first 400 meters the entire field was together in 81 or so. On the 2nd lap the lead pack began to form and pull away from the field so I got around a few people and tucked in at the back of that pack. We were still pretty slow through the mile about 5:23, then for the next 3 laps through 3k we stayed slow, around 81 seconds a lap until finally Jessica took the lead with 2k to go and began to push. I followed after her and Juli Accurso of Ohio University and pushed as hard as I could. I had a good push for 2k and ended up finishing 3rd in 16:47.01. Jess won the race, and had a hell of a last 2k to do it. Something along the lines of 6:22 I believe. I was very pleased with the way I raced. I thought I did all I could have to finish well and ran a decent time. I feel like I am in better shape than 16:40's, but that is what the day yielded and I was really happy with the last 2k in 6:35 or so.

Nicole is racing at Stanford this weekend with hopes of a fast 10k and with the way I felt at 5:24 pace, I think she will race very well and come away with a new PR, and hopefully a chance to race at the USA Track and Field Champs this June! She races pretty late on Sunday, but I might have to get up and watch it, I have a feeling I wont be sleeping well knowing she is racing!

My focus now is on getting into half marathon PR shape so that I can make a run for top 10 and sub 1:15 in Duluth Minnesota in June. I had a solid workout on tuesday and just another step toward becoming the athlete I want to be. The workout was a tough one, but my coach reminded us prior to the start that if we want to reach the goals we have talked about this was the way we were going to get there. It made the workout more fun being reminded of the dreams I was chasing after!


A little picture from the race thanks to Jinger Moore, our awesome photographer!

USATF 8k Club Champs CED Style

This week Cleveland Elite Development headed to Chicago to compete not only as individuals this time, but as a team! The way the scoring worked was they simply added the times of the top 3 runners from the team and the fastest team won! Here is the way our weekend played out!

Saturday morning we all met in Cleveland to drive over together. 6 hours of laughing and staring at the highway later we were at Navy Pier picking up our bib numbers and giddy about having "Cleveland Elite Development" on our backs! We knew we would have to run fast to pull off a top 3 finish, but we were pretty confident we could do so. Brooks Hanson's always has a fast tough team, and Adidas Rouge is tough too, but we thought we should be able to mix it up with them on Sunday morning. Nicole's cousin's live 15 miles outside of the city and they generously allowed us the lower floor of their gorgeous home to stay in complete with 4 beds, 2 bathroom and a pot of coffee we were set! I haven't run a big race in 2.5 years (with the exception of the Olympic Trials in Jan 2011). So getting up and going to the start line with 45,000 other runners in the morning felt like a much missed homecoming!

We warmed up along the lake and did our final prep prior to entering the Elite Coral 15 minutes before the start at 8:30. The weather was FANTASTIC 45 degrees, sunny and a little breeze! When the gun finally went off I felt so excited to be on a big stage again and eager to test my fitness. Nicole and I were together through the mile in 5:24 then I lost her a bit, but aside from some quick turns I could see her pink singlet and spankies the entire way! The 2nd mile seemed like an eternity for some reason as I looked at my watch thinking "I must have missed the 2 mile mark" to find it had only been 3:01 since the mile. I told myself to stay tough, and it didn't matter how long it may seem, it was racing and I was fit to do it! 5:27 for the 2nd mile and feeling ok, I knew I could run a PR. Mile 3 was largely into the wind, and I was 5:43, then back under 5:40 for the 4th mile and I over heard a man announcing the females places. My goal coming into the race was to do all I could to help the team and to fight for top 10. I realized at mile 4 I was in about 10th! 5:28 to close the race in a shiny new PR of 27:41!
Jessica ran fantastic to finish 4th in 26:40, Nicole PR'ed for 6th in 27:14, I finished 9th in 27:41 and Aubrey was 30:33. Brooks Hanson's won the team title and we finished 2nd! Adidas Rouge team was 3rd. We were very excited to have our top 3 in the top 10 and to finish 2nd! I felt giddy with excitement when I realized we had all finished in the top 10 and mixed it up with some pretty solid teams!

This weekend was a great step forward for CED and each of us as athletes! Finally taking steps forward feels so good! My love for running and passion for racing is back in full force. I love my team, I am so proud of their hard work. We talked a LOT about our incredible coach, Glenn Andrews, after the race. He has helped each of us become so much stronger and thus faster, and for me in only 6 months! We are very lucky to have someone leading the way for us that is so knowledgeable and selfless! THANK YOU GLENN!!

CED will be back in action on April 19th at the Jesse Owens classic (Jessica and I) and I believe April 20th at the University of Akron (Aubrey and Heather).

All this giddy-up is making me giddy!

What a weekend! As you may have noticed I have been getting a little excited and it has been flowing into my blog posts! This weekend took my excitement to a whole new level!

First things first, last week was a down week because we had a race Friday and we will race again on Sunday April 7th. So our mileage was down to 65-70 and we had a relatively short workout on Tuesday. The real excitement of the early part of the week was hearing Barb Broad, a Cleveland Elite Development Athlete, re-cap her USA Masters Championships weekend for us. Barb started the weekend off with a National Championship win in the 60-65 age group 3000m. She followed that up with a 6:06 mile effort to bring home gold only 4 seconds away from an age group world record! Finally she closed off the weekend with a new age group American record in the 800m with a stunning time of 2:41! So needless to say we soaked up her experience on our cooldown with giggles and comments of her incredible fitness level in the face of age! I can't really explain the pride it made me feel knowing I get to share the track with her, and learn from someone as ageless as Barb. Such an inspiration!

The latter part of the week held it's own excitement when Thursday morning 4 of us ladies headed to Raleigh to chase down some times of our own! We had an uneventful trip down and lots of laughs. Once finally in Raleigh it was time for some sleep. Friday started off right with coffee and then we headed to the track to get things underway. Aubrey, our 25 year old goofball, was the first to go...knowing that she had a PR of 18:50 going in, we all were aware that would soon change! Aubrey ran a very smart race moving up the entire time to crush her PR by 30 seconds running 18:20! Now if that isn't starting off on the right foot, I am not sure what is! Then a heat with some of the ladies on the University of Akron team went off, and both Akron girls raced well and came away with a PR for Jill 17:51, and a season (including indoor) best for Marissa 18:18! Next up was Heidi, our honorary team member from just south of Canada, she is probably the mature gal of the bunch, which means she thinks before she speaks around here! lol! Heidi is a newby to the distance side of the track world and in only her 2nd 5k she ran like a veteran, slowing moving up through the other athletes and nearly pulling off a win in her heat! She managed to take 35 seconds off of her PR and run 17:18! Needless to say I was a little giddy to see so much giddy-up out there!!

We went back to the hotel and got in a nap since Nicole and I wouldn't race until 8:30 and 10:00 pm. After a nap and some food we were back at the track! I was next to toe the line. Unlike my teammates, I didn't race as smart. I thought 5:15-5:16 pace would be good for the first mile and hoped to go from there. I was a little fast though 6 laps and it came back to haunt me a bit. I was able to hold on better than I ever have in the past and pull off a PR by .26 seconds...but who is counting! 16:46.56 to finish 20th in my heat! It was another great step in the right direction. 18 seconds faster than last month! My first PR since this exact day 3 years ago!
Finally Nicole took the track. I was probably more nervous to watch her than I was for my own race, but I quickly could see she had this one under control! She clicked away 81-82 seconds a lap for all 25 laps with the exception of lap 1 and lap 25 which were 79's! 33:55!! 5 seconds from the USA B standard and over 1 minute under her previous PR!

I couldn't help but feel my heart swell with pride for this team! Things really seem to be coming along! I think I can speak for us all when I say I think this is only the beginning of the things we are capable of doing! I am pretty sure my heart swelled a little too much because the next morning I promise was one of the tougher 4 miles of my life! My rib cage and triceps were killing me, at 8:45 pace! haha! I haven't stopped thinking about how exciting all of this is! We are being careful to stay healthy, and trying to continue to improve on our fitness looking forward to the upcoming weeks!

Check out the results for the USA 8k Club Championships Sunday as we will be back in action in Chicago!

Spring, if only in our step!

I am happy spring is here! Not so thrilled about snow that is still falling outside, especially not with a tempo looming this afternoon. But I will just be thankful for tights, and wind proof gloves! The past few weeks have seen some fun running for my teammates and I! I will try to recap some of that for you guys to read!
We have been hitting right around 75-80 miles a week for a few months, and it seems just normal for most days to be 10-12 miles at this point. Our long runs have ranged from 14-19 and we have been enjoying a lot of time chatting during them. I think I have had a running partner more days in the past 2 months, than I have had in 2 years combined! With Ryan, Lizzie, Nicole, Jennie, Kaitlin, Heidi, Aubrey, Heather and Shanna around I hardly ever have to run 2 days in a row solo! It has been a lot of fun getting to know these ladies better and hearing about their goals and aspirations only further fuels my fire to chase down my own dreams!

Nicole and I primarily do workouts together on Tuesday, but as of recent we have had Aubrey and Heather are up there with us as well and it is fun to have a larger group! Splits in workouts are feeling more and more comfortable at faster paces. There was a week where we ran a mile at the end of the workout suppose to be hard @5:24. I ran 5:30 to close that workout in February. This past week we did something similar, only we weren't suppose to run hard, it was just another interval and we were 5:16 after 4 other miles worth of work (1200-1600m intervals) under 5:20 pace. So I see progress!

We laced up our racing flats on March 16th to celebrate St. Patty's day and we came away with one hell of a day! St. Malachi 5 miler in downtown Cleveland was easily the scariest conditions I have ever raced in. It was cold, sleeting, snowing, and just plain SLIPPERY! My goals went from running fast, to not falling during the 5 miles before the race ever started. But thanks to my speedy training partner Nicole, we went out hard and survived the race in true NEO Runner fashion! Our training group went 26:07 Jessica-1st, 26:14 Nicole-2nd, 26:54 me-3rd 30:16 Aubrey-4th, and 30:48 Lizzie-6th. Not a bad day at all! We raced pretty fast, and managed to walk away injury free. Ryan ran his first race since Thanksgiving, and came away with a 3rd place finish in 25:16! We are getting fit!

Our group has some races coming up and we are looking forward to them! We will be in action next friday in Raleigh at the Raleigh relays where Aubrey, Heidi (not formally part of the group, but we claim her), and I will race 5k and Nicole with bring down her 10k PR! Then we are off to Chicago the following week to race USA Club 8k Championships where we hope to challenge for the win! Two weeks later we will be in Columbus to race at the Jesse Owens Classic! So look up results and cheer us on if you see us!

I hope everyone is having as much fun this spring so far as I am! Stay warm out there!

3 years later

It is hard to believe March is already here! I think many of us are looking forward to the mild weather we have been praying for over the past few months. A lot has happened in February for me, and this may be the most exciting blog aside from the 2011 Akron Marathon recap I have written in a few YEARS!
I know, it is hard to believe it has been that long. While I may have a generally upbeat outlook, that doesn't mean things are always going my way! I mean if I had it my way I would have a shoe contract, be an Olympian, rarely if ever loose a race (only to make me tougher and fight harder), and oh yea, be a MILER not a MARATHONER! haha! But, we can't all have everything! So I will take what I have as a blessing (or like a million blessings since I may be one of the luckiest people ever).

February FINALLY saw a big turnaround. In January I raced 5k in 17:31. I felt I had raced to my fitness level and was on the right path back to fitness, primarily because I raced free of the nagging pain I had been experiencing for nearly 3 years. So on February 16th as I laced up my spikes I felt nervous and reminded myself that baby steps were all I needed. The goal today race hard and give it all I have. So the gun went off and I was quickly in 4th. I stayed on the back of my teammate Nicole, along with Paige for nearly a mile. We were 5:23 and I was still feeling pretty good. Paige soon fell off and I made the gap up to race Nicole. Shortly after 10:47 though 2 miles I began to fade a bit, but remembered my goal. I tried to stay relaxed and focus on not allowing the gap to grow. I felt strong! I continued to push and did all I could, but came up a few seconds short of catching Nicole. 17:04, 27 seconds faster than a month ago and I felt significantly stronger. It was my fastest 5k in almost 3 years! I was thrilled. I know 17:04 isn't anything to write home about, but it was a huge step in becoming the athlete I want to be!

Since the race our training has progressed nicely and I am eager to see what we can do on the roads and outdoor track in the upcoming months. The entire CED women's group ran a mile time trial and while I thought I could break 5 minutes I was happy with running 5:01, knowing I did all I could. Like I said, while I wish I was, I am not a miler! I am finally consistent with my tempo runs and really feeling very comfortable around 6:00 pace again. Like most things with running, I haven't felt like that in nearly 3 years.

I know I have made the right decision to join the CED group and I am excited for the upcoming years to see what I am capable of. I believe Glenn Andrews (our coach) knows what it takes to get us to the next level and I am excited to be a part of something bigger than me!

So I welcome Spring with open arms! 2013 will be an incredible year no matter what. I am getting married in May and with the incredible group I have surrounding me, there is always something to be excited about!

On To 2013

January has come and nearly gone, it is hard to believe that spring will be here before we know it! With the weather this week, I can speak for many in saying we will welcome it with open arms. Coming into 2013 I have some goals. One of which is to update my blog more regularly. I want to update how things are going monthly at the very least, so as January comes to an end it is time for my first post!

In 2012 I had big goals and I will say I didn't really reach any of them. Get back in sub 17 min 5k shape...nope I ran 17:10, win the Akron Marathon for a second time...nope injury and illness lead to my slowest marathon, and a 3rd place finish. But I achieved some things I didn't see coming and man were they some great lessons!

I learned that covering up and injury because one CAN run though it doesn't mean one SHOULD. I have had a nagging hamstring issue since after Twin Cities in 2009. I figured it would go away with some time off, but when it didn't I decided my best bet was to learn to deal with the pain, embrace the agony and pretend it wasn't there. The main issue with the injury was I could NOT do tempo runs. Anything longer than 8-10 miles even easy was quite painful but I could handle it so I did. MISTAKE! Following Akron this year I knew the injury was too much to continue running though, so I asked Dr. Leo Kormanik for his opinion. I decided that even if it meant a year off running entirely I would rather fix the issue than to keep ad-libbing workouts, convincing myself I was fit, and struggling my way though another 26 miles of hell. Dr. Leo blew my mind when he informed me it wasn't a hamstring problem at all! My glute was not firing correctly requiring my hamstring to pick up the slack, and leading to an over worked very tired hamstring. So he gave me exercises which I began spending 30 minutes daily working on each morning. I knew this would be a long process and not be fixed over night, but I was determined to get this under control and have the old me back. After 2 months of work I completed my first tempo run in well over 3 years. It wasn't fast, but it was a start. I would say I have it at 80% right now, and it feels stronger everyday. I found my love for running again after truly feeling hopeless and wondering if I would be able to get back to my old form again.

While it is a work in progress I have come a long way in 4 months, and I am looking forward to seeing what my ol' legs can do when I am running on 2 healthy ones here in 2013.

Another thing I learned is you can't fake a marathon. If you are sick or hurt, 26 miles later you will only be more sick and more injured. There are no short cuts in getting fit for the marathon and all of the 25x1k, 12x1miles in the world are NOT THE SAME AS A TEMPO. I will never go to the start line of a marathon that is not the Olympic Trials sick again. I couldn't run for a month after the race without my hamstrings cramping from the damage I did!

Finally I learned that no matter how horrible a race can be I still have ONE HELL of a support group behind me! I crossed the finish line at Akron, and I knew I had done the right thing. But how would people who believed in me so much respond to 3rd, 20 minutes slower than my PR? I was blown away with the response. People told me how proud they were that I finished. It was clear early on that the day wasn't going to be fast for me, but when the goal went from sub 2:40 to just don't walk, to DO NOT CRY, people got to see a more human side of me than usual. Many elites will walk off the course when they know it is not their day, and a lot of the time it is the right decision. But on Sept. 29th no matter how many times I wanted to stop, give up and just say "it wasn't my fault, I was sick, who could blame me?" but for me choosing to finish would prove to be the right decision. Through this, I was taught that this city's running community, my family and my friends care about me as more than an athlete. They still cheered, told me they were proud, and offered words of encouragement. Had I not made the choice to hang in there and hobble across that line, I would not understand what an incredible community I have behind me.

Looking forward to 2013 I hope to finally be back under 16:30, and get in a competitive marathon and go for the Olympic Trials A standard this fall.

Running with the Cleveland Elite Development group now and having a fantastic training partner (Nicole Camp 2:39 marathoner), has really helped me to get excited about what I am capable of once again. I want to be a sub 2:35 marathoner, and I think things are headed in that direction...FINALLY! Nicole and I are both very eager athletes, and we play off one another's strengths very well. Unlike training partners of the past, I never feel like we are racing one another, but truly helping the other toward their goals as well. The dynamic is great. It gives new purpose for me knowing I can help her along the way.

While I can't foresee the lessons that 2013 holds I am pretty pumped about experiencing them, and becoming a better athlete a long the way. After 3 years of sliding backward and struggling to become the athlete I once believed I could be I have begun to believe in my ability to become that athlete again. I know good things are just around the corner, and while that means we are going to have to train harder than we ever have. I can not wait to take on the challenge.

Looking back at 2012 I realize that while my number goals were far from met. I achieved a new sense of purpose. I feel better prepared to tackle the challenges I have always wanted to overcome, one step at a time.

Akron Marathon 2012

Race re-cap Akron Marathon 2012

Monday Ryan woke up sick, I cried, because it was too close to the race. Wednesday I woke up sick, I really cried because I was very scared it was too close. I spent the next 2 days doing ALL I could to get to the start line ready to race. Here is how the race went from my eyes!

1-5:51 (very downhill mile) I know this mile is very fast and I knew just let it happen and ran very in control.

2-6:27(12:18) Mostly uphill, but that seemed more like the splits I figured I would be seeing given feeling sick, and my current fitness.

3-6:13(18:32)This mile felt like 3 miles and I knew the race was going to be a challenge. I started to think I should run the half. I didnt allow myself to entertain that thought longer than the time it took to think it. I trained too hard to not try.

4-6:18 (24:50) I thought hey, if I can just chip away at it like this I can still win.

5-6:36 (31:26) Just keeping it as under control as I could.

6-6:17(37:44) Alright already in firestone park. I yelled at a gal who was running entirely too close to me, and informed her I was running the full to get off my ass. sorry gal, I was annoyed!!

7-6:43(44:27) alright brown street lets get back to campus.

8-6:23(50:50) still ok, just know it is going to be slower than last year.

9-6:29 (57:20) I told Ryan to be patient, It was going to take awhile today.

10-6:14 (1:03:34) saw mine and Ryan's families. Mom and Marty knew I wasnt feeling well because I didnt smile. I tried, like I said last week I have a pretty bad poker face! lol!

11-6:38 (1:10:13) I figured I would see Jennie this mile, but nope, time to head into the valley!

12-6:33 (1:16:47) Down Howard. I hate this mile!

13-6:33 (1:23:20) Half way! I CAN DO THIS!!

14-6:43 (1:30:04) I reminded myself that last year I was physically a mess by now, and today I was slower but I had things much more under control and that made me happy.

15-6:53 (1:36:58) umm, well, that was slow.

16-6:46 (1:43:45) Finally to sand run! This is my favorite part of the course the last 10 miles are home sweet home to me, and I just have to be tough. So I started to try and keep the miles working hard.

17-6:48 (1:50:34) Still doing fine, and feeling like I was working hard, and capable of holding the pace.

18-7:16 (1:57:50) I didnt even see the split for this mile. that was a good thing.

19-7:40 (2:05:30) big hill, and I knew this mile would be slow.

20-6:53 (2:12:24) My right hamstring was really starting to get cramp, but I knew I could keep running through it. I still had my left leg fine and I am getting so close.

21-6:55 (2:19:19) man this is getting so hard. All of this work, and I am really struggling at 7 min pace?!? NO BECKI, you have worked too hard to start getting into your own head, get your ass to the stadium! You are tough and you will be fine!

22-7:48 (2:27:08)Left hamstring cramped completely coming around the turn onto garmin. I tried not to cry. I didnt have a leg to use, and 4 miles just became a much bigger obsticle than I could wrap my mind around. Shanna ran past, and I tried to run with her. My hamstrings were cramping every step, and NOT letting up. I think I was hobbling more than running at this point.

23-7:17 (2:34:35)Really slowing down, and really pushing for every step.

24-8:28 (2:42:54) FINALLY to Angel Falls, many many walking breaks, to try to get my hamstings to let up. It was to no avail. They were not letting up. I was going to have to deal with the cards I was dealt!

25-8:00 (2:50:54) Same story as mile 24. Tony and Lizzie went by and that gave me a little smile because I knew they would both break 3 hours!

26-7:35 (2:58:29) I struggled down main street, and really felt a sense of relief being able to see Canal Park. I have NEVER been in this sort of helpless pain before. I tried to push enough to break 3 hours, and like all of my goals aside from finishing on this day, I couldnt do it.

.2- 1:31 (3:00:02)

Finally done. I did what I could to keep myself under control. I didnt want to show my dissapointment, but I dont think I did a very good job. I loved getting to see some friends achieve their goals, but it was extremely challenging to know for 23 miles that mine were not realistic on this day. I was so proud to finish this race. I trained pretty hard, and couldnt believe this was what it came down to! I am sad I wasnt able to show off my fitness, and thank the city I love so much. But I learned I can dig deeper than I ever believed I could. it will be a long time until I am ready to race agian, but I am hopeful I will be back, stronger than ever!
Thank you all so much for your support! I am excited for a little mental and physical break!