Runnin the Trails / Races with Lil and Leigh!!

So, where to begin. Well, I'd like to put out there a HUGE shout out to Lillie and Leigh for running with me for the past 17 weeks on the trails, and participating in some awesome trail runs.

We ran the Half-Wit Half last August (Lillie and I), and then we ran the Ghoul's and Fools in October. Leigh joined us in November and we ran the Dirty Bird, and then we ran the Chilly Cheeks, the Squirrelly Wail Twail Half, and finally the Ugly Mudder. We'll be running Mt. Penn Mudfest in April and the Frederick Half Marathon in May.

These two young ladies have been awesome to run with - just a pure joy to be around, great to coach and I can't express how much they have inspired me to keep running strong this past winter! "Thanks Girls!!"

So, I'd like to give a pictorial tribute below. These are some of the pictures we took while on our trail runs. You'll notice a few are from Dunkin Donuts too! LOL

So, here we go!

 This is Lillie before the run right after we got our shirts. It was still a bit light here, but it got dark quick! The run was ran on October 22, 2011.

Here's Lillie after the race - she finished in awesome time - 1:02 and in 135th place out of 413 runners! WOW!! Great time! :-)

We then set off for the Dirty Bird run - and here is an awesome picture from this run - Lillie and Leigh!

After the Dirty Bird run, we went to the Chilly Cheeks! This was an awesome run!! WOW! Here are the two girls - I only got finish line pics though.

 So, here is Leigh! She ran GREAT! Her time at the Cheeks run was 1:17 and 178th place out of 580 runners!! What a great performance Leigh!!!

Here is Lillie chugging up the hill (they were MONSTER hills). Lil finished in an awesome time of 1:11 and 112th place out of 580 runners - WOW - what an awesome finish for a 12 year old!! :-) Way to go Lil!

Then, we moved on to our next race, which was the Squirrelly Wail Twail Half. We had a blast at that run - not as muddy, but was it ICY!! About 12 of the 13.1 miles was nothing but ICE!

So, here are a few pictures form the Twail Run:

Lillie:

Lil finished the Squirrelly in 46th place out of 150 and in a time of 1:14. Awesomeness!!!!

And, Leigh - this was her very first half marathon - and she did a wonderful job - two days after falling ill to a mystery bug. But she really persevered and was totally GREAT! What an awesome job! Way to go Leigh!!

Here she is:

 Leigh getting ready before the race! :-) What a great smile!

Sorry the picture is blury, but isn't this a great picture! Right after the half, and she is still smiling!! Leigh ran her first half and finished in 76th place out of 150, in a time of 1:24!!! Nice work!!

Pics of the Ugly Mudder will be forthcoming - and I'll get those together of the Dirty Bird too. Enjoy the pics - :-)

NEW 3.20.2012

Well, we can't have all race photos up here, right? Some funny one's would be nice as well. So, here they are!

We ran the half-marathon race and I left a roll of toilet paper in the car. Here is what happened at the local Thurmont BK with said roll:

As you can see, we certainly do have fun running trails!!! :-)

Wow! What a RUN!!

Hard to believe that I didn't really want to run too hard...but managed a 1:32.53 Half Marathon at the Gettysburg Blue/Gray race yesterday in snow covered Gettysburg!This was good for 20th place out of 420 finishers. And, second in my age group. I would have received an apple pie if I'd stayed! LOL

Pictures of the run will be uploaded tonight!

Felicia "REPRESENTS" - Way to go Girl!

Sometimes you just don't realize at the time that something special is brewing. Felicia did this when she asked, "Can I come up and work with you at Catoctin"

Little did we know that having this wonderful young lady come up from Middletown's youth running club would lead to a dual-championship high jumper! (We have to give some credit to Middletown, right!?)

But alas, this is exactly what happened.

Felicia began working with Catoctin earlier this season with Kathy (Coach Kathy) on high jump as there wasn't much of an opportunity to jump in Middletown. Several practices, bleacher relays, sharks and minnows and video taping those eyes shut and what happened?

Another regional Champion!! Thank you Felicia for allowing Catoctin to "adopt" you as part of our Team - you've been a great addition (and we found out she's a pretty good trail runner too....do we see cross country in the near future?) LOL

Regional Champion!!!!!!!

Sam "REPRESENT" CYA Track & Field - First Gold Medal!!!

What an awesome day today was! As I had posted on my Facebook page, a coach's job is to place his or her athletes in the best position to succeed. Three weeks ago, I did just that with Sam. Much to the laughter and chagrin of some, and because of that, some convincing to Sam that this event was a viable event, she decided to give race walking a try.

It turns out that Sam is a natural - had the form down in less than 20 minutes. And, the work and effort that we put in (including that one extra practice at Mount St. Mary's) really paid off today!

Despite a sore knee, which quickly became two sore knees, Sam succeeded in her quest to not only complete the race walk, but she did it to perfection - receiving not one demerit for form. Race walkers are judged on their ability to keep both feet on the ground while keeping the front knee locked at all times.

Here is Sam's winning walk:

From the second lap on, Sam's knee was hurting her. The other walkers told her in the bullpen that everyone's knees hurt when they begin race walking because of the stresses the event places on the knee by having to keep the knee straight. But, she continued to race along, and fought through the pain. In fact, she told me afterwards "Oh, I wasn't going to quit." Now that is every coach's dream to hear their athlete make that statement!

So, 3000 meters and 27:28 minutes later, Sam crossed the finish line a CHAMPION!!!

As a coach, is there anything better than this? Can a coach be any more proud of their athlete? Well, yes, when said athlete possesses a humble personality along with a strong, good personal foundation, this simply amplifies their rise to Champion!

Very proud of you Sam! You represented Catoctin proud today!

~Coach John

Runnin on the AT Trail - CYA Style!

I have wanted to post for quite some time, some of the kids that are running on the trails in northern Maryland. I coach a youth track and field/XC club with about 45 kids in track and about 20 in XC. Today's post will show some kids on the AT Trail from this past Friday, June 17.

We had an awesome time as we started out from Pen Mar Park, heading towards High Rock. We even manged to recruit two new runners from Middletown - Felicia and Veronica!

They are both strong runners and did very well on the difficult trail.

Next, we had Donovan, and he is very strong runner from Middletown, but now running for Catoctin. Donovan is very fast and usually our front-runner with Lillie (Lillie missed this run!).

We managed to catch one of our runners in "distress" - "What? I have to climb that hill!!" Sam's facial expression is priceless!

But alas we made it to the top of the mountain, High Rock! In this picture we can see Alexi as well as the rest of the kids in previously mentioned. They were looking at the awesome view!

Here is a pic of everyone just before we headed back to Pen Mar:

All told, the kids did great and we made 6.5 miles in 2:35! On July 8, we'll be heading out from High Rock to Raven Rock. More trail news to follow!

Labor Pains 12 Mile Ultra

Wow...what an awesome run! If you've not run this race (and you haven't unless you were there yesterday), it is a hoot! Check it out on the link - they will run it again next year.

Forty miles  -  longest run I've ever done! 7:48 with a new 50K PR of 5:58!!

Frederick Marathon

What a HOT day for a race!

At race time, temperatures were already 78 and humid. The day before it was 22 degrees cooler. We all knew this was going to be tough!

Kristy (my daughter) completed her first half-marathon with Dad pacing her the whole way. Her goal was 1:45 which she just about made with a time of 1:46! Way to go Kristy!!

In addition, Taylor Myers was competing in his first full marathon. More to come on that in a little bit.

The gun went off and we were on our way. Within a half mile there were already people complaining about the heat. Cloudy and overcast but we knew the sun was coming!


Here is another pic of Kristy just before the start:

As you can see, she's ready to go!

The run for the first few miles was fast. We were on a 7:24 pace and looking good. By the time we got to mile five, we were well ahead of many in the pack. Here we are going left at Baker Park in the heart of downtown Frederick:

Our pace slowed down as Kristy's stomach began to give her problems, as well as the heat. Being her first, it is normal to go out too fast and then begin to fade. I've done that plenty of times. LOL

But, in the end, she did finish and here are a couple of pictures to show! 

  

Way to go Kristy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kristy Ann. Steiner #5655

Thurmont, MD, USA

Age: 19 Gender: F

Distance	HALF MAR
Clock Time	1:49:13
Chip Time	1:49:05
Overall Place	327 / 2627
Gender Place	94 / 1451
Division Place	3 / 34
Age Grade	60.7%
Total Pace	8:20/M
Time Back	33:11
Tot Div	2627
Tot Gend	1451
Tot Ag	34
5 8M Rank	INC
5 8M Time
5 8M Pace
Fin Rank	427
Fin Time	1:49:05
Fin Pace	**:05/M