USA Club Cross Championships!

29:38-1st place overall! (Michael Scott Photo)

After a tough week of training, the race turned out far better than I could have planned. At USA Club XC Championships, I ran 29:38 for a 10 second victory and my first National Title!  Truthfully, this week was not going very well, especially coming of the USATF annual meeting in St. Louis that I attended. All week I felt a little beat up from the travel so I cut my mileage back to only doing single runs in the hope that I would have a fighting chance to make the team to Scotland....

Despite my nerves, once the gun went off, it was all business. I got off the line extremely well, and was never more than a few steps out of the lead from the gun. Around 5k I slid into the lead and went roughly 14:56/14:44 for my splits. Once I actually started to pull away, I kept waiting to get caught, but I only increased my lead with each lap. With 1k to go, I was able to just focus on making one muddy turn then breaking the tape! It was great to earn my first national championship over a very good field, and a lot of runners that I look up to. Here is a link to the race and also my  post race interview! (both thanks to runnerspace.com!)

Of course with the win, I am now headed to Scotland as part of the US National Team. It is a great honor to be able to earn that singlet, and the outpouring of support from my family, friends, and teammates has been an extraordinary and irreplaceable part of my career so far! My coach at Team USA Minnesota, Dennis Barker, has really been an incredible catalyst since I moved here in September to make this possible.

Now my next race is in Scotland on January 7th!

Catching up ......

Ok, this is a much needed update! My last race was the TD5k where I ran a huge road 5k pr of 14:18. It was a fun run with my teammate Jason Lehmkuhle (he ran 14:22) and my first win as a professional! Both the times were unofficial, as the race was not chip timed. It was a great event hosted by Lifetime Fitness whose treadmills I have been abusing now that the weather is getting colder! The weather for the race this year was perfect, especially considering the year before it was apparently around 0 degrees. We used the Turkey I won as an excuse for a small team dinner with lots of good food (thanks to Megan Hogan for cooking like a champ!)

Getting it done!

Training has gone really well under my new coach (Dennis Barker) and I get another test this weekend at the USATF Club XC Championships with my teammate, and training partner, Matt Llano. I am definitely excited for this weekend as we are both going for a spot on the team for Edinburgh. They are taking 3 athletes, and that is what we are going for!

One thing that I have not talked about but wanted to mention was my race in Japan after the 10 mile. I ran the anchor on our "Ivy League" team with a 10.2k leg. I ran the fourth fastest time on my leg running down two guys that had a minute advantage over me at the start! I moved us up from 10th to 8th and snuck us on to the podium for the first time ever! It was an incredible experience, and a bigger recap of the whole thing is here on Brett Larner's blog (who gave us a great running tour of Tokyo).

Stay healthy and run hard!

Medtronic TC 10 Mile

Sunday morning, I ran my first race as a professional right here in Minnesota, the Medtronic TC 10 Mile! The race was also host to the US 10 mile Championships for both the men and the women. When it was all said and done, after a long weekend, I placed 13th, running 48:00. It was a decent race for me, but overall the race organizers Twin Cities In Motion really made this a great weekend!

I spent all day Friday preparing for the race. I went into St. Paul and picked up my race number from the meet hotel. Then after that, I went to the expo for the race, where Matt Llano and Megan Hogan were talking and signing autographs at the Lifetime Fitness booth.

Later that afternoon, I participated in an elite athlete panel at the expo with Matt, Megan, and Antonio Vega. It took a little bit to get started but ended up being a lot of fun as we answered questions about our training and the sport from this weekends runners. After that was the VIP reception for the race, which was an interesting learning experience. Not only am I not used to things like this before races, but it is was amazing to learn about the race's title sponsor Medtronic; which is a medical technology/health and wellness provider. Their goal in sponsoring this race is to promote healthy living so you do NOT need their products, that is quite a statement to hear from a medical company!. It was also a good time to catch up with many old friends, and meet a lot of new ones. After the reception, I also managed to catch up with an old training partner in Christo Landry, who will be racing with me next week in Japan!

As for the race, I had to get up at 4:30am. Then I headed over to the racing area with  Matt Llano, Paul Giannobile (Who ended up running 56:43 and winning his age group!) and Steve Hallinan, who was staying with us for the race. An easy warm up and a few strides later, it was time to race......

(I am next to fellow WM grad Ed Moran on the left rocking the all blue uniform)



As far as the race went, the weather was PERFECT, and I actually felt pretty good. I got out very well in the top 10ish (it was a HUGE pack) and just kind of tucked in. The first half of the race is pretty much all downhill, while the second half is all uphill. I stayed in contact with the lead through about 5 miles (I went through in about 23:30ish despite what my chip said). After that it felt like I ran the whole second half of the race up a mountain alone. After about 6.5 miles my legs decided they had enough, and I just had no other gears but I managed to hold on as much as possible. I only got passed by one person (Craig Curley), and we basically played cat and mouse 45m apart, until mile 9, where he got away from me a little bit. Considering I have only been working out for a month now, I am trying not to be disappointed with my finish/time with all things considered but  ........

I still have a lot of work to do to get to the level I want to be at, and I just have to take it one day at a time. This was a step in the right direction but just a small one. I do not get a break though as next up is the Ivy League Ekiden in Izumo Japan the 6th-12th! I am really excited to get this opportunity and race with 3 of my old WM teammates!

Train hard and stay healthy everyone

-Jon

Howdy Howdy Howdy

New city, new life, and a new blog, but the same goals!

A lot has changed since May when I graduated with a B.A. in Kinesiology and Health Sciences from the College of William and Mary. After graduation, I picked up my third All-American with my 15th place finish at NCAA's. Next was a failed trip out to Eugene to race the US Trials. Finally, I went out to Minnesota to attend a run pro camp, and to find out if the whole professional runner thing was possible once I was done completely with school......

It turns out I really liked Minnesota, and I can now officially call myself a professional runner! This will be done as a brand new member of Team USA Minnesota! I have been in Minneapolis for two full weeks now, getting fit, and organizing my new life. There is still a lot left to do but I am looking forward to the challenge.

This blog will be an easy way to keep track of me as I follow this dream throughout the inevitable ups and downs of this adventure!

More updates will be coming soon.......this is a work in progress!