Reason to Run 2010

Reason to Run #187: Having a targeted goal is a great way to succeed with a New Years fitness resolution.

Reason to Run had an amazing year in 2009. It was our first year organizing races and we met so many great people. With the partnership of our wonderful sponsors, we were able to raise over $17,000 for the charities associated with our events: the Micah Project, Alex Martinez Memorial Fund, CERN, Caring Bridge and the Catalyst Partnerships.

In April 2009, we had the Spring Burst 5k and 10k, with Pace of Courage 5k and 10k in August and then we finished the season with the Catalyst Challenge in October.

These three events are back for 2010, so add them to your race calendar and come out for more fun with Reason to Run: http://reasontorun.com/races.html

The first event of the year is the Spring Burst 5k and 10k: http://reasontorun.com/springRaces.html and registration will open in early January.

Join us on our Facebook event for the Spring Burst and invite your friends to share in the excitement leading up to April 10th: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=214848049130

Happy New Year!!

Darin and Trisha

www.ReasonToRun.com

Catalyst Challenge 2009 Wrapup

On October 17th we had the inaugural running of the Catalyst Challenge 5k & 10k.

We have great weather and the fall colors of Cook and Tualatin parks added a nice touch to the event.

The race numbers:

• 155 registered runners
• 81 people finished the 5k
• 63 people finished the 10k
• Many first time racers came out to try the event
• We had the Rustvold family out running barefoot and pulling strollers and rickshaws.
• Amazing weather and great course
• More door prizes than should be allowed
• Approximately $4,000 was raised for the Catalyst Parnerships

The 10k results can be found here. The 5k results can be found here. The race day pictures from Evan Pilchik Photography are here.

Our sponsors, Club Sport Oregon, Cornerstone Chiropractic, Road Runner Sports, Clif Bar, Strands, Bear Naked Granola, Sledge Athletic Solutions, Gigi Fit, GNC, Print Sync Inc., Jamba Juice, Al's Garden Centers, Tualatin Haggen Food and Pharmacy, The Gardener's Choice and Banana Blossom Press were amazing and really helped us to put on a first class event.

We would also like to thank the Mary Woodward Ambassadors for coming our and helping to work the aid stations and direct the runners and walkers out on the course.

We look forward to seeing you for the next Catalyst Challenge in the Fall of 2010!

Pace of Courage Wrap Up

Back on August 15th we had the inaugural running of the Pace of Courage 5k & 1ok.


Be all measures the event was a huge success:

• 421 registered runners
• 237 people finished the 5k
• 125 people finished the 10k
• Many first time racers came out to try the event
• The 10k event was won by a family: dad running, 2 kids in the stroller!
• Amazing weather and great course
• Have you seen a better food spread after a race?
  
• Over $12,500 was raised for the Alec Martinez Medical Fund, CERN and Caring Bridge
• Everyone was inspired by Alec's life and legacy

The 10k results can be found here. The 5k results can be found here. The race day pictures from Evan Pilchik Photography are here.

Our sponsors, Graystone Partners, Cornerstone Chiropractic, Market of Choice, Clif Bar, Great Harvest, Road Runner Sports, Sheridan Fruit Company, Bear Naked Granola, Sledge Athletic Solutions, Gigi Fit, FruitaBu, Food Should Taste Good, POM Wonderful, AMR, Snap Fitness, Jamba Juice, Stevens Printing and Banana Blossom Press were amazing and really helped us to put on a first class event.

We look forward to seeing you for the next Pace of Courage in August 2010!

Catalyst Challenge

Reason to Run #76: Running a fall race is a great way to stay motivated through the change of seasons.

Your training and running should not end just because summer does. If you are looking for a goal event while at the same time supporting a great cause, look no further than the Catalyst Challenge 5k and 10k

The Catalyst Challenge, hosted by Reason to Run, will occur in Cook Park, Tigard at 9:00 am on October 17th, 2009. The proceeds from this event will be directed towards the Catalyst Partnerships, a grass-roots movement that simply wants to help neighbors who need assistance with home repairs due to physical or financial limitations.

The course will explore the paved and bark mulch paths of the Tigard park to present you with an urban trail 5 and 10k. Please see the reviews from our Spring Burst event that made use of a similar course: Runners Reviews.

To read more about the Catalyst Challenge please see www.ReasonToRun.com/winterRaces.

Register today and give yourself a reason to run this fall! One week remains to take advantage of the discounted early registration for the Catalyst Challenge 5k and 10k races.

See you in October!

Girlfriend Summer Run Clinics

Hey girlfriend! Are you interested in:

• Getting more enjoyment out of your runs
• Running faster and stronger
• Training for a race such as Pace of Courage or Race for the Cure
• Finding new running routes
• Learning more about the sport of running
• Meeting new running friends

Reason to Run is presenting the Girlfriend Summer Run Clinics this July and August in the Tigard area. All levels of women runners and joggers are encouraged to come out and join us. We will meet on Tuesday and Thursdays from 7 am to 8 am. Participants will be emailed the location specifics.

The cost for each training clinic is $50 and includes:

• Eight, one hour training sessions
• Very cool Reason to Run technical t-shirt designed by local artist Tyson Mangelsdorf, styled and sized for women
• Door prizes and sponsor goodies
• Post clinic celebration run and Bear Naked Granola sponsored breakfast
• Optional Saturday trail run in Forest Park
• Discount on a future Reason to Run race
• A fun, supportive environment

Tuesdays will focus on a specific running work out, while Thursdays will be girlfriend run day. Work outs will include track, hills and tempo, and during the sessions we will talk about topics such as injury prevention, stretching, nutrition, training plans, running shoes and clothing, hydration, iPod music selection, running partners, and trail running.

Trisha from Reason to Run will be hosting two sessions:
Session 1: July 14 - Aug 6
Session 2: August 18 - Sept 10

For more details and to register please see http://www.reasontorun.com/runClinic.html
Hope to see you there!

(Note: This is a repost of content we provided for the Run Oregon blog)

Pace of Courage 5k and 10k, August 15, 2009

Pace of Courage Saturday August 15th 2009 On August 15th, 2009 Reason to Run will host the Pace of Courage Run/Walk to help support Stephen, Vananh and their 3 year old son Alec Martinez in their fight against cancer and with their goal to promote cancer awareness. One family, two cancers: To read the complete Martinez family story please see the article in the Beaverton Valley Times and their webpage at CaringBridge. The Pace of Courage will include a 5k and 10k that will start at 9:00 am on August 15, 2009. We are running out of Oak's Park and continue on an out and back along the beautiful Springwater corridor. More details can be found here. Use this event as a goal at the end of your summer or fill in your training for a fall marathon. If you are starting out running or walking as part of a more active lifestyle or using the baby jogger to hit the trails or roads, come and join us. We know what you look for in an event: excellent organization, safe and fun courses, with great support including post race food. See our reviews from previous events here. Come do a great run and support a great cause. All event proceeds will benefit the Alec Martinez Medical Fund, the CERN Foundation (Collaborative Ependymoma Research Network) and CaringBridge, a nonprofit web service that connects family and friends during a critical illness, treatment or recovery. Register, come run with us and make fighting cancer a reason to run.

Reason to Run: Big Sur Marathon 2009

This morning I ran the Big Sur Marathon. And when I say morning I use that term very loosely!!

The Big Sur marathon has a start time of 6:45am. Not too bad you say. Well then throw in that you have to bus out to the start and you have to be on the bus no later than 4:15 am!! This is as crazy as my ultra running friends start times for 100 milers!! So I get out to this beautiful spot in the Big Sur park at around 5:15 in the morning. The sun is not even up yet. So nothing to do but pull up a piece of road and sleep for 30-40 minutes. I would have slept longer but my shivering in the pre-dawn cold woke me up ;-)

Now enough whining about the start. The Big Sur marathon is well organized, efficient and flows very nicely as an event. I have a new respect and perspective on this since hosting our first Reason to Run events back in April. They co-host about a million events: walks, 21 miler, marathon, 10 miler, marathon relays, 5k and more. All told 10,000 athletes take part in the weekend. It is big. This event had the best water and food support I have seen at a road marathon. Lots of lots of opportunity for both water and fuel. Gels at many locations. I also liked the Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) support for refills of handhelds.

I hope my pictures give you a small glimpse at why the race is so popular. The course is just that beautiful. And challenging. This was the toughest road marathon I have tackled. It actually was much closer in style to the trail ultras I run: miles of up and down that constantly challenge you mentally and physically. No mile upon mile of flat running here!

The profile:

And there was a little issue with wind giving us an extra bang for the buck today. At the aptly named Hurricane Point, when I picked up a leg at the end of a stride, the wind would blow it over to smash into the other leg!!

I had never planned to race this weekend but rather run hard and have a good time. I ran with a camera for the first time and really tried to push but not punish the body. It was hard to hold back in the first 10 miles. Similar to the Boston marathon and as you can see in the profile, the first couple of miles are a good downhill. Watch those quads! After that natural fatigue set in and we were fine ;-)

Overall, I had a great time, got in some amazing training and posted a 3:35 finishing time. The legs and body feel good, I think I fueled and hydrated well. My nemesis, my gut, did try to hijack the run a few times but running at the sub-race pace kept it under control.

I would go back but I don't know if I would ever try to really pound this one...boy that would hurt! I also tried doing a cheap hotel to keep the trip cost down and it worked out great. $40 with WiFi at the Good Nite Inn in Salinas. I booked using Travelocity.

Now it is time to head out for a recovery run with my best friend Trisha and then to bed to attempt to catch up on some much needed sleep!

Reason to Run Honduras

Our Spring Burst 5k and 10k was held on April 11th, 2009. One of our goals is to have all of our runs be beneficial to as many people as possible: the runners, the racers, even the organizers, as well as to those who are reached by the designated charity.

For our spring events, we were proud to provide financial support towards the establishment of an automotive technical school for the young men of the Micah Project in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

While we were running here in Tigard, Oregon, the young men and staff from the Micah House were staging their own event in Honduras: Reason to Run Honduras!! Too COOL: our first event goes international!!

Great job goes out to John, Wilmer, Marvin, Rebecca, Erick, Charly, Michael and Cristofer for pounding out a 10k. We just know you guys sweated more than us thanks to the Honduran heat!

Going forward, we are hard at work on our upcoming events...currently scheduled for August 15th and September 19th. We are excited to help provide you many more Reasons to Run!

ING Bay to Breakers 12k Race Discount

The ING Bay to Breakers 12k is being savvy and I think using their advertising dollars wisely. They have approached numerous running blogs to promote the event AND provide a discount to the blog readers.

I am heading to near the bay area this weekend for the Big Sur Marathon so I will not be going down again to San Francisco for the Bay to Breakers. But if you are planning to go or are looking for a cool destination race, read on to get your discount.

Special Offer for the 98th Annual ING Bay to Breakers 12k : May 17th, 2009

You can get an additional 5% off the early registration price for this year’s race. Don’t miss this opportunity to join (and support!) one of the most original and zany road races in the county.

• Visit www.ingbaytobreakers.com for details about the race
• Register online by midnight on April 30th, 2009 to receive the early registration price with an additional 5% discount http://tinyurl.com/cy3vkw
• Enter this coupon code 5RUNCODE09 (case sensitive) and click ‘redeem’ before completing your registration
• This offer is limited to the first 100 registrants, so make sure to register as soon as possible!

Please direct any questions to info (at) ingbaytobreakers (dot) com

The Fine Print:
- This is an online offer only
- Discount is valid only for the registration fee. It is not applied to optional purchases such as the MUNI pass or packet mailing fee

A discounted race entry fee is a great Reason to Run ;-)

Five Dollar Runs

This weekend I participated in two very different runs that both cost five dollars to enter. What an amazing deal for the money!

On Saturday, it was the ice breaker track meet for the Tigard Youth Track club where I am an assistant coach for the long distance runners. The meet was out in Sherwood and the weather was great for the event!
Cole and Leah both race great events.Leah set a PR doing both the 400 and the 100 meters and placing 3 and 2nd in her heats. Cole did the 400 and posted a good solid time better than the start of last season but not quite a PR.
I had not planned to run but as the day rolled out it just made sense for me to slap down the five dollars and race the 3000 meters Masters event. Turned out to be a really nice hard 11 minutes of running. Felt surprisingly good and strong with how little speed work I have done this spring. Only 3 seconds off my PR for this event. Wahoo!

Sunday started early heading out to explore Ruckle Creek trail with Micheal and Ronda. I do not think I have been on this particular trail before and it is a great workout! Another five dollars to park at the bottom but totally worth every cent.

We had lush green forests, wild flowers peeking out in the sun and herds of deer skirting around us as we marched up the hill. I had to turn around to have time to make church so I did not hit the real snow and the Benson Plateau. It was great fun trying to run fast down while staying vertical and soaking up the strain in the quads.

Get out to the Gorge...great workout and amazing scenery!!
These are some of my reasons to run :-)

2009 Spring Burst 5k and 10k

April 11, 2009 was the first running of the Reason to Run Spring Burst 5k and 10k.

We had ~150 people come out to Cook Park to tackle the trails for the 5k and 10k events.

We were blessed with warm weather and no rain and I believe the sun even made an appearance or two.

These races are urban trail runs: more challenging than a traditional 5k or 10k out on the road and a great way to mix it up and try something new and different.

After an inspirational prayer to set the tone for the runs, we counted down and the runners were off promptly at 8:30 am. They followed the road within Cook Park (SW 92nd) towards the boat launch on the Tualatin River. Then it was off the road to enjoy a section of bark mulch trail. After this warm-up, the runners picked up the pace on the paved bike path towards the Ki-a-Kuts pedestrian bridge and over the Tualatin River.
Over the bridge and down on the paved trail into Tualatin Community Park, a U-turn and the next bark mulch trail section coming back to the bridge. This is the section of the course that has an explosion of trilliums!. Then back over the bridge and into Durham City Park for more paved bike path. After a "lollipop" out and back the runners returned to Cook Park and the finish line within the Butterfly Garden.
BUT WAIT...it was only the finish line for the 5k runners. We happily directed the 10k runners out for 3.1 more miles of fun on the out and back trail along the Tualatin River towards 108th Ave. This is the challenging section of the course were you have to dig deep and push to maintain your pace. One more section of trail once back into the main section of Cook Park and then the 10k finish!

The winning times were impressive with both winners getting under the 6 min/mile pace.
The 10k results can be found here.
The 5k results can be found here.
The race day pictures from Evan Pilchik Photography are here.

Some of the other blog reports on the event can be found here, here and here.

We have also conducted a survey with all the participants and we really appreciate all the positive feedback about the course and the event in general. As well, thanks for the suggestions for how to make the event even better next year!

We would like to thank all the participants who trusted us with their Saturday run. We were also very excited at how many first time racers we had finish. Once you start running on the trails...do you ever fully go back to be a road runner?? ;-)
Our sponsors, Clif Bar, Haggen, Road Runner Sports, Al's Garden Center, The Great Urban Race, Sledge Athletic Solutions, Gigi Fit, lululemon athletica, and Banana Blossom Press were amazing and really helped us to put on a first class event.

We look forward to doing this event again next year and hope you will join us.
We are deep into the planning of other events for this year including a trail run in September. We will keep you posted!

Reason to Run Spring Events Preview Run

Reason to Run is leading a free "preview" run of the Spring Burst 5k and Spring Rush 10k courses on Wednesday, April 1st with the Road Runner Sports training group.

We will meet in Cook Park in the east parking lot (directions) at 6 pm to explore the course trails.

Come with us to see what you will run on April 11th or simply join us for a Wednesday night training run to meet some new people. As well please invite your friends who are still thinking about doing the event or just want to come out and do a fun bit of exercise on the trails.

RSVP to info@reasontorun.com if you are planning to attend (just showing up is fine as well).

I plan to check on the progression of the Trilliums and cherry blossoms that our family enjoyed finding on the course this past weekend.
See you Wednesday!

EclipseCon 2009 - Recession Proof Running

I have always heard that exercise and entertainment were the two industries that were recession proof. I know this is a completely artificial sample but the attendees of EclipseCon 2009 are bearing this out.

We currently have 129 people signed up to head out on the trails to start their mornings off correctly for the four day extravaganza that is EclipseCon.

From previous years, I know that most of these people will not make all of the four days of running...actually a good percentage will not show up at all. But that is not important.

The cool part is that for approximately one hour each day we will get out of the conference center and breath fresh, non air conditioned oxygen. We will have a great chance to clear some of the cobwebs out of our brains to make us that much more productive and absorptive for the rest of the day. We will also meet new people, make new friends and likely improve the Eclipse community by creating new cross links between separate areas of concern that otherwise would have never connected but really can benefit from a personal and professional relationship.

We also can get to ask people about something OTHER than Eclipse. Their families, their other hobbies and their passions away from a computer. Where they come from and where they live. A great way to make the conference more personal. This is a reason to run for me: running with someone is the fastest and easiest way I know to get to know each other.

Do you think I am exaggerating what can happen from our four little runs or walks in the morning? I guess you will have to come out, join us and find out for yourself ;-)

We will meet each morning in the lobby of the host hotel of the conference.
Monday we meet at 6 am to accommodate the earlier start of the tutorials.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we start at 7 am.
We will be running something similar to the route here. Any questions just email me. There is a Facebook event as well.
Hope to see you in the morning!

Reason to Run 2009 Shirt Artwork

Reason to Run #127: After a good hard run you get a really cool shirt that you can exercise in but often don't because you want to wear the shirt out on the town!

Hot from the creative genius that is Tyson Mangelsdorf we have the graphic designs that will the artwork for the Reason to Run shirts for the Spring Burst 5k and Rush 10k in Cook Park, Tigard, Oregon.

The first image is for the women's shirt and will be on a sky blue "silky smooth" technical shirt for the April reasons to run.

This is men's graphic and will be on a manly navy blue technical shirt
Everyone who registers for our 5k or 10k will get one of these shirts. If you want extra shirts or crave to share these designs with others...stay tuned. We plan to be offering the shirts for sale on www.reasontorun.com soon.

Getting the Kids Moving....Run for Fun!

Trisha (Reason to Run head runner) and Chris (Reason to Run friend) have started a cool new endeavor at a local Tigard school.

At Mary Woodward elementary Trisha and Chris will be offering an after school running program. From the club flyer:

This low pressure running club is perfect for everyone! Runners and walkers are welcome. We encourage parents to join us free of charge for a fun filled work out. We will meet Mondays and Thursdays under the covered area on the playground. One day will be dedicated to conditioning on campus and the other day we will run to Summer Lake Park. Please come dressed in sweats or shorts and tennis shoes. Make sure to bring a water bottle. We will meet for 8 weeks and finish the session with a “Fun Run” to celebrate our training!

Click on the runner logo to above to see the full after school program flyer.

This aligns with one our of core beliefs that everyone can benefit from being active. One easy way to be active is to run or walk.

Trisha and Chris will help the kids see the benefits of running and most importantly, show that exercise can be fun.

We know this program will be a great success and start another generation of active healthy people.

With one month until the Reason to Run spring events, we also look forward to many families coming out to the April 11th events: Spring Burst 5k, Spring Rush 10k and 1/2 mile kids run. Kids are more than welcom at our events whether running, walking or egging on their parents from the jogging stroller.

Life on the Run in Tigard

Reason to Run got amazing front page press in the latest Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood Times.

We think the article captures the essence of our reasons to run and as to why we have created a race hosting company.

Click on the image at left to read the "Life on the Run in Tigard" article for yourself.

We hope it kindles in you a desire to get out for a run or walk today and to register to join us for our Spring Burst 5k and Rush 10k April 11, 2009 events in Cook Park, Tigard.

Thanks to Stover E Harger III and Jaime Valdez from the Times for the article and the pictures.

By the way, Darin is still happily working for IBM (not Intel).

Be a Friend of Reason to Run

Reason to Run (Trisha and I) would like to enlist your help in spreading the word for our upcoming Spring events. If you are planning to attend or would just like to show you are a fan of the April 11, 2009 events in Cook Park,Tigard we would ask that you consider putting a "friend" of Reason To Run logo on your web page to spread the word.

HTML Code to use:

<a href="http://www.reasontorun.com/springRaces"><img border="0"

src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPM8y3GMyi3_DK_FLukXB3gy23kgQYx40dFRQ5cB-6ANAb8mfV4rQGPF0hbt_AEoQJRoN0OeSFh2cLrUAH5g4ZQgjKrFQvpOSFf6KInZVVEZPksiqneSVyYqSE8oj7-WZU8UpY7yXamR_N/s200/friend.png"

 height="100" width="130" alt="I am running the Reason to Run Spring Events"/></a>

What it will look like:

Reason to Run Updates

We have been happily busy finalizing the details of the Reason To Run spring events in our post Hagg Lake trail race glow.

Today we had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot for an upcoming Tigard / Tualatin Times article on the history behind Reason To Run and our passion for running.
We headed to Cook park (the site of our first events) to meet up with the newspaper photographer. The photo shoot was a ton of fun and we felt like rock stars / models running on the trails for action shots.
We had lots of good laughs while the pictures were snapped. Can't wait to see the results with the article slated to hit the stands this Thursday.

Today we got a preview of the race shirt logo design from local artist Tyson Mangelsdorf. Just plain COOOL: retro grunge, yet stylistically current (does that make it sound like I know what I am talking about artistically?? :-) ). Running, nature, trails, beauty and wildness all rolled into one graphic. As soon as the design is finalized we will get it up on the webpage.

We also got listed today as a training run for the Eugene marathon. With our race date 3 weeks out from the Eugene marathon, we know we offer a great opportunity for Eugene marathon participants to have a checkpoint in their training and to test out marathon race day strategy and page.

So make sure to take advantage of all our hard work, kick in your training and register for either the Burst 5k or Rush 10k run in Tigard's scenic Cook park.
A course preview via pictures is available here.

Whether signing up for your first organized run or your hundredth, we know you will love our events as much as we have loved putting them together.

Hagg Lake 50k Recap: The Sun Run

I am honored to be a guest community blogger at the Run Oregon blog for my recount of the Hagg Lake 50km run I raced on Saturday.

The short version: I ended up having a good run after a relatively tough start on a beautiful day out in the sun.

To read the full story please see my recap of the 50km here

Kelly Johnson wrote up a report for the 25km here.

Trail Factor has also posted a fun Hagg Lake 25k and 50k video at http://www.trailfactor.com/. My spotlight is at around the four minute mark in the video...the guys who doesn't know his finishing time :-).

Great start to the trail season and all the great races.
Please consider adding our 5k and 10k "urban" trail races to your calendar: http://www.reasontorun.com/

Getting Ready to Race and Getting the Race Ready

This coming weekend I will be racing in the Hagg Lake 50km. My mind is ready. I am not sure that my body is. When I signed up to do the Surf City marathon on Feb 1st and then run Hagg Lake on Feb 21st, those dates sounded a long way apart. Well, the short of it is that my body is still feeling the marathon effort.
I am making peace with this and just planning to take Saturday's race as it unfolds, run my own race as Dane would say (I am reading See Dane Run at the moment). Start a little conservative and see how things go. The course will be in great shape. We have had dry weather for the last week and it does not even look like we will get much rain on race day.

On Saturday, I had the privilege of training both with the Black Saturday crew and Trail Factor group.
Black Saturday means hill repeats, and this time was slated for 3x30 minutes on Saltzman.
The details on this hill repeat can be found on this other post. These are good tough but not impossible repeats: about 30 minutes of running for 3.6 miles with 1200 ft of climb.

On Saturday, I posted a decent time for my first repeat but was having nothing but trouble with my gut. I was paying for the over indulgence of going out for dinner with Trisha for Valentines...and I would do it again :-) My second repeat was about 1 minute slower but again it was more my gut and mind then my legs that slowed me down. I called it quits after the two. I felt bad breaking a cardinal rule of Black Saturday (Thou Shalt Always Do the FULL workout) and also not really getting to run as much as I would have liked with the others including the Trail Factor crew. Next time! It was really nice to not run in the rain.

And then Sunday we had an amazing Spring day. So after church, I headed to Cook Park for more course measuring with the wheel for our Reason To Run Spring Rush 10k route. The pictures throughout this post are from around the course. NICE!
Makes me want to run it...we hope the same goes for you.

See you at Hagg this weekend!