This is a post about a great weekend. I went out to Spokane, WA for the 2014 National RRCA convention. This was by far the best trip to the RRCA conference I have ever had.

For starters RunSignUp was very well received by all of the attendees and we were also able to be a gold sponsor which made our little company very proud. Also the Bloomsday Road Runners just put on an outstanding convention.

This trip started out as me seeing that Bernard Lagat was going to be there…and I was going to make sure I got to go for a run with him. Sure enough at the cocktail hour I slinked on over to him and introduced myself and asked when he was running in the morning. He told me he needed to do 10 miles at 6:00 flat pace. I said no problem let’s do it…he asked if I was racing in two days and I said “Yes.” He then looked at me like I was crazy for going with him for a mild tempo two days before the race. I knew this would affect my race buuuut this was a chance in a lifetime so I smiled and said “It’s no big deal.”

Some wonderful folks from the Bloomsday Road Runners Club picked us up in the morning and took us to a nice rail trail that had a very subtle 300ft climb over 4 miles. So we set out for a run with Mariko, Jody, Evan, Tate, Lagat, and myself. Side note: Bernard’s coach wanted him to drop down to 8 miles instead of 10…this was good news for me. Until we stopped running 6 min pace 🙂
6:34
6:06
5:56
5:38
5:24
5:22
5:30
5:18

I was now a little worried about my race in two days on an extremely challenging course…again it was all worth it.

The Bloomsday 12K was here!

What a great morning…there were so many people running around warming up and getting ready. The weather was amazing, Mid 50s with a little wind and nothing but sunshine. All of the elites had their game faces on and I was just happy to be there.

The only thing I was worried about was dropping a 4:20 mile on the downhill at two miles.

The gun went off and everyone was out HARD. The GPS watch was started at 3:55 and slowly worked it’s way up…I put on the breaks and made sure I strolled through mile one in 5:05…the leaders were gone.

The first mile is a basic city mile with very clean businesses along the way and some really cute houses…but once you hit the second mile you start your decent and there is the beautiful river rushing down through the mountains, just an amazing view.

Mile 2-4 is a lot of climbing…then you bomb down another steep hill and everything opens up and you can see the river again and the leaders making their way up Doomsday Hill. That hill is very intimidating from this view.

Elevation Chart

So I hit this hill with a smile on my face. It reminded me of running ARB hills in Ann Arbor, MI. I kept telling myself “At the top is when you will start to push.” I started passing some guys that had obviously hit the wall. I also came across a couple wheelers that were working their way up the hill…I put a stick in their spokes 😉

Actually I had plenty of time to study them as I was catching up…It filled me up with joy and pride watching this woman fight for an inch at a time on this hill. She had to push forward one inch then hold tight on the wheels as she re set her hands to push again for another inch…I just wondered “If that was me, would I have the perseverance to keep pushing?” I couldn’t help but clap and cheer for them as I ran past.

I finally got to the top of Doomsday Hill and of course, Eye of Tiger is playing. So I had no choice but to fist pump and all of the volunteers (about 100+) started cheering and yelling “RECKLESS!” at me. It was too much fun.

That being said this great move/pace pick up I was gearing up for…just didn’t happen. I was whipped from that hill. I salvaged a 5:23 mile with half of it being on the up hill. After that I clocked a 5:02 as I pushed to catch a few more guys as we began to bomb down the little hill toward the finish line.

My Splits
5:01
5:00
5:16
5:02
5:06
5:23
5:02
2:28

This was an awesome race and experience. If you have yet to do this race then you need to make it happen. P.S. The hotel was about $150 a night for a super nice place and the race is only $17 so this is way cheaper then a Chicago Marathon Trip.

Reckless Finish

Also if you want any of this cool Reckless Gear there is a link on the right and if you enter in “JORDAN” as a coupon code you get a discount!