Seagate Elite Athlete 5k Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:Mark Winitz, Win-It!z Sports Public Relations PAIR OF BLAKES WIN APPLIED MATERIALS SILICON VALLEYTURKEY TROT/SEAGATE ELITE 5KSAN JOSE, Calif. - (November 25, 2005) - With intentions of burning off calories prior to the traditional holiday feast, 1,800 participants turned out for the inaugural Applied Materials Silicon Valley 5K/10K and companion Seagate Elite 5K in San Jose yesterday morning. In the Seagate Elite 5K, designed to showcase top distance runners, Blake Russell of Marina, Calif. and Blake Bolden of Ames, IA burned off their respective women's and men's fields for victories.First, Russell led the elite women's event from starting gun to finish line over the one-half mile downtown course, circled a bit over six times to complete 3.1 miles. Gradually extending her lead, the 30-year-old Russell scored a convincing win in 16 minutes and 2 seconds. She defeated Canadian 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter record holder Courtney Babcock, who finished in 16:12. Kenya's Jackline Okemwa was third in 16:48.Then, Bolden, a 26-year-old assistant track and cross country coach at Iowa State University and recent standout at Missouri State University, surprised the talented men's field by making a bold move to the front with less than a mile remaining. He held his lead to the finish, crossed in 14:16, a clock-tick ahead of up-and-comer Steve Sundell. Jonathon Riley, a 2004 U.S. Olympian at 5,000 meters and Olympic Trials runner-up, was third in 14:19.Both winners displayed remarkable confidence over the criterium-style course as crowds of recreational runners, pumped up following their separate Applied Materials Open/Age-Group 5K and 10K runs, looked on. Each victor won $2,500 portions of the $20,000 prize purse. "I felt really good coming off my marathon," Russell said about her 6th place 2:29:10 performance at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon last month, a personal best. "My goal was to see where I was in my training. I was hoping to break 16 minutes, but I'm happy with my time."Said Bolden about the men's race: "I saw the co-leaders [Sundell and Riley] back off a stride, so I stepped right between them and tried not to look back. I knew that I could run with anyone in the field over a mile distance, so I was confident that I could go from there. I knew I belonged." The event raised over $125,000 for three local charity organizations: the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, Second Harvest Food Bank, and the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County.The 2005 Silicon Valley Turkey Trot was presented by Applied Materials. Additional generous sponsors include Seagate, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, SAP, KB Home, EMC, ETM-Electromatic, Good Samaritan Hospital, Hyperion, PG&E, and NetLogic. Our media sponsors are the San Jose Mercury News, Nuevo Mundo, Viet Mercury, NBC 11, KRTY, and KLIV. Our hotel sponsors are Hilton San Jose, The Fairmont San Jose, and The Sainte Claire.

Seagate Elite Athlete 5k Summary

I’m back in the Midwest from my first race since I started this blog so I will try and summarize the race and the trip. I’m sure I’ll refine the process as I go, so please check back for updates. I need to begin by thanking Mark Winitz for accepting my entry in to the race and making time to show me the course the night before. Secondly, a large debt of gratitude is owed to both Ed Gordon and Shawn Love. Ed served as a gracious host during my time in the bay area and without his help the trip wouldn’t have happened. Shawn did everything from give me the heads-up on the race to make sure I made it to and from the airport safely. His loyalty and confidence in my ability got me to California. Overall the trip was great. Ed showed me around the bay area and it afforded me a much-needed break from the already cold Iowa weather. I was able to do a few runs shirtless, including a nice session on the University of California track in Berkeley. The course was a square circuit in downtown San Jose that was a little over 800 meters around. We started after a community 5k and 10k so there were a number of spectators lining the course cheering the elite fields. The race went as well as could be expected for me considering the training that I’ve done. I only missed my prediction of 14:15 by one second and with 24 right turns I’m confident that my time was worth at least a 14:10 on an out and back course. With the guidance of Coach Ihmels, I decided that I would stay on pace through four laps and then see what happened from there. I don’t know any splits exactly but for the first 3 laps I stayed right off of the leaders in about 7th or 8th position. In our conversation, Coach Ihmels and I decided that I would stay off the lead and out of the congestion, but stay in contact. Although I sacrificed a few meters on every corner it was worth it to me to avoid the pushing and have a little more room. After the third lap (1.5 miles) a couple of people began to push the pace and things spread out a bit. I stayed with the plan and covered the move during that lap. With about a mile to go it was down to three of us and it dawned on me that I would at least break even on the trip. About a quarter of a mile later we came to the incline on the course and I decided that it was time to push the pace. Afterwards in an interview, Mark Winitz asked me if I was running scared or if I was in control during the last loop. Honestly, it was a little of both. I knew that I was in control of the pace and felt that I had more to give, but with the credentials of the other athletes I feared that it was only a matter of time until I saw the back of a jersey again. Fortunately for my bill collectors, I was able to fend off the challengers and collect my largest payday as a “professional” athlete. A check of $2500 for 14 minutes and 16 seconds worth of work is pretty solid.

San Jose 5k Results and Award photo

To accompany the awards photo, here is a link to the results from the Inaugural Seagate Elite Athlete 5k in San Jose, CA: http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/client/120006_140270_2005.html

Also, there's a little chat on everybody's favorite site:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1119718

I swear that I haven't posted anything (yet).

I also need to thank Paul & Julianne Hansen for the photo contributions. Technically Paul was the photographer and his daughter, Julianne, is a promising runner who was the 3rd female in the community 5k.

San Jose 5k finish photo

Here's a finish photo from this morning's 5k. To build suspense I'll post more details later...

Seagate Elite 5k Preview

Here is a press release about the race on Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully full results will be up by Thanksgiving night. http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_news_frameset.html?http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20051117_SV_Turkey_Trot.html (It's all one address; you might have to copy and paste it in a new webbrowser.)

Race schedule announced...

Here are a list of races for the next few months. If you can make it out to catch one, it would be great. Thanksgiving Day, 11/24/05: Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot (Seagate Elite Athlete 5K), San Jose, CA. Friday, 12/9/05: Iowa State Holiday Classic, Ames, IA. Saturday, 1/21/06: adidas Classic, Lincoln, NE. Saturday, 1/28/06: Iowa State Open, Ames, IA. Saturday, 2/11/06: Iowa State Classic, Ames, IA. Saturday, 2/18/06: USATF 4k Cross Country Championships, Van Cortlandt Park, New York City, NY. More to be announced..

Photo - Coaching Profile Pic

Pre-dating this post to make the profile picture more professional.