Humbling Marathon for reasons I wouldn't have guessed

6thplace-2:29.34
Below copied from my Strands Page so here is the rambling breakdown http://www.strands.com/RunPyles/posts/14301752

Try to keep this short(it won't be though). Leg wise race was going really well, maybe went out too slow but felt great at the half running in so-so conditions (cold, good wind in the face). Hit half at 1:12.47 and other then a pain that was building in my stomach knew I was going to negative split and felt like this would be my race and huge step. Ran my fastest splits from half to 16 but stomach got bad cramps, still ran a good 17 but the stomach was more then a cramp and I hit the porta potty right after 17split was in/out in 1:12, knew I could make it up and still get 2:24's. But it ended up being the end of the day, every time I tried running 5:25-30 pace I had to go. Stopped again at 19(very mad now), didn't get a bathroom split but it was one of those you wish you could just start the day.(In there longer then first time 1:30-2 probably, doesn't matter). After that I couldn't do it, almost felt like crying because it was out of my hands and legs it was just plain bathroom issues. But hard running made the urge continue to come in. Had to find pace that just got me home, then with 3.2 to go I saw it would only take 18 minutes to still sneak under 2:28, tried one last time and it was same old thing so jogged in for a whopping 19:40ish last 3.2. The worst feeling to run from 19 on at a jog feel when the legs wanted to go. The guy that I had almost caught at 17 finished in 2:25.32 and I had caught him leg wise ready to keep attacking. At the end of the day no matter what happened I finished in 2:29.34 and it has me wanting so much more now. Training will stay the same, the changes I will make is just basic changes to always be slightly different from build to build like some really long runs that I was scared to do this build because I just wanted to stay healthy and put down 2:22-2:24 on paper and start thinking I could one day reach my goal. Boston is the plan, won't rule out a early winter Marathon though. Now it is mental thing that I need to put it down. Last year 1:07 was a mental step the same way close to 2:22 would be a mental thing. (Not so short but after something like this you just want a redo tomorrow) Very blessed to just have the ability to start a race, I don't take that for granted and SOOO excited to see Marian have a solid day and place(2nd overall 1:21.09 PR), she wanted much faster but she will get another half Jan/Feb to prove what she can do. Thanks for all the comments and trust me I don't need to hear this was a good time, I know it wasn't but i do appreciate the nice words people have texted/messaged. Now time to move on, that was my rant...tomorrow starts next phase(rest or possible mini 4 more weeks to see if I can mentally bounce back for something shorter 10k/or Half)

2009 CDR Result

Quick result finished 8th overall, 3rd American, and top WV. Came out with $350(250 for top WV and 100 for special Bob Fleming WV award). Marian was pay out wise top WV money $250 so a nice pay day for two poor part time job workers..lol

Ran 1:22.22 which is 5:29 pace for the tough 15miler. Lost lots of time in the hills(did not run them like I thought I would, ran almost the pace I would run up them in training runs) and beat myself up with a 5:04 fall off the mountain 8th mile. I knew for that mile you have to run closer to goal pace to save the legs and I didn't and I couldn't turn over under 5:20 in the last 7miles of flats. I still think this is close to Marathon Pace type race or since I'm just now bringing in specific workouts I'm hoping it is 5 or so seconds a mile slower then what I run a Marathon at some point this next year or two.

Time was 25th fastest WV time of all time(although it is 4 fastest WV time of the 90's and 2000's). So missed top 20 which I wanted(next year with more earlier workouts under my belt) but mainly missed time goal I had sub 1:21 and sub 1:22. I think I'm strong enough for 1:21 but not enough longer tempo work that makes you tough and fast. #1 goal is Fall Marathon and now it is time to make sure I continue off this solid base I have and turn it into true fast fitness!!

**I had the worse blister problem of my life today. Started feeling them at 10ish, they never got too bad in the race. Nothing that messed with pace just changed my foot landing around a few times the last 5 miles. But huge blood filled blister right below both big toes and running down close to mid foot. Painful now that is for sure.

**Official Results: http://wvgazette.com/Sports/200909050187

**Splits: 5:15, 5:14, 5:29(bridge), 5:35(last 400 UPHILL), 6:13(nasty hill still) (27:47@5miles), 5:48(hill), 5:24, 5:04(dropping off a mountain), 5:21, 5:26(54:54 @ 10), 5:22, 5:22, 5:25, 5:32, 5:47

Top All-Time Best WV Performances at CDR

The Charleston Distance Run 15miler:
These results show 5:20s pace for CDR is a great time!

Charleston Distance Run 
1-Steve Taylor 1:14:31, 1987
2-John Dotson 1:15.57, 1982
3-Carl Hatfield 1:16:43, 1978
4-Dave Tabor 1:16:43, 1987
5-Mike Dodge 1:17:30, 1985
6-Mark O’Neal 1:17:45, 1984
7-Jerry Dotson 1:18:04, 1982
8-Bill Carney 1:18:32, 1999
9-Tom Cherchuck 1:19:13
10-Bubby Dent 1:19:30, 1989
11-Tod Kaufmann 1:19:34, 1982
12-Larry Taylor 1:19:48, 1982
13-Jeff Trump 1:20:16, 1987
14-Josh Simpson 1:20:38, 2005
15-Frank Lewis 1:20:41 1985
16-Tim Coffman 1:20:44, 1985
17-John Frazier 1:20:54, 1985
18-Dave Kline 1:20:50, 1986
19-Rich Watts 1:21:39, 1982
20-Mark Bailey 1:21:56

My best CDR: 1:22.23 (lifetime goal to get under 1:20 on that course)

Click on this link to see the 1976 results and the 1975 results. Crazy some of the legends that ran those year's! This is how deep the field was back then, Don Kardong Oly Marathon Team Member finished 18th...crazy! Also great CDR stuff at this link plus lot's of other good stuff: TALLMAN TRACK CLUB (Click on the index to see what each link contains).

WV 5K Championship Links

*Here is all the links that Pat has put on his site. Crazy how much support this race is getting!

6/5/09 Huntington holds 5K Championship Saturday
The radio is getting in on the event! Check this out to listen to Race Director Pat Riley, Jason Pyles, and Chuck Angel talk about the race!

6/5/09 Nearly 400 Signed up for 5K in "Runnington, WV"
God bless the Herald-Dispatch for running all these article HYPING up the WV 5K Championship tomorrow!! We have a surprise or two for everyone that comes down tomorrow morning.

Don't forget to stop by tonight at the Pullman Plaza Hotel from 4-8 PM and pick up your packet! You get a free pasta dinner from Frankie D's Italian Chophouse.

6/4/09 Hundreds Signed up fro WV 5K in "Runnington, WV!!!"
Ha, how cool is that, Runnington, WV!!!! I love it!!! Another correction to the article, we are well over 375 runners and more coming in every day!

6/3/09 Couple and Co-Workers Train For WV 5K
Another great article about the WV 5K that is coming up this weekend!! This is going to be the biggest race in Huntington!!

6/2/09 Pyles Appreciates a Home Run!
One minor correction to the article, there are well over 300 pre-entered now!! This run is going to be HUGE!

6/1/09 WV 5K Race Committee Posts Street Closures and Packet Pickup Information
This is a must-see if you plan on coming to Huntington on Saturday morning. It is important to say that those who are wanting to take advantage of the free Pasta Dinner at Frankie D's will need to pickup up their packets at Pullman Plaza Hotel from 4-8PM on Friday June 5th!

5/31/09 Huntington Prepares for West Virginia 5K Championship
This week is going to be AWESOME!!! We have so many good runners coming down and more are contacting us everyday!! One more thing, we have a surprise or two for all the runners on June 6, but you have to be there to see it!!

5/27/09 Friends training hard for 5K run coming up
Another great story about people in our area getting ready for the WV 5K Championship Run/Walk on June 6th!! We are thinking that activities like these may make Huntington "Running Town, WV"!!!

5/20/09 Huntington to host first 5K race in more than 10 years
Nice profile on Jason and Marian Pyles, who have committed to running the WV 5K Championship!

5/13/09 It's Time to Step Up and Support the WV 5K Championship Run/Walk
Great article from the man behind the Create Huntington Group. This is a wonderful group who gets together and creates ideas and actions that make the Huntington, WV area better!

5/1/09 WV 5K Championship posts Prize Money List
With a little over a month away from the biggest race to hit Huntington since the Huntington Distance Classic of the 80's and 90's, the entries are starting to come in. The prize list has been posted on the site. Make sure to get your entries in soon!

The Magical Mile (The start of my life as a runner)

**A look back at the event that made me start to love running and how I decided that running was what I wanted to continue to do for a long time!

Back in Middle/High School all I cared about was the MILE(actually 1600m)! I would be entered into 3-4 different events and I could win them all except the Mile and I would be very upset! In middle school without much competition it was actually pretty easy to win the 800, 1600, 3200, and 4x400 each meet. I think I lost a total of 1 time between all three(800,1600,3200) my 8th grade year. But the time I lost it was in the 1600 to Larry Atkins who would win the state meet 1600 state title our jr year of high school(I was third in that state meet 1600). I revenged that middle school lost in the 1600 to Larry at our last meet that season with my middle school PR of 5:03! It was the revenge factor that carried me to what was a 2 second best time because I couldn't lose in what my mind thought was "my event"! My best times that year were 2:15, 5:03 and around 10:40's if I remember correctly and what was cool about it was the only training done to prepare for races were 100m sprints at practice!(Training of Champions we figured..lol)

On to high school I felt the same all I wanted to run was the Mile(1600), I even have some funny stories of winning the mile at meets then fighting(all in fun) with the coach to get out of the 3200 when we ran at single session meets. In two session meets the 3200 was before the 1600 so he was always in agreement that there was no need to get tired for "my event". My progression was strong and smooth until my Senior year. I went 4:45 as a freshman(broke my ankle the day before regional playing basketball so missed a good chance to run faster), I ran 4:34 as a sophomore to finish 5th in the region where top 4 got to go to states, 2nd-4th were also 4:34 in that race as we had a blanket finish. The worse thing was my time was faster then the other 3 regions winner, so I had to stay home during the state meet although it was the 5th fastest time of the year at that point. I was heart broken but determined that it wouldn't happen again the next spring.

My junior year started out like every track season for me in high school. I didn't run a single step of training until the first day of practice. I did however play year around basketball which for as much as we played I think it kept me in pretty good shape speed wise. During the junior season I had an early season setback when I rolled my ankle playing basketball(during the AAU State 17-u tournament, where I had back to back 55point games against Beckley and Parkersburg and was on top of the world I thought for playing big time college basketball) but my ankle healed and before you knew it, my time was dropping faster then ever 4:40(last regular season meet)..4:35(conference champ)...4:32(regional champ)...and then bam 4:25 at the state meet to finish third in one of the faster years of the 90's. It was a race I led in usual fashion out in 60, 2:06 at 800, then hang on(passed with around 600m to go) and hanging on always hurt so bad I told myself every single race I'm going to stop, which I never did.

So my senior year starts after the ending of our regional basketball tournament lose. That year unlike other's we decided to train differently in order to get that State Title Mile Crown, I was very naive when it came to running. In the past 3 year's all we had done was 300m repeats almost every day. I ran probably a total of 10miles a week and most of those came from meets. It wasn't easy training though, we ran the 300s as many as 15 all-out. So basically our training was fast running, all the time. So the senior year we decide I need to run mileage, which we had read is the way to go. Only problem was I tried doing 6mile runs right off the bat. Being that over the years a 3200 race was the longest I had ever ran, so this wasn't a good approach to reaching the goal of being the state champ. What happened was a ache in my shin from the first week that got so bad I would limp around all day then try running at practice and meets. It never happened for me that year due to what was later found out to be a stress fx. I ran the entire year on it not knowing and only got down to 4:44, 1 second faster then what I had ran as a freshman.

Most would think that would be the perfect way to say I'm done with this running stuff and sign to play basketball(had offers from Winthrop, Liberty, Old Dominion(Va), Coastal Carolina, and many D2 or smaller schools and even a walk-on invite to Iowa) Most of my basketball recruitment was being helped by Donnie Jones(Florida assistant at the time and current Marshall head coach) that had contacts at most of those bigger schools and was always helping me out.

But all I could think of was running. The turning point that it was the way I wanted to go was when Casey Batey put his arm around me at the state meet and said "we still want you to join us man" after I think I limped to a 5minute 1600 and dead last place finish at the state meet. With tears in my eyes that meant a lot to me and it was the main reason I decided to try and become a runner. Along the way it didn't hurt that Marshall University Basketball Head Coach offered me an invited walk-on to play basketball while I ran at MU. I knew going in though that I would play(sit the bench) for one year and then devote myself sporting wise to running 100%.

Some might wonder what made me think about sharing my Magical Mile past well one it was the event that made me like running and I was reminded of that this past Thursday when I did a fast finish mile at the end of my 55minute run. I ran 4:36 which at the end of a run isn't to bad but it felt really good to being pushing a mile again.

It makes me think I wish I had the chance to run the mile more when in college. I ran a total of 1 year of track due to playing basketball my first year, being hurt the next few seasons(indoor and outdoor) and then the program getting dropped while I stile had two years left of eligibility. My best college time was 4:26 which I ran a total of 4 times that indoor season along with a 4:27 and 4:28 DMR split. I always thought I would run between 4:15-18 if I had those last 2 years and would have stayed healthy. But of course I will never know that for sure. I have ran 2 hard miles since college both being more for fun and while training for longer races, they were 4:26 and 4:32(solo time trial).

My time to run fast for short stuff probably has past, but with the chance to attend many indoor/outdoor meets with our University of Charleston women over the next few year's I won't be surprised if I give the Mile one more go and see if I can do something that would be Magical for my ability and bring a smile to my face knowing it was the reason all my running ever started in the first place!

Eugene Build--Training Log Recap

*Had 27 week build into TCM, then took off only 4 days before started what was planned to be a 24 week build into the Shamrock Half Marathon. In late December I got the call from Matt Downin with the offer to join Team Strands, by January I was on Team Strands and booked a early test race to see where I was at off base training. I went to Austin, Texas and didn't run the race I really wanted but still came out with a huge PR of 1:07.48. Since that race and even some signs during that race things haven't felt 100% again. That was 14 long weeks ago, along the way I have had some solid workouts and jumped into 3 races using 2 (Shamrock 8K and Adam Johnson Run) of them as workout efforts and having to drop out of the one that I tried to race(Sea Ray10K). All signs point to I've went too long without a recovery break and it is showing now with all the ups and downs in training, constant sore throat, mentally worn out, and having troubles sleeping through the night. The combination of getting sick over the winter and rushing back and not planning better recovery were the mistakes. My hopes are still to finish off this long build with one last race this weekend and hope to manage something solid. Most likely this week I won't do any workouts now and just run really easy to try and recover enough for that one last crack at racing!

Some running stats from the past 52 weeks:
52weeks-4018 miles ran
Days missed-33 (16 of those were planned and never more then 4days straight)

Crazy thing is I usually miss between 12-20weeks a year due to injuries so this past 52 week Stretch I'm really proud and happy about. Just made the mistake of not taking a planned 1-2 week recovery break of little to no running and I have put my finger on that as the reason for my past 8-12 weeks having many ups and downs in training.

Past 30 weeks of training recap:

1: 14miles (4days off after TCM)
2: 40miles
3: 60miles
4: 59miles
5: 75miles *4mile Steady-State(5:27avg), Stride Wkout(15x20sec), LR 1:45
6: 79miles *6mile Hilly SS (5:28), LR 1:45
7: 80miles *SW(12x30sec), 5K Race (15:20), LR 1:45
8: 72miles *8mile Hilly SS (5:29), LR 1:45
9: 76miles *SW(12x30sec), LR 2HR
10: 87miles *8mile Hilly SS (5:27), LR 2HR
11: 84miles *10mile Hilly SS (5:26), LR 2HR
12: 73miles *6mile SS (5:21), 15mile LR Progression
13: 89miles *Hill Wkout(10x90sec), Fartlek (4x8min on/3 min easy rec), LR 2HR
14: 90miles *Fartlek (15x1on/off), 5mile Tempo(5:10), LR 2:05
15: 80miles *SW (20x30sec over hills), LR 1:50 (Calf Issue forced missed wkout)
16: 80miles *5xMile, Fartlek(10x1on/off), 3m Half Marathon(1:07.48/5:10avg)
17: 80miles *Two 2hour LR's, most running inside due to snow!
18: 95miles *HW(10x90sec), Fartlek Hilly(4x80n/3off), 19mile LR
19: 84miles *HW (12x90sec), 10K Tempo (5:12), LR 2HR
20: 62miles *Fartlek(20x1on/off), (Sickness started)
21: 90miles *Fartlek(10x3 on/1 off), LR 20miles
22: 58miles *LR 2HR (Missed days with Flu)
23: 96miles *CI 800s, 7mile Tempo(5:19), SW(15x35sec), LR2HR
24: 90miles *CI 800s, Shamrock 8K (25:09), LR 20+pacing Marian
25: 85miles *4xMile(4:50avg), Adam Johnson Run(15:09), LR 1:30
26: 75miles *Fartlek(14x10n/0ff), Tempo Intervals(3x2miles), LR 1:45(w/surges)
27: 80miles *CI 1000s, Sea Ray 10K(DNF 6400 @5:01), 17mile LR Porgression
28: 95miles *CI 800s(+hill sprints), 2x4mile Tempo (5:08/5:14), LR 2HR
29: 68miles *Fartlek (10x1on/off), 8Mile SS (5:18), (Started feeling run down again)
30: Eugene Half Marathon Week (Looks to be nothing but easy running now)

Marian @ Shamrock Marathon

RESULTS: http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?posted_p=t&sort=convert(p_chip_time)&rsID=75881&state=WV&queryType=arbitrary&page=1&numPerPage=25

*Marian ran her debut Marathon yesterday in Virginia Beach, VA at "The Yuengling Shamrock Marathon". We had some mainly private goal times but the most important goal was to gain the experience of what the marathon feels like. I have only done one marathon and I can say that if you haven't done one you have no idea what it is really is about to "race" that distance. By that I only mean that it is a totally different event compared to all the shorter distances including half marathon-15mile races, so the feedback gained from running one goes a long ways for your future plans of marathoning.

She came out of the weekend learning so much and she gained that experience. She saw what it is really like to bonk and still have 8 or more miles to go(not fun or easy to do). But as for the race she finished 3rd overall female and 43rd overall out of 2,555 finishers with a time of 3:00.27 which is 6:53 per mile pace for 26.2 miles. Now that the race has past I will come out and say we really felt anything from 2:50-55 was where she could finish around.

The race was a blast as I was able to pace her for the first 17miles and the last 3.2 miles. I can't explain how special it is to be able to run and help your wife, the person you love with all your heart. We do a few runs each week together and they are always my favorite but there was something about pacing her in the marathon that will always stand out to me and make it extra special.

As for some splits: 5miles(33:08), 10miles(66:25), Half (1:27.02), 15miles (1:39.53) and then slowly the wheels started to turn slower with the next 2 miles I was with her at 6:48, 6:56. At this point I knew she was running out of gas. I waited at mile 23 then and she covered the next 6miles in 43:09(7:11 pace) before I jumped back to running with her the last 3.2 in 7:22, 7:26, 7:18, 1:26.

The conditions turned out to be very, very nice. Sunny, cool and light wind(the day before while I run the 8K gust were 20-25mph).

Bottom line she learned a lot, she finished 3rd overall female at a well known marathon, she picked up some cash($400) which was the least of her concerns, she would have traded top 3 and cash for 2:50 any day but still nice. SHE WILL COME BACK MUCH STRONGER AND FASTER.

From here she will take some days off before jumping back into some training for the Eugene Half Marathon, which will be a quick turnaround(only 6 weeks away) but a very fun big event for her to focus on with less pressure.

Marian TriStateRacer Interview

*Pat Riley from TriStateRacer did a quick interview with Marian on Strands and the upcoming Shamrock Marathon: http://www.tristateracer.com/Interviews/MarionPyles3-16-09.htm

*Did a little research and it looks like since 1999 that only 3 West Virginia women have broke 3hours for the Marathon with the fastest time being a blazing 2:32.34 by Kristy Johnson who wasn't originally from WV but lived here with all-time great WV runner and her husband Chris Fox. Since 2004 the fastest Women's times looks to be 2:56.59.

*Marian's goal is simple "enjoy the experience"!

*Check out the new blog page that Nubound has put up and it also has a link to the President/Founder Mark Connell's twitter page. On the blog page he has a link to my blog which is really neat: http://nubound.net/blog/

*My body is not feeling 'right' these past 5-7 days. It's been a combination of feeling a little sick/weak, hurt(groin/tight back), and every pace feels the same(in a bad way). By that I mean running recovery runs feel 'harder then they should' and then running workout paces feel 'much harder then they should'. All this is probably a combination of many things: 1)Might not be totally over being sick, 2)Have ran a lot of miles in the past 12 days after coming off being really sick, 3)Some slightly stressful times as I wait word on a possible future job, 4)Just off antibiotic (which now I will be going back on based off what the doctor had told me to do if the first dose didn't completely wipe away the infection). I still would like to run the 8K Saturday as a Tempo run in the 5:05-10 pace but right now it will depend on how my body responds to some lighter training days plus how the groin(s) hold up. My body has been in a little bit of a struggle now for some time but keeping the fingers crossed that I will bounce out of it and still take advantage of what was a really solid winter base of training.

*We will be leaving in the morning and be in Va Beach Thursday-Monday, this should be a really fun weekend!!!

TEAM STRANDS

*The New Year has been good in many ways but one of the biggest surprises was the new sponsorship Marian and I was able to land with TEAM STRANDS. Team Strands is a group of runners that is being sponsored by Strands.Com a website that will hit the mainstream public within the next month or so. I have slowly been sending out early invites to around 15-20 people before hand as the website wants a small little community of people right now to play around with the site so they can see what problems need to be fixed. The site is a place to store all your running or workout type details and a way to connect with other people around the country that workout or run. Honestly the site is still very new to me so I'm still learning all about it, but so far I would say it looks pretty cool and is roughly like a facebook but with a running twist to it. I think the site has HUGE potential over the next few years to really become big!

*The team manager/runner is Matt Downin who was a multiple time All-American at Wisconsin and has many post-collegiate honors including the top American finisher at the 2005 New York City Marathon finishing in a time of 2:14.28! If you click on the Team Strands Banner on the right side of my blog or on the TEAM STRANDS above you can see the entire team. As you will see it is a loaded team, many GREAT runners including 2 Olympians and I believe Micheal Aish (New Zealand) is on board now which would make a third Olympian. So we feel very honored to being getting this opportunity to prove ourselves as runners now that we have the resources to get to the major races and along the way we want to help promote and build Strands.com as much as we possibly can! Already the support has been a huge help as I was able to travel to Austin Half Marathon only because of this support and was able to hit a PR 1:07.48. I can't say enough of about how great and nice of a guy Matt Downin has already been to Marian and me. He has made a call about a coaching position this past fall for Marian, he was one of the first to call me to congratulate me after the Austin Half, and he keeps asking and asking us what else do we need right now.

*There is so many benefits that come from our sponsorship. I will try to list some of the things that are on the top of my head without going to look through all of Matt's emails with details:

-Huge Travel Budget this is the biggest thing to us. I have been very fit many times and had no way to get to a big race to see where my fitness was at, now this won't be a problem.
-Extra Trips If they ask us to come to a race or event it is entirely covered through Strands without tapping into our travel budget. Example Peachtree 10K this summer and Eugene Marathon weekend this spring or Hoad to Coast relay next fall.
-Expo's We will help out at expos at races like Peachtree or Eugene along with getting to race. To me this is going to be so much fun to not only race these events but to help out a little with things at the expo!
-Contacts The Austin trip I only had to get reimbursement from my travel budget on flight/food. With the contact of being on this team the Austin race committee picked up my hotel/entry/shuttle expenses.
-Bonuses The bonus setup is crazy. There is so many races that if we go and run in the Top 10 we get very good bonus money. Some of the races that pay the most bonus money is obviously the big time races which top 10 would be out of the question for Marian/me but there is many other races where finishing top 10 overall or top 5 USA is possible. There is also a 2,000 bonus for running under 2:19 Men or 2:47 Women in the Marathon. There is bonus money for winning a Strands sponsored event like Eugene Half or Full Marathon or any Rock N Roll Marathon series of events. An example of a bonus I could have just recently won, the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon Phoenix was won in 1:08's based off my 1:07s at Austin I would have been in for a $500 bonus if I would have ran that time at the Phoenix race a week earlier.
-Free Gear The teams shoe/gear sponsor is going to be PUMA, Matt has already got shoes in the mail and has told us all that all we need to do is ask for a pair of shoes and he will send out two pair! Our first gear shipment is coming the middle of this month and it is Puma gear without Strands Logo on it, then by the end of the month the second shipment will come of Puma gear with Strands Logo on it. Matt says many times in emails for us to just ask for anything and he will get it and send it.
-Garmin This week we got a email that if we wanted to have a Garmin to let him know and he will send us one to use to update training onto the Strands website. We only asked for one(Marian and me to share) he says he plans to send us both our own!
-Website Bonus Each runner on the team receives milestone bonus money if the Strands website reaches 1 million users and so on. The benchmark that this can be done is that facebook has 90million users. Also we receive bonus money if we our the first on the team to reach different numbers of followers this year. The big one is a nice bonus to the top 3 runners to get to 1,000 followers on the website.
-3 years agreement This isn't set in stone yet but the contract looks to be at least a 3 year agreement. Hopefully at that point the site will be so big that the agreement is carried on for many more years and I run fast enough to warrant a monthly salary(that's my goal)!

*As you can tell I'm very excited and thankful to God for this opportunity. My one thing I have always struggled with was being able to make it out of the state of WV to race when I know to reach my goals I need to be doing that. Along the way I will be in some races that I will get dropped at and humbled with but that's what every runner needs to continue to stay motivated to reach their best. I hope if it's in God's plan I will run some big breakthrough PR's during this 3 years and continue to just plan love running!



---------------------------------------------
(Pictures of "some" of the gear from the 2+ years with Strands)

3M Recap

Positives
-PR (1:07.48 Official Chip Time)
-Met some great people that I will stay in contact with including Phil Wharton, Austin Baillie(former Colorado runner, Top American), and my roommate for the weekend Tamas Kovacs(who will represent Hungary one day in the Olympics) and many more including getting to chat with Coach Greg McMillan after the race.
-Race organization was the best I have ever seen, they really care about every runner that is in the race.
-Gained experience getting on a plane traveling, staying in hotel, and then running in a huge race. The more you do this the easier it will come, I look forward to getting to do much, much more of this now.
-Thankful to God for being able to have safe travels and injury free race.
-Weather(colder then expected but 30's isn't too bad with gloves and base later for arms/core)

Negatives
-Feeling flat on race day (not sure why maybe the next 3 things listed)
-Bad sleeping pattern
-Bad race morning coffee (I know I'm addicted and hotel room coffee is horrible and no Starbucks are open at 4am in Texas)
-Bad timing of taking my gear off, another little thing that can add up. I was on the line standing for 15minutes due to going the wrong direction and wasn't allowed out for strides with the rest of the elites.
-Course (this could be a good and bad depending on who you ask) I didn't like the downhills because they would be followed by quick steep uphills and for a rhythm runner like myself I was in a constant battle to find my rhythm.
-Dropped my only GU at mile 6 and didn't take any fluids due to the cold. Never felt I bonked but didn't kick it in the last 5miles like I had planned.

Honestly the negatives add up to a positive. I know I was faster then I ran and I know next time I will be better prepared and ready for faster time. I really need to find a completely flat course(example Huntington Marathon Course) and go get in my own rhythm and run 1:06(will be the next step/goal). I was in a constant battle throughout the entire race. It might have been in some ways the best race I ever ran not because of the PR but because I didn't give in, I battled through a tough day for me. In the past I might have settled or mentally broke down but I stayed strong and fought through it.

The next step is to recovery and not push anything this week. Then I will have roughly 6 weeks for faster Tempo and bring in some faster Interval work to ready myself for the USA 15K Champs in Jacksonville, Fla where the field will be even more loaded with all the top USA guys. Before then I would love to do a Indoor 5K because my PR in that event is just slow and not anywhere near where it should be. I talked with Casey on the phone about all this. It hasn't been that I can't run a fast 5K or that I couldn't have ran a 1:07 in the past during my peak training, it was I just never got the chance to do so. So getting this Half Marathon PR does feel really good to have a start of seeing something solid on paper.

One last thing on the race that I HAVE to fix, I have to learn to get out faster. While I was out in 5:15 the lead pack was out in 4:30s. Most of those guys didn't run 4:30s for long but they did run fast, you have to put yourself out there early and be in the race or it is easy to fall into a flat feeling while racing. So I don't need to be out in 4:30 first mile but I do need to be out in contact of the lead group.

Thanks to everyone for the many emails, texts messages, and calls. Every message is very much appreciated!

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