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USA Half Championships

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Location:

South Weber,UT,

Member Since:

May 09, 2012

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Personal Records:

800 Meters 1:50.14 (Track-BYU)

1500 Meters 3:42.07 (Track-Stanford) Likely the best race of my life; converts to a 3:59.85 Mile

5000 Meters 14:20 (Track-Stanford)

8000 Meters 23:53 (Cross Country-Pre Nationals Iowa)

10000 Meters 29:57 (Track-Stanford)

Half Marathon (Mesa-Phoenix Half) 1:05:11

Marathon (St George) 2:16:09

Short-Term Running Goals:

2017 Races:

Mesa-Phoenix Half - 3rd Place 1:05:11 PR

Ogden WRC 10-Miler - 1st Place 55:46

Provo City Half - 1st Place 1:06:33

Ogden Marathon - 2nd Place 2:25:46

Long-Term Running Goals:

My main goal is just to stay healthy.  I was injured every year in my college career except for one.  I would like to reverse that trend and always stay injury-free.

 

Personal:

I am a family man.  I am married to my beautiful wife Amy (who also ran at Weber and is quite the runner).  We have four beautiful daughters named Evelyn (6 years old), Hannah (4 year old), Nora (2 year old), and Iris (5 months).

Twitter handle: @RunnerRiley7

Instagram RunnerRiley7

I am supported by Brooks

I am a Generation Ucan elite athlete

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Salomon Pro Wings 2 Lifetime Miles: 161.10
Brooks PureCadence 5 Lifetime Miles: 101.85
Brooks Adrenaline 17 Lifetime Miles: 161.85
Brooks Transcend 4 Lifetime Miles: 219.45
Brooks Ravenna 8 Lifetime Miles: 225.10
Brooks PureCadence 6 Lifetime Miles: 188.10
Brooks Launch 4 Lifetime Miles: 107.50
Brooks Glycerin 14 Lifetime Miles: 101.47
Brooks Hyperion Lifetime Miles: 92.13
Brooks Caldera Lifetime Miles: 31.10
Race: USA Half Championships (13.109 Miles) 01:08:42
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.250.0013.110.0015.36

USA HALF CHAMPS

Well I think I need to implement a no racing when sick policy. I've done it a few times now and am just miserable the whole time. I just didn't have the energy I needed today. I went out hard shooting for 1:04:59, which has been my goal for this race for quite sometime. First three miles were 457 457 451. And then I just hit a wall, yes I hit a wall at mile three! It got ugly very quickly and I just wanted to quit the whole time. It was like the last ten miles of a bad marathon experience, just nothing in the tank. Oh well, not much I could've done about it so I won't beat myself up. Sometimes we get sick and sometimes the timing sucks. Full report will come later.

Meanwhile huge shout out to Ogden Crew Member Jason Holt who threw down a 1.5 min PR today in 1:07:02 and was top Utahn. I am bugging him to put a report on the blog here as he is a lesser known member. So look out for that and give him a big congrats..very well deserved.

Ok, I'm home and have a computer now so here is the report.

If you followed my blog in the last week, you saw that I contracted a bad cold/flu with a high fever, chills, headache, cough, fatigue, and runny nose. It was miserable. I hoped to get well in time to race and the fever did go away as did the chills, but the rest remained. I went back and looked up my UV Half report from last summer when I raced with something similar and it brought back memories of how awful it was. I tried my best to convince myself this would turn out better. I tried to believe I could still run to my ability level.

Race morning I sat next to Jon Coyle on the bus (Jason was assigned another bus) and then we met Jason at the start line. Port a potty stop, warm-up, port a potty stop, strides, and I was ready. Or was I? I felt terrible. I was sitting there staring off into space and Jason asked if I was all right. I snapped back to reality and told him I thought it may be a long, ugly day and that I didn't feel well. The warmup was taxing at 8:30 pace. But I tried to stay positive and push all that out of my head.

Right before the gun, I think I kind of had convinced myself I could still run fast. Maybe it was getting caught up in atmosphere/moment. So I went out hard and thought I'd hold high 4:50s as long as I could. A half mile in a kid yelled out "65 pace group right here for whoever wants to work together". So Jason, another Brooks ID guy, and I joined that group. It was a good group 8-10 guys. We ran as a pack for the most part for the first 5k. The first mile felt terrible and got me worried, but mile two felt actually pretty good and I thought maybe I just didn't warm up enough and that's why mile one was tough. But then mile three got really hard (the group did drop the pace 6 seconds a mile here and I fell off the back of the pack running 4:51, they must've been 4:49-ish). Miles 1-3 4:57, 4:57, 4:51.

So I fell off the back of the pack and thought that's fine, just stay at 5:00 pace. But with no one around I fell off pace much more than that. I ran mile four in 5:04. During five Jason passed me, he had fallen just a tad back off the pack before I fell off the pack. He encouraged me to go with him, but I was content trying to stay at 5:05. Because I wasn't even certain I could hold that and was pretty sure I couldn't go 5:00. I just didn't have any zap and I was working really hard (burning fuel/energy at a quick rate it seemed).

So already I was kind of solo. It's hard to believe but just like that after a 457 457 451 504 start I was toward the very back of the race, maybe 10 guys behind me including Jake and Coyle. It was crazy how fast even the back half the race ran especially at the start.

Mile five was 5:10 and I knew I was in big time trouble. I was bleeding a lot of time with more than half the race to go. I started coming up with excuses in my head why it'd be ok to drop at the next medical tent. Mile six was 5:14, still bleeding time and working so hard, so much harder than when I average 5:14 for 8-mile aerobic builders at altitude. I realized I wasn't even half way and I chuckled so as not to cry. Amazingly my 10k split wasn't terrible it was like 31:38 I think.

The first half of mile seven I looked down and saw that I was running 5:28 pace, I knew I couldn't slow that much of else it was really going to be a disasterous result. So I tried my best to speed up and hit another 5:14, so for one mile I had finally stopped the bleeding. If only I could've kept it at 5:14!

Mile eight was 5:19 despite my best efforts. Just after eight I heard footsteps and thought for sure it had to be either Jake or Coyle. Sure enough it was Jake. I wished him well and he was gone in no time. I didn't even attempt to hang on with him, as I was already hanging on the best I could to avoid 5:20s.

In the next mile I could no longer hold off 5:20s despite my efforts and ran 5:23 for nine and then 5:22 for ten. Mile 11 had some on the only downhill in the race and it was barely even noticeable but it helped and I ran a 5:19. But 12 had the uphill offset of 11 and I barely held off 5:30 and ran 5:29. During 12 some guy passed me running probably 5:00-flat pace. Not sure what he'd been doing all race until then but he was moving very quickly.

With one mile to go all I could think was 6:00 and I can roll over and die and lay down and whatever. Just 6:00 more minutes, hold on! I ran a 5:25 and then right before I was about to make the final turn for the last 0.1 I heard footsteps behind me. Right then the announcer also said, "we should see the top female turn that corner any second now". So I thought I was seconds away from getting "chicked". And just like that I went from 5:25 pace to 4:40 pace for the last tenth. As I approached to finish I saw the tape being held for her to cross and finished hard and just held her off. Or did I? Actually it was just another guy in the men's race and she was another two minutes back. I don't know why they thought she was ready to turn that corner, but it did help my time by 4-5 seconds running out of fear...haha us men and our egos.

After I finished I found Jason and found out he ran a monster PR. A few minutes after me Coyle finished and he did just manage to hold off top female by 15 seconds. He said at one points she was ahead of him after he took a pit stop and that he had to really work hard to get back in front of her, it was pretty funny listening to him tell the story. Then I had a terrible coughing fit and basically coughed up a lung. My chest was on fire and my throat was raw. I kept dry-heaving on all the mucous from being sick. It was a miserable five minutes after the race.

I didn't do a cooldown as I had no energy and I didn't want to experience another coughing fit. My throat couldn't handle much more coughing, it hurt pretty bad.

So, fun experience minus the actual race! It's so frustrating, but what could I have done differently? I just need to not worry about it and move on. My fitness is still very good, best it's been. This race doesn't reflect my fitness and I just need to remember that. I hope to kick this illness soon as I really need some sleep and just can't get any lately with waking up with a cough every 2-3 hours.

Brooks Racer ST5 Miles: 15.35
Weight: 0.00
Comments
From scottkeate on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 12:14:41 from 98.202.116.66

Bummer timing to get sick. It is certainly something that will impact a race here and there. Gutsy race as usual for you under the conditions. It's obvious based on your fitness level that you were prepared for a much faster performance.

Huge day for Jason.

From Rachelle on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 13:16:06 from 159.212.71.200

It is frustrating to not execute a race you know you are capable of but the bottom line is you were sick and there isn't much you can do to control that. Considering how under the weather you have been all week this was an incredibly gutsy performance. Holding it together for 10 miles is not fun and you could have easily dropped. Props for holding your head high and pushing through the pain Riley.

From SlowJoe on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 13:51:41 from 166.137.156.41

I've raced a half after getting over an illness and it was super ugly, even though I felt ok that day. Cool that you still went after it, nice job Riley.

From Amy Cook on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 15:53:38 from 73.52.134.194

I'm glad you finished and wish we didn't bring the sickness home for you. You've got a lot more races coming! Lets focus on what's to come.

From Matt Poulsen on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 17:05:54 from 174.23.170.216

Sorry you got sick. Gutsy race, though! Your fitness is excellent right now. Many great races in store for you this year.

From Andrea on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 17:26:53 from 67.177.11.154

Sorry to hear that the sickness got the best of you today. I hope you were still able to enjoy the experience. Any chance for a 10 Mile Champs redemption??

From Josh E on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 21:49:03 from 75.162.251.201

I think this is going to be a great year for you. Exciting stuff in store. You may even inspire me to wear more Brooks!

From Lesley on Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 23:05:01 from 172.250.160.221

Sorry for the sickness. Always disappointing when you aren't 100% on race day. Congrats for starting strong and gutting it out to the end. Can't wait to see what the year has in store for you and Amy!

From Superfly on Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 09:33:44 from 74.211.21.81

Good job man. All I can say is it just sucks you got sick. The sickness totally jades the race and all the work you did in prep. Hopefully you can shake it off and get ready for a big race in PHX.

From RileyCook on Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 12:58:04 from 73.52.134.194

Thanks everyone. It is very frustrating to work so hard for a race and to get sick, but it is what it is and we'll move on. I still plan on having a great year and hitting the OTQ this year.

Full report is up now if anyone wants to read.

From allie on Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 13:10:25 from 174.23.134.136

"i chuckled so as not to cry." that made me laugh.

i'm sorry about the poorly timed flu which made for a tough day of racing. racing is hard enough when you are healthy! good job.

From Jake K on Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 14:53:22 from 199.190.170.28

If only you had heard the announcer start talking about the top female a few miles earlier - knock out a couple 4:40s and you'd have been right back in the mix! :-)

Its good that you aren't too worried about this - there isn't any magical approach when you get sick... there really isn't anything you can do, no matter how good of shape you're in. Just recover and move on to the next battle.

You didn't move from your post-race spot in the convention center for a good half-hour after the race!

From mike⇒nelson on Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 15:12:58 from 199.127.123.162

Tough race Riley and crappy timing. You earned your blog title once again. Keep at it.

From SpencerSimpson on Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 16:15:49 from 63.82.19.2

great report. tough scenario that you just cannot help. youre still going to kill it this year. fun watching you run brotha...

From Jason D on Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 16:46:28 from 24.1.80.94

Way to hang in there. Riley. Wishing you restful, cough-free nights.

From Paul on Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 07:31:12 from 174.29.44.114

Sorry about the sickness. Running can be kind of a roll of a dice sometimes.

From Steve on Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 07:54:17 from 66.87.67.128

You gutted it through though. Good job!

From jtshad on Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 15:08:20 from 141.221.191.225

Nice job pushing through to a good time with less than good health coming in. Another big year in store for you.

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