2021 USATF Masters 12 km Championships

IN THEIR WORDS

This was the first USATF masters cace I have done in years.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy the Masters events and being surrounded by so many talented masters runners who share the same love of running and racing!  I was impressed by the masters teams that showed from all over the country.  I really enjoyed the event especially since I have only raced one race, on Mother’s Day, since February 2020.

Although I wanted to race the event for awhile, I didn’t register until the last day.   I suffered a hip injury during the Mother’s Day race (it probably was already there, the race just made it worse) and took 3 months off of running.  I started walk/running at the beginning of August.  Things were going well.  I managed to get in a couple of solid workouts and a couple of longish runs so I  decided to go ahead and register for the race.  I was missing racing so much and thought I could handle the 12 km.  Before the injury my goal was to break the 50-54 American Record, but that goal was modified to just enjoy the race, compete my best, be smart and mindful of my injury.  I think I achieved these goals. I am pleased with my performance and it felt great to be racing again!  It was also wonderful to have my youngest daughter and my husband out there supporting me!  

The race course was flat and fast, however it was warm, humid, and windy on Sunday.  Despite the weather there were some very fast times and several runners who broke American age group records which was wonderful to see.

USATF New Jersey put on a great event!

Thank you USATF for continuing the series and for adding even more races for 2022.  I am looking forward to racing several of them.

It was great to return to USATF Masters races at the 12 km Championships in New Jersey. It's been a long time coming, so it was fun to see old friends again and get back to racing each other. The course was flat, but the general feeling was that times were a touch slower than expected due to strong winds on the way out and warm conditions on the way back. But it was nice to have a good group of guys to battle with.
 
I honestly felt a little off my game on Sunday and didn't hang with the leaders for quite as long as I had hoped for. The pack began to break up around the 3rd mile as we also raced against several of the open runners. But my wife is originally from New Jersey and this was my last race in the 40-44 age group. So it was great to be able to get a final USATF race in on familiar territory before moving up to 45-49.  I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store in the years ahead.

VIRGINIA RESULTS SCOREBOARD