Masters Weekend Races and Runs

I'm also looking forward to the race reports from SoCal and muddygirl, who I would guess lived up to her name. It looks like Deena came quite close to losing her shoe. I always get a kick out of seeing lost shoes in the later laps of these loop courses.

I was hoping to get in more miles than I did, but I came down with the stomach flu. The worst part has been the dehydration - much worse than any marathon I have run. I seem to be on the mend but will still take today off.

Scott

Standard weekend for me; 6 miles steady - first 5 'steady' at 5:24, 29, 25, 22, 14, 4:54. Last mile wasn't so steady but I'm happy with it. No run today.

I heard Dennis Simonitis won the men's yesterday and SoCal was mixing it up. Looking forward to hearing the race report as well.

Have a good week all.

It's amazing how fast things can change...I got some unexpected, and unwanted, time off from running last week. Monday morning I bent over to unload the dishwasher and something snapped, or popped in my lower back. It was just a freaking dish!! And I work in construction all day long lifting much heavier stuff than a dish! Walking Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday was difficult, running was out of the question! The pain in my back is still there and it takes some effort to stand straight up. I have been stretching and using a heating pad twice a day. What else can you do? I've been pretty much injury free for the past 32 years! I was able to relatively pain free for 5 minutes on the treadmill Saturday but I was going very slowly...Today I'll shoot for a very ez 20 minutes and see how it goes.

No offense to the senior citizens here but I really felt old this week!!

Good Runnin'

Dave

Had to run on the treadmill Sat,Sun,Mon because it was just too cold out: never got above zero. Ran outside 3miles Tues and 5 on Wed,Thurs.Lows were still below zero but managed to get up to about 10 during the day.Took Fri off and ran a 5K yesterday.Had to put a glove in my pants to keep from freezing the you know what.Helped alot too. Wife and I leave for Arizona Thurs. Much anticipation. Take care all. Congrats SoCal Pete.

Worked about 65 hours last week. Ackkkk! Next week looks about the same. Still, ran 100 miles with 2 workouts: 8x1000 at T-pace with 1:00 rest and 12x200 at R-pace with 1:00 rest. Everything feels good except my standard PF foot. Stress tends to make my weakest points hurt, so there it is.

I, too, and looking forward to some race reports!

Great weekend to be a fan of the sport in Boulder. Running was the main topic of conversation all over town yesterday, and the racing was nothing short of inspiring. Deena K floated over the course ... it looked like she was running on a track. The men's race was just a celebration of x-c racing.

Bumped into many running friends who were out to cheer or race yesterday, and everyone had smiles (and mud) plastered to their faces. Thank you Pete J.

No races for me ... I'm in the last few months before attaining master's status, and it seemed silly to line up with that open field. Still working toward Boston, with 66 miles and two long tempo efforts for the week. Looking at 20 today, with 4 to 6 at marathon pace. Gulp.

When Dave Kuehls was at the IAAF Track and Field Championships in Paris in 2003, a woman came up to him in a bar and said this: Ïf you go back to Akron, they are going to kill you.¨

Dave went back but the night before he left Dave came down with the worst case of food poisoning he´d ever had in his life. When he got back to Akron, his car dealership called. Dave Walter Volskwagen and BMW had a question about the contract on Dave´s car, a 1998 Volkswagen Gulf. They wanted to know if Dave could come down to the dealer, and could he bring something else with him too? That something else was Dave´s...passport????

Dave was interviewed by a salseman who looked--a lot-- like Dave. The salesman took Dave´s pàssort into another room for a while. When he came back, he asked Dave if Dave knew a guy by the name of John Lockhart. Dave told him he didn´t know John Lockhart (that´s what Dave knew at the time), even though John and Dave had once been best friends in the past....

There is evil in the world. Sometimes it lives just down the street...

Hi all. I'll be interested to hear from Pete. He ran the same time over the 8k mudfest as Deena did (and roughly the same time as the Junior champ). It'll be interesting to hear from him just how good of shape she is in. Hard to comprehend that she beat that stellar field by so much.

Excellent run by Pete though, he doesn't seem to be slowly down any. Congrats!

This week was a taper week for me as I get ready for the Myrtle Beach marathon next Saturday. My only hard workout of the week was a confidence booster: 10 miles @ 6:40 pace (marathon race pace or just slightly better) plus a couple miles in w-u and c-d.

Saturday was fun for me. Besides my Rebels beating Bama, I ran with my daughter (actually slightly behind her much of the way) in her first 5k race of the season and she has picked up where she left off last fall. 5k in 20:33, 6th women overall and 1st in the girls 14 and under age group. Probably the best part was that at 2 miles I looked over at her and she smiled at me and gave me the thumbs up signal - ahh to be 10 yrs old again.

Hope everyone had a good week.

Boulder XC results attached:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2007/USAXCChampionships/schedule.asp

Some of our regulars ran very solidly...obviously So Cal and also 2lapmaster and 1500master, et al.

Lots of other nice masters stories these days...Jan (kneesocks)Merrill making a sporty comeback, Joan Nesbit knocking on the 5 flat mile door at age 45, speedster Jim Sorenson with a shot at first masters American sub 4 come June, Kathy Martin setting a record per weeking and kicking butt in Boulder, 19 foot vaulters Hartwig and Manson within weeks of joining geezerdom...a real nice 2007 on tap for oldsters...which reminds me, have you taken a gander at the "You Know You're A Masters runner When..." thread...kind of a crack up...not as amusing of course as the post-nuptial thread but pretty funny nonetheless.

Thanks to so many on this thread in helping with achilles advice last week...put me on the sidelines for three weeks but feels about 90% the last couple of days...in the end, I think that the most effective remedies were a combination of ultra deep tissue work (my rolfer spent no less than 30 minutes on it on Wednesday as I hurled a barrage of epithets at no one in particular), along with continual (like 3-5 hours a day) of ice.

In the words of the ininmitable Joni Mitchell, "you don't know what you've got till its gone..." Everybody stay/get healthy.

MF

Dave,

Do you have a friend that is a physical therapist? If so, ask about the 'dead bug' exercise. It will do you wonders. Takes about one week for results to kick in.

I'd like to have a race report. I finally decided a 40 minute 8k was okay to run at Boulder. Hell, as Pete would lap me twice I'd just get the hell out of the way. I'm fine with that. So I renew my USATF card and go to pay my $75.00 entry fee and online reg stopped on Feb. 5 Damn.

Still went up missed the masters women. Couldn't find the venue in time. Another damn.Missed my wifes freind and rival Lisa Goldsmith take 4th. Cindy will be 45 march 1 and will be very competetive there.

Got to the race 15 minutes before the men's old fartsstart. Saw a guy who was entered and he was in casual jogging clothes. He did strides in his spikes and could barely walk his calves had cramped so bad. Damn.

Pete was the man saturday towing Dennis around the couse. It was muddy and wet. The lead cart could not make it though the mud in some places.

All the races were inspiring. I thought Jordan Hassey was going to find out what altitude was all about she took off so fast. These kids prove me wrong again. Junior boys was a hell of a pack race. It just keep getting smaller each lap. The courdse was 2K loops. Everyone ran 8k but junior girls 6K and open men 12K. The winner made a move and gapped the field. He just strung out the pack and it was over.

Deena is a freaking machine. She dominated from the very beginning.

Mens open was a bit strange. Ritz tried to go do what Deena did. He was running thru the sloop and running the tangents. Goucher did the same but was back in second. Culpepper was back a bit running with the pack for the first 2 laps. Culpepper was running in the drier sections. Then on lap 5 Culpepper made a move( I didn't see it) and was up front with Goucher in 2. The last lap Culpepper just put distance on everyone. There was much surfering!

I got lots of pics of the races if anyone wants copies shoot me an email of race number or who you want.

Solid week, 48 miles w/ long run on Tues., hills on Thurs., long intervals on Sat.

Had a couple of TNB masters in Boulder, hopefully tbirdxc will report something here for us.

I got a refreshed perspective on winning this weekend. My son became the first freshman in memory to win an overall forensics competition for his high school. When I asked how he felt about his victory, his take on it was "I expected to win". The same attitude I had when I was a young hotshot. Always good to see your kids find something to be passionate about.

Ran in the Masters 8K XC Champs in Boulder. What a race!!!!

Excellent job done by Pete and his crew. Lots of mud, and i beat some pretty good local runners. Not bad for me not living at altitude.

It sounds like a tough course and altitude in Boulder. I am glad to be training for indoor track.

Last week I had a solid week of practice. Key days included: Tuesday- 2x(1x1000m/400m, 1x600m/400m); Thursday- 8x300m; Saturday- 7 Miles Tempo; also 1 day free weights, 1 day circuit.

Have a good week.

Ghost of Igloi

Here are some random thoughts and comments regarding my experience at Boulder this weekend. I ran the Masters’ race. It was my first USATF event. It was the first time I had raced in spikes in 15 years. (Tempus fugit.)

Foremost, I doff my cap to the men and women who toed the line in any one of the six races. I especially commend those at the front who challenged for the victory. I saw some inspired performances.

We spent the day before the race in Denver. My wife and I took our kids to the zoo. Usually I enjoy going to the zoo, but as we walked upon the cold concrete for hours and hours, I could literally feel the spring draining from my legs. It was worth it however, as my two boys really dig the zoo.

I was surprised to see that the race course was marked in miles, as the stated distance for each of the races was in kilometers. (I had spent a good part of the previous week muddling my mind regarding my expected pace for each kilometer. Sigh.)

The day dawned foggy, but by midmorning the sky was mostly blue and the temperature was very comfortable. (I felt a touch of chagrin for those who overdressed for the race.)

I secretly hoped that the morning would stay cold, in order to help the course retain its firmness. Nevertheless, the course became noticeably softer on each lap of my race. When I raced, the muck was only surface deep. Obviously it got deeper as the day wore on.

I thought "the ditch" was a perfectly reasonable impediment. I took a different line each time I approached it. I didn't fall. I didn't lose a shoe. (I used spikes about 5/16 of an inch long. I experienced no slipping.)

The crowd was fantastic. Rarely (never?) have I run before such an appreciative audience.

More than anything, I very much enjoyed the camaraderie amongst the fellows who ran the Masters’ race. Probably most of us have been running for at least 25 or 30 years. I reckon we've all experienced our share of good days and bad days, victories and personal defeats, grins and tears.

My wife and I have two boys. Our older son is a talented swimmer. Our younger son hopes to be a runner like his old man. I think their seeing the spectacle of this past weekend may encourage each of them to appreciate the effort that is necessary for sport and how sport can sometimes continue into (aged!) adulthood.

I didn't run a great race. I got out of the box a little quicker than I might have otherwise in order to have positioning for getting to the first tight turn to the right. I went through the first mile in 5:30. Through the balance of the race I mostly held position. I let my mind wander during laps 2 and 3, and lost a little time because of that. (I was also listening to the PA describe the action up front between Pete and the other two fellows.)

Somewhat to my regret, I did not summon the strength to stay with one of my running friends as the race wound down. To his credit, he put about nine seconds on me in the final lap.

I wish I had been able to stick around for the afternoon and evening to drink some beer and to schmooze with the other athletes. Unfortunately, we had to get back to Laramie for an obligation.

I finished in 16th place overall. My time (28:29) was about a minute slower than I had hoped for. Given the conditions, however, today's race was more about effort than about time.

I think it could have made a substantial difference had I been able to run a couple 5000m to 5 mile races in the month prior to this race. (Nothing like racing to get me into racing shape.)

When my boys found out that next year's race is in San Diego they asked in unison, "Isn't there a zoo in San Diego we might visit, Dad?"

Great race reports

Nice 50+ degrees in the Pac West today. Almost feels balmy.

Great running @ Boulder by some of the regulars. Pistol Pete the 45 Champ (again!).

Hoped to race a 3k on the Indoor track yesterday, but the family schedule wouldn't let up on Sat (two bball games, soccer game, no spousal support - out of town), so had to nix my first race until later. Sure felt good to taper/cut back this week though. Legs felt OK by Friday.

Mon Indoor 2 x 400, 3k solo (8:45), plyos

Weds Fartlek

Sun am 14 pm 6

Saw some video of the mudfest II @ Boulder. Fun to run in, hard as hell to race in.

cheers,

tony

Watched all the Races at Boulder.

The women's Masters race was first. Presilla Welsch even ran the 60 age group. She made it about a lap or 2.

Pete did all the work for the 2 "young" guns who seem more than happy to let him do the work until they took off on the last lap. Not sure you can compare pete's time to later races as the course got slower for each race.

The junior women's race was a 15 HS just dominating from sealevel followed by a bunch of college girls running in a pack until late in the race.

The junior men's race was very different. Surprisingly, these youngsters seemed to give the altitude more respect and show more experience than anybody else. So a hugh pack ran together until the last mile and a half when all the actionn took place.

The Women's race was just complete Deena domination.

The men's race was one of the most entertaining I've ever seen. The only thing that seemed certain was that Goucher looked like he was going to finish 2nd almost the entire way. However, for most of the race he looked like he'd finish 2nd to Ritz and then 2nd to Culpepper but there was almost no point inbetween.

All in all a great meet. Fanatastic atmosphere and a truly great race in the Mens. When was the last time you went to a cross country meet and could say the worst thing about it was it took too long to get home because of all the crowds and traffic!

How many showed up ? any attendence figures ?