Run to Win

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)

Greg Meyer will be speaking at the Maine Running Company this Thursday, April 16^th, 2009. Greg Meyer is the last American man to win the Boston Marathon with his 2:09:00 in 1983. He has formerly held 2 world records (15K and 10 miles) and 10 American records (8K, 10K, 15K, 25K, and 10 miles.)

He will share his experiences with Boston, and along with the Maine Running Company coaches (Mike Gaige, John Rogers, and myself) he will be discussing how you can get ready for your first marathon or half marathon.

If you have some spare time and are in the Portland, Maine area this Thursday evening, I recommend stopping by. The normal training group run will begin at 6:00 and the 1^st Time Marathoner clinic will begin at 7:00 p.m. All are welcome.

The event is free, but if you are planning on attending, please register in advance at the Maine Running Company.

The Weekly Back Cove Race Series has now drawn to a close for 2008 with an absolute gorgeous evening with perfect running conditions.

Temperatures were in the high 60s with a light breeze. A total of 878 people ran across the finish line 2,192 times for an average of over 121 people per race. Only twice did the number of finishers dip below 100, with 97 finishers in week 4 and 88 finishers tonight.

Scott Gorneau (01:42:13) led the way, beating Phil Dirusso (01:47:34) by 43 seconds to win the race in 17:03.

Heather Pagano (01:52:40) ran uncontested in the women’s race, winning in 19:05. She also cemented her series win, bringing her overall time down by 22 seconds and winning by just shy of 10 minutes. She is pictured above with Mizuno representative Colin Ingram and community spirit award winner Michael Beaudoin (02:20:47). Michael has been running in the series from the very beginning, including 16 of the races this year. Tyler Jasud (01:39:33) maintained his lead to win the series on the men’s side, despite not running this week.

I was the only person to run all 18 races this year, marking the first year that I didn’t miss a race, and also marking the first year that I was actually on time to every race since I began running in this series. My total time this year was 06:13:00 for an average of 20:43 for each 5k, with a 4^th place finish in the standings with a time of 01:47:02, about 5 minutes slower than last year.

Last year, I was the only person to run over 13 races. This year, 11 people including myself ran at least 14 races in the series. I’d like to thank everybody for coming out this year and making the series a resounding success, and I’m looking forward to the 2009 series where we can hopefully grow it even more!

(Full Results – Leader Board – Runner’s List)

The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the third part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment and the second part was about nutrition basics and fueling. This part covers foot and biomechanical structure and the selection of proper footwear.

Selecting Proper Footwear

The third presentation of the night was from the owner of the Maine Running Company, John Rogers. John’s career in the running business started in product development for Nike and Mizuno, but he retired from doing that to start a specialty running store here in Southern Maine about 4 years ago.

“We try to find the right shoe for people.”

John and his employees use a 6 step fitting process to make sure that they are getting fitted with the proper shoes when they come into the store.

The 6 steps consist of determining information about the runner and his or her running habits, as well as some specific tests to help them determine what each athlete needs.

This 6 step process includes:
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In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about great sources of information for the month of November.

Today, I would like to talk about the best sources of running advice. The trick to getting good running advice is to spend time where runners congregate. Here are a few of the best places to find somebody that knows more about running than you do and won’t mind sharing:
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The Back Cove 5k Race Series concluded tonight with some great competition. Mark Goettel led three other runners to sub-17 times in a blazing 16:37.

For the past few weeks, people have been making fun of me for worrying about who might place first in the overall series since I had a pretty comfortable lead. I knew that Scott Gorneau (4^th in 16:57) and Chris Gatchell both had a chance to catch me, and I knew that they were going to go for it. Chris came in right behind Mark to take second place in 16:39, and was only 6 seconds behind me in the overall standings with a cumulative time of 01:42:35.

Carol Fanning and myself took the series wins. Carol had a more comfortable 1 minute lead over second place than I did. We are pictured below with Colin Ingram, the New England Mizuno representative, who came to Portland from New Hampshire to present us with our gift certificates and to watch the race. The final standings are available by clicking on the picture, and the series race leaders are listed below the picture.

2007 Back Cove 5k Winners

I would like to thank everybody for coming out for the series this year. There were almost 900 runners this year who ran at least one race, and 54 runners who ran at least 6 races. There were 3 races with more than 100 people, and other than May 16^th (with 17 people) there were at least 49 people racing every week! Taken as a group, each race averaged over 73 finishers, with 1,315 people crossing the line this year.

A very special thanks needs to be given to Stu Palmer for all of the hard work that he has done making sure that the event went off without a hitch every week, and to all of the sponsors who made the race possible. That includes John Rogers of the Maine Running Company, Portland Trails, and Mizuno running shoes.

(Photo credit goes to Stu Palmer!)

The 1st annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was August 16^th, 2007 at Falmouth High School. This is the second of two articles summarizing the clinic. The first article mentioned each person on the panel, and summarized the first hour plus of speakers. You can read part 1 here.

This second article continues with the second half of the panel:
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The 1^st annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 16^th, 2007 at Falmouth High School. There were about 75 people in attendance, and the clinic lasted for about 2 and a half hours. I have split up my notes and thoughts on the clinic into two parts, the second of which will appear this afternoon.

The clinic was put together by Falmouth coach Danny Paul, and sponsored by John Rogers of the Maine Running Company. The panel brought together some of the best local (and not so local) coaches and experts to talk on various topics relating to a high school cross country coach and his/her athletes. The topics covered are also relevant to other coaches and to the athletes themselves, of course.

The panel and the (very) general topics covered were:
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