Long time, no see.

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. Ok, a long while. Well, since then much has happened and I will just give a brief summary of my running since then. Last I posted was just before I ran the Cherry Creek Sneak. I ran this race as a tune up for the US 25k. It did not go well. I trained right through it and had no legs that morning. I felt good in the race for about a mile and then had the pleasure of suffering in no man's land for 4 miles. I was happy to be second but very disappointed that I couldn't even manage to hit my 25k goal pace for just 5 miles. Needless to say, I did not get the confidence boost for the 25k i was looking for but rather just the opposite.
At the 25k things went much differently. This race is held in Grand Rapids MI and is a homecoming for me. I grew up nearby and have watched this race my whole life so I really wanted to have a good one. I felt good the days before and the morning of the race. The conditions weren't ideal for most but I do love me some nasty weather so I didn't mind one bit. It was about 45 with light rain when I was warming up but at least the rain stopped by race time. I had hoped to run 5:0x for the race and set out from the gun to do this. I chose not to chase the lead group from the gun as they went out in 4:45ish and I didn't want to get in debt too early in a 15 mile race. I was out with the chase group at 5:10. This chase group was lead by myself and old college teammate Nate Peck. During the second mile we let some others control the pace into the wind hoping to get some rest in the draft. This was a mistake, we hit a 5:22. What a joke, we wasted 12+ seconds for no reason as hitting another 5:10 would have been no problem. At this point Nate and I went back to the front and started dropping 5:04's which served to shatter the group. By mile 5 we were alone and this wouldn't change for the duration. We continued to hit solid miles by ourselves all the way until mile 13. At this point Nate dropped off me a bit and I thought he was done. This was not the case as he regained me by 14 and by 14.5 he had a gap on me. Shortly thereafter I caught him again and we finished shoulder to shoulder. We were 12th and 13th (they gave me 13th) and I was very happy to have this place in a US Championship. We had run 1:20:03 which was a 5:09/mile average. I had achieved my goal but hadn't quite cracked 1:20:00 as I had hoped (curse that 2nd mile!).
From the 25k I tried to hold my fitness through the Bolderboulder. This did not happen. I tried to go out with the front knowing that if I could hold my 25k I would be around top 5. Turns out this was true, however I didn't have the legs to do it. I got the 'pleasure' of going backwards in a race but I don't regret my choice to try to hang up front.
After Bolderboulder I took a break and I am just going to build a big base of mileage over this summer. My next big race will be the Chicago Marathon in October. My goal for this race is clear, qualify for the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials. 2:18:59 or better here I come.