Kicking off the PR blitz this weekend was James Bonaugure, who raced his first 10k on Friday. Hoping to run somewhere in the 45 minute range, James nailed his race plan and finished with a strong time of 45:42. While this is only James’ first 10k, it gives him lots of confidence about his ultimate goal to break 40 minutes in September.

Ken Finlayson tackled the hilly Fight for Sight 10k and finished with an impressive 58:03. The course had a net elevation gain of 897 feet (not fair when you don’t get the downhills!), so the time is a great indicator of Ken’s improved endurance and strength. Moreover, Ken placed first in his age-group, a big accomplishment!

Laurette Balinksy jumped in a 5k this weekend as part of her long run and speed development segment and didn’t let the high training load or 6 mile “warm-up” deter her from setting another 5k PR at 20:44. To make the race even better, Laurette was the 4th female overall and first in her age-group. Congrats on another PR and AG victory!

Billy Washer set out on his first rust buster since the Boston marathon and demonstrated he hasn’t missed a step. Billy took to the lead early with a quick 5:14 opening mile. Billy went back and forth around 5:20 per mile the next 4 miles, dropping all but one runner in the process. Being Billy’s first race, he didn’t have quite the snap in his legs to hold off the late charge of the eventual race winner, but he did finish in 33:27 for second overall. This was a great start to the racing season for Billy!

Monica Ross ran her second course PR in as many weeks at the Alaska Run for Women 5 miler. Her finishing time was 28:51, which is more than a minute faster than she ran last year and also netted her the master’s record. To make it even better, Monica placed 4th overall behind two Olympic xc skiers, and an All-American NCAA II runner. Monica’s ready to take some downtime now before gearing up for the US Masters Championships at the Twin Cities Marathon in October.

Eva Wang had another tremendous breakthrough race at the New York Mini 10k. Her time of 43:00 improved on her PR by over 1:20. Her previous race of 44:23 came last year at the 2011 New York Mini 10k. Despite training on mostly flat surfaces she handled the hills well and got her PR!

Congrats to everyone who raced on the new slew of PRs this weekend. Keep training hard everyone, and use these race results as motivation to keep putting in the work this week!