Bas van Delft kicked off the weekend looking for a sub 40 minute 10k. Using the race strategy his coaches established for him, Bas started out a little bit above that pace for the first 3K and then started to pick up speed. While he didn’t find a suitable group to run with, he kept on overtaking others slowly, gaining on the field.
From the 7K point on, Bas started to focus on runners in front of him and really trying to stay strong and pick up the pace where possible. After overtaking several more runners, Bas ended up 2 seconds above 40 minutes. As Bas states,
“well I am very satisfied with the result of this tune-up race and looking forward to continue improving!”
Christophe Cadiou tackled the Louisiana marathon in Baton Rouge. In Christophe’s on words, “awesome race! Course is very flat, the weather was just perfect, and the organization was great. I highly recommend this race for those wanting to improve their PR or qualify for Boston.”
The race plan was to go for a 3.05 finish time, with the first 5k at around 4.30-4.35, the next 15-20k at target race pace (4.23), and the rest as fast as possible. For the most part, Christophe stuck to the plan and it worked! Of the 17 marathons he has run (including two sub-3 races), this was his fastest second half (1h31mn)
“I felt really strong through to the end of the race. Thanks to the coaches for the great advice throughout this training cycle, I lined up at the start feeling well prepared and confident in my abilities.
Christophe’s time was 3:03:45 – not a PR but his third fastest ever and first sub-3:05 in almost 4 years. Christophe will be running Boston next.
Kamran Rahbar ran a new P.R. at Carlsbad Half Marathon this weekend with a time of 1:33:20. The finishing time as a 2 minute and 39 second P.R. from his previous Carlsbad Half.
The excellent result comes despite being sick by flu since Jan 5th. Heading into the week of the race, Kamran felt very weak and felt like the flu had sucked the strength out of him. Even during the race, the flu symptoms made him want to quit from mile 1 to mile 6, but he kept hanging in there for one more mile. Luckily, Kamran kept fighting till the end. In his own words,
“I know for sure I can break that on the next race If I stay health. Thanks a whole bunch for all the support and encouragement. !!!!!!!!!! Next is Carlsbad 5k on April 30th.”
Michelle Genin also ran the Carlsbad half marathon and finished in 1:47:32. This was the first race of the half marathon season for Michelle and it went really well. Her nutrition was spot on and she handled the hills well. Michelle ran great negative splits with each 5k getting faster than the previous – the perfect way to race.
Michelle has her eyes set on a sub 1:45 this Spring and judging from this race and how much she has left to improve, we should be reporting that great result soon!
More results coming soon as they roll in….
