Q&A with Rachel Clattenburg

As part of our continuing Q&A series, here is a quick chat with New Jersey Marathon champ and swell person Rachel Clattenburg:

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HUGE congratulations on the win at the New Jersey Marathon, and the big PR. According to my research, your 2:57:58 was a nearly 13 minutes faster than your previous best (MCM 2013 - 3:10:36). First off, tell us about the race. What were your goals/was your mindset going in? What was your final race plan?

My goals were to run as close to 3 hours as I could and especially to run a smart race. My race plan--concocted by Dan and Alan, with Drew's advice mixed in--was to reach mile 19 feeling relaxed, comfortable and ready to race the last 7 miles. I settled in with a pack of about 6 guys who were all shooting for 3 hours. We stayed together until mile 18. It helped a ton to have people to run with for all those miles.

It was quite windy and I knew there would be a tough headwind the last 10k. In retrospect, the wind might have helped my race. I was so worried about it and that concern made me more conservative in those first 19 miles than I otherwise might have been. 

RC at Mile 5

More below:

Updated Club Records / Boston Compiled Results (?)

Lots of updates to club records this weekend. Congrats to Rachel, of course, for her epic performance today winning the New Jersey Marathon by over 10 minutes. She is now the 2nd fastest Dojo marathoner all-time.

ALSO, congrats to Chris Pruitt and Ryan Johnson, who blitzed the Pike's Peek 10k this morning. Pruitt broke his previous club record by about 45 seconds, running 31:37.  Ryan Johnson continued his breakout season, running 34:01 and finally pushing this schlub Daniel Yi off the all-time podium by 7 seconds.

FINALLY, I've compiled (hopefully) a final accounting of all the gutsy performances by Dojo and Friend-of-Dojo runners at Boston. By all accounts, it turned out to be a tough day to run fast. Everyone gave it everything they had, and it was inspiring to watch at Mile 24! Watching everyone crank out there inspired me to get back to training all out, aka Dojo-style.

Women:

Emily Buzzell - 3:14:34

Cindy Conant - 3:12:34

Lisa Coyle - 3:58:15

Laura Jennings - 3:24:40
Jenny Paul - 3:15:47
Marissa Piropato - 3:33:55
Anna Savage - 3:12:42

Stephanie Selmer - 3:23:04

Men:

Keith Flanders       3:12:43
Frank Fung - 3:07:08

Robert Gillanders - 3:06:03

Ty Gruszewski - 3:07:08
Drew Killian - 3:00:58
Jim Moore - 3:08:52
Matthew Newman  - 3:23:17
Alan Pemberton - 3:14:41

Shawn Rumery - 2:41:40
Brian Savitch - 3:18:36

Taylor Williamson    2:52:47

Late adds:

ALSO, Cindy Conant gets a big round of applause for running a 38:04!!!! at Pike's Peek (7th overall) one week after running Boston! That is crazy!

Dojo Fashion Show

Welcome to the Dojo Fashion Show!  Having gone through a five month stretch of injury followed by compensation injury followed by another compensation injury, I've had a chance to indulge a small hobby of mine, shirt design and screen printing. To that end, I've come up with a few new designs for Dojo wear, just in time for the summer season.  I also worked with a patch maker in Pennsylvania who produced a run of Dojo shield embroidered patches (incorporated on some of the shirts/hoodies below).  Take a look at the proposed new designs below and let me know what you think (in terms of shirt color, design color, design style, etc.). The most popular designs will be available to those interested.

See all the designs (and a model wearing Zubaz!) after the break:

Cherry Blossom Results

Congratulations to everyone who raced the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler today. Some huge results from the Dojo today, a LOT of re-writing of the record-books. In a race where all of the best runners in DC (and some of the best in the country) show up to see how they measure up, it was amazing to see all the Dojo singlets so far up the pack.

Without further ado, here are the results for Dojo and "Friends of Dojo" runners. If I missed anyone, PLEASE let me know (I am doing this mostly from memory):

Women:

Emily Buzzell: 67:01, 96th woman
Rachel Clattenburg: 62:53, 53rd woman, SECOND FASTEST ALL TIME!!!

Cindy Conant: 62:45, 50th woman, 1st in 50-54!!!
Lisa Coyle: 72:53, 257th woman

Megan Haberle: 62:45, 52nd woman, NEW CLUB RECORD!!!*
Laura Jennings: 67:19, 102nd woman
Jenny Paul: 66:37, 92nd woman
Marissa Piropato: 73:29, 282nd woman
Stephanie Selmer: 64:13, 64th woman, THIRD FASTEST ALL TIME!!!

Men:

Frank Fung: 63:21, 305 overall
Ryan Johnson: 56:36, 74th man
Geoff King: 61:03, 177th man
Jim Moore: 61:38, 193rd man, 8th in 40-44!!!
Scott Munro: 58:22, 115th man
Mark Neff: 58:05, 133 overall, 2nd in 50-54!!!

Chris Pruitt: 52:52, 47th man, NEW CLUB RECORD!!!

Shawn Rumery: 56:22, 72nd man
Brian Savitch: 63:50, 268th man
Josh Sohn: 56:20, 71st man, THIRD FASTEST CLUB TIME!!!

The Women's Open Club Team absolutely STORMED to a 2nd place finish (beating out PRR, MCRRC's racing team, DCRR, and many more). Both the Men's and Women's Elite teams ran great, and came in 2nd in their categories as well. Everyone on those squads should be receiving some cool team silver medals in the coming weeks.

On. To. BOSTON!!!