Race Interview: Brad Pace, Race Director The Colorado Run

Speaking with race director Brad Pace of the Colorado Run. Brad this is the 33rd year for the run. Can you tell us how you became associated with the race?

BP: Organizing a race takes a lot of time and energy, and after several years, the past director was ready to retire.  I took over organization in order to give something back to the running community, after my many years as a runner and participant. 

The Colorado Run has both a 5k and a 10k-and both races are smoking fast. What advice would you give both veteran runners in the event and first timers?

BP: Train well, then come run a fast one.  The 10k is a 3 lap criterion course, which is ideal for pacing yourself through a great race.  The 5k is a single loop, with the last mile rolling gently downhill to the finish... a great way to finish with a fast time!  Neither course has any noticeable uphills.

You are also the only Northern Colorado event that offers a corporate challenge, and you have a kids fun run and even suggested training programs right on the website. Can you speak to each of those briefly?

BP: The kids fun run is one in a series of free races geared toward promoting healthy kids.  Being a Labor Day, Monday run, we get almost 1,000 kids, since we are not competing with the other typical weekend sports programs. The corporate challenge has been another fun option to motivate work friends to train together with a goal in mind.  Companies can use our website training programs to get started.  It's a fun way to get in shape, and build some additional corporate camaraderie.

The race is on a Monday and is also travels on and near the CSU campus. Talk about the support you get from CSU in running the event.

BP: CSU has been great to work with, and being that the courses both stay on the campus, there is virtually no traffic.  And with Labor Day as a school holiday, there is also not much human traffic.  It's a great time and place to have a fun run.

 Most race directors I speak with tell me race day is just crazy. From getting up in the middle of the night until the last booth is packed up and hauled away you have your own little race day challenges and non-stop action. It has to be rewarding though to see everything come together on race day.

BP: Right, I would rather run in a race, that run a race!  It's a crazy last 24 hours of pulling together all of the pieces that make a good race.  If the organizational details are invisible to the runners, then I did well.http:/http://www.thecoloradorun.com/

Diamond League in Switzerland-Bolt, Blake Headline 13 Gold Medal Winning Starters

Bolt, Rupp, Blake, Manzano to run in Lausanne, Switzerland Samsung Diamond League

(courtesy Getty Images) 

Lausanne, Switzerland - With just three meets left in the track and field Diamond League season, all eyes will be on focused again on World Number 1 Usain Bolt and teammate Johan Blake. Each will run the 100 and 200, with the 100 start list to include the top 5 from London.

At least 11 other Gold Medal winners, and 52 other London medalists are expected at the start line for the meet that begins Aug. 23.

In addition the gold medal winning Jamaicans, American's Aries Merritt, Galen Rupp and Brittney Reese are expected to compete.


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Post Olympic Track Meets in Europe....from Let's Run

"There's an arrogance about these meets in England. There's something wrong. The attitude seems to be, 'We've got Mo Farah so we don't need anyone else.' Birmingham has a big West Indian community and you would have thought they would want to see Yohan Blake or Warren Weir or some of the other Jamaicans."

"This friendly stuff doesn't work. If you're friends with this manager (Ian Stewart) you get to have your athletes come in. If you're not friends, you don't get to be invited. You have to be in the boys' club.

- Cubie Seegobin, the agent for Yohan Blake, blasting UK meet director Ian Stewart for insulting his star client by offering him only $40,000 to run in England.

 http://www.letsrun.com/

Re post: Interview Amby Burfoot, Author, Editor Runner's World

Thomas:  Amby, The San Francisco Marathon is less than two weeks away. You logged more than 100,000 miles racing and training and have won the Boston Marathon. Based on your experience what should our San Francisco runners be thinking about or doing in the two weeks leading up to race day?

Amby:  Ok. Well obviously since we are down to two weeks I thinks it’s time for a serious taper. I think that most anything you can do from a training perspective now can lead to bad results if you are not careful.  If you are undertrained and you think you need to keep going on your training and push, or even if you are race ready and have trained for the event, now is the time for a substantial taper. Rest. Sleep. The best way to run a strong marathon (or half) is to be as healthy as you can possibly be the moment you are standing at the start line-even at the expense of a few extra miles of training. It’s more important to strong and healthy for the race.

Thomas: Great advice. How about for our half marathoners, or even first time marathon runners, what kind of strategies should they have to not only finish, but once they gauge how they are doing in the race how can they tell when to run faster, or throttle back to achieve their goal?

Amby: sure. For any of those first time runners in San Francisco who are not familiar with that adrenaline rush. I would advise them to go out slow—I know it’s hard to do that with all the excitement of the other runners and all. But if you go out too fast and then don’t feel good, you will have a long way to run to finish and there is nothing you can do. If you however, go out on the slow side, you can of course pick up the pace and capture any time back that you need to hit the time you were hoping for. It doesn’t really matter whether you are a first time marathoner, or half marathoner, the most important thing in the early miles is to repeat a mantra that says stay relaxed, don’t push and shove to get through the crowd, if you lose a few seconds on your pace in the early miles, you can get it back later.

Thomas: In San Francisco we will have some 25,000-30,000 plus runners. It’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement of race day and just want to rush out and start running fast just to keep up with everyone around you.

Amby: It is hard! Even for someone like me who has run over a 100,000 miles and it feels like that many races (laughing).  The race environment is so exciting, and you have been focused for so long and now the day, the race is here! You been training for days, weeks or months and you’re just so pumped up you feel all of that adrenaline- the body knows it and so does the mind. You want to run and you simply don’t realize that you are running faster and expending more energy—energy that you will need later. So I think it’s a great time to find your proper pace, line up in the right place at the start line, find those pace leaders or folks you are running with,  whether it 7, 8, 9 minutes, whatever it is and then just really relax in those early miles. Take in some of the sights that you will be running by.  Appreciate the great city you are running through, and all of the fun people you are running with—some will probably be dressed in costumes and having a great time. And don’t forget all those fans out on the side of the road cheering and taking pictures.

Thomas:  You are heading over to London (in addition to all of your duties at Runner’s World) for the Olympics. When you think about all the great track and field athlete’s and events that you are going to see, which ones are you most excited about?

Amby: Yeah! All of it! There is nothing more exciting to a track fan than to attend the Olympics. The principal things for me as a connoisseur of distance running is of course this wonderful rise of Galen Rupp in the 10,000 and 5,000 meters. And now we finally put him on the biggest world stage when he is fitter and faster than he has ever been before and we will answer the question: Can he run with those incredible East Africans from Kenya and Ethopia-or not? And of course the marathon will be most thrilling to me. The British have clearly set up a very photogenic course.  The runners will pass Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, it’s just going to be a great race past so many historic landmarks and there is such strong competition in the respective fields. I’m really looking forward to it.

Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon Race Results

http://www.gtishalf.org/storage/Race%20Results%202012.htm#%209

Interview: Bart Yasso- San Francisco Marathon and other thoughts

Bart Yasso is running. In addition to being host of the San Francisco Marathon (look for Bart at the Expo and related events), he has traveled the world over to running events. Bart’s book, My Life on the Run is popular in the running community and beyond. He has been inducted into the Running USA Hall of Champions. He has ridden solo across the USA two times, competed in the Ironman five times and completed races on all seven continents. He is Mr. Running USA, and it was a pleasure to catch up with him in Colorado for an interview about the San Francisco Marathon.

Thomas: It is great to host you here in Denver, Colorado as you head to Colorado Springs for yet another race. So Bart, lots to catch up on– Wipro as you know is the title sponsor for the SF Marathon. Can you talk a little about how you got involved with the race and maybe as a follow up what makes San Francisco unique out of all of the races you travel to in the world.


Bart Yasso: Yeah sure. I am at a race every weekend. I travel basically nonstop. San Francisco had approached me about being a host for the race along with Dean Karnazes (an ultra runner) a few years ago. And I just jumped on the opportunity. It’s really just a a great weekend. We do a lot of clinics, seminars and just hang out with the race director and race committee. And then of course on race day I try to engage as much as I can with as many runners as possible. Whether they are doing the half marathon, marathon, 5k or munchkin run. There are so many races to choose from. It’s the only race I go to where you get a choice of the half marathon, and you can run either the first half, or the second half of the course which is so unusual. So yeah that is such a pretty location first off. It’s always perfect weather to do a race in. Summertime in July, in California! San Francisco has such cool mornings and that is so hard to find in the summertime for a marathon. It seems like its always about 55 degrees and cool-just ideal for running at the start of the race. And even when the last person comes in it’s about 55 degrees and cool.



Thomas: You mentioned how much you travel-it’s literally a new location and new race every weekend. So here were are less than two months before the SF race. And there are so many runners (25,000 plus) all with different goals- Some may just want to finish, others maybe want to hit a time, or compete in an age group. What should training should runners be mindful of as we get closer to the event and a marathon in general?


Bart Yasso: Oh yeah, there is plenty to work on. First off, if you are doing SF as your first marathon, I applaud you. It’s a tough course, it’s just not the easiest marathon course out there. So I admire runners who have the guts to say hey I’m going to run San Francisco! But you know the first thing is that when you are running a first marathon or half marathon, those first couple of races are more about having to establish yourself—just getting a realistic time about what you can do in one of the distances and then go from there. And try to improve. The first few races should just be about finishing and getting hooked on this great sport, and then hopefully you will be doing this for many years. For those runners who have more experience,  just know this is a tough course. I would be training for the course, the hills especially if you are in San Francisco and can run them. For folks who are not in California, well they should be running hills if at all possible. I feel sorry for some of the runners who don’t have hills to train on because it will be a lot tougher. But if you have some hills to train on, now is the time to train on them. And now is really a good time to speed work for either the marathon or the half. This is a great time to really ramp up the speed work. Work those speed sessions and try to peak for the event about 15-20 days before the event. Then you have to start that taper and really focus on storing that energy for race day.



Thomas: Great stuff. We have lots of hills here in Colorado to practice on. Let’s talk about the event again and getting ready for the start, eating properly, and even resting. For folks coming from different time zones the 5:30 am start time might pose some challenges. What do you recommend for runners so they arrive rested, stocked up with calories and ready to go?


Bart Yasso: It is an early start, 5:30. But you know if you are coming from the East coast, you are probably going to awake anyway. But there is still that simulation…if I was training for San Francisco I would be doing my long runs at 5:30 in the morning, or at least as close to that as possible so it feels normal to you on race day. It does complicate things when you are talking about eating some breakfast, especially for the marathon. I would suggest people eat a light breakfast. I suggest about two and half hours prior to race time. So that will really get you up early. So that does throw a little monkey wrench in there. But you know there are so many products you can eat on the course with the gels, and blocks and all of the nutritional stuff-that is really great about an event  like this—but remember you should practice what you plan on eating—practice in your training. You need to find out what really works for you. What makes you feel good when you run. That is the key. So then race day and race weekend is nothing new. And then I would eat my dinner a little bit later, because I probably wouldn’t have too much breakfast if I was in one of those early morning starts. I’d use the gels and blocks on the course. You just want things to be a close to normal as possible with some adjustments here and there.



Thomas: Final question: You have run all over the world, been chased by a Rhino in Africa(in your book My Life on the Run: http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Run-Wisdom-Insights/dp/1594869413),  and have stories that fill a book. Every runner has so many things that cross their mind during a marathon or half marathon due to the time and energy it take to complete them. But your story is really special-the illness that almost ended your career, racing on seven continents and all of the thousands of runners you have met. That’s a lot. What advice would you give those first timers, or those just beginning to experiment with the full or half marathon?


Bart Yasso:  Yeah, sure…you know I’ve had a lot of highs and lows in my career. I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I’ve had a lot of good years. I was very lucky to get very few running injuries. I had practically zero running injuries. But then I got lime disease twice and it really beat me up pretty badly. I mean, I think I said one time it destroyed my running career…but I mean it added on the marathon distance it was like two minutes per mile to my time…just overnight. Sighs…but I don’t say it destroyed my running career. It altered my running career. It slowed me down a lot. It made me appreciate more what I did have before. Its so easy to take these things for granted. You out there training and everything is working fine, and you do races at the drop of a hat. But then when I got sick it brought back to home how lucky we are physically to do what we do, and I always remind new runners how lucky we are culturally to do these things. That there are races in every big city in America and you can pretty much do a race every weekend if you want to. And that doesn’t happen everywhere. And think about the difference in our sport from other sports. In running we really are accepting of people of all abilities. We are accepting of all cultures, religions and whatever—but we are really accepting of all abilities. Think about it a lot of sports simply don’t do that. And I think that is what is so special about running. And for people new to the sport—they are at it at the height of running. There are more people running now than ever. The percentage of women running races is just unbelievable! Sometimes its as high as 70% in a given race. As a travel around the world and do races, you know there are many societies where people are suppressed from even doing races. Remember this—you can go to a race where there are maybe 70% of the runners are women and I bet maybe 90% of them probably don’t even know that less than 40 years ago women were not even allowed to run in the Boston Marathon. The first gender box  for the Boston Marathon did not happen until 1972. Think about that. When I was at the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, (they call it a marathon but it’s actually 56 miles) that race has been since 1921. Between the years of 1921 and 1975 they did not allow the black citizens of South Africa to run the race. And the country is 60% black citizens. So you can just imagine some of the suppression that gone on over the years. And those days are gone we are now accepting of everyone, and that just makes this sport so special. In the end its just you against the clock. There are no shortcuts, you can lie, you can’t fake anything. It’s just you pushing yourself. And then of course, if you are lucky enough to be an elite runner, or elite age group runner you can push for some of these times and be competitive. And try to win. But the majority of runners it’s just them against the clock. And that is the beauty of the sport—no judgments involved-you get paid back for all the work you put in.