Ashenfelter 8k 2014 Race Report

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have to say, this year has had it's ups and downs like any other. So, let me say that I am surely Thankful for this healthy body that can run pretty darn fast! I have been "off the air" for a couple months here because I started a new job with TomTom GPS as a Technical Representative with responsibilities to promote the brand and ensure sell-through in a geographic are covering Central/South Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, Yes, the whole thing! Which by the way is truly enormous! It's huge! There are a lot of little places I have yet to see in that state!) Did you know that Erie, PA is a 2.5hr drive North of Pittsburgh, PA! Well, it is, and I have yet to go to Erie, soon enough I will have to see "The Mistake by the Lake", as my Best Friend's Father has called it. I will be excited to see it anyway I think, maybe for the first time only perhaps.  In either case, I am having fun discovering new parks, trails, bridges, and views on my runs around the Mid-Atlantic region!

A swarm of angry Bees in the center of the photo, also note Two heads left of the Neon shirt at center: My Beard

Anyway, so running has become less organized. I haven't journaled any of my training since early September, this is the first time I have not recorded training in probably 9-10yrs. I am putting in 40-60per week, but I am ballpark guessing. Given that, it is to me, astonishing that I managed to maintain my fitness to perform at the level that I did today. I mean quite honestly, I gained 7-8lbs in this time. As a competitive distance runner, straight up, that is going to make you slower. Sure, I'm a lean guy anyway, so it's not like I'm in danger of anything. It is just the reduction of serious workouts that will catch up with you and leave you getting torched by 4 of your teammates in the final 100m of an 8k road race.

I would like to remind you all, the Ashenfelter Road Race is a great race! The only thing that could be better is if they found a way to widen the start line so we could get a cleaner start. Otherwise, it is a great day when many of the club runners you know from around NJ come out and take a shot at a fast course before they stuff their guts with a massive meal. I wish we had four Thanksgivings every year, one isn't enough!

GSTC all kinds of "in-front" led by Yousef Rochdi, who ran away from us like he was robbing a bank!

So, thinking back to a year ago: I coined the phrase "finding seeds in the bird shit", as I wrote about the 2013 Ashenfelter 8k race. You always have to do that, find something positive out of what feels like a "shitty" situation. And today, I can't even say it is shitty. It was far from shitty.  The seeds are even sprouting a bit! Read on below these action shots, the story of the race is coming!

The chasepack in the first mile, Ken Goglas, Thomas Young, Stephen Ellwood, Mike Dixon, Kyle Price, Sean Swift, Chris Schneider, Mike Fonder, Matt Eder, Mike Anis, Josh Neyhart, Jarrett Kunze, and another random blurry dude in neon.

Honestly, I predicted a lackluster performance that would feel awful. You know, the kind of race that you just know you screwed up, this wasn't the day you should be racing.

Well, somehow the lack of expectation worked in my favor today. I was in tight with about 8 guys through the 1st mile, we split 5:07, I felt the pace slow at the first turn shortly thereafter and decided to break up the hand-holding-party. I pushed the pace for about a quarter mile and they gobbled me back up, we split 10:19 as I recall for 2miles. Things started to thin out a bit, and I was now back around 13th-14th position. Mile 3 I reeled in Neyhart and Schneider, and naturally glided by them (see below). Neyhart pulled even with me and then ahead just before mile 4, we split 20:40 and worked on reeling in young Matt Eder and the wiley verteran, Attila Sabahoglu.  Up until this point, I never felt like I was in severe oxygen debt, which was surprising, I managed my effort level very well today.

Rising the last incline, the four us were in a clump. Neyhart surged past us all with about 400m to go and bested the bunch of us. I faded pretty hard after using what I had left with 300m to go and Rob Nihen also came along and passed me. Watching four of my teammates put that gap on me in the last 1/4mile was rough on the ego, but I'll get over it. I crossed the line in 25:47, good for 12th. A thing I like to remind my readers of, in these scenario's, the majority of the guys that beat me are fellows who ran at DI college teams (except for Kyle Price, DIII Ramapo College of NJ, an XC Conference Champion in his time there!) Not too shabby.

Other fun and notable points about this race:
1-Our club took the Individual win for both Men and Women, Yosuef Rochi and Greta Sieve
2-Our Men's teams scored a pile of points
3-There were a pile of PBs(personal bests), some of which were just mind-blowing improvements!
4-Bob Skorupski of Do Run Runner's, got his Top 100 mug by finisher 97th, I like Bob, he also has a beard.
5-I once again had the honor of shaking Horace Ashenfelter's hand!

Around 3.4miles into the race: Anis holding steady in front of Neyhart and Schneider. Neyhart eventually schools Anis and finish 8th to Anis' 12th, Schneider finishes 13th

Young(2837) challenges Rochdi(1825)

Yousef Rochi, furiously breaking the tape! 24:26! New CR!

I encourage you all to check in on the Garden State Track Club blog and read in more depth about the great performances from many of my teammates. I have a lot of faith in their ability, and know if I stick with them and keep training with them, I will keep getting faster too!  Afterall, I'm one guy, and one guy a team does not make. If the worst thing that happens to me at age 33 is watching my young, talented and on-the-rise teammates light me up like a pinball machine in an 8k, well...at least I'm fast enough to see it happen as I race them!

Besides, I did run a PB by 3.33seconds anyway, 25:47. Took most of the day to wrap my head around this, and really feel good about it.

Mike wins!

We're Anis-Neyhart, we are going to the Club National XC Championships Dec 2014, your arms are useless against us, and we're taking no Prisoners.

Next up: Club National 10k XC championship! Vote Anis-Neyhart 2014 for the B team!*
*This msg paid for by the friends of Anis-Neyhart 2014

The Ashenfelter 8k: race report

Ashenfelter is an awesome race!  I have run this race in 2009, 11', 12', and again this year, 2013.  My own performances have been mixed each time I have run it (25:51, 26:15, 26:49, and 25:52). But I am always eager to go back.

Reasons I like racing the A8K:
1-A fast competitive field comes out to run-Random Africans you've never heard of, Collegiates home for T-day or recent College grads, and the GSTC army of running clone-bots, they can all be found here!
2-Cash Prize (small but effective, that's what she said!) to the top 3 overall
3-Top 3 finishers in each AG get a nice commemerative jacket
4-Top 100 finishers get a beautiful painted coffee mug
5-Shake hands with one of the oldest living American Olympian's, Horace Ashenfelter! He won gold in the 3,000 steeplechase in the Helsinki Summer Olympic Games in 1952!
6- You will see all your favorite NJ club running friends on Thanksgiving day when everyone is in a good mood!
7-There are lots of snacks that you would want after running an 8k road race!

The conditions today were tough, 15-20mph winds here and there, one seemed to find me just as I ran up a hill after the 3rd mile mark.  The temperature was about 28F at race time. I was in half tights and short over them, insulated arm sleeves, a racer beanie, and some duct tape over the end of my shoes so my toes didn't get too numb (it helped a bit I swear!).  I didn't feel terrific, I'll blame poorly timed eating from last night.

The start: Note guy on left w/neon vest and orange glasses, he knows what my palm feels like in the center of his back. He had no business standing there if he couldn't react any faster than he did. He finished about 7-8mins behind the leaders, that is a selfish racer, not cool!

How it all went down: The first 1/2mile was a weird scramble with a few pretenders in the way and trying to be in mix.  This is typical.  However, then as the true competitors for the top spots formed up, they all suddenly slowed down. It felt like we went from a 5:00pace to 5:40pace. after 3seconds of this, I made a surge ahead to maintain the pace.  So there I was in the lead for about 100m...and the pack of about 8 runners went by me and we all cruised through 1mile in 5:05-5:06.  They surged away and split 5:00 for the next mile, and a few were probably quicker than that.  I on the other hand wasn't feeling great rather suddenly, and obviously slowed down to a 5:16. So from about 1.2 until aout 3.5miles I was rather alone and just chasing a gap, fighting to figure out if I had it in me to close it back up or to even just maintain and not fall further back.
 Just after passing the 4mile mark, some audibly loud breathing behind me, got louder. I knew someone was close, and I knew I couldn't do a whole lot about it. I could tell I was losing a step. This breathing was so distracting!  As we climbed the last incline in the course, we made our last turn back onto Ridgewood Ave, and then he was alongside me.  I looked over to my right, it was David Nash, a very good runner in his own right.
Nash and I ran either side by side or with me 1/2 a step ahead for most of the last 1000m.  Just when I thought I could surge enough to break him, he'd respond and get right back on me.  The one last surge with about 80m to go was enough to get some separation, and still his last effort was very nearly successful. Sometimes a competitor will drag you out of a rutt when a race looks like it will end in worthless disaster. I ran the last .972miles in 4:58, which is a 5:06pace. Compared to when I ran 1 second faster in 2009, this was a faster last "mile" by about 8seconds.  More importantly I beat Nash for 9th overall by .04seconds! This is the closest margin I have ever beaten someoen by I am pretty certain.  So here's to you, David Nash! I would have probably wouldn't have performed as well without you pushing me all the way into the line. After we each caught our breath, we came face to face and congratulated each other on a great effort. We were both glad for it. You have to trust me, moments like that on a race course are more rare than you'd think. We gave each other something that only two true athletes can give to each other, everything that they have left down to the wire.

Getting close the end, fighting to hold off the always competitive David Nash

1 second later he nearly got me, i held him off by .04 seconds, 10th is mine! Thank You for a great race David Nash!

Lead pack at 3.5miles, L to R Chris Croff, Chris Johnson, Mystery-African-Guy#1, Andrew Brodeur, Stephen Mennitt, and Mystery-African-Guy #2. Things spread out not too long after this I imagine. These guys are not slow.

 My reaction to a 25:52: Given several factors, I am frustrated but as usual, further motivated to keep working and fighting. Finishing 9th against this field is good, but good is the ugly, talks-too-loud, annoying cousin, of great. I missed getting a pr by 2seconds...grrr.  However, if not for the guy chasing me the last mile, and this were a 10k instead of 8k I believe I would have held out to the end\ with another 5:10 mile there instead of one 5:06 mile that accelerated in the last 1/4mile considerably. So, this still bodes well for the Club National 10k XC race coming in mid-december. So, to coin a new phrase, I'm finding seeds in the bird shit.

Further implications in regards to Club National 10k XC: Had I run the kind of race I'd hoped for, I might have caught one of my teammates, and been an arguable 8th man for the "A" team. But it is fairly apparent that I will end up on "Ze B squad".  Maybe, "The B squad leader"? If you've seen The Life Aquatic w/Steve Zissou...you are now having a light chuckle. If you haven't, watch it (or at least the scene below), read this again, then chuckle lightly.