RACES
What a truly, truly phenomenal performance by Teal!! I've had 24 hours to process her titanic
accomplishment, and I'm still at something of a loss for words to describe how
incredibly well Teal ran, but this will shed some perspective on the enormity
of her achievement--when Teal began this training cycle, her half marathon PR
was 1:21:37. Yesterday she ran two half
marathons thirty seconds faster than that, back to back! Think about that for a moment. Teal is a very experienced marathoner, and
for someone with her level of experience to improve so dramatically in such a
short period of time is simply astonishing.
To me, the most amazing part is that Teal believed to her core that she
could break 2:43, and she committed herself to going for it by rolling with the
2:43 pace group from the gun despite the ever-present possibility that the
aggressive early pace would come back to bite her late in the race. There's an old saying in the coaching game that
the body can't go where the mind hasn't already been, and Teal has been
mentally prepared to take on this challenge ever since she joined GRC. Yesterday, her body caught up to where her
mind has been for over two years.
Indeed, Teal was so confident in herself that she hit the gas at mile
24, and left the 2:43 pace group in the rear view mirror to make sure she
didn't cut it too close at the tape.
Teal's performance is unquestionably one of the greatest in GRC history,
and I am certain that her incredibly courageous run will serve as inspiration
for our athletes at Clubs, and beyond.
Well done!
Not to be lost in the excitement over Teal's superb run is
that we had excellent performances across the board in Sacramento. Julie ran 2:51:55, a 55 second PR! Julie's training was not ideal due to her
hectic work schedule, and she started to struggle by mile 13, but she showed
her characteristic toughness and grit by fighting through it all the way to the
tape. Julie is going to be back for
another go at the distance in 2015, and she's got a Teal-style major
breakthrough in her waiting to come out!
Outlaw made a successful marathon debut in 2:31:24. Outlaw had a great training cycle, and he was
on pace to run 2:27 through 22 miles when, as happens so often to marathon
debutantes, the bottom fell out. Despite
his screaming quads, Outlaw maintained as best he could and finished with his
head held high. With a valuable lesson
learned, Outlaw will be back in 2015, looking to break 2:25, and I wouldn't bet
against him. Finally, Breezy ran a very
solid 2:46:30 after a training cycle that was all but ruined by a lengthy trial
he completed last week. For the
non-lawyers in the crowd, I can assure you that during trial, a lawyer has
little time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep (and not very much), and if
you know Breezy, you know that he takes his job as a criminal prosecutor very,
very seriously, so the fact that he got on the starting line yesterday is a
tribute to his resolve. That he was able
to work with Teal for most of the race and contribute to her incredible
performance was going above and beyond the call of duty. Breezy will be back, better than ever, in
2015.
WORKOUT
We'll be at BCC for our final tune up for Clubs. We'll get going at as normal, so meet for the
warmup at 6:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment