Strands Blog

We are proud to announce that Team Strands is now accepting applications for athlete sponsorship for the 2010 calendar year.  Interested athletes should submit a running resume along with a one-page sponsorship proposal.

The resume should include, but is not limited to:

• Running Background
• Personal Bests
• Race Highlights
• Tentative 2010 Race Schedule

The proposal should highlight why you believe you would be a good brand advocate for Strands.com.  It would be helpful to include information about your level of involvement in the running community, and your “reach” online with social networking sites and blogs.  Preference will be given to athletes willing to relocate to Corvallis, Oregon, and your sponsorship proposal should indicate whether you would be willing to relocate as part of your sponsorship.

You must be willing to share your training and interact with the Strands.com community.  So, familiarity with Strands.com is a must.  If you would like to apply for sponsorship and have not yet set up a profile, please do so at Strands.com before applying.

When you have completed your application, please send an email with both documents attached to teamstrands@strands.com by December 15, 2009. We will begin notifying athletes starting January 1, 2010.

Team Strands athlete Elva Dryer has been selected to the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships team.  The race in Birmingham, U.K. will be the fifteenth time that Elva has represented the United States in international competition.

The two-time Olympian (2000, 2004) has participated in 7 World Cross Country Championships, 3 World Outdoor Track and Field Championships, as well as the World University Games and Goodwill Games.  In four of her seven World Cross appearances, she helped lead Team USA onto the podium, with team bronze medal finishes in 1998 (4km), 2000 (8km), and 2003 (8km), and team silver in Portugal in 2002 (8km).

Dryer, who has a personal best of 1:11:42 from her 2007 USA Half Marathon Championships title, was selected based on her 7th place finish at the USA 20 km Championships earlier this month.

Dryer will team up wth Amy Yoder-Begley (Portland, Oreg.), Desiree Davila (Rochester Hills, Mich.), Serena Burla (Baldwin, Mo.), and Amy Hastings of Mammoth Lakes, California.

“I am honored to be representing the US in the World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham”, Dryer said. “My goal is to help bring home a top team finish.”

The invitation came just days after Elva elected to forgo racing in the US Marathon Championships in what she says will be an effort to “focus once again on reconnecting with the shorter distances”.

The race will begin at 9:00 a.m. (Birmingham) on October 11, with a web cast from Universal Sports. For more information, visit the official IAAF race website.

Team Strands athlete Jason Hartmann ran away from the field in the last 5 km at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon to claim the overall title in a personal best of 2 hours, 12 minutes, 9 seconds.

Hartmann paced himself a few seconds ahead of the lead pack for much of the race, before making a decisive move to the front on Summit Avenue in Saint Paul, dropping the 2004 Twin Cities Marathon Champion Augsutus Mbusya of Kenya (2:13:03), John Njorge (2:13:26), and Joseph Mutinda (2:13:47).  It was the first marathon for Hartmann since his 2:15:27 tenth place finish in the Olympic Marathon Trials.

The win caps a strong road-racing season for Hartmann, which included a runner-up finish in the USA 25 km Championships, ninth place in the USA 10 km Championships, and a sixth place finish in the USA 20 km Championships last month.

For complete results, visit the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon results page.

Team Strands Update: USA 10-mile Championships

Team Strands athletes Mike Sayenko (48:28), Mike Reneau (48:53), and Josh Glaab (49:20) raced in the US 10-mile Championships, placing 11th, 15th and 18th, respectively.

Complete results for the 10-mile Championships are available here.

Team Strands athletes Mike Aish and Justin Young will race the IAAF World Championships Marathon tomorrow in Berlin.

Aish, New Zealand’s lone representative in the marathon, has a personal best of 2:13:21 from his victory at the 2008 PF Chang’s Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon in Phoenix.  In January he returned to Phoenix and ran a 2:15:43, placing 6th overall.  His crowning achievement for the year came with an easy victory in tough conditions at New Zealand’s Christchurch Marathon.  Aish ran 2:18:18 in spite of strong winds, snow, and hail.

Aish has competed for New Zealand at numerous championships including the World Cross Country Championships (2000, 2001), World Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships (2003, 2007), and the Olympic Games (2000, 2004).  He will be joined in Berlin by Team Strands teammate Justin Young, who will be representing Team USA.

Young was selected to the USA roster based on his breakthrough run in Rotterdam in April 2008, where he ran 2:13:52.  His time in Rotterdam was the third fastest by an American for the year.  This will the second time Young has represented Team USA — 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.), Ed Torres (Boulder, Colo.), and Matt Gabrielson (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Check out the comprehensive men’s marathon preview, and be sure to send encouragement to Mike and Justin on their Strands.com profiles.

The race will be broadcast live on Universal Sports at 5:45 a.m. EST.

Bix 7, American National 7 Mile Championship – Davenport, IA
Meghan Armstrong and Cele Rodriguez led the Team Strands contingent at the Bix 7, with 9th and 11th place finishes in their respective races.  The Bix was the host of the Inaugural US 7-Mile Road Championships.

Armstrong ran 39:06 in her return to the roads, laying claim to her second U.S. Road Championships top-ten finish in her first year as a professional.  Armstrong was fifth in the Road Mile Championships in the Twin Cities last May.  Teammate Zoila Gomez, in the midst of World Championships Marathon preparation, was 31 seconds back in 12th place, and Elva Dryer ran 40:18 for 15th place in the women’s Championship race.

On the men’s side, Cele Rodriguez placed 11th overall, running a 34:07.

For complete results, visit the Bix-7 Results page.

Boston Scientific Heart of Summer 10k – Minneapolis, MN
Also active this weekend was Team Strands athlete Nicole Aish, who overcame a bout of food poisoning and still managed a second-place finish at the Boston Scientific Heart of Summer 10k.  Aish ran 34:56 on the loop course around Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.

For complete race results, click here.

Team Strands athlete Jason Hartmann was the first American finisher and fourth overall at the Steamboat Classic in Peoria, Illinois on Saturday.  Hartmann covered the 4-mile course in 18:20, while Strands teammate Justin Young finished seventh in 18 minutes, 42 seconds.

The men’s champion was Ridouane Harroufi of Morocco who narrowly defended his title over Kenyan John Yuda.  The pair ran 17:44 and 17:46, respectively.  Boaz Cheboiywo (Kenya) claimed the final podium position in 18 minutes, 2 seconds.  Complete results are available at http://onlineraceresults.com.

Team Strands Weekend Race Recap
In Duluth, Team Strands athlete Mike Reneau finished fifth at the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon.  Reneau ran 1:05:56.  Eugene Kebenei of Kenya won the half marathon title in 1:05:15.  Complete Results are available at http://www.onlineraceresults.com.

Ryan Kirkpatrick cruised to a 15-second vistory in 14:52 at the Sailin Shoes 5k in Colorado Springs—missing the course record by only 4 seconds.

The 23rd International Association of Ultrarunners 100 km World Cup took place in Torhout, Belgium over the weekend, and was lead by Team USA from start to finish.  With an overall time of 23:41:08 Team USA took Gold in the International competition, followed by Russia (24:32:06) and Japan (24:41:21) rounding out the top three.  Full results and race info can be found at http://www.iau-ultramarathon.org/

Team USA’s Kami Semick (Bend, OR) finished first overall in the Women’s race with a time of 07:37:23, and teammates Devon Crosby-Helms (Seattle, WA) and Meghan Arbogast (Corvallis, OR) finished 07:59:17 and 08:04:28 respectively.

Both Kami and Meghan are local Team Strands runners, and you can discover out how they prepare for upcoming races by checking out their training logs on Strands.com.