Running Times, Online

4/28/08

Good day Readers,

Hope you all are having a great day.

I have had a busy few weeks since last post on April 17, 2008 (11 days ago, is that possible).

My family and I went up to Boston for the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials and also for me to run the Boston Marathon.

I have to say, being a spectator during the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials on Sunday-April 20, 2008 was terrific. I usually don’t attend races if I am not running but I will in the future as the BAA, USATF, the sponsors and the city of Boston did a fantastic good of putting on a first class event.

Our family went down to the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials to watch the women “Go, Go, Go” (as Pierce says whenever he sees someone running).

Well, they definitely “went”, and it was great to see. What an awesome race and congratulations to all the women that ran. They were incredible to watch and really inspired me to continue to work hard to improve my own running.

I loved seeing the entire race unfold and to watch Magdalena take the race from the start and challenge all the other runners to either go with her or let her win it. I would have liked to have been that strong in November at the Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials.

Besides enjoying the Women’s Olympic Trials, I did get to participate in the 112th running of the Boston Marathon and I thank the BAA and the city of Boston along with my sponsors for allowing me to compete.

I was a little apprehensive about running on my recently turned ankle but all was well and I was able to finish 45th overall in 2:28:35. This is actually one of my fastest finishes at Boston and coming almost a week after the USA 100K Championships, I am quite pleased with the outcome.

Next year, in Boston I would like to be in the top ten (10) overall so I definitely have a lot of work to do but I am looking forward to the challenge and think it will keep me motivated during the course of the year.

In addition, to the Boston Marathon this past weekend I ran the Pike’s Peak 10K on Sunday-April 27, 2008 in Rockville, MD and I felt like I ran a pretty solid 31:21 but ended up 11th overall.

It was so very nice to be back in the Washington, DC area and to be running at a local event. I got to see a lot of the people that I know from the local running community and even had someone tell me to “keep blogging”, that was neat.

I am glad that my thoughts are connecting with some of you and I hope to continue to find interesting things to write about.

I appreciate your interest in my running and blog and I look forward to having something of interest to post again soon.

Best Regards,
Michael Wardian

I ran 25 glorious minutes this morning on my treadmill.  I have been taking baby-steps back to training since injuring one of my left quadriceps two weeks ago.  Yesterday I speed walked for 15 minutes and ran for 15 minutes.   My workouts of stationary biking, elliptical machine use, and pool running just don’t give me the same emotional boost as running does.  There is something about the rhythmic pounding of my feet hitting the ground and my body jarring from the impact that is so soothing to my brain.  My husband thinks my running is an addiction; maybe it is?

I was glued to the webcast of the Women’s Olympic Trials this last Sunday.  I admit I was a bit envious of the runners who were able to line-up for the Trials marathon.  I was not able to run on Saturday.  All I could do was sit and watch while I stretched, rolled, and iced.  There was quite an impressive showing from the marathon ladies over the age of 40.  Joan Samuelson’s performance was simply awesome!

My next race is the Medtronic TC 1-Mile scheduled for May 8th.   The race will be contested on the streets of Minneapolis/St. Paul in conjunction with the Twin Cities Marathon.   I love the challenge of road miles.  Even the most skilled runners can make a mistake when racing a mile on the street; I recall kicking too soon on more than one occasion during some of my many road miles.

I am a bit cautious of my racing fitness.   My muscles may need to re-adjust to the stress of sprinting.  I believe I was able to maintain adequate aerobic fitness at the gym.  In the weight room my main concern has been building-up the muscles in my left leg.  I am still baffled at how my left leg became so much weaker.   It probably had something to do with my not stepping foot into a weight room for a few years.

I am still trying to figure out all that has happened in the past 4 days. One thing I know for sure is that this was by far the best marathon I have run until now. I am glad it happened to be on Sunday at the Olympic Trials. Going into this race I had a very important goal to achieve and that was to run for something better than myself (Coach, sponsors, family, and friends) I am very proud to say: “Mission accomplished”. There is nothing more rewarding than to be able see all of them come together and enjoy this wonderful moment of my life with me. I am grateful to have the opportunity to share the best in me with the people I love, respect, and care so much about. Thank you so much to all my fans that follow my steps and keep me in their thoughts and prayers. Congratulations to Deena, Magdalena and Blake for a wonderful race and the very best in the Olympics. We will be cheering for you. God Bless Us All!

MISSION CUMPLIDA

Aun estoy tratando de comprender todo lo que ha pasado por los últimos 4 días. De lo que si estoy muy segura es de que este fue sin duda alguna el mejor maratón de mi vida. Estoy muy contenta que fue en el selectivo Olímpico. Para esta carrera tenia una meta muy importante por cumplir y esa meta era el correr por algo mucho mejor que mi misma (Mi entrenador, mi familia, mis patrocinadores, conocidos y amigos) Estoy orgullosa de poder decir: “Misión Cumplida”. No hay premio mas grande que el poder verlos a todos unidos y disfrutando de este gran momento de mi vida conmigo. Estoy agradecida de tener la oportunidad de compartir lo mejor de mí con la gente que amo, respeto y quiero mucho. Gracias a todos mis fans que siguen mis pasos y me mantienen en sus pensamientos y oraciones. ¡Dios nos Bendiga a Todos!

Gomez Grabs 4th

Today at the US Olympic Trials for the Women’s Marathon RT Blog contributor Zoila Gomez ran a spectacularly strong and gutsy race and was rewarded with a 4th place finish. The top three finishers earn berths on the Olympic team, but the 4th place finisher is first alternate. If something should happen to Kastor, Boulet or Russell, Zoila will be the one to take her place.

Zoila started out running with the large chase pack. Magdalena Boulet was running slightly quicker for each mile and had built up a sizeable lead very early on in the race. The chase pack consisted of all the expected names and faces: Kate O’Neill, Elva Dryer, Deena Kastor, Mary Akor and Zoila. Around mile 15 Deena struck out from the front of the chase pack to chase Boulet on her own. Her move caused the pack to string out and Zoila seemed to be falling towards the back of the large pack.

She kept her cool though, and worked her way back up as slowly, others started to drop back or drop out altogether. O’Neill & Dryer were two notable DNFs. By the start of the last loop, around mile 20, Zoila was well within sight of Blake Russell in third place and seemed to have a shot at catching her. But it was not to be. Russell was too strong at the end this time.

Rounding onto Boylston for the final 400 meters though, another runner had caught up to Gomez: Tera Moody, a complete unknown coming into the race and sporting the bib (and therefore, seed number) 152, Moody was having the run of her life as well. Around the bend, onto the sunny section of Boylston as they entered Back Bay, the two were neck and neck, trading the lead on every stride. Zoila managed to cross the line one slim second in front of Moody to claim 4th in 2:33:53, a PR by over 1.5 minutes.

Alyanak 7th

Speaking of unknowns, we here at RT Blogs obviously know about Ann Alyanak, but she wasn’t getting a lot of press otherwise. That could change now though, if her runner-up performance at the US Women’s Marathon Championships here in Boston last year wasn’t good enough, Ann’s performance today was certainly notable. Knocking another 4 minutes off of her PR, Ann finished less than a minute back from Zoila in 7th place with a time of 2:34:46.

Emily LeVan did not come close to equaling her qualifying time, but she was thrilled with her race none-the-less. Her light training schedule this winter, and heavy cancer-treatment schedule for her daughter meant that her expectations for herself were not nearly as high as they have been in the past. She finished in 67th place in 2:45:45.

But in the past three months, the general public has come through and greatly surpassed all of Emily’s expectations for it. As of last Friday, Emily’s Two Trials project has raised over $64,000 for a Maine’s Children’s Cancer Center. Her total goal for the project was $52,400, and over the weekend, NBC aired a segment about Emily & Maddie on the nightly news. She expected to receive even more donations from that publicity.

Last, But Not Least

Finally we have Jackie Dikos, with perhaps the most valiant effort of our four bloggers. In her last post she mentioned the tendonitis she had been dealing with. In the lead-up to a big race, runners must, by necessity, talk down the seriousness of an injury lest she feel defeated before she gets to the line. Jackie was unusually forward about the gravity of her situation, but she toed the line this morning with determination — she was at least going to get the finisher’s medal.

As the race developed, she slowly started losing the pack she had been running with. One could see from the sidelines that her stride was short and awkward and the pain, both physical and mental, was obvious on her face. Throughout the field, runners were dropping out, from top contenders to the heartbreaking woman whose arm cramped and she ran with it frozen to her side for 10 miles in last place before finally dropping.

On the official results, Jackie is the last runner listed with a time: she finished last. But. She finished. And for that, in such a situation, with tens of thousands looking on and no where to hide, for Jackie I have the greatest respect.

My sister Alicia and I are finally here in Boston for the most anticipated race of the year “The Women’s Marathon Olympic Trials”. We arrived yesterday afternoon and had the privilege to stay at Amory’s house. It was wonderful to be able to spend some time with Amory and her husband David Salem. As always, they went the extra mile to make sure we felt like at home and prepared a delicious meal all of us enjoyed.
I got up this morning around 7:00 a.m. had a banana for breakfast and went for a 45 minutes run around 8:00a.m. I came back stretched and had a real breakfast before I took a shower and got ready to be taken to our hotel for a press conference.
The press conference was quite exciting. It really made me feel more relax and I realized I am not alone in this. There will be 153 women at the starting line on Sunday, April 20th. I am exited and honor to be here and be part of such an amazing event, surrounded by amazing people. Every single one of us, have a story to share, have a goal to achieve, and most importantly had work hard to make it this far.
I am also very happy to be able to share this experience with my sister. The weather for Sunday is expected to be ideal for the race. Thank you so much to all of you that follow my career for your e-mails and messages of encouragement.

PD: Amory is the founder of “In the Arena”

SALUDOS DESDE BOSTON

Bueno pues mi hermana Alicia y yo por fin ya estamos en Boston para la carrera mas anticipada del año “ El selectivo para el equipo olímpico del maratón”. Llegamos a Boston ayer por la tarde y tuvimos el privilegio de quedarnos en la casa de Amory. Fue padrisimo poder compartir un rato con Amory y su esposo, David Salem. Como siempre, hicieron todo lo posible para que nos sintiéramos como en casa y prepararon una comida deliciosa que todos disfrutamos.

Esta mañana me levante a las 7:00 a.m. desayune un plátano y salí a correr por 45 minutos a las 8:00 a.m. Regrese y tuve un desayuno mas real antes de que nos llevaran al hotel para acudir a una rueda de prensa. La rueda de prensa estuvo muy emocionante. Me hizo sentir mucho mas relajada y me di cuanta que no estoy solo en esto. Habrá 153 mujeres compitiendo el domingo 20 de abril. Estoy emocionada y es un privilegio estar aquí, ser parte de este evento y estar rodeada de gente maravillosa. Cada una de nosotras tenemos una historia que contar, tenemos una meta por cumplir lo mas importante hemos trabajada arduamente para llegar hasta aquí.

También estoy muy contenta de compartir esta experiencia con mi hermana. El clima para el domingo será ideal para la carrera. Muchas gracias por sus correros electrónicos y mensajes alentadores.

PD: Amory es la fundadora de la organización “In the Arena”