Army Athlete of the Year

Hey there Team WWP ~

It’s been a crazy few weeks to say the least. Let me run down the events:

1. Rach and I drove all the way down to Myrtle Beach for the half marathon on 13 February only for the city to make a horrible decision to cancel the race the night before at about 11pm. It was disappointing on a lot of levels ~ so much effort and travel. And we never got the publicity from the race that we’d hoped for.

2. The one bright spot of the trip was that while driving down, we got the call that I was selected the Army’s Athlete of the Year for 2009. It, of course, was a huge honor and I was really excited. It’s a title that can help us find credibility with donors and sponsors, an achievement that validates all the hard work that goes into these events…

3. So, Rachel, my Dad Pete and Brother Kevin and I all made it down to Fort Lauderdale last week for the annual Association of the United States Army Winter Symposium for the award presentation. It was a great time and I met some amazing folks through AUSA (of which I’m a member of the MN GEN John Vessey Chapter) that’ve volunteered to help with Team WWP.

4. Not to let a trip to FL go to waste, I tacked on a race in Tampa yesterday (Gasparilla Distance Classic Half Marathon). There was an issue with the course! Talk about bad luck. Anyhow, the pace car that drives in front of the lead pack took a couple wrong turns and we ended up doing an extra half a mile, which is kind of a big deal to us crazy runners. I ended up running 13.6 miles in 1:15:41, which is about a 5:35/mile pace ~ my unofficial half marathon time should have been about 1:13 (or a tad better). It was good enough for first military finisher, second in my age group, seventh (I think) overall. Disappointing, but I’m really looking forward to the National Marathon on the 20th. I think that’ll be a better day…

All that’s left to say is to remind folks to come out to our 13 March event at the VFW in South Saint Paul, MN ~ it’s really going to be a good time! Yes, I’m biased, but, trust me, there’s going to be some great stuff there and people that you’ll be glad to have met…

All my best & Keep moving forward,

Matt

8 Feb 2010, 4:40pm, Arlington, VA

Hello everybody, here we are again, new year, more races, more sweat, more work to be done, more fun to be had…I mentioned it a few months ago in one of my posts, this year is Team WWP Version 2.0. Better, smarter, faster. And that starts this Saturday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
I’m racing in the half marathon there. Our first 13 miles of the 300 to come by this August. It’s a good sized field as they’ve got a full marathon and a few other races. All told, we’re looking at about 6,000 runners ~ a lot of great opportunities to get the Team WWP word out there.
Here’s what you can expect from me, performance wise. I’ve been training well post-Marine Corps Marathon. No physical problems, nothing too bad. I’ve been in the 60-70 mile per week range, usually two early mornings on the track. My work leads me to a goal pace of 5:30/mile for the half, which equals about 1:12 total. If you go by Myrtle’s history, that should put me in the top 3. Of course that depends on who shows up race day. Now, things to worry about ~ I gave blood a little over a week ago. Usually, that’s not a good idea prerace, but, it was my only opportunity to give for some time considering my upcoming race schedule and the Comrades Marathon in South Africa in May (no donations for awhile after that!). The weather is also a factor. I’ve been on the treadmill the past three days, and it looks like I may be in for a fourth and fifth. It’s really hard to replicate race conditions on the belt…
All that said, I feel confident in myself. My coach, George Buckheit from the Capital Area Runners, has really put in some hard work with me to get my times down to where they should be (and controlling my speed in the beginning of races!). I believe we can be in the top three in Myrtle and get some publicity and great press for Team Wounded Warrior Project.

I’ll be adding more in postrace, next weekend, as I’m able to. Rach will be there with me to take some photographs so we can get you a view of race day. I’ll also start writing about our huge event March 13th in South Saint Paul, Minnesota. A lot of people have put in a lot of time and effort to make this happen…we’d love to have you be a part of it!

All my best & Keep moving forward, Matt