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| Looking west from the summit |
What a great day over in Morrison for the Gulo Gulo track club. We ran the inaugural Green Mtn. Uphill Time Trial this morning, and I would say it was a smashing success.
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| Looking east from the summit |
Here are some stats on the course we ran. The race was 100% trail running, exactly 2.1 miles long. We ran from the Hayden Trail/Green Mtn. lower junction to the cairn at the height of Green Mountain along the Hayden Trail. We gained 683 feet in elevation, the majority of that in the first half of the course. The start was at an elevation in excess of 6100 feet, which is not normal for us training in Parker. We navigated 8 major switchbacks along the way. The weather was gorgeous, bluebird skies with temps in the 60's or so. We had one coach starting the athletes every 15 seconds, and one coach at the top with jackets recording the finishing times. (Next year, that coach might take a helicopter to the top, running up with a full backpack of jackets is not as fun as it sound!) The course was pretty rocky and technical for the first 2/3, but then smoothed out into a jeep road the last 33%. The real kicker was a pretty significant hill with less than 300m to go, which everyone seemed to notice. :)
Here are the official results:
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| Austin D. - 17:25 - 1st place |
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| Johnny - 17:37 - 2nd place |
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| Landon - 17:57 - 3rd place |
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| Alex - 18:30 - 4th place |
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| James - 19:12 - 5th place |
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| Ciara - 20:10 - 6th place |
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| Hanna - 20:37 - 7th place |
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| Whitney - 20:47 - 8th place |
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| Erika - 23:08 - 9th place |
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| Austin S. - 23:46 - 10th place |
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| Daniel - 23:46 - 11th place |
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| Jenna - 24:31 - 12th place |
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| Coach Sep - 24:52 - 13th place |
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| Jordan - 24:45 - 14th place |
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| Corrina - 26:19 - 15th place |
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| Kelly - 26:57 - 16th place |
What I was proud of:
1. The effort put forth by all the runners. All of them were hand-on-knees, bent over, gasping for breath at the top of the hill. Excellent effort, that is awesome.
2. The guts shown by all athletes This was not an easy workout. I did it, and I admit power walking a few sections. I challenge anybody to do that course in the times we achieved and not be hurting afterwards. To undertake that requires a high amount of intestinal fortitude, which these have athletes have a lot of.
3. The overall times. We had distance kids breaking 20 minutes. We had sprinters breaking 25 mintues This was all uphill, for over two miles, on less than desirable terrain. To run that fast is very impressive, my congratulations go out to all of you! I did the exact course you all did, and it was not easy. Brutal would be a good word to describe it, so congrats!
What I was not happy with:
I do not want to end this blog post in a down note, so all I will say is this. We have over 55 athletes registered for the Gulo Gulo winter track club. A few of them had to work, and texted me. A few of them were injured, and texted me. A few of them were in Arizona, and texted me. But still, the majority of the athletes who signed up to run this winter did not show up today. That is dis-heartening, to say the least. I have always said, I will coach the kids that show up, and not worry about the kids that aren't there. But, if you cannot make it to winter track practice, whether it is on a Wednesday or a Saturday, and you miss your goal by 1/10 of a second in the spring, you have no one to blame but yourself. Champions are made when no one is watching. Every day you come to winter track practice makes you that much faster and stronger in the spring. If you are serious about running and about achieving your goals and about becoming a Wolverine champion, you will start coming to winter track on a regular consistent basis. The program is designed for 100% attendance rate from each athlete. Skipping a day here or there hurts no one but yourself. I expect to see higher numbers from here on out, for every practice we have.
SEP
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