Washington IIB District 9 Track and Field Championship

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 001 The Steeplechase Pool

The Washington IIB District 9 Track and Field Championship began today in Idaho. To some foreigner from, say, Seattle, that might seem odd but living on top of a border alters the way you look at towns around you. Intellectually, we understand the University of Idaho isn’t in our state, but, in practice, they’re a close neighbor, as is the City of Lewiston.So the event is being held at the recently renovated (2012)Dan O’Brian Trackon the U. of  Idaho campus. Idaho staff demonstrated their competence and were very helpful getting all the systems –power, sound, and such – up for the teams. Field events started promptly at 4PM and the running events were close. The meet is spread over two days to allow the athletes an opportunity to recover from multiple events. The top three go to the State meet.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 012 Holbrook and Ray 4x200m

The first running event, the women’s 4x200m relay saw Asotin, with Sarah Nicholas anchoring the squad, win handily though DeSales refused to quit. An intense battle between TO-GP and St. John-Endicott for the fourth slot wasn’t decided until the last five meters as Katie Holbrook (TO-GP) and Jazmyn Ray (St. John) swapped placements on the last straightaway, with Holbrook having just a touch more speed at the finish. The ladies at Walla Walla Valley Academy secured third place.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 014 Womens 3200m

The next event, the women’s 3200m was not nearly as close as Lucy Eggleston (Asotin) ran a smart tactical race in the warm conditions for the first five laps before opening up a large gap on Heather Siegel (St. Johns) and exploding on the last lap. Emily Adams of Waitsburg-Prescott continued her solid freshman season by taking third, headed for State, likely not for the last time.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 Asotin Crush

The men’s 1600m was dominated by the Asotin squad. Headed into the final lap, Asotin had runners in the top five positions, all poised to break 5:00. Chandler Tiegan led them all from start to finish, virtually unchallenged. Thomas Weakland took second with Brian Strobel uncorking a powerful kick to round out the state entries.

On a side note, one of the Asotin runners went down in the heat. I’d like to thank EJ Meserve of Waitsburg-Prescott. While Cap Perry, the TO-GP coach, seeing the situation, hollered at me to direct me into their camp for water, EJ had already grabbed a cup and was handing it to the Asotin young man. Good and fast thinking for an athlete who, seconds before, had been running the mile. If anybody knows EJ or the Waitsburg coach, give them a thumbs up.

Off to the intermediate hurdles, men first. Owen Lanning (Waitsburg) and Wesley Hendrickson (WWVA) followed up last week’s close race with another beauty, Lanning winning again. I think Sergio Alexis Pena was third but I was distracted by the battle up front and didn’t refocus on time.

In the field events, we led off with women’s javelin, men’s triple jump, men’s shot, and women’s pole vault. For the second half of the afternoon, we flipped men’s events for women’s.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 Annie Bailey Javelin

Results aren’t up (as yet – I’ll update as new info comes in) on Athletic.net but there was a nice competition in the women’s javelin between Dayton’s Kaitlyn Andrews and Annie Bailey (St. John). Piper Loop was her usual dominating self in the women’s shot and had a good set of puts, perhaps season bests, just in time for the state meet. Skylar Olsen (Desales) looked good, too. Emily Adams (Waitsburg) showed surprising (to me, at least) hops in the women’s triple jump. Olivia Pakootas looked good but the couple of jumps I saw were a little short of her usual but I only caught two of the six jumps as I drifted to the men’s javelin.

Update: Kaitlyn Andrews (Dayton) edged out Olivia Pakootas by 4" to win the triple jump. Rachel Gfeller (St John) took third and is headed to State.

Cody Whitmore, if I heard correctly, blasted a javelin throw of 150+ feet which would be a new PR for the young man. Update: Cody threw 153'08" while brother Dirk threw 149'02".  Dayton Krull completed the sweep for Asotin. 

The men’s shot put was very competitive with the Waitsburg men putting pressure on a traditional Asotin strength in the power event. Nate Barlow and Zion Branson (Waitsburg) took second and third while Jacob Swearingen (Asotin) won.

That’s it for now. I’ll get numbers into the report when I have them.

Thanks to Sal Lopez for giving me permission to get on the infield to take some of these photos. He called me 'media'. You guys deserve better but, still, we're making progress.

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Trail of Second Chances back from the editor

Christina MacDonald, my editor, returned Trail of Second Chances early. Yay! Now I get to go back and start fixing things. On track to publish next month, provided I keep my butt in gear and get the work done. And the beta readers are growing up. Instead of "I love it!", now I'm getting that plus particular areas that bugged them. And, interestingly, it's not the same things. Lots of great feedback from several young ladies today. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

There was a meet up in Moscow, Idaho for the District 9 championship. I'll be writing up an article on that later tonight or first think tomorrow before I head to work.

Exercise more often, not longer, for bigger benefits? Blog Post from the NY Times

For some time, scientists have been intrigued by the idea that breaking up exercise into repeated, short sessions might be as beneficial as longer workouts, and most related experiments to date have been encouraging. In a 2012 study of people with symptoms of hypertension, for instance, volunteers controlled their blood pressure better throughout the day if they completed three 10-minute walks rather than one 30-minute stroll.

From the NY Times. Fitness is more generally correlated with frequency of exercise rather than duration. Intensity plays it's part but, for health, it looks like just getting out the door more often will deliver a bigger jump. Go read the whole thing.. .

Book Update

Sold more books. I try not to check too often as it stresses me out. Not the selling part, that's okay. But I do hope that the readers who have purchased the stories like them, hopefully a lot.

Trail of Second Chances is due back from the editor soon and should be on schedule for distribution next month.

Next weekend will be busy - travelling to Moscow, ID and the University of Idaho track to watch the District 9 Championships. Write-ups will follow each evening.  Very excited to watch the newcomers at the meet as well as some athletes I've been cheering for since they were in junior high.

4 Tips to Avoid Running Dry

Hot weather is back. Yay! No more layering on sixteen articles of clothing on the upper body and six on the legs to fight off winter. To celebrate, I went our on the North Asotin Creek trail in just shorts and a singlet, plus a two bottle hydration pack, and picked up a nice bit of tan on the shoulders. Since we're finally hitting the warm weather, I planned out my water needs. You should, too, even if going for a short run. I know, I know, you don't need to 'hydrate' for a short run, all the articles say so. Humor me.

You plan for water (and electrolytes) for all your runs - and your other activities. I've seen more than a few runners head out to suffer through a fifteen miler because they did a three miler the night before - with the Hash House Harriers, where beer-drinking replaces water intake.

So, four tips.

1. Make sure you start out hydrated. Drink appropriately  before your run - indeed, throughout your day. That way when you hit the roads or trails, you're tanked up and ready. Before you head out for the run, drink 8-10 ounces of water. Also start with your electrolytes charged up. Include high potassium and magnesium foods in your diet.

2. Carry water with you or have planned water stops. Since I trail run a lot, I have a Nathan hydration pack with a pair of 20 oz. bottles, plus some handhelds, plus a Camelbak. When I run on pavement, I plan out the spots where I can get water - I don't have to stop but it's important to have that dialed in ahead of time.

3. Drink frequently. Provide your body with a steady source of water in small doses so it has time to process. Sloshing while you run is unpleasant. Also, drinking too much water is potentially dangerous as you can severely dilute your electrolyte balance. There is a great article at active.com that covers this (and caffeine use, as well).

4. Self-monitor. You can do everything apparently right and still end up in a bind. That's what happened to me on the trail run up the creek. At the ten-mile point, I was down to a few ounces of water - and I had stopped sweating. No bueno. I generally need about 4oz per mile. Took 40oz with me after drinking at the start, began drinking at mile 2 - and ran out because my intake was higher than planned by 25 percent. Because I was paying attention to the signals my body sent me, I knew that I was in potential trouble and took the (for me) appropriate action.

That's when I started walking. Could I have finished the run? Yeah, probably. Could I have finished without hitting heat exhaustion? Maybe. But the next several days of training could have been disrupted. Better to take it slow and give my body time to adapt to the heat.

And the advice not to hydrate for short runs? Drink sensibly (applies to water as well!) to make sure that you are not consistently dehydrated. In 100 degree heat, I lose 6 ounces of water per mile. If I don't replace that water, even for a series of short runs, I'll soon be perpetually dehydrated.

So, hydrate - not until you are bloat but enough that you don't often feel thirsty.

Logo for InlandXC

I've been posting the race report from meets here (more will go up at the district meets - not sure I'll make it to sub-districts) but, eventually, all of this would go to a new website, InlandXC.com . It's still in design but I got someone to put together a logo. It's okay, it will do, but . . . if somebody has a better idea, and wants to play with Photoshop, go for it. You'll bragging rights that you created the logo and the pleasure of seeing your work every time you check in to see how the other races have gone.

So, this is what I have. If you think you can do better, get cracking and send it along. We might even be able to do two or three and rotate them.

InlandXC Logo

A Day for Odds, Ends, and a Long Run

Before I roll out for a run up North Asotin Creek with my new GPS watch (so I can see how slow I really go), here's a few articles that caught my attention. First up, sent over by the Asotin JHS xc coach, an article from Runner's World on footstrike. From the blurb that the article offers, there really isn't enough information to make a call either way. I'd like to see all the data on the types of injuries experienced, types of shoes, experience of the runners, mileage between groups, etc. They don't mention a whole lot about controlling for all other factors which would be necessary to move it out of the junk science category. Also, given the forefoot strikers were faster, does that imply that they were able to exert more force creating the injuries and would their rates drop if they slowed down. I'm betting that when all the details come out, the issue still won't be definitive.

For those who would like to keep up with events on the world stage, RunBlogRun is a great aggregator of news.

And I wish I still lived in San Diego - it would take a PR effort for me to hang, but Meb Keflezighi is pacing the 1:30 half-marathoners at Rock 'n Roll on June 1st. It wouldn't take that much of a PR, either. . .  on a side note, my first marathon was the Rock 'n Roll in San Diego in 2000. It hurt so bad, I moved up to ultras a year later, clocking 65.61 miles in 12 hours.

And last up, a blog post by author Hugh Howey on goals and dreams. Go, read it, set some challenging goals - but don't forget to dream of greatness, either.

We had a gentle rain out here last night that will help my little vegetable garden grow and soften the trails. It's play time.

Run gently, friends.

Dayton JV Meet

What a contrast in meets from Undeberg last weekend to the Dayton JV Meet yesterday. Where the Undeberg was efficient and featured 36 teams with fields full of competitors, Dayton was low key, with entire events scratched due to a lack of participants. The biggest difference, though, happened again and again around the track. Coaching.

I listened in as the gentleman running the pit explain: “You’re slowing down at the last two steps. That’s where you need to really be quick, those last three steps.”

Jessica McCain (Asotin)  listened – and PR’d at the event.

Sal Lopez: “You’re opened all the way up before you start your throw. Remember, check the time,” he demonstrated the

sideways scuttle that throwers use to align their bodies while holding the javelin in ready position, “and then, at the end, when you start the actual throw, that’s when you open up.”

The big meets draw some crowds. This one was sparsely attended even by family but these little meets are the ones where we get to see the athletes that will be challenging at District and State levels, especially in the throwing and jumping events.

The potential is there. The shot putters need time to grow into their bodies, time in the weight room. A pair from Waitsburg-Prescott, Mark Montgomery and EJ Oppelt, did very well. So did a pair from Asotin, Conor Martin and Phillip Downey. Three sophomores and a freshman. The top two on the women’s side, Skylar Olsen (DeSales) and Alyssa Hendrickson (WWVA), were freshmen.  I’m not a particularly stout individual but even I added 40 pounds of muscle from my freshman year in high school to my senior year. These youngsters will do the same, more so in the case of the men.

Another difference is the waiting. Undeberg moved at a relentless pace, flight after flight of athletes cycling through the events. Yesterday was more relaxed. For some events, that translated to a fair amount of standing around time. Long jump lines stretched back as the leapers tried to get all their jumps in before their running events.  Running events were slower into the blocks and, in several events, men’s and women’s races were combined.

DeSales ran well in the 1600m – one of the combined events – with Isaac Mata following up a good showing at Undeberg with a sub-5:00 minute mile. Daniel Ness(Desales) outkicked Brady Mulikin (Asotin) over the last three hundred meters to secure second. DeSales also took the top two women’s spots with Anna Ruthven wining.

In the 3200m women’s race, Jade Porubek (St. John-Endicott) won. Jade is a senior that I’ve watched on the cross country course and she isn’t often the fastest woman in the field but there are very few runners that work as hard as she does. It was nice to see her get the win at Dayton.

Jessica McCain encouraged her every time Jade went by the high jump pit – it’s easy to see why Jessica won the sportsmanship award last week at Undeberg. She’s a positive influence out there.

That’s it for the Dayton JV Meet. If I have the opportunity, I’ll be heading over to the Meet of Champions in Lewiston, ID this afternoon. At best, I’ll be late but maybe I can catch the later distance events and some of the relays.

The Union-Bulletin has a good recap.

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