Wednesday, December 20, 2006
First week in Flagstaff and the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon w/pix
I'ld like to start off by welcoming any new readers who are coming across this blog from my training group's new website, www.americandistanceproject.com I'm importing some of blogs that are running related to the site from myspace. Hopefully this will provide some interesting stories and insight into the life of a full time runner trying to make it to the next level. I'm currently living in Flagstaff, AZ staying at the Center for High Altitude Training. I arrived here on Dec. 3rd (Sunday night), and my car is still dirty from the snow storm I drove though in Oklahoma. On Monday morning the program director, Sean Anthony, gave me a tour around campus and was nice enough to take my picture in front of the office dedicated to the center. The townhouse I'm staying in is pretty nice and I'm currently sharing with four other runners: Ryan Shay, Pablo Olmedo, Mike Smith and Torry Zellar. It's good to have a bunch of different people to run with living with you. I did some repeat miles at Buffalo Park with Ryan and Pablo on Tuesday as my last workout before the half. They went pretty well. Five times a mile with 3 min rest averaging 4:42 at 7100ft of elevation. I drove down to phoenix on Wednesday night for my flight Thursday morning to Dallas. After the 2 hour drive I went on a shakeout with Aaron Aguayo (one of my ASU buddies). I then met up with Ronnie, Juan, and Mannie for some delicious Ethiopian food at the Blue Nile Restaurant in downtown Tempe. I was stuffed. Ronnie dropped me off at the airport Thursday morning and they told me I was a little early for my 11:10am flight... about 24 hours early. I guess I didn't read my itinerary close enough. Oh well, I'll never complain about another day in sweet Tempe. Ronnie came back to the airport and went to go check out the new Bond movie which was awesome. I got to catch up with my friend Irena that night who I haven't seen in 2 years and I made my flight on Friday morning with plenty of time to spare.
Everything went smoothly and I was in my hotel in Dallas before I knew it, Corey Duquette was debuting in the Dallas Marathon and I hung out with him for most of the weekend. He ran for Virginia Intermont and lived in Bristol for the past 2 years, although he currently lives in Phoenix. We were staying in the W which was a super trendy hotel. It felt like I was walking into a night club every time I went in. The elevator lobby's had couches will real cow skin, not cow skin print. The bathroom was not really separated from the room (i guess that would be ideal for a romantic weekend with your girl, but not so much when your sharing a room with some dude you never met before.) My roommate, Patrick Kiptum, was also running the full marathon.
The marathon started at 8:00am with the half marathon that I was running starting at 9:05am. I guess they wanted the top runners coming in at about the same time; However, I smoked the men's marathon winner by 4min. There were three other elite athletes in the half marathon that were flown in besides myself. I knew one of them, Valentine Orare, from an 8k race that I ran in Richmond on Nov. 11th. He was second in 22:22 and I was fifth in 22:32. He then ran 62:29 for a half-marathon in Philadelphia one week later. I was kind of keeping my eye on him and guessed that it would come down between us at the end. After a sluggish opening two miles in 10:20, Valentine and another runner took off. I followed for about a half a mile before checking off. I knew we were running pretty fast and they were surging back and forth with each other, so I decided to stay within myself and run evenly. I ran the third and fourth miles in 4:43 pace and I was about 10 seconds adrift at this point and feeling quiet comfy. The other runner began to fade pretty badly shortly after 5 miles and after passing 5 miles in 24:36 I was up with Valentine around 6.5 miles. I tried to go by him right away, but that didn't work. I threw down a double latte power gel a little after 8 miles and immediately felt the caffeine boost. After passing 10 miles in 48:23, I tried to drop him a few more times to no avail. I knew that this one was going to come down to the wire. As we approached the finish, the course was winding through downtown Dallas. I looked at my watch and saw 1:02:30 and new that the finish line had to be coming up soon. All of a sudden we took a left turn and the finish line was right there. Luckily I was on his left shoulder and drilled the tangent as hard as I could. I edged him out by about 10 inches. We both were officially recorded at 1:02:59 giving us a last 5k of 14:36.
I was pretty excited since I haven't won a race in over 3 years. Valentine seemed a little upset afterwards. The start and finish were right outside of the hotel and my room actually had a view of the marathon's finish line. I went up to my room to change into my trainers and looked out the window to see Corey finishing in 2:23:14. He missed the Olympic Trials' qualifier, but will try again in Boston. Michael Johnson lives in Dallas and he was on the stage at the awards ceremony when they gave me a big Happy Gilmore check. They let me keep it and it prompted allot of attention in the airport which was fun.
When I got back to Phoenix, Juan and Ronnie wanted to take some pictures with the big check. We had some lettuce wraps with dinner at P.F. Changs on Mill and played some pool at the Tavern. Ronnie and I ran an out and back in the morning down this canal by his house to a specialty running store that he works at, RunAZ. It's owned by Bri Torres, a former sun devil teammate of mine, and her husband. If your in the Phoenix area you should check it out. We had some sandwiches and then I drove back up the mountain to Flagstaff. After a couple of gentle recovery runs and a massage, the half-marathon was out of my legs and I was ready to workout again. 16 by 400 w/ 90sec rest. It went well, but I was sucking down some air after each one. As I'm writing this blog, I'm handing Mike a beating in scrabble and Ryan and Pablo are relaxing in the living room.
The Houston half marathon on January 14th is serving as the 2007 road championship, and is the next big thing on the schedule. I will return to provide you all with more reading pleasure shortly thereafter.
See you next month,
Fasil Bizuneh
Everything went smoothly and I was in my hotel in Dallas before I knew it, Corey Duquette was debuting in the Dallas Marathon and I hung out with him for most of the weekend. He ran for Virginia Intermont and lived in Bristol for the past 2 years, although he currently lives in Phoenix. We were staying in the W which was a super trendy hotel. It felt like I was walking into a night club every time I went in. The elevator lobby's had couches will real cow skin, not cow skin print. The bathroom was not really separated from the room (i guess that would be ideal for a romantic weekend with your girl, but not so much when your sharing a room with some dude you never met before.) My roommate, Patrick Kiptum, was also running the full marathon.
The marathon started at 8:00am with the half marathon that I was running starting at 9:05am. I guess they wanted the top runners coming in at about the same time; However, I smoked the men's marathon winner by 4min. There were three other elite athletes in the half marathon that were flown in besides myself. I knew one of them, Valentine Orare, from an 8k race that I ran in Richmond on Nov. 11th. He was second in 22:22 and I was fifth in 22:32. He then ran 62:29 for a half-marathon in Philadelphia one week later. I was kind of keeping my eye on him and guessed that it would come down between us at the end. After a sluggish opening two miles in 10:20, Valentine and another runner took off. I followed for about a half a mile before checking off. I knew we were running pretty fast and they were surging back and forth with each other, so I decided to stay within myself and run evenly. I ran the third and fourth miles in 4:43 pace and I was about 10 seconds adrift at this point and feeling quiet comfy. The other runner began to fade pretty badly shortly after 5 miles and after passing 5 miles in 24:36 I was up with Valentine around 6.5 miles. I tried to go by him right away, but that didn't work. I threw down a double latte power gel a little after 8 miles and immediately felt the caffeine boost. After passing 10 miles in 48:23, I tried to drop him a few more times to no avail. I knew that this one was going to come down to the wire. As we approached the finish, the course was winding through downtown Dallas. I looked at my watch and saw 1:02:30 and new that the finish line had to be coming up soon. All of a sudden we took a left turn and the finish line was right there. Luckily I was on his left shoulder and drilled the tangent as hard as I could. I edged him out by about 10 inches. We both were officially recorded at 1:02:59 giving us a last 5k of 14:36.
I was pretty excited since I haven't won a race in over 3 years. Valentine seemed a little upset afterwards. The start and finish were right outside of the hotel and my room actually had a view of the marathon's finish line. I went up to my room to change into my trainers and looked out the window to see Corey finishing in 2:23:14. He missed the Olympic Trials' qualifier, but will try again in Boston. Michael Johnson lives in Dallas and he was on the stage at the awards ceremony when they gave me a big Happy Gilmore check. They let me keep it and it prompted allot of attention in the airport which was fun.
When I got back to Phoenix, Juan and Ronnie wanted to take some pictures with the big check. We had some lettuce wraps with dinner at P.F. Changs on Mill and played some pool at the Tavern. Ronnie and I ran an out and back in the morning down this canal by his house to a specialty running store that he works at, RunAZ. It's owned by Bri Torres, a former sun devil teammate of mine, and her husband. If your in the Phoenix area you should check it out. We had some sandwiches and then I drove back up the mountain to Flagstaff. After a couple of gentle recovery runs and a massage, the half-marathon was out of my legs and I was ready to workout again. 16 by 400 w/ 90sec rest. It went well, but I was sucking down some air after each one. As I'm writing this blog, I'm handing Mike a beating in scrabble and Ryan and Pablo are relaxing in the living room.
The Houston half marathon on January 14th is serving as the 2007 road championship, and is the next big thing on the schedule. I will return to provide you all with more reading pleasure shortly thereafter.
See you next month,
Fasil Bizuneh
Flagstaff & Dallas Half Blog
FasilBlog
“I ran the third and fourth miles in 4:43 pace and I was about 10 seconds adrift at this point and feeling quit comfy.” - Fasil
