Ryan

Announcing an exciting partnership with the Seattle Marathon

/ HillRunner.com Admin / 2 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I’m very excited to announce that HillRunner.com will be partnering with the Amica Insurance Seattle Marathon to provide their runners with the opportunity to receive personalized training plans or online coaching.

Seattle Marathoners will have the opportunity to sign up for the full service online coaching that is available to everyone at HillRunner.com or a streamlined "Plan Builder" option for those who want some help designing a training plan but don’t want the constant contact and monitoring that comes with the standard coaching service.

Not only is this a great opportunity for both myself and Seattle Marathoners, though. There will also be some exciting new services available to everyone! Beginning in April, I will be participating in Twitter Chats hosted by the Seattle Marathon. Beginning in May, we will begin hosting Google Hangouts, which will be archived for after the fact viewing/listening on YouTube and likely iTunes. While we may do some Google Hangouts just for those who sign up for the coaching service, we will also be doing some that will be available to the public!

It’s possible as we build our partnership that more services will be added as we explore all options to connect with both Seattle Marathoners and the greater running community.

I’m very excited for these great opportunities and honored that the Seattle Marathon Association has chosen me to partner with them to offer these services. I hope you will check out the new offerings that will be coming thanks to our partnership. I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated as we begin scheduling chats and hangouts.

Be the hawk

/ Training / 1 minute of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

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Two miles from the end of my long run Saturday, I saw a hawk on a fence post about 20 feet away from me with a roughly 3/4 eaten carcass of what I believe was a rabbit. For the next 1/4 mile, I found myself wondering, did I look more like the hawk or the rabbit?

Then, I thought to myself I don’t care which I look like. I’m out here to become the hawk. I want to be the powerful predator, not the helpless prey. Whether or not I look like the rabbit right now, these final two miles are part of my becoming the hawk. The rest of the run, I finished strong, repeating the mantra "be the hawk" to myself.

Next time you’re out on a tough long run or workout or, especially if you’re going through a tough spot in a race, remember, be the hawk. Stay strong. Be the predator. Don’t let yourself become the prey.

What’s happening at USATF?

/ News/Elites / 2 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

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I’ve been wondering for over a week what happened in the meeting between USATF and TFAA to discuss the disqualifications at the USATF Indoor Nationals meet. After an initial announcement that there was going to be a meeting between USATF and the TFAA to discuss procedures and possibly push for some form of athlete representative overview/review of the process, there became nothing but a lot of silence.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one wondering what happened. Lucky for me, Nobby Hashizume did the digging to find out what happened as you can see at his post. It turns out the meeting was cancelled. As for who decided to cancel it and why, that doesn’t seem to be coming out.

In the meantime, fortunately, Gabe Grunewald got her national championship and her chance to run at Worlds. So all is good, right? Well, no. We still don’t know how all that happened was allowed to happen. There is no evidence that this will be prevented from happening in the future.

Plus, Andrew Bumbalough is still disqualified. His disqualification, if possible, is even more egregious than Grunewald’s. First, much like Grunewald, the "incident" that resulted in the disqualification doesn’t seem worthy of such treatment. It was another instance of incidental contact that is normal when racing indoors. Second, Bumbalough wasn’t even part of the "incident". It was another runner!

Some might say it doesn’t matter. He didn’t win the race. He wasn’t in a Worlds qualifying position. Still, it matters. If for no other reason than he was disqualified when he did nothing wrong and there was conclusive evidence of this, the disqualification should have been overturned. Even if 8th place doesn’t seem like a big deal, we don’t know how his sponsor contract(s) is/are structured. Sometimes runners get bonuses for officially competing at national championship meets. Sometimes they get bonuses for things like top 10 finishes. Heck, if nothing else, he should have the personal satisfaction of having the officially recognized 8th place finish.

Most importantly, though, the fact that even this modest meeting didn’t happen suggests USATF is going to just sweep this incident under the rug. Nobody cares, it didn’t happen, nothing is going to change. Is this what we want to come of this ugly incident?

A little now or a lot later?

/ Training / 1 minute of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Just a quick post this week. It seems like a lot of people right now are getting sick or a little dinged up as winter is hopefully in its final throes.

If you’re one of those people, always keep this in mind: Do you want to miss a couple of days now, when your illness or injury is minor and can be overcome quickly, or miss weeks or months later?

Take care of yourself now. Missing a few days or backing off for a week now won’t set you back. Missing much more later could put all the hard work you did through this brutal winter at risk.

If you have managed to stay healthy, I hope you can remain that way but don’t forget this if something does come up.

Amazing story: Kayla Montgomery

/ News/Elites / 1 minute of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I just got done listening to this story (MP3 link, another podcast and can’t find a page for it) of Kayla Montgomery and had to share immediately. Kayla was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis but continued running, even though she finishes races with no feeling in her legs. Not only did she keep running but she kept running fast! Just listen to the story if you want to hear an amazing story about an incredibly inspiring runner.

Never give up.

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