Fellow blog readers, sorry again for the late update. I've been doing a poor job of keeping you informed, but I promise from now on to give me more details. Since leaving Boulder a lot has happened. On Aug 6th, I jumped in the 10k at the well known Beach to Beacon 10k in Maine. As a New Englander, that's a race I've always wanted to do. At Beach to Beacon, although I struggled with the humidity, I finished a decent 11th over (2nd American) in a personal best 29:57. A week later, on Aug 14th, I ran the Falmouth 7.1 mile road race in Massachusetts. The race did not go well as I found myself early (2nd mile) in discomfort after running a quick first mile. Perhaps I would have done better knowing that the first mile was the toughest one and the rest was flatter. I finished somewhere around 35min even though due to a computer chip problem my name did not appear in results.
A week after Falmouth, I left for the World Champs marathon in South Korea. After a long travel and a few days of adjusting, I raced the marathon on Sep 4. I finished in a very disappointing 48th in 2:34:40. I'm pretty sure I have done 20 mile long runs much faster than that pace during my first marathon build up. However, I won't bore you with excuses. It is what it is. All in all, this summer provided me with some great racing opportunities. Although the results weren't favorable, the experience at these big road races will help me tremendously in my future races.
Well, now here I am. I will be back in Boulder for most of the winter to train again, but for now I'm training in Dorchester and Lowell. I get to start fresh again and set some goals for the new year. Already, Coach G and I have some plans in mind. Some of these plans include getting back on the track to running some PR's. This is an important year and we have to carefully plan it out, but I'm very excited. I feel motivated and ready to get after it!
Some Thank You's:
Although a runner's name is the only thing that shows up in the results, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank many other people who are involved in the process. First, friends and family, who constantly wish me good luck and say the small congrats. My job, for giving me time off to work and train around my schedule. My coach (UML head coach Gary Gardner) who I can't thank enough for how much he does for me. My chiropractor, Dr. Pete, in Boston who has been so kind to me. My friends in the Boulder community for taking good care of me and letting me train with them. The Cape Verdean Athletics Federation President (Antonio Ramos) and the Cape Vedean Olympic Committee President (Franklin Palma) for continuing to believe in me. Last but not least, a HUGE thanks to KECO - Korean Environmental Corporation. To make long story short, the company printed the uniform I ran with at the World Champs. At the time, Cape Verdean team uniforms were being printed in Portugal for the World Champs and African Games. The uniforms were not going to get to Daegu on time. Thankfully, one of the company's employee, Hyun Chang, who was volunteering at the athletes' village, asked the company (Keco) to sponsor the uniforms for me to run in. Three days later, my uniform was printed! It was a very nice gesture of them and pretty much sums up how nice the Koreans are. Later, I got to meet the CEO and executive board of the company and took many pictures. Below is one of the executives presenting me with the uniform. Thank you all!
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