State Cross Country Meet

We were at the State HS Cross Country meet at Arapahoe County Fairgrounds all day. Working the Meet as course Marshalls and then watching Zach and the 5A Boys race at 1:00.

Smoky Hill came in 7th overall. They all ran a good strong race but nobody really peaked and ran a great race which is what they needed. Zach ran a 17:46 coming in 76th overall and the #4 Smoky Runny. It was windy and hot and dusty but it was definitely a cross country race and they all ran in the same conditions. I am very proud of Zach he trained hard all season and pre-season. He improved a lot (taking 30 seconds off his pre-state time), had several PRs and was a team player and leader on his team. Congrats to all the boys and girls (who finished 12th) on a great season and fantastic job to the coaches.



Smoky Hill Boys warming Up before the race. They shaved their heads the night before the race (except Dylan) which is their tradition. Zach on the left




Zach rounding the turn at the bottom part of the course


Zach at the finish. 17:46. 76th overall.


Chipman's son Stephen did really well finishing 4th overall and leading his school Mountain Vista to 3rd overall, a surprising finish for the young team.

2010 Colorado State Championships 5A Meet Results

State Cross Country Course

I went out to the State Cross Country Course to help set up the course today. After we helped with setting up the cones. I ran the course and helped by marking the KM markers and the mile markers along the course using my Garmin. Gina folowed me in the car with the signs. I put my Garmin in metric mode for the KM markers and then used the mile auto lap to mark the miles. The KM markers required by CHSSA were small and quick to put in. The mile markers were big runners roost signs requiring 2 fence posts to stablize, so we left the fence posts at the spots and came back later to mark them. Fun day. It got windy at the end of the day, the runners roost guy was afraid his signs might blow away, but we staked them good. I hope it's not windy tomorrow. I found out I am head course marshall for the meet and we are expecting about 15 volunteers. Should be a fun day.

Garmin Watch data for State Cross Country Course.

Unlike at pre state I ran the course correctly and came up with 3.09 on the Garmin for the 5K. They were setting up the finish line as I finished.

Smoky Hill Region 1 Champions

Zach and his Smoky Hill team won the Regional Cross Country Championship today at Aurora Sports Park. This coming off last weeks exciting Centennial League Meet and winning the City Championship earlier this year. They have had a great season and it has been so much fun to watch them race through the year. I am so proud of Zach and his teammates, and the coaches. The school has such a rich tradition, the girls came in 2nd and also advance to State.

5A Region 1 Champs. Tyler, Kyle, Tanner, Dylan, Zach, Dan and Marty


Once again Zach had a sprint finish to pass a rival team runner at the end and almost got the other one, 16th overall and 4th Smoky Runner. They won by 8 points over Thornton but every point counts. Zach also improved his PR to 17:28 for a non Liberty Bell 5k.

5A Region 1 Results

State Championships are next week at Arapahoe, should be very interesting and exciting. Congratulations Buffs, go get 'em at State!

Smoky Hill Regional Team with Coaches. Boys 1st, Girls 2nd.

I did run about a mile and a half at the meet on and off watching the boys and girls teams on the course. Same course as the City meet.

Blog Catch Up

Ran 4 Mile Cheeseman easy on Monday. Ran with Dave C a bit as most of the group went to Wash Park. Saw Craig M on the way back and ran with him, he runs Denver on Sunday so he's tapering down. 4 Miles 32 Minutes

Ran 5 Mile Congress Park on Tuesday. It was cold and rainy in the morning but warmer and dry, though cloudy at lunch. Ran in a long sleeve shirt for the first time in a while. It was nice. I was the only one running, nobody else showed up and for sure nobody went to the track.

Did not run Wednesday or Thursday for work reasons.

Thursday was the Centennial League Meet. It was an exciting race between Smoky and Cherry Creek. The #3 runner had a bad race and was sick. Zach, Tyler and Dan poured it on at the end passing several Cherry Creek Runners at the finish line for a 3 point win. Very exciting.

Zach Battling a Cherry Creek Runner at the Finish. Zach finished 11th overall 3rd on the team.

Smoky Hill beat Cherry Creek by 3 points in the meet. 44 to 47

Centennial League Meet Results

Writeup on The Meet

10 Mile CC Park Run

10.5 Miles actually, a new route on familiar terrain. I figured it was close to 10. I ran from the house to the park over the trails to Butterfly Hill, then down by the pope hut and on the trail through the woods and up the hills back home. a 10.5 Mile loop.

It was a cool, rainy day. I started late about 10:40 since I did not have to worry about the heat. It was misting when I started and gradually increased the precipitation along the way to the point where it was raining just as I got home.

I ran easy and and enjoyed the run with the cool temperatures and the moisture. I was a bit sore from the two mile race yesterday, could feel my left leg hamstrings and heel, which are much better with my reduced mileage. I still have that nagging cough. Not sure what is up with that but I'm ready to be done with it now.

3 Running Friends ran the Chicago Marathon Today. Congrats to Jeff (3:12:57), Jonathan (from the somewhat pickled team) 3:06:32 and Erin 3:42:20.

Nice running.

Heartbreaking for Erin, she had a goal of 3:40 with a BQ in mind and missed it by 1:20. She was on Pace through the last 7k. She did take over 8 minutes off her last marathon and ran a great race. Great Job Erin, don't worry that BQ will be there keep running hard.

Only ran 4 Days, 23.5 miles this week.

Band on The Run - 2 Mile Race 12:53

Ran the Band on the Run 2 Mile Race this morning. This is a small neighborhood race that's a fund raiser for the SHHS band. I've done it pretty much every year since inception. The cross country team runs it for a training run and a lot of the parents of the cross country and band teams do it. Less than 150 people but can be pretty competetive since there are some good parents and coaches that run it.

This year, was a bit down in attendance despite a fantastic fall day for the race.

I ran 12:53, slow compared to the last few years. I got 3rd overall and won my age group. Got a nice wind breaker muzano.

I ran about even splits, 6:25 Pace. I was trying to keep up with Bill Mills, but he always seems to beat me by about 20 seconds. Matt the young XC coach won with a time of 11:31.

The boys varsity XC team passed me easily about 3/4 mile into the race, I joked with them as they passed about not being sure if they were the cross country team or the band. Then they slowed and did an extra half mile jog then raced the finish. So technically I finished ahead of them. They finished as a group, but Zach got 2nd and a hat. He also won a $100 pair of shoes at the raffle. Yeah!

Garmin Watch Data for Race

Jill was there, she won her age group. Been a while since I did a race with Jill. Kathy won the female division she was about a minute behind me. I watched a few runners finish and then when Gina came by with the dogs about 16 minutes, I did the 2nd lap with her and dogs, mainly running with a couple of walk breaks for the dogs. Fun Day.

Nice job Lisa Mills organizing the race.

Cheesman 4

Ran an easy 4 mile Cheeseman today with the group at lunch, about half the guys went on to Wash Park and half went easy. I had a dentist appointment at 2 and some work stuff to finish so had to go short. Nice day for a run though.

4 Miles 32 Mintues

EHS Track 4X800

Ran some intervals at the EHS Track today. 4X800 with a range of 2:50 to 2:57 with a couple of 2:52's in there.

It was a nice day, cooler, crisp with blue skies and sun. We (Tom Pete and I) were going to skip the track and just do a fun park run, but then we saw Craig C and he put a stop to that. It ended up being more of a social run though as we saw Scott on the way out coming back, then Matt the new dad (congrats on the baby boy Finn), then Craig M got there late and Bob B (fresh off the Boulder Marathon congrats Bob) then Alicia showed up at the end of the workout (back from Nationals in Alabama, Congrats on qulifying Alicia). Nobody did a real serious track workout, although Tom taunted us for taking long recovery laps.

We also ran into another running group on the way, invited them to the track but they passed for a City Park run. 6 of them, they were asking about Moab and a good spring half marathon.

Nice easy run back, I love running on days like this.

6 Miles with 2 miles of Speed.

Blog Catchup

I haven't blogged in a while. My running has been very uninspired and my cough continues to hang on. Maybe a respitory infection or something beyond a common cold.

Thursday - Easy 7 Wash Park, passed on a middle 3 again. Tom and I ran easy but saw Jeff on the way and put a hard mile in to try to catch Craig on his way back to a middle 3.

Friday - Easy 5 Mile Duck Pond, then over to the Dave Sanders XC meet to watch Zach and the teams run. Smoky took 3rd in boys with some tough teams and Zach ran 17:40. Nice Job Zach.

Saturday - Rest day, Long Dog walk, College Football and some yard work

Sunday - Terrible Run. My goal was 15 at a sub 8 minute pace. I held it for a few miles then crashed hard, coughed a lot and very sore/achey. Came back home and felt terrible the rest of the day mentally and physically. Like I had run my first 20 or something. This was a very discouraging run. I cut it off at 13 knowing I was tanking.

Monday - Took another rest day. Had a bad day at work too, so that makes it more stressful. I was so blah about running, I could care less though. Hopefully better tomorrow.