Strands Blog

The 2009 USATF National Club Track & Field Championships will be held at New York City’s Icahn Stadium on July 10-11.  This marks the third time the championships have been held in New York since 2005.  The meet will be hosted by the Central Park Track Club, who captured the 2009 combined team title.

“We are extremely pleased that the Club Championships are returning to one of America’s premier track & field venues, in an area that is a hotbed for our sport and the USATF club program,” said USATF Director of Grass Roots Programs, Andy Martin. “The 2005 and 2007 Club Championships held at Icahn Stadium were both big successes, and the meet continues to grow. We hope to continue that growth in 2009.”

The schedule of events, entry information, and housing information for the 2009 National Club Track & Field Championships, and meet headquarters hotel information, is available at the USATF website.

Team Strands athlete Jason Hartmann led Team Colorado to a sixth place finish in the Bolder Boulder International Team Challenge Monday morning.  Hartmann finished 12th overall in 30 minutes, 37 seconds.

Team Colorado teammates Fernando Cabada and Edwardo Torres finished 13th and 17th, respectively, giving the trio a total of 42—just 5 places shy of 3rd place Kenya.  Ethiopia won the overall team title, with a strong run from men’s champion Tilahun Regassa (28:17) and runner-up Tadese Tola (28:36).  Team USA placed third in the team competition. For complete results, visit the Bolder Boulder elite men’s results page.

Team Strands athletes Josh Glaab and Ryan Kirkpatrick raced the Citizen’s Race at the Bolder Boulder — with finishing times of 30:58 and 31:18, respectively.  Glaab was third overall and the first American finisher in the citizen’s race.

Also this weekend, Team Strands athlete Matt Downin was runner-up at the Ridgeline Ramble in Eugene, Oregon.  Downin was edged by brother Andy for the 10 km title.

Team Strands athlete Justin Young has been selected to represent Team USA at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin this August.

Young was selected based on his breakthrough run in Rotterdam Marathon last April, where he ran 2:13:52. His time in Rotterdam was the third fastest by an American in 2008.  This will the second time Young has represented Team US, the first coming in 2004 at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, where he led Team USA with an 18th place overall finish.

He will be racing in Berlin with Team USA teammates Dan Browne (Portland, Oreg.), Nate Jenkins (Lowell, Mass.), Fernando Cabada (Boulder, Colo.), and Matt Gabrielson (Minneapolis, Minn.).

The 12th IAAF World Championships will take place in Berlin from August 15 – August 23.  The men’s marathon is scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 22.

For a complete schedule of events and more information about race, visit the Berlin 2009 web site.

Fellow Corvallis based company, CenterSpace Software, was recently chosen in a competition of over 40 Willamette Valley start-ups as the winner of the 2009 Willamette Angel Conference.  Trevor Misfeldt, CEO; Steve Sneller, CTO; and Ken Baldwin, PhD, Senior Scientist, have all been part of the Strands Team in the past, and we’re trilled to see their NMath Suite win this top prize.

“After a rigorous selection process by the 25-member panel of angel investors, CenterSpace was chosen to receive an $125,000 angel award investment,” said Trevor Misfeldt, CEO.  “We’re proud to have been chosen from over 40 excellent start-up companies to receive this award.  The investors recognized the excellent traction CenterSpace has already achieved in the .NET numerical component market, and the exciting growth opportunities for leveraging CenterSpace technology into new markets, such as cloud-hosted numerical web services and numerical applications.”

The first annual Willamette Angel Conference was held May 14, 2009 in Corvallis at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center on the Oregon State University campus, and is a new investors conference aimed to connect early stage and seed businesses with angel and venture investors in the Willamette Valley.

The 2010 Willamette Angel Conference will be held in May in Eugene, Oregon. For more information about the conference see www.willametteconference.com.

Will Wolfram Alpha beat Google by 2010?

There are many people involved in the planning, organization, and execution of a road race for thousands of runners, and we are excited to announce our partnership with AA Sports Limited, a race timing and management company based in Beaverton, Oregon.  AA Sports has been timing and managing races for over 20 years, and is currently involved with over 50 races across the U.S.

“So, what’s the big deal?”

Strands has been able to support AA Sports’ races by sponsoring disposable ChampionChip timing chips, allowing users of Strands Online Training Logs to receive LIVE race results as soon as they cross a timing mat!

Within 5 seconds of crossing a timing mat, results are saved directly to Strands.com for fans and family to view from the web and the Strands iPhone App.

So far we’ve been able to provide live results for the Salt Lake City Marathon, Eugene Marathon, and Lake Run 12k; and are excited to offer live race timing for the upcoming Coeur d’Alene Marathon, 10Cane 10k, and Pacific Crest Sports Festival, with many more to come.

If you are a Race Organizer or Coordinator and would like to bring Strands LIVE timing to your race, be sure to let us know!

Team Strands athlete Zoila Gomez has been selected to represent Team USA at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Berlin this August.

Zoila Gomez was selected based on her fourth place finish at the 2008 Olympic Trials Marathon where she surprised the field and ran a 1.5-minute best of 2:33:53 – highlight video here.  Gomez also represented Team USA in the 2007 World Championships Marathon, and was third in the 2006 US Marathon Championships where she ran 2:35:26 on a tough Twin Cities course.

The Adams State graduate was an 11-time All-American and six-time NCAA champion at distances ranging from the mile to the 10,000 meters.  Capping her outstanding collegiate career was the 2004 Collegiate Sports Award for the Division II Athlete of the Year.

When she’s not training, Gomez spends much of her time with community outreach programs—teaching English as a Second Language classes to unschooled youth, speaking to local clubs and schools and working with youth in after school programs such as In the Arena.

The 12th IAAF World Championships will take place in Berlin from August 15 – August 23.  The women’s marathon is scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 23.  For a complete schedule of events and more information about race, visit the Berlin 2009 web site.

Check out her training log on Strands.com and see what it takes to represent Team USA.