Here is a look at where everyone is running this weekend. We had 30 responses this week. Good luck to everyone and Run It Fast!

To join Run It Fast – The Club then click HERE to read more details.

Where Run It Fast Runners Are Running This Weekend (Nov 22-25, 2012)

Storified by Joshua Holmes · Thu, Nov 22 2012 09:34:30

RIF #159 Diane Bolton has raced her way into 2nd place in the Run It Fast – Club Extreme Racer standings!  The women are slowly but surely gaining on the men as they now hold 6 of the top 10 spots on the Leaderboard. The men better step up!

RIF #194 Steve Hughes extended his lead even further during the month of October to keep his commanding lead (1832.4 points) in the standings. RIF #159 Diane Bolton is in 2nd place (1322.71 points), and RIF #190 John Kent Leighton is now in 3rd (1304.58 points).

The Men’s Leaderboard is the same as the Overall Leaderboard for the first two spots with RIF #1 Joshua Holmes in 3rd (1286.8 points) to round out the top 3.

Diane is leading the women and she is followed by RIF #124 Michelle Walker in 2nd (618.1 points) and RIF #44 Heather Shoemaker in 3rd (544.4 points).

The race for places 2-4 is pretty close so check back next month to see what happens! In the meantime, here is the complete standings through October 2012:

Top Ten Leaderboard
1. Steve Hughes – 1832.4 (RIF#194)
2. Diane Bolton – 1322.71 (RIF#159)
3. John Kent Leighton – 1304.58 (RIF#190)
4. Joshua Holmes – 1286.8 (RIF#1)
5. Hideki Kinoshita – 1075.2 (RIF#88)
6. Michelle Walker – 618.1 (RIF#124)
7. Heather Shoemaker – 544.4 (RIF#44)
8. Nadia Ruiz Gonzales – 509.1 (RIF#69)
9. Shannon Burke – 498.93 (RIF#171)
10. Laura Raeder – 461.8 (RIF#20)

Men’s Leaderboard
1. Steve Hughes – 1832.4 (RIF#194)
2. John Kent Leighton – 1304.58 (RIF#190)
3. Joshua Holmes – 1286.8 (RIF#1)
4. Hideki Kinoshita – 1075.2 (RIF#88)
5. Scott Stader – 427 (RIF#40)
6. Alvin Lee – 381.6 (RIF#30)
7. David Wingard – 365.4 (RIF#101)
8. Danny Staggs – 322.3 (RIF#186)
9. Rick Thiounn – 299.9 (RIF#111)
10. Rick Jarvis – 296.8 (RIF#18)
11. Jason Howard – 295.1 (RIF#150)
12. Daniel Escue – 230.95 (RIF#187)
13. Mark Watson – 230.7 (RIF#173)
14. Chris Estes – 226.2 (RIF#151)
15. David Donald – 203.96 (RIF#54)
16. Perry Ligon – 193 (RIF#146)
17. Jonathan Bobbitt – 180.6 (RIF#3)
18. Wade Anderson – 170.6 (RIF#22)
19. Dennis Arriaga – 156.96 (RIF#140)
20. Kevin Leathers – 143 (RIF#12)
21. Trent Rosenbloom – 141.6 (RIF#57)
22. Nicholas Norfolk – 139.01 (RIF#116)
23. Greg Smith – 118.2 (RIF#168)
24. Mark Sikkila – 113.4 (RIF#108)
25. David Pharr – 102 (RIF#185)
26. Steven Reagan – 100.2 (RIF#157)
27. Robin Robbins – 98.8 (RIF#33)
28. Kevin Ronayne – 95.1 (RIF#11)
29. Nathan Bass – 94.8 (RIF#174)
30. James Krenis – 83.6 (RIF#67)
31. Naresh Kumar – 83.4 (RIF#2)
32. John Hudson – 79.6 (RIF#63)
33. Josh Liggett – 77.92 (RIF#147)
34. Brian Wooldridge – 74.8 (RIF#141)
35. Winston Trice – 72.8 (RIF#29)
36. Victor Fleitas – 71.12 (RIF#21)
37. Scott Lochridge – 65.5 (RIF#32)
38. Stewart Crouch – 64.8 (RIF#89)
39. JD Leman – 39.3 (RIF#139)
40. Scott Gatlin – 29.3 (RIF#80)
41. Scott Gorski – 25.5 (RIF#107)
42. Chris Nelson – 19.3 (RIF#135)
43. Patrick Johnson – 10 (RIF#87)

Women’s Leaderboard
1. Diane Bolton – 1322.71 (RIF#159)
2. Michelle Walker – 618.1 (RIF#124)
3. Heather Shoemaker – 544.4 (RIF#44)
4. Nadia Ruiz Gonzales – 509.1 (RIF#69)
5. Shannon Burke – 498.93 (RIF#171)
6. Laura Raeder – 461.8 (RIF#20)
7. Lisa Gonzales – 445.4 (RIF#5)
8. Emily Conley – 426.4 (RIF#24)
9. Mikki Trujillo – 369.7 (RIF#13)
10. Michelle Mitchell – 357.2 (RIF#133)
11. Robin Mancinelli – 337.6 (RIF#134)
12. Shannon McGinn – 333 (RIF#46)
13. Alicia Eno – 313.7 (RIF#126)
14. Leigh Marsh – 306.5 (RIF#192)
15. Marlene Deem – 212.6 (RIF#189)
16. Jennifer Whitley – 184.9 (RIF#160)
17. Donna Pittman – 147.2 (RIF#181)
18. Marj Mitchell – 123.6 (RIF#4)
19. Daniela Obregon – 107.7 (RIF#49)
20. Amber Goetz-Bouchard – 105.98 (RIF#15)
21. Christy Bowers – 105.3 (RIF#60)
22. Nicole Knutson – 104.8 (RIF#47)
23. Lisa Edwards – 58 (RIF#122)
24. Natalie Torres – 42.4 (RIF#72)
25. Meredith Yox – 34 (RIF#128)
26. Debra Jacildo – 17.39 (RIF#98)

Details on joining Run It Fast – The Club

[Extreme Racer points are rewarded per each racing mile completed. Example: marathon = 26.2 points, half marathon 13.1 points, etc.]

A poignant moment came yesterday as I was greeting finishing marathoners at the Flying Monkey Marathon. A runner named Graham Gallemore, who is sixty-nine, crossed the finish line.

He pointed at a tin campaign-button-type pin he was wearing on the front of his tee. He’d had it made. It showed a picture of Angela Ivory.

“She still pulls me through,” he said.

The last time I saw Graham was on June 9th in Memphis at Angela’s funeral. The last time prior, I’d seen Graham was at the 2010 Flying Monkey, which I had run myself. I had come upon Graham. Angela was accompanying him a ways during his run. Pulling him through. I stopped briefly that day, and she hugged me. Pulling me through, too.

When I tell people about Angela Ivory, I say she ran a marathon in every state. Then she ran a marathon in every state again. Then she ran a ultramarathon in every state (She maybe lacked six or seven finishing this last goal). And as amazing as that may seem, it’s not even her story. that’s not her story at all.

She did that while fighting cancer.

Read the full story by Dallas Smith by clicking HERE

Natural Arch is higher than we thought

The climb up here was spooky. No rock climber would call it technical, but it was steep and high and you had to hold on. When I’d first looked up and seen the arch I’d thought, a hole to the sky.

Why would two old endurance guys seventy-plus-years-old be climbing on rocks? The short answer of course is we’d climbed up to get a closer look at the arch, one of no particular distinction, at that, one lacking even a picturesque name.

We climbed back down from Natural Arch, which is scarier than climbing up. I started a run at the base of the cliff. Joel’s plan was to drive his truck down the single-track some six miles, park on Old Woman Road and ride back to meet me on his mountain bike. It was a cool day and getting lost in the wilderness wearing running shorts was a bad idea. Since I’d never been to this place before, prior to leaving he decided to give me some advice.

“Remember, when you come to the tee, go left.”

“Right! When you come to a fork in the road take it.”

“Right,” he said.

Left, it was. We understood each other.

Read the full story by Dallas Smith by clicking HERE

Here is a look at where everyone is running this weekend. We had 23 responses this week. Good luck to everyone and Run It Fast!

To join Run It Fast – The Club then click HERE to read more details.

Where Run It Fast Runners Are Running This Weekend (Nov 17-18, 2012)

Storified by Joshua Holmes · Fri, Nov 16 2012 22:25:07

The following is a guest post by RIF #124 Michelle Walker:

Road to Boston

by Michelle Walker

Do you have a bucket list? Do you have goals to check off? My big dream for the past 5.5 years has been to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I thought this would be an easy goal to check off.  With the proper training, I knew I could accomplish this goal 5.5 years ago when I ran my very first marathon in Phoenix, AZ.

When I stepped up to the starting line of the 2007 PF Chang’s RnR Marathon in Phoenix, I was very hopeful that I could qualify. I had never run a marathon before, but I have always been a hard worker. I knew that I put in the proper training to earn a spot at the starting line.  Thanks to the encouragement from one of my fellow travelers, I was even confident that I could achieve my Boston Marathon time goal. When the starting gun was fired, I took off. I ran fast. I ran hard. I was feeling good. The sun was shining; temps were unusually cool; and the course was flat. My “I’m going to Boston” euphoria kicked in right away and lasted until well, just mile 16 where I had my first encounter with the infamous “Wall”. I had 10.2 (and the .2 is significant) miles to go; yet, my legs would not move. They were done. Finished. Kaput.  I was quickly humbled as the pace teams who I had hoped to beat progressively passed me. How was I going to make it to the finish line, let alone finish under a BQ standard?

My first effort to remedy the situation was to grab an energy gel. At this point (mile 17), I was on the brink of nausea. A voice inside my head told me not to take the gel packet the smiling race volunteer handed to me. I had never taken this brand or flavor of gel before: a big “no no” in marathon running. (We are taught to mimic our race day during our training runs. There should be no new elements during the race.) In desperate need for energy, I threw the cardinal rule of marathoning out the window.  I inhaled the Cliff brand gel pack as if it were my ticket to the finish line. My upset stomach immediately revolted. I had to move to the sidelines where I literally started to gag. Hundreds of runners passed me while I tried to regain my running composure. Some how, I kept the contents of my stomach inside, as I alternated between walking and running for the next nine miles. I made it to the finish line, but I did not experience the euphoria that so many runners have when they complete their first marathon. Instead, I felt deflated.

The Boston Marathon is the mecca for many long distance runners. The race has a rich history. Having to qualify with a time from a previous marathon creates an exclusive environment. This race is the big badge of honor in the marathon world. The exclusive entry is coveted by most long distance runners.

Due to the increasing popularity of marathon running, the Boston Marathon has become more stringent on their time qualifications. The marathon has set the bar even higher on its standards, making it more difficult to get in. For example, I am in the 40-44 year old age group for females. When I started marathon running, my qualifying time was 3:50. I spent several years training hard, trying to break the 3:50 barrier. About two years ago, the Boston Marathon tightened everyone’s time qualifications because the race was filling up at record pace. To my dismay, my qualifying time of 3:50 was changed to 3:45. When this change occurred, I must admit. I started to lose hope. A time of 3:45 or less seemed like an impossibility.

After the near disaster first marathon experience, I was on a mission. I would train even harder and eventually qualify for Boston! Ironically, my second marathon proved to be even more of a tragedy than my first. I was unable to complete the race, despite my efforts. I learned quickly that the marathon distance was to be respected. I have never been a natural athlete, but I had no idea how much work was ahead of me in order to check the Boston Marathon from my bucket list.

I spent the next five years of my fitness life working on my running endurance. Granted, I did have a baby during that time but even during my pregnancy I trained (under my doctor’s guidelines). I immediately went back to marathoning after the birth of my sixth child, running the WDW Marathon six months postpartum.

Over time I found the more marathons I ran, the better my endurance. The better my endurance, the faster my marathon times. The infamous “Wall” disappeared as I adjusted to the distance. Since January of 2012, I have run 24 marathons. This high frequency of marathon running is not recommended by the experts. For me, however, it works.

I am fortunate that over my 5.5 years of marathoning, I have never had an injury. Nothing. Nada. For me, the best form of training has been the marathon itself. I found myself using each marathon as a training run for the next race. I kept plugging away; logging marathon after marathon. Progressively, I was getting faster and faster.

Five years and 29 marathons after my first race disaster in Phoenix, something clicked. I started consistently running each of my marathons below the 4 hour time mark. This is generally considered to be a quick pace in the marathon world, but my times were still not meeting the new stringent BQ standards.

It wasn’t until I ventured to the mile high city of Denver (where altitude was a factor) in May of this year that I finally crossed the finish line about 15 seconds under the time I needed to qualify for  Boston. I was elated! It took me 38 marathons; five years and 4 months for my dream to become reality.

Since May, I have run ten other BQ times. Little by little, I am shaving even more time off my marathons. I am occasionally placing in my age group; sometimes even placing as one of the top three overall females in the marathon.

On April 15, 2013 when I step up to the starting line of the Boston Marathon, I am sure I will be flooded with a myriad of emotions. What I originally thought to be a short term goal turned into a very long and arduous journey. My road to Boston is one that I will never trade. I have learned so much about myself during the process of seeing this dream come true. I am not the same person who stepped up to the starting line of a marathon in Phoenix more than 5.5 years ago. The confidence that I have gained by realizing how strong, tenacious and persistent I am has been life changing.

If you don’t already have one, I encourage you to make a bucket list. It is rewarding to have goals. It is even more fulfilling to accomplish the goals through your own efforts, no matter how long the journey. Dream big and work hard!

BQing at Colfax Marathon

***

If you’d like to know more about Michelle, you can follow her on Twitter @MarathonMomof6 and/or check out the profile we did on her here: Run It Fast – Club Member Profile – Michelle Walker #124

The big scandal involving General David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell has consumed most of the cable airwaves and news headlines over the past week.  At the heart of the story is the affair that Petraeus and Broadwell shared together.

Broadwell wanted to write her book on Petraeus but she needed access. She heard he was an avid runner and asked the General if she could run with him.  So the two of them met at the Pentagon in D.C. and went off for a run together.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Here is how Paula described it during a speech at the University of Denver back in October:

Our first interview in person was on a run. And I had proposed this because I knew it was a rite of passage for many of his former aids, to kind of get in the inner circle you had to be a runner.

Well I had run in high school, I had run in college, I had been a sponsored triathlete when we lived here in Colorado, so I loved physical fitness, but I didn’t think he knew anything about me in that regard.

So, we went for a run. We started at the Pentagon, and I had my recorder. I thought if I asked him questions that he had to give lengthy answers to, he would be more winded than I was. But he was smarter than I was — he’d say yes or no or he’d just asked a question in return or say “that’s classified, next.”

Anyhow, at some point at about mile three or four, he started to pick up the pace. And I knew this was coming. I call it the “boiling frog approach,” because you don’t know that the water is getting hotter and hotter. In any case I realized what was going on and I decided to shut off the recorder and race him.

And I was told never to beat him.  Keep up with him and you earn… it’s the rite of passage. But don’t beat him because he’s a guy, you’re a girl, and he’s a celebrity, and you’re a soccer mom.

In any case, he started elbowing me and it was over.

Long story short, I did beat him. We got down to six-minute mile pace, and I later found out that he was going through radiation treatment for prostate cancer, so it didn’t really count. But it was a rite of passage and a great sort of rapport builder with him.

It sounds like both Petraeus and Broadwell are in excellent shape if they were going head-to-head putting down a 6-minute/mile pace.  And hats off to Broadwell if she was a sponsored tri-athlete in Colorado.

Who knows exactly when or where their affair actually commenced (reports say 2011 after he left the Army), but I’m sure there was no turning back once he started elbowing her.

Broadwell’s words should become the confirmation quote from now on when one is caught with his or her running shorts down, “He started elbowing me and it was over.”

Knockin’ elbows is the new ‘Knockin’ Boots!’

This is the medal for the Tennessee Ragnar Relay that was held on November 9-10, 2012 from Chattanooga to Nashville, Tennessee.

The Ragnar Relay Series is a fun way to spend time running with friends. The relay is run in teams of 12 runners (or 6 runners for the ultra teams) and you get to spend some quality time with each other! Just think how well you’ll know each other after spending HOURS together in a van!

MORE PHOTOS OF MARATHON/ULTRA MEDALS AND BUCKLES

[Medal photo submitted by RIF #183 Kirk Catron. Follow him on Twitter @kirkcatron]

Here is a look at where everyone is running this weekend. We had 54 responses this week. Good luck to everyone and Run It Fast!

To join Run It Fast – The Club then click HERE to read more details.

Where Run It Fast Runners Are Running This Weekend (Nov 10-11, 2012)

Storified by Joshua Holmes · Fri, Nov 09 2012 15:47:27

Heather Shoemaker #44

This week’s Run It Fast – The Club profile is Heather Shoemaker #44 from Georgia! Heather is another one of our club’s maniacs…as in Marathon Maniacs so in a good way. 🙂

Meet Heather:

INFO

Name: Heather Shoemaker
RIF #: 44

STATS

Years Running:  since 1999 so… 13 years
Favorite Race Distance: marathon
Favorite PR:  1:41 half marathon; locomotive as part of pr-ing 5k, 10k, half, and marathon in a 4 week period
Favorite Race:  the one I just finished
Favorite Bling:  2009 flying monkey
Next Race:  real race, Umstead… I hope it will be my first 100 mile!  But I will be doing lots of training runs at races before then… Next is Soldiers Marathon. I will be pacing 4:40.
What Makes You FEEL Fast?:  when there’s no one to compare myself to while I am running!

FUN RUNNING QUESTIONS

Who inspires your running and why?
My friends- I have some amazing friends.

What’s the most beautiful place that you’ve run?
St George Island, back on the closed to car area of the national park.

Why do you race?
Depends on the race… To see what I am capable of, to hang out with friends, to help someone reach their goals… I guess really because I can… Not everyone has that luxury.

Big races or small races? And why?
Small!  Definitely!  For one, I don’t want to wake up 4 hours before race time to stand around, for another, I like value in entry fees!

What running moment are you most proud of?
My Boston Qualifying marathon.

If you can’t run, you’re ________?
Crazy.  Truly mental.

***

“Crazy.  Truly mental.”  I think it’s funny that most non-runners think we are crazy and truly mental BECAUSE we run. But like Heather, I go crazy when I CAN’T run. I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way. Right? 🙂 I also think it’s awesome that Heather said her next “real race” is Umstead 100 when she has a marathon coming up. It’s funny how our perspectives change the more we run and the more we meet and get to know other runners who are pushing the envelope. It makes races you thought were impossible before seem completely possible. 100 Miler? Normal. Vol State 500K…ok, still not normal but not as crazy as when I first heard about it. 😉

I have been following Heather’s racing/running on Facebook and I see her working and planning to get to her goal of completing a 100 miler and I have no doubt she will accomplish that goal. But not only is she working towards her goal, she is also helping out friends by pacing them during their races along the way. That is very cool! Thank you for sharing with us, Heather. Have fun pacing at the Soldier’s Marathon and as someone who’s benefited from a pacer before…thank you for doing that!

If you’d like to join Run It Fast – The Club or would like more information about it, please click this link:

Run It Fast – The Club (JOIN TODAY)

[All photos submitted by Heather Shoemaker]