Tim VanOrden’s Running Raw Times – August 19th, 2010

A Huge hello to all my friends and supporters of the Running Raw Project.

In This Issue:

On The Road Again

I shot plenty of new videos on this trip, so look for new material hitting YouTube in the next few weeks.

The Race Report – Championship Summer

• U.S. 15k Trail Running Championships – Spokane, WA – I am now officially a National Champion! My dreams have finally come true and Running Raw is now legitimate. Led by 2008 Olympian, Ian Dobson, the race got off to a very fast start. On the first big hill I found myself in the middle of the pack, which is exactly where I wanted to be. I was hoping that most of the field would exhaust themselves on the hills and I’d clean them up when it leveled out and started to drop. Which is exactly what happened. By  the 3rd kilometer I had moved up into 3rd place, and held that position until about 8k. The course became quite flat at this point and some fast guys moved ahead. When it was all said and done I had won the U.S. Master’s Trail Running title by over 2 minutes and had finished 6th overall in this very tough field of great runners. Running Raw is just getting started.

• Mt. Ashland Hill Climb – Ashland, OR – With a new sense of confidence after my performance in Spokane, I took on the most challenging and longest race I’ve done – running 13.3 miles and climbing 5,643 feet up the northern slope of Mt. Ashland. Based on the very high caliber field that this race attracts and the times that top runners post, I estimated that a good time for me would be 2 hours and 5 minutes. An all-star field toed the line in Ashland’s gorgeous Lithia Park, including 2009 XTERRA World Trail Running Champion, Max King; Western States 100 mile victor and 2010 Canadian Death Race winner Hal Koehner, Erik Skaggs, Karl Meltzer, Peter Fain, Richard Bolt, Dave Dunham, Rubin Galbraith, and many more. I had no idea what to expect in a race this long and with so much climbing. Memories of bonking on Mt. Washington filled my mind and this race was a bigger challenge. As the race got underway I could hear comments about my shirt from the hot shots behind me… Something to the effect of “We are going to crush the vegan”. All fears, doubts and pre-race predictions were laid aside when I found myself climbing the last grueling 100 meters to the finish line in 3rd place overall and setting a new Master’s course record in the process. My time of 1:55:36 was 10 minutes faster than I expected and I felt there was still more in me when I was done. Max King went on to break the overall course record with his epic win in this race. I’ll be back next year for sure.

• Results for all of the above races can be seen at http://runningraw.com/results.html

The Training Log:

High mileage, with lots of elevation gain continues to be the name of the game. In the past 8 weeks, I’ve only slipped under 80 miles a week twice (due to travel). My body has adapted well and I’m recovering very quickly from days that sometimes exceed 20+ miles of trails and mountains. To keep you better informed of what I’m doing, I’ve created a Training Page, which will be updated weekly.

http://runningraw.com/training2010.html