Run to Win

A friend of mine sent me the following email about an upcoming race in Portland, so if you are looking for a relatively flat 5k where you can run a fast time and peek out over the Western Promenade, this is the one:

The second annual Reiche International 5K road race – celebrating the more than 30 nationalities that attend the Howard C. Reiche Community School in Portland’s West End – will start at the school on Sunday, Oct 18th at 9:30. There are slots available for both racers and volunteers.

Last year’s race, won by top male and female competitors Scott Gorneau, 37 of South Portland (15:56), and Lauren Fecteau, 17 of Portland (17:55), drew more than 160 runners. That was an impressive roster for a first-year race, and this year, the race is on track to reach a goal of 250 runners.

This community event celebrates Maine’s most ethnically diverse school and its amazing student body that, at last count, came from 32 different nations.

The race starts at Reiche Elementary Schoot at 166 Brackett Street on Portland’s West End. The well-marked single-loop course begins on Brackett Street and continues through the streets of the West End including Chadwick, Neal, Pine and Spring Streets. It includes one climb — behind the Western Prom Cemetery. Otherwise it’s fast and flat.

In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, participants are invited to wear a costume (by no means mandatory). Walkers are welcome as well.

Games, music and a giant yard sale are planned as part of the post-race festivities. The race is being organized by the Reiche PTO, and proceeds will fund Adventures Thursdays—a program to boost student physical activity through use of the Reiche pool or the outdoors.

If you are interested in running or volunteering, you can get all of the details at the race website: www.ReicheInternational.com

The final installment of the 2009 Weekly Back Cove Race Series was this evening, and 113 runners came out to participate. I also got out for my 7^th race this year in the series, and my first one since I broke my foot.

Curtis Wheeler (01:42:14) brought his overall time down by almost 2 minutes with his win in 17:49 today, which left him in a solid lead for the free shoes this year.

Abbey Gosling (01:54:10) was not present this evening, but nobody even came close to beating her in the series standing.

The win for the women tonight went to Nan Lobo, who ran 20:16 and completed 2 races this season.

The community spirit award went to Craig Whiten (02:19:56), who ran all but 2 of the races this season.

For myself, tonight was the first time that I have run in 45 days. I went out a bit quicker than I needed to but quickly settled into a more appropriate pace. My foot felt fine, which is good, although I am going to come back very slow and easy so that I don’t have to worry about injuring myself again.

I have no plans for my running until January, and have canceled everything I had had scheduled for the rest of the year so I can concentrate on getting better and building back my base.

I’d like to thank Stu Palmer, John Rogers, and Diane Fournier for all the work that they do throughout the Summer to put this series on. Without them, these races couldn’t happen.

I’d also like to thank Colin Ingram and Mizuno for their support, as well as Portland Trails and the Maine Track Club.

This year, we had 2864 finishers from 1203 runners, which is over a 30% increase over 2008. There was 1 person who ran every single week, Richard Dawson (02:26:47). There were 157 people who ran 6 races and found a place on the leaderboard, which is 37 more than last year and 104 more than in 2007. 23 people ran at least 13 of the races.

I hope to see everybody again next May when the 2010 series starts! Thank you for coming out.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)

This Saturday (September 12^th, 2009) is the first edition of Lex’s Run, put on by Alexis Welch and her husband Doug to help raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Lex suffers from muscular dystrophy, and has been raising money for the MDA through her running for the past few years. I caught up with her on the phone on Friday evening and recorded this conversation about the race:

The race is a 5k taking place in Worcester, Mass at Lake Park. There will be goodie bags, t-shirts, and a cook-out at the race for everybody participating.

If you are interested in running the race, you can get more information at: http://www.lexsrun.org

After last night’s announcement that there would only be 2 more Back Cove races, 126 runners made their way out this evening in great running conditions for the race.

Shawn Rumery led the way tonight, winning the race in 17:08. Jocelyn Olsen clocked 20:57 for her win in the women’s race.

The top of the leaderboard hasn’t changed since yesterday, but it is now 147 runners deep who have all run at least 6 of the races this year.

There are still 2 runners who have run every single race so far, and only have one more to run to have made all 18 on the year.

Don’t forget that next week is the last week of the race series.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)

The Back Cove 5k Race Series was scheduled to go for 19 weeks this year, rather than the 18 weeks that it has been for the past 2 years. However, the last race is being dropped due to scheduling difficulties and so the series will end on September 09, 2009 instead of on September 16^th.

Awards will be given out before the race next week on 9/09. Right now, Curtis Wheeler (01:44:06) and Abbey Gosling (01:54:10) are at the top of the leaderboard.

Abbey will be almost impossible to catch her 13 minute lead, especially with only 2 races remaining.

Curtis could still be caught by Scott Gorneau (1:44:53), who trails by a mere 47 seconds over their top 6 races. Scott could take the lead if he ran one of the remaining races in 17 minutes flat, and could tie for first place if he runs both races in 17:20. He has run faster than that 17:20 time twice now in the series. If Curtis races at least one more time, though, he stands to drop his time by 2 to 3 minutes which will make him uncatchable.

The leaderboard is determined by an individual runners top 6 times throughout the 18 week series. Check the links below if you would like to see where you stand on the leader board, or if you would like to see what place you are in when you factor in every race amongst everybody who has run the same number of races as yourself!

(More Info: Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List)

Thanks to Emily for pointing me at the following video interview from FloTrack.
I think that this quote sums it up pretty well:

"After last week in Berlin, I had so much confidence.

I really felt like I belonged there."

(Click here to continue reading…)

Dathan Ritzenhein had the race of his life tonight, running what was until tonight only 0.02 seconds behind the world’s leading 5k time of the year.

Cutting 20.3 seconds off of his personal best (set at the USA Outdoor Championships in 2006), he followed right on the heels of Kenenisa Bekele’s 12:52.32 and Edwin Cheruiyot Soi’s 12:55.03 to become only the 3^rd American to run under 13 minutes in the 5k with his new American Record of 12:56.27.

Bob Kennedy’s American record of 12:58.21 had stood for 15 years. Ritzenhein finished 6^th just over a week ago at the world championships in the 10000m, running 27:22.28, and was the first American in 11^th place in the Olympic Marathon last Summer. His 3^rd place finish was his first trip to the podium on the world track stage.

Congratulations, Dathan! Great run tonight!

(More Info: Men’s Results – Photo Credit: Jean-Pierre)

Can Kenenisa Bekele be beaten in a 5000 meter run?

It doesn’t appear so. This evening at Weltklasse Zurich, the 5^th of 6 meets in the Golden League track series, he outran his closest competitor (Edwin Cheruiyot Soi) by about 2½ seconds to win the race in 12:52.32. That’s almost 4 seconds faster than his world-leading time of 12:56.25 that he ran in Rome earlier this year.

His win means that he’s only 1 race away from splitting a $1 million jackpot for anybody that can dominate their event in the Golden League series. Kerron Stewart is out of the running after her 0.18 second loss to Carmelita Jeter (who won in 10.86 seconds), but Sanya Richards in the 400 (48.94 seconds) and Yelena Isinbayeva in the pole vault (5.06m) are both still dominating their events and could potentially split the jackpot.

Kenenisa has now won 16 straight 5000 meter races. His last loss was to Bernard Lagat by 0.82 seconds at the Norwich Union London Grand Prix on July 28, 2006. In the past week or so he won both the 5000m and 10000m races at the world championships.

His next 5000m race is scheduled for 1 week from tonight on September 4, 2009. He’ll be running in the final meet of the Golden League at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels.

(More Info: Men’s Results – Women’s Results – Photo Credit: André Zehetbauer)