JTV Running Group

Team Jewelry Television will be sending a team to run the New Year's 5k on a nearly flat course in Tennessee believe it or not. It's hard to imagine a flat course in Tennessee, but it is possible if you look really hard. Stay tuned for more updates.

This will be a beautiful race course in Townsend TN that will showcase the Great Smokey Mountains scenic views for all the runners. Such beauty doesn't come without a tough hilly course, that's very typical of East Tennessee terrain so the runners will feel right a home.

Some of the JTV alumni will be there to enjoy the sights and take in 9.3 miler to add to their marathon or ultra training mileage. The race should see plenty of competition in the Open Team divisions with the top teams a few points in separation. I'll be cheering on our friend Bob Adams for team EBS and all our other buddies competing.

Good luck to those running the race and I expect photos!

Bob Adams shear drive inspires others to excel in their respective sport or goal in life for that matter. Over the past years Bob has added significant milestones to his running resume to likes of inspiring runners like myself, winning marathons, running ultra's and even setting a new 72 mile Appalachian record. He's an active member of the Knoxville Track Club, while he currently runs on the EBS Open Team he trains heavily at the weekly KTC training workouts.

He's even inspired nicknames like "Bradu", that's our friend Radu's ultra runner name that knows no limits and does whatever it takes to meet his goal.

Bob's new challenge is being part of the KTC 12 man team competing in the Hood 2 Coast 197 mile relay tomorrow starting at Mt. Hood and finishing at Seaside, Oregon. The team have trained for months prior to the race, so their going out there to represent Knoxville well and do their best in bringing home the title. You can follow the race on the KTC twitter or on Facebook page.

To read more about Bob's running highlights and up to date postings from him visit http://runbobrunbob.blogspot.com for the latest scoop.

Good luck at H2C!

The Knoxville Track Club has compiled a strong 12 man team to compete in the 197 mile Hood to Coast 2009 relay on the West Coast this coming Friday, August 28th! The team consists of Elijah Shekinah, Bill Kabasenche, Andrew Press, Bobby Adams, Stuart Moran, Daniel Hughes, Michael Mentz, Bobby Holcombe, Stewart Ellington, Chad Newton, Andy Baksa, and Joseph Goetz. They've worked hard to prepare themselves physically and mentally for the challenges Mt. Hood might bring. KTC is seeded #2 out of all the teams and their confident that they'll finish ahead of the pack.

You can follow up to the minute KTC team twitter updates at http://twitter.com/ktch2c or support them on Facebook at the "Knoxville Track Club Hood to Coast Team 2009" group page.

Good luck guys and have a safe trip!

The title says it all...Brad Adams won the 12th Annual VMC 5K Race on Volunteer Landing this past August 8th. He set a quick PR of 17:08, averaging a 5:30 mile. Brad said that his long term goal is to break the 17 minute barrier. This PR comes in the middle of a 70 mile week for Brad and knows that he could of gone faster. Congratulations Brad on winning the VMC 5k!

The VMC 5k race results can be found at www.vmcorg.org/.

The Carter Mill 10k is a typical East Tennessee rolling course that has it's downhill rewards, but with the price of short challenging hills. In July Travis Honeycutt, Ramesh Balasubramania, Brad Adams and myself (Jose Salas) set out to take on the Mill and enjoy the refreshing swimming pool after the race. Brad and I ran respectable races that day to tune up the gears. Brad ran a fast time finishing in the top 10 and I finished in the top 30.

For Travis and Ramesh Balasubramania Carter Mill was the site of their new multi-minute 10k PRs, remember that this isn't a PR course and compared to the last 10k we ran at Expo this course was much more challenging. Travis improved his 10k PR to 56:22 and Ramesh did the same with a 58:13. Both ran smart races with strong finishes and are getting stronger every day. Way to go!

Can't wait to jump into the pool next year!.

Expo marks the first team appearance of 2009 since the Autumnfest 8k in 2008. We've lost some friends to other companies and economy set-backs, but that hasn't dulled our bound in running and friendship formed over the years.

At Expo JTV was represented by Robin Auerbach, Radu Stoica, Ramesh Balasubramania and Jose Salas. This year also introduced the new race course that had a good mix of hills and flat sections for everyone. The conditions couldn't of been more perfect for Radu, he ran himself to a new 2:00 PR of 57:39. Both Robin (56:56) and Ramesh (59:15) also managed to break an hour while conquering the tougher than expected course.

From what I hear Robin, Ramesh and Radu agreed to run together at the start line, but one can't tame the running spirit at times as Robin and Ramesh witnessed when Radu charged down the hill as the gun blew. All in all they ran together through-out the race, just not all together at the same time. This was a great team building opportunity and hope to get the rest of the crew out there next time.


JTV Alumni Brad Adams, Bod Adams, Mary Regan and Travis Honeycutt we're at Expo as well. Bob didn't run from still recovering from his 72 mile record setting gaunt across the Tennessee Smokies, while his brother Brad smashed his old PR and led the TVA blue to a 2nd place team title with a new PR of 35:36.




Travis also ran alongside Radu finishing with a 58:12 time. From what I saw at the finish line Travis was all smiles...I think he could of ran faster. Next year we'll see where he finishes, but I'm sure it will be faster. Mary Regan (27:53) and son Reed Haugh (23:42) placed 2nd in the Mother-Son 5k team event with a combined time of 51:35. Last year Mary and her daughter Alison placed in the Mother-Daughter event, so it was only fair for Reed to do the same this year.




Expo was a fun event and I hope to have the team out there next year. In the meantime keep moving forward.



























Before I sign-off I had to show this picture of a guy I thought was Radu. I'll let you decide if he looks like Radu.

The Knoxville Marathon had most of the elements to challenge all of the runners to test their limits. You'd think the hilly course would be what everyone was talking about that day, rather it was the blistery start with wind gusts up to 22mph. Noelton hill looked like a breeze from what I saw on the run. It seemed as the runners were glad to be within tree cover.

The JTV running alumni set out to reach their individual goals of completing a 1st marathon, setting new PRs, leading a pace group, running a good race, volunterring and making a comeback from injuries.

Travis Honeycutt successfully completed his 1st marathon in 5:08:29 with some added support from Radu Stoica who said this about it, "Having a 3 minute PR while injured - $67, watching Travis's glorious suffering at the end of his 1st full marathon - PRICELESS! :)". Travis worked really hard these past few months by training countless miles and sacrificing time to meet his goal. There is more to say about it, but all I can say is we're proud of you Travis!

Brad Adams set a 30 second PR in the half marathon with a 1:21:40 time, he finished in the top 20. He was also featured in the KnoxFocus publication that you can read at http://www.knoxfocus.com/pdfarchive/wk1.pdf. Let's not forget about his brother Bob Adams who was also listed on the half marathon elites list finished a fast half in 1:16:49, that's 5:52 minute miles and a top 15 finish! The Adams brothers will be running the Boston Marathon this coming week.

Robin Auerbach just seems to run every race in the Knoxville area. That's why she's been labeled the "Human Metronome" by Knoxville Marathon pacing team coordinator Nicole Howe. This was Robin's second year to pace the 5:00 group, she even passed the 4:45 pacer. She help runners achieve their goals by leading them to a 4:57:26 marathon. I'm sure she was all smiles as usual! Her next race will be the Flying Pig in Cincinnati where she ran an official ultra last year with running friend Wayne Lambert.

Wayne decided not to run the race this year in hopes to be 100% for the Flying Pig, but he did volunteer at the Expo and answer running questions by edger first timers. Good luck at the PIG Wayne.

Radu Stoica the human training cog seems to find time to train with his busy work schedule, budding family and recent injury. Radu set a 3 minute PR in the half marathon with a 2:07:52 time. From what I hear he rather enjoyed watching "watching Travis's glorious suffering at the end of his 1st full marathon - PRICELESS! :)". Radu is continually running, biking, swimming and motivating runners like myself. He'll probably run another Ultra or something, just as a training run you know. ;)

Ramesh Balasubramania decided to run a half marathon on a whim, he received invaluable advice from his running friends Shahin Hadian and Radu Stoica. He finished the half marathon in 2:16:11 and finished within the first 100 of his age category. Congratulations Ramesh and keep up the running!

This ends my short recap and I'm sure I left off valuable information and details, I hope I represented all of the runners accomplishments.

Safe travels.

In 2008, the JTV running team showed determination and dedication on promoting a healthy lifestyle to fellow Jewelry Television employees while competing in the KTC Corporate Division races. The year was filled with countless acts of the team coming together to represent JTV well at local KTC races. The group would get together for groups runs snow or shine to encourage one another. Some even took up training beginner runners to help them meet their running goals. The team has numerous Allstar runners that should be acknowledged for their hard work, but one runner earned “JTV Runner of the Year” for 2008.

That would be Wayne Lambert, our team captain. Brad Adams was asked by the Knoxville Track Club to nominate one of the JTV runners for the “ROY” award in the Team Corporate Competition division and he said this about Wayne in his nomination: “I nominate Wayne Lambert from Jewelry TV. His accomplishments included coaching track workouts for his team, making his long time goal of qualifying for Boston and making a PR! He is truly an inspiration to his team.”

Shahin of Fleet Feet said "I know Wayne has been the backbone of our running at Fleet Feet. As a matter of fact, he and Robin are the reason we now have a thurs night group! Way to go Wayne." Shahin also said this, "Wayne & Robin have been active with JTV to get many of their co-workers into the sport of running. The year we opened our doors, they had already talked a group to train with them for the Knox 1/2 and they were doing a Thurs group run leaving from the bank near us. We met one day and I offered to host their runs. They did and that is how our Thurs group runs started."

Radu a fellow team member said this about Wayne and Robin "Without a doubt, Wayne and Robin changed my life, literally. Their initiative and inspiration sparked a fundamental change in my way of life, period. I keep repeating life-changing without any exaggeration, it's not just the love for the sport, I had that before, it's everything you do to be on a harmonious path. For me, that might translate into a rocky trail! But that's just me being over-driven at times... :)"

Congratulations Wayne and thanks for being a strong motivation for us!

In recent news the JTV running team competed in the Knoxville Autumnfest 8k over Thanksgiving week, which was a cross country scoring event. The team consisted of Bob Adams(1), Brad Adams(3), Wayne Lambert(9), Robin Auerbach(10), Radu Stoica(14) and Paul Becker(23). They snatched up 2nd place in the corporate division securing a 3rd place corporate division season overall finish. The race marked the end of the KTC racing series, but the thirst to race will be tested again at the Calhoun's 10 miler in 2009. Nice job team and I can't until next season.

The Belgian waffle breakfast and great volunteer support made the event a blast! The race course had it's share of up hills, but those inclines where partnered with some nice flat to downhill spots on the course. The Adams brothers (Bob & Brad) anchored the team with sub one hour times, they've got skills. Wayne and Radu had the support of their family that day, in fact you'll see Radu's daughter Cristina in the Corporate Division 3rd place photo. The word on the street is that Radu chants "Cristina, Cristina" when he crosses the finish line or maybe that was Paula Radcliffe that did that with her daughter Isla. I'll have to double check my facts. ;)

Nice work team on a well run race and winning third in the Corporate Division!

The JTV Running Team had 5 members at the Columbus Marathon, Robin, Wayne, Brad, Bob and Jose. The multi-minute PR's was the trend with Robin running a 14 minute PR (4:01), Wayne qualified for Boston with a new PR (3:59), and Jose ran a 7 minute PR (3:16). Brad qualified for Boston again with a 3:06, and Bob helped the third place overall female runner past the fourth runner in the last mile.

Nice work team!

I'm sure the Ultra Marathoners of the group are familiar with David Goggins. If your not, it's a must to watch.

Read about Radu's journey at the New River Trail 50k!
A lot harder than any anticipation or what I've encountered in training, 18 miles of tough pain, right foot injury at mile 14 (where I had the stress fracture in summer, followed by quad cramps a few miles later, never had that before), stomach/hydration, lower back, everything seemed to fall apart. I bonked and I was done. Nevertheless, I finished my first 50k (+some) within the 7 hour limit, 6:47. Plenty of time to spare!! :-))

It's only you that can create such a special, extremely intense experience for yourself. I've never been so deep in my life. Highs and lows are very surprising, it's like a research project, studying your own self. Like Dean Karnazes says in his last book, it's not masochism, and I would add it's not narcissism either. I'll just say that I feel humble.

I just have a weak mind that I have to deal with. :-) I seem to perform better in training than in races. Too much training invested in one race, I would guess.

This time the mental crash came the night before the event. We were behind the schedule going to bed, as I've been all week, and I needed to prepare my fluids bottles that I would pick up from my wonderful wife (my best crew and supporter) along the way. I should say first that I was going into this convinced that I will religiously replicate what worked in training. Right! Like my hurried, stressed-out brain would allow that... So, there comes the "ultra-smart" idea of having a higher concentration of electrolytes / energy drink in my fluids. "My body will need that extra sugar since I'm going such a long way" came my senile thought. Usually in training I used 50% ice in my fluids. That night the water content went down to 25-35%, which was the first falling domino piece. Funny, my wife actually took pictures of me doing the deed.

The race started cool. I started slow and controlled, I was having a great time, chatting with Chris Redman that did a 50 miler (Iron Mountain) just a week before this 50k. I would periodically review my GPS and slow down our pace. Great time, happy to be there, enjoying nature, good company, and the nice running conditions. Chris went ahead as I was refilling my bottles at mile 7, but I kept seeing him, as we were going at more or less the same pace. I actually caught up with him a couple of times, at mile 10 and at the mile 12 aid station. Also, I even passed a couple of other runners during these miles.

For the first 12 miles, I was happy to keep pushing sugar and caffeine without any problem. The second "bright" idea of the day being that I should have my caffeine GUs early in the day, to "wake up", leaving the non-caffeine GUs for lunch time. Plus, I was getting more caffeine than usual from the higher concentration of my energy drink. Plus, in my morning ritual I had my coffee with Red Bull, as I didn't have orange juice available. I know, it sounds weird, I'm not going into the too much info zone of why I'm doing that. I'll just say it worked in training.

My body wasn't holding water very well, due to the extra caffeine as I later realized. I was thirsty and drinking, and also stopping too often.

Due to the extra sugar, I was beginning to feel nauseous soon after the mile 12 aid station. At mile 14, my right foot cracks, the same pain I've been fighting at the beginning of the summer (suspected stress fracture). As I'm modifying my stride, the plantar fascia tightens and starts cramping, followed by a new pain on the interior side (as I was pushing more on my big toe instead of the middle toes). A few miles later, my right quads start cramping bad towards the IT band, stopped, stretched, cramping ended, but the pain was still there.

All the slopes are so slow, that all the time I feel like I'm running on flat, but my GPS indicates 9500 feet elevation gain and 9500 feel elevation loss over the course of 31.7 miles covered (which is probably wrong). I would have preferred a more rolling terrain to get different muscles working, and get something out of my downhill effortless speed. Nevertheless, I believe this was the perfect setting for anybody doing his/her first 50k, and I'm very thankful to Annette (the race director) for creating such an awesome event.

Meanwhile, I told my wife to get my reserve pair of shoes ready, so at mile 20, I switched to my road shoes (that had a heel cup, and felt tighter, offering more support). I didn't really need the trail shoes for this terrain. My overall moving pace was around 12 min/mile, but I had stops of about 25 minutes for all these reasons. As I was leaving that aid station, it was the only moment where I thought about quitting. My wife was brief in her vision: So you've run 20 for nothing? Keep going, I don't care about your pace. And I did just that. I owe her finishing this race as well, I was getting happier every time, just by seeing her.

As I was now avoiding sugar and caffeine, drinking just water (I also had a soy sauce packet) for longer periods, eating from my sandwich (white bagel, soy sauce, peanut butter, ham, and baby swiss) I did get a second wind. Very weak though, compared with what I experienced in training, and it lasted for only 3 miles. And my pace was still being affected by the frequent stops (as the lack of electrolytes was now creeping on me). I kept promising myself not to run for a few months after the race, to lure myself closer to the finish. Doing another 50k, or even a marathon, was totally out of the question at that point.

Then, with 4-5 miles to go I stopped sweating. I kept drinking what I had with me, but not nearly enough to deal with my thirst. The fluids somehow refused to stay with me, I was really dehydrated. I was wondering, was the lack of sweating due to my slow pace, or due to dehydration? Temperature in the 70s, sunny all the time, normally I would sweat even without moving. I remembered then a survival TV show saying that lack of sweating means real trouble. Taking my info from survival shows didn't seem like a good sign. I was feeling the lowest of physical lows in my life.

Psychologically, I was still happy to be there and cruising. I was closing on another runner in trouble, trying to pull away from a few runners that entered the last aid station as I was leaving. Compared with all of them, I had a relatively strong finish. I did consider going slower to the finish, together with the guy I caught up with, but I decided to just keep doing my best given circumstances. What a message, as he finished after the 7 hour cut-off.

The last 2 miles were 100% without any shade, hot, sick, I couldn't drink anything anymore. I couldn't stop myself from feeling furious about all the unnecessary suffering due to such a rookie mistake. Also, I was worried about any training restrictions that my injuries will impose. At an improbable time, my passion for running was coming back! I was running/walking cold but my soul felt warm as I saw Chris 1 mile away from the finish line. He finished some 40 minutes before me and came back to reel me in. I was once again relieved to let go of some demons, he patiently explained what's coming up. As I saw the finish line, amazing, magical energy surged in me. I was ready to run at 6 min/mile for the rest of the way (closing on another participant). Nothing hurt anymore, nothing. Then I looked back and stopped, walking as I was waiting for Chris, I really wanted to have him in my finishing pictures.

That's it. I am thankful to many-many people for the supportive environment and inspiration leading my Clydesdale body to the end of a 50k (+ some, I think it was more like 32 miles). Since you're reading this, there is a fair chance you are one of these people!

Bob Adams had a spectacular race at the Murfreesboro Half Marathon finishing in 1:18:10! He also grabbed up 8th place overall and 1st in his age group. This the second year of the half marathon and it's getting great buzz! It's only about 3 hours away from Knoxville!

Well done Bob!

http://www.themiddlehalf.com/

The Virgina race is nearly upon Radu and Chris Redman, it's only days until they'll have their chance to test their limits and love of trail running. Wish them well as they travel to Virginia. Good luck boys!

http://ncnr.org/nrt50k.html

The JTV team was represented by the fast and brave ones! Brad Adams, Bob Adams and Chris Redman endured the trails of Big South Fork with Bob finishing 4th overall, Brad finishing 9th overall. They've won the respect of the rest of the JTV team.

Nice work guys!

OVERALL
4 Bob Adams 1:55:40 | 6:37
9 Brad Adams 2:11:26 | 7:31
121 Christopher Redman 3:27:09 | 11:51

MALE AGE GROUP: 25 - 29
1 1:55:40 Bob Adams

MALE AGE GROUP: 30 - 34
1 2:11:26 Brad Adams

See full results at KTC.org/results

Congratulations are in order for the spirited athlete that will run, bike, swim and run again all in one day. Radu is committed to meeting his triathlon goal with the support of his family and friends. He finished third in the Trail Running Grand Prix Series open division with a total of 198 points. Radu has issued a challenge to other runners to compete next year, Bob Adams has vowed to "steal the show" next year.

Also, it is noteworthy to mention that Vlado Barun placed 12th with only running three of the seven races. Nice job!

You can see the full results here: http://www.ktc.org/TTT_GP08.htm

The official JTV trophy case is a reality!
You can see the running trophies in the Annex building directly in front of the Human Resources desk.

Paula Radcliffe, Cathrine Ndereba, Mizuki Noguchi, Zhou Chunxiu and Deena Kastor are ones to watch. Make sure to clear your schedule for the Women's marathon this coming Sunday at 7:30am.

You can read more about the top contenders by clicking here.