Weekend Recap

Racing season is officially underway! From Bend, Oregon to Marugame, Japan, we had three professional athletes and many more elite athletes in action this past weekend. Chris Derrick, Courtney Frerichs and the Bowerman Elite teams raced on an incredibly sloppy 10 kilometer cross country course, while Amy Cragg battled her way to a new PR in the half marathon. Race recaps are below.

USATF Cross Country Championships – Bend, OR

Photo: Paul Merca

On a sloppy, what some called “a true cross country course,” Courtney Frerichs made her first cross country appearance since finishing 4th at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in 2015. Saturday also marked the first time Courtney had ever raced longer than 6 kilometers.

The race separated early as Aliphine Tuliamuk broke away from the rest of the field almost from the start. Courtney settled in with the chase pack, completing the first of five 2 kilometer loops in 7th place. Using the strength she has built up as a steeplechaser to trudge through the mud, Courtney found herself moving up through the field each loop.

Entering the final loop 1:24 back of the leader and in fifth place, Courtney was determined to finish strong and move up at least one spot. She closed extremely fast, running the second fastest final 2 kilometer lap time of all athletes. In the process she also picked up a spot, finishing in 4th place in a 10k time of 35:40.

Courtney has had tremendous success in championship races and this success continued on Saturday. Her fourth place finish qualified her for the World Cross Country Championships in Uganda, however she will forego the race to focus on the upcoming track season.

Courtney's top five finish was only the start to incredible day for the Bowerman Track Club. Our Women's Elite team, led by 9th place finisher and World Cross Country Championship qualifier from Emily Pritt, won the overall women's team competition. Carrie Dimoff and Julia Webb finished 19th and 23rd overall to clinch the victory and a 10 point perfect team score. Congrats ladies and we we cannot wait to see Emily represent the red, white, and blue on the world stage!

Unlike the women’s race where there was a lone leader from the gun, the men demonstrated the art of pack running. Seeking his fourth USA Cross Country title, Chris did much of the work at the front of the pack, along with four runners from the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program.

Chris Derrick was one of about 10 runners in the lead pack. The pace was conservative, as is typical in championship races. Chris said he “felt really good everywhere except when we would hit a really sharp uphill.” Despite lacking some power through the muddy, hilly sections of the course, Chris kept fighting his way to the front of the pack.

Photo: Ciarán O'Lionaird

Heading into the fourth loop the lead pack had dwindled to just seven runners, including Chris. All seven athletes looked relaxed and capable of winning.

The final loop proved to be the difference, as the four U.S. Army athletes threw in a surge and separated from the rest of the field. Despite not having the legs to cover the strong move, Chris’s final loop time was still the fastest of his previous four. Chris ended up finishing in fifth place in a 10k time of 30:28.

Like Courtney, Chris qualified for the World Cross Country Championships in Uganda, but chose to forego the race to prepare for the upcoming track season.

Our Men's Elite team finished in second, eight points behind the Hoka One One Northern Arizona Elite team. Behind Chris Derrick the team had solid performances from Jeremy Freed, Jeramy Alkaim, and Brady Beagley.

Marugame Half Marathon – Marugame, Japan

While Chris and Courtney were crushing it at the USA Cross Country Championships, Amy Cragg was across the Pacific Ocean in Japan preparing for the Marugame Half Marathon. It would be her first race of the year, and one for the personal record books.

The race featured the defending Rio Olympic marathon silver medalist and defending Marugame half marathon champion, Eunice Kirwa. Kirwa was on a mission to break the course record of 1:07:26, as she passed by the 10 kilometer mark at 31:37. Despite being 44 seconds behind Kirwa at the 10 kilometer mark, Amy was still on pace to run 1:08:15 (personal record pace).

As Kirwa slowed throughout the race, Amy started to chip away at the lead. By the 20 kilometer mark, Amy had cut Kirwa’s lead nearly in half. Amy continued to shave seconds off of the lead until the finish.

Amy ran to a comfortable second place finish in a half marathon time of 1:08:27, a whopping 1:23 faster than her previous PR. Congrats Amy!

Upcoming

We will have athletes in action this weekend from coast to coast. Colleen Quigley and Shelby Houlihan race the mile on Friday in Boston, Ryan Hill and Mo Ahmed travel to New York to race the 2 mile in one of the most competitive and exciting indoor track meets of the year at the Millrose Games, and Evan Jager and Matt Hughes will be in Seattle racing the mile at the Husky Invite. Check the calendar for more information and links to stream the races.

2016 Highlight Video

2016 BTC Highlights

2016 was by far the biggest year in our club's existence.  Last week we had our year end banquet to highlight performances from our Youth, Elite, Pro and Masters groups from the year and look forward to whats ahead.  In 2016, our youth program swelled to more than 300 participants, our Masters 40+ Men captured their 3rd consecutive Club Cross Country National Title and 10 of our Pro athletes competed in Rio at the Olympics.  Our club continues to be focused on fostering competitive running opportunities to runners of all levels.

BTC Athlete Spotlight: Mohammed Ahmed

Mohammed Ahmed’s impressive career as a runner can easily be broken down into his life experiences and approach to running as a whole. Mo spent his formative years growing up in St. Catharines Ontario, a beautiful city right on the border of Canada and western New York. It was here where he discovered running and more importantly, a competitive drive that is clearly still with him today. Moh points to his brothers as his introduction to sport, and it was through their “battles,” as he puts it, throughout a variety of sports, that he came to fall in love with running. On weekends, Moh and his brothers would go watch local track meets furthering the extent running played in his earlier years.

Moh’s early passion for running is backed up by an impressive Junior career, where he was Canadian Junior Champion in the 5,000m four times, along with several appearances at World Juniors. Taking this momentum, Mo attended the University of Wisconsin, where he was soon to join a long lineage of Bowerman TC “Badgers.”  He points to his time as Wisconsin Badger as the start of a “longer than expected” journey to Bowerman Track Club. With eyes westward, Moh took note of the many Wisconsin alums running under coach Jerry Schumacher, at what was at the time the Oregon Track Club. For Moh, these big named badgers such as Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp, served as his “heroes” and it was by looking up to them that he began to formulate a future in Oregon training under Jerry and the soon to be Bowerman TC. Jerry eventually did reach out, and Moh has been the perfect fit for the group ever since.

Since joining Bowerman, Moh notes an interesting dynamic in the group that is oddly similar to his initial start with running. Recalling the competitive brotherly nature that Moh grew up in, the Bowerman teammates he now trains with, such as Chris Derrick, Elliott Heath, German Fernandez, and Ryan Hill, were all former collegiate rivals. Now in the same club however, Moh points out how great it is to “unite and be working together.” With such competitive people, especially with the combined collegiate successes coming in, the brotherly dynamic is why it works and why Moh feels he is getting better.

Marking the transition from college to running professionally, Moh impressively continues to have break-out performances. As a Badger, Moh racked up 11 NCAA All-American awards in track and cross-country, along with an Olympic berth in the 10,000m at the 2012 London Olympic Games. He finished off his collegiate career with a 9th place finish in the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, where he set the Canadian record in the 10,000m at the time. With Bowerman Track Club, the teamwork training techniques of Jerry are clearly paying off as Moh most recently set the Canadian 5,000m record in 13:01.7, followed up by a near miss of the bronze medal with a fourth place finish in the 5,000m in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Specifically regarding the culture of the men’s Bowerman team, Moh points out that competition is key to keeping everyone at their highest level, but with an important distinction; “We’re mainly not competitive with each other, we’re competitive with the goals that were set for us by Jerry.” Continuing on in an almost diplomatic tone, Mo said, “the competitive need to drop each other is taken out on the competition, and on the race.”

Off the track, the brotherly dynamic continues by a culture of “mainly just making fun of each other,” Moh said with a laugh. Individually speaking however, Moh spends his time reading, watching House of Cards on Netflix, but most interestingly, translating Somali poetry.  Classifying himself as a “big poetry lover,” Moh has continued the work he was doing in his last two years of college translating and “scribbling” Somali poetry. Partly to “keep his mind active” and partly out of genuine interest, Moh elegantly states that many of the messages of the poems he has spent hours with, speak with poignant prevalence to world issues of today. Nicknamed “Scoop” by his fellow teammates, Moh concerns himself with always having choice information on topics, which Chris Derrick is always happy to play devils advocate to.

Both as an athlete and person, Mohammed Ahmed is a key component to the Bowerman family, and though he thrives off of the competitive atmosphere, he is committed to getting better together.

BTC Athlete Spotlight: Emily Infeld

Emily’s journey to Bowerman TC was one that began in uncertainty. After finishing up a tremendous career at Georgetown, she still had a fifth year of eligibility for indoor and outdoor track. Uncertain of whether or not to make the leap into the professional world, Infeld took a trip out to Portland to get a glimpse of her potential future. BTC athlete, Andrew Bumbalough, nicknamed “Bumbi,” was a nice Georgetown connection, and after getting to meet and train with Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher at the time, Emily became sold on the program and set out to train for the Olympic trials.

Infeld soon became one of the solid foundations of the budding Women’s side of BTC, and with Shalane as a training partner, they forged the path for the now extremely established Women’s group. Along with these formative years of training, a close-knit family culture began to form, which was important to Emily after leaving a very similar culture behind at Georgetown. As Emily navigated injuries and a less than ideal 8th place finish at the Olympic trials in 2012 during her senior year, Infeld felt it was time to take the leap and find out her true potential. Since joining Bowerman, Emily Infeld has had an impressive career, making the 2013 World Cross Country Championship team, the 2015 Track World Championship team where she took Bronze in the 10,000m, and most recently, her 2nd place finish at the 2016 Olympic trials, and 11th place finish in the 2016 Olympic 10,000m in Rio.

Fans of Infeld know that one her greatest strengths is adversity on and off the track. Behind some of her most astounding achievements have been battles with stress fractures and arduous hours of cross training. Despite riding the “ups-and-downs” of cyclic injury, Emily has unique insights when it comes to conjuring confidence on the day it matters most. By staying focused on what you can control, and not falling into the easy trap of“getting sucked into everything that has gone wrong for you,” Infeld notes that “no one has the perfect build up” when it comes to a big race, and staying grounded in the topsy-turvy reality of professional track and field is important. Though she feels she put on a happy face about her most recent injury leading into the 2016 Olympic Trials, Infeld truly felt extremely frustrated and a bit devastated about her situation. But by taking her own advice, she focused on each day, and each week, moving with positive momentum towards the trials. When toeing the line with such a talented field, Infeld says you have to be confident and “put your best self out there, whatever your best self happens to be on that day.” She cautions that there is no point in stepping on the line without confidence. 

So what does the “best self” look like for a Bowerman athlete? Emily finds the trending social media title of #Bowermanbabes hilarious, but also a fitting example of the team dynamic the BTC women have. Bringing in individual talents and personalities raises the group up collectively. For example, doing speed work with Shelby Houlihan, who in Infeld’s words is, “so flippin fast!” and at the same time getting to grind mileage with the “tough and gritty” Shalane Flanagan, Amy Cragg, and Betsy Saina. Infeld finds herself in between the range of these talents, which has helped her grow as a professional.

Along with the day to day motivation of being immersed in a cordially competitive atmosphere, the BTC women have a family culture surrounded by laughter and the ability to be one’s silly self, as Infeld demonstrates with her variety of dance move descriptions. Being close with the Bowerman women allows them to hold each other accountable to their true potential, and gives them motivation at big meets like the trials. After Amy, Shalane, Emily, Betsy, Colleen, and Courtney, had all punched their ticket to Rio, Emily said that Shelby Houlihan, who was the last to race said, “you guys can’t leave me behind!” Emily on the other hand, was one of the first BTC women to race, and after talking with coach Jerry Schumacher about positive momentum, she wanted to set a good precedent and start off the trials on a high note.

Off the track, Emily Infeld recently adopted her little kitten Boots from the humane society, who has garnered instant popularity throughout Instagram. Along with taking care of her new “calendar cat” worthy critter, Emily loves to jam out to Blink-182, asserting herself as a “die hard” fan. All in all Emily approaches running and life by surrounding herself with good people, good things, and of course, good cats. 

Winter Workout Video

It's been an uncharacteristically snowy winter in Portland so far this year, but that hasn't stopped us from putting in some solid training to gear up for races this winter and spring.  The snow has been nothing compared to what many of our Midwestern-rooted and Canadian members grew up with, but we've all become soft in our short period of time in Portland.  The presence of snow has brought out some subconscious nostalgia for Matt Hughes, causing him to spice up our workout discussion thread with some occasional hockey jargon.  We can only hope this further inspires him to take a run at the All-Hockey Hair Team.    

Most of the group is headed south to Flagstaff, AZ where we expect we'll see at least 90% of the distance running community out on the trails.  We've got a wide range of racing on tap for this winter including some XC, indoor track and marathon racing.   

After winning 3 consecutive US Cross Country titles in a row (2013, 2014, 2015), Chris Derrick missed last year's Cross Country Championships.  On February 4th, he plans to return to the XC grind at this year's Championships in Bend, OR.  Word on the street is that there's a lot on snow in Bend this year.  Should be great for some true XC!  

Another highlight date on the horizon is February 26th when Andrew Bumbalough plans to make his marathon debut at the Tokyo Marathon.  Andrew is coming off a solid 10k (28:09) to open up his season at the Hachioji Long Distance Meet in Tokyo.  The 10k marked Andrew's return to the track from a battle with injury last year.

For indoor track, expect to see our men and women all over the country for races.  We're still trying to iron out schedules, but we'll try to keep you posted on upcoming races on our Pro Page.

Jerry Schumacher Voted Flotrack American Distance Coach of the Year