Check out an article from Miranda's hometown newspaper in Rush, New York. You can view the article here.
On October 30th in Congers, New York in Rockland Lake State Park, the USA 30km Racewalk Championships were held in less than ideal conditions. With a major snow storm hitting New York and surrounding States the day before the race, we knew it was going to make for tough conditions on race day. With the temperature hovering around freezing overnight, all the snow that had started melting was frozen by morning. The race was originally set for 9am but had to be postponed to 10:20am so that the race course could be cleared off. It was a beautiful morning for spectators despite the cold but the weather was unsettling for most of the competitors with over a dozen from South America. Our TEAM stayed positive and were hoping for the best.
Nick, Bruno and Katie had the most successful day for the TEAM, all achieving PRs. It was Nick and Bruno's first try at the 20km distance and they were excited to work together to try and get the best effort out of themselves. They pushed the pace together and were on a strong pace through 15km's where Nick started to struggle with the pace and he dropped off but Bruno kept pushing and kept getting faster. Bruno finished with a stellar 1:35:37, bettering his previous 10km PR on the way. Nick also finished strong despite struggling in the final kilometers, finishing in a time of 1:39:05. This was his first time racing longer than 5km's! Katie who held on to Coach Tim and other walkers for most of the race, looked great! An error on the DQ board forced Katie to slow down around 15km's and we didnt notice till a lap to go that there was a mistake. If it wasnt for that mistake, she would have had an even bigger PR but had to settle with a great 30 second PR! Great performance for this time of year.
Coach Tim was having a great day despite the cold weather. He was staying patient in the early kilometers with a great group of competitors around him all going after the same pace. Early on he started to feel some tightness in his back and it kept getting worst as the race went on. Despite still being on the Olympic B standard pace, Tim decided to drop out at 38km's to not risk injury. This race showed great promise with his progress towards the Olympic 50km RW Trials in January. 
"Little" Rachel was having a great day and was on pace for a nice PR before officials told her she was done the race when she really had one more lap to go. This was very disappointing for Rachel Z. since she would have had a PR by a few minutes but at least she knows that her training is going well and that the next time she has a chance to do a 20km race that she will take even more time off her PR. 
The race went a little differently for Lauren. She was struggling with some knee pain fairly early in the race and after getting several cautions for bent knee, she decided to drop out of the race at 12km's as a precaution so that she wouldnt injure her knee. This was a very smart decision as the Olympic year is almost upon us and she needs to make sure that she is injury free heading into this all important year. 
The TEAM would like to welcome new TEAMmate, Miranda Melville. Miranda is from Rochester, New York but has lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin for the last 4 years where she attended the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. 
On September 24th, Rachel traveled to Naumburg, Germany to compete in her last race of the season. She was eager to take revenge on her poor performance at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea three weeks earlier. 
At the end of August the IAAF World Track and Field Championships took place in Daegu, South Korea. Three TEAM members achieved the qualifying times to compete, Trevor and Maria for the USA and Rachel for Canada. All three were excited to have a good showing towards the end of the season and see how they could fair against the worlds best. 
This was Molly's second time competing at the USA vs. Canada Dual Meet and she was very excited. She was having a great summer training in Maine and was ready to finish off her season strong. Molly struggled in the tough conditions but still put together a good showing for the USA team finishing 7th overall in a time of 28:37 for 5k.
On July 24th in Miramar, Florida, Trevor and Tyler toed the line against the best boys in the western hemisphere. After many attempts, the boys were going after their first international medal. It would not be an easy task as the 2010 World Racewalk Cup champion, Eider Arevalo from Colombia was also in the race.
Tyler dropped off the group early, suffering from the heat and humidity which he is definitely not used to in his hometown of San Diego. Coming off of his strong race in Italy a few weeks earlier, he couldnt duplicate it however he finished in 5th place and finished his season eager for more next year. 
On June 26th in Calgary, Alberta Canada, both Bruno and Rachel were set to try and defend their Canadian titles. They were placed with some pretty difficult hurdles as the race was at 3700 feet of altitude and the course was very uphill, definitely not built for fast times. Still, they were up for the challenge. 
Next up was Bruno and he was also the returning champion but knew that this year would be a bit more challenging than last year. He was up for the challenge but unfortunately he came down with a cold the day before the race and it took over his body and he just couldnt put together a good performance. He still managed to finish 2nd in just over 52 minutes. He still, however, managed to secure a spot on the Canadian team which will compete in Boston, MA in August at the USA vs. Canada Dual meet. 
Chris came into this race with a lot of unknowns. His training had been up and down since the Indoor Championships. He had a good performance over 20km's in March and from then on it was very inconsistent. Luckily the day of the race was an up day and did he ever surprise a lot of people. Chris had the same race plan as he did indoors. He focused on his own race and slowly kept moving his way up. He kept getting faster and passing everyone infront of him. He managed to catch everyone except for Canadian Evan Dunfee who broke the meet record. Chris finished in 2nd place in a huge PR of 20:42.02. 
On Sunday, May 15th in Riverside, CA, four TEAM members competed in the USA 15km RW Championships. In a cloudy and rainy day the racewalkers completed 8.75 laps of 1.709km per lap to finish the 15km distance. This is an odd distance for them to race since they usually compete over 20km's but it was a good indicator as to what kind of fitness they are in leading up to the National Championships in just over a month. 
On the women's side we had Rachel and Lauren. The plan was for Rachel to pace Lauren through a sub-1:15:00 15km. They started off on a good pace and continued to get stronger. In the last 5km's Lauren started to fade a bit but still finished up in a great time of 1:14:15, a huge PR. Rachel stayed with Lauren throughout the whole race until the last lap when she took off and finished in a time of 1:14:02 to finish slightly ahead. This was Lauren's first USA National Championships title. Big things to come for her in Eugene at the USA Track and Field Championships in a month. You can listen to an interview from Racewalk Planet Radio on both girls here. 
Next up for the TEAM was Bruno, Katie and Molly at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, PA on April 30th. Bruno was the first to toe the line in the 10,000m race. Bruno has been training so well and was ready for a good race. He raced smart staying off the lead group and did his own race. He finally had a huge breakthrough race and walked over a minute and 30 second PR for a time of 47:57 to win the Junior division. Next up was Katie and Molly who were trying to follow in Bruno's footsteps to big PRs over 5,000m's. Katie followed Bruno in race plan and did her own thing. She walked a really strong race after being sick the days prior to the race and finished in 5th place in 24:34, a 15 second PR. Molly started off really strong trying to keep up with some of her fellow Junior competitors. She fought hard but struggled in the end to a 5th place finish in the Junior division in a time of 27:13. Great job done by all!
On March 26th in Medellin, Colombia, the Pan American Racewalk Cup started its first day of competition. We had Trevor, Tyler and Nicolette competing on the USA team and they were very excited to be in Colombia. Trevor and Tyler however have had a rough month battling injuries. Before Trevor headed over to Colombia he started to have some pain in his knee but the trip was already booked and he hoped it would get better quickly so he could compete well at the race. This unfortunately did not happen. In the weeks that he was there, he was barely able to do any training and because of this did not have high hopes going into the race. He started and decided to try and help his friend, Colombian racewalker Jose Montana. He walked with him for the firs 5km's and felt some pain and therefore decided to drop out. Tyler also was having injury issues in the build up to the race but a week before going travelling to Colombia was able to start racewalking again. He managed to do a very solid race considering his lack of training for several weeks and finished 10th in a time of 46:25. This came after a very long and difficult travel to the Colombia as flights were cancelled and him and Nicolette did not arrive into Medellin until very late the night before the race. 
Nicolette was competing in her first major International competition after getting a taste of it at the USA vs. Canada last summer. She had a very strong PR in February qualifying her for the USA team in Colombia. After the difficult travel, she also had a great race in the very hot conditions walking 59:18, good enough for 18th place. 
Katie has come a long way in the year and a half since she joined the TEAM. We are so excited about her progress and what is to come for her as she trains leading up to the Olympic Trials. 
On Sunday, March 13th, five TEAMmates made the trip to Huntington Beach, CA to compete at the USA Master's 20km RW Championships in the open division. Chris, Janelle and Katie decided to get an early 20km race in right after NAIA Indoor Championships to get their qualifying time in before USATF Nationals in June. Rachel and Tim came to show their support and to get a good 2nd workout and hard effort in. Tim also wanted to try and walk under 1:29:00 so that he could "guarantee" travel expense money for USATF Nationals. 
Tim was lucky to have Mike Tarantino to key off of for the first 5k before over taking him. After that it was a lone effort, pushing forward and putting the hammer down. He finished off the race in a time of 1:28:48 which is a great start for him and a time that should be good enough to rank him in the top 4 going into Nationals.
The big story came from Rachel as she felt great going into this race and had no pressure going into it. She had great help from Chris as he did his first 20km (race or workout) in 2 years. His goal was to qualify for the Olympic trials for next year and for Nationals this year. They both just worked together throughout the whole race and Rachel knew by 10km's (47:32) that she had a good chance at breaking the 11 year old Canadian record. As the race continued, they just kept getting fast and did a great negative split finishing the second 10km's in 46:50 to finish the 20km's in 1:34:22 and set a new Canadian record! She finally had a big breakthrough race after a rough 2010 season. Chris qualified for both the Olympic Trials and Nationals for this year with a time of 1:34:21. We are so proud of Chris for being back in the game and he has so much ahead of him. We are looking forward to a big drop in his PR this year!
On Friday, January 28th, we had 6 members of the TEAM competing at the Millrose Games in New York City in the Madison Square Gardens. We had Rachel returning as the defending champion and this year with Coach Tim not attending the race, there was going to be a new men's champion. 
With Tim missing from the men's race, the heavy favorite went to Trevor with Tyler close behind. The gun went off and Trevor led right from the beginning with Tyler trailing not far behind. The men's race ended up being a little less exciting since the top 3 places stayed in the same position all the way through the race. Trevor ended up finishing first in 6:06 and Tyler finishing second in 6:16, good enough for a 5 second PR.
On January 23rd, Coach Tim and a few other TEAM members raced at the USA 50km Racewalk Championships. They were welcomed to the race course with very strong winds (up to 30mph)and cool temperatures. Tim started off the race with Ben Shorey and Ray Sharp. They all stayed together through 20k and then Ray Sharp dropped off and then there were 2. Ben and Tim stayed together through 30-35k and then Tim started to struggle since Ben put in a surge and Tim couldnt respond. From then on Tim really had a hard time continuing but he knew he had to at least finish, no matter how slow he walked. Tim ended up finishing 2nd in a time of 4:25. He was very disappointed in his finish time but unfortunately, sometimes thats how the 50k goes. Its a tough event! 
Other TEAM members that raced were Rachel and Tyler over 20km's and Bruno and Nicolette over 10km's. Rachel and Tyler walked together for the first 14km's and then Tyler took off. Both set new PR's of 1:37:18 and 1:35:35 respectively. Bruno started off with Rachel and Tyler before falling back. He still had a very strong season opener of 50:03. Nicolette walked her second best time ever for 10k finishing in 55:21 for a very strong performance. 
Here is an article about TEAM member Tyler Sorensen. Tyler and his family are making the move to San Diego this weekend and Coach Tim is looking forward to having him and his sister Nicolette around more often. You can view the article here. 
