THE WEEK THAT WAS

Yet another crackerjack week for Stazza’s Stable Stablemates, with more PRs, podiums, national titles, and two of our Olympic hopefuls in action.

This week, as usual, we had too many awesome performances to single out one in particular. 

It was great to see our Irish international orienteer, Jens Waechter taking the win at the Northern Ireland National Champs. Jens lost 11 minutes, searching for a checkpoint (should have gone to Specsavers) and still took the national title.

Stablemate Steacy’s inspiring performance in the sweltering heat and humidity of Malaysia deserves a mention. He took the win and course record at the UNIMAS 12hr race, while suffering a wide range of problems.  Steacy continues to improve and is heading ever closer to his goal of racing the iconic ultra race, Spartathlon.

Staying with the ultra crew, young Danny Ellis turned heads at the Corner Canyon 50K trail race. To finish 6th overall—with a one-hour course PR—in such a big ultra race, suggests a bright future for the Stablecolt. In the same race, we had the legend, Chris Krash Pope having a run out in preparation for the Across The Years 24hr race, where he has a big goal in mind. And it was a joy to see Lorri Randle getting down and durty in the 25km version of the race, running a 12-minute PR on last year’s race.

Another Stablecolt, Hyrum Johnson, ran a cracking second place at the Region 1 – 6A Cross Country to qualify for next week’s Utah State Cross Country Finals. Hyrum has improved steadily over the last 18 months and is inching—safely—towards the nationals.

COMING UP

On the racing front, next week is light but we have plenty of action the following week with several Stablemates going in the Irish National Marathon Championship—Dublin City Marathon (DCM). Great to see Stablemate, Aoife Cooke on the elite start line. They ranked her 20th—watch this space.

Given that next week, we don’t have much racing on, it’s the perfect time to launch the new feature page. 

We’ll have the Kipsang Interview (part 1), a feature on Irish international orienteer, Jens Waechter which includes a guide to orienteering, a preview of the Stablemates running in the Irish National Marathon Champs (DCM), an update about Stazza’s Stable High Altitude Camp in Iten (Kenya), including information on how it all works, and finally, we’ll be introducing several new Stablemates.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

Another splendiferous weekend of PRs and podiums for Stazza’s Stable athletes. We had four out of four marathon PR’s (all of them huge) and five podiums, including Aoife Cooke’s first place in the Cork to Cobh 15 miles.

On the marathon front, we had three of our Stablemates running 10+ minute PRs, with Dustin Bybee stealing the show. In only his second marathon, Dustin ran 2:21 and an 11-minute PR.

Many Stablemates ran the Cork to Cobh 15 mile race as a training run for the Dublin City Marathon—all of them ran bang on schedule/slightly better than expected. Even as a training run, Aoife Cooke still managed to win by a huge margin. Sandra Manning, treating it as a cheeky little outing before Dublin, also won her age category. 

Sources close to the Cork to Cobh event revealed that Damian Roly Poly Kenneally was arrested after the race. Apparently, he was mistaken for a psychopathic serial killer in his shades. We understand, once the cops took off his shades, he was released. Damian denies that he was threatening to sue the cops.

COMING UP

This week we have some of our big-hitters out racing. Stablecolt Hyrum Johnson is going in the Utah State x/c qualifier, Jens Compass Waechter  goes in the Northern Ireland orienteering championships, and Olympic hopeful (for Greece) Jen Hughes goes in the Chicago Marathon (a hard training run). 

We also have three ultra runners giving it welly: Danny The Flash Ellis and Chris Krash Pope both go in the Corner Canyon 50 (both Stablemates have solid chances in the race). It’ll be a case of youth versus experience. In the 25km event, Lorri Randle has her first run out in Stable colours.

Staying on the ultra scene, Mark Steacy goes in the UNIMAS ‘8-to-8’ 12 Hour Race. We’re all looking forward to see how the fast improving Steacy gets on.

Matthew The Chicken Slayer Maynard is all set to go in the Manchester Half Marathon on Sunday. After Manchester, Matthew is heading out to Stazza’s Stable High Altitude Training Camp for five months, to prepare for the Manchester Marathon.

NEW FEATURE

From next week, we’ll have a new feature page. The page will cover interviews and profiles with Stablemates, coaches, and famous runners, starting with The Kipsang Chronicles. We’ll also have ‘THE ART OF COACHING’—with Coach Stazza. As well as launching the page with the Kipsang interview, we’ll have a special feature on orienteering and Stablemate, Jens Compass Waechter.  

THE WEEK THAT WAS

What a great weekend of running for Stazza’s Stable Stablemates. We had three Stablemates racing in Berlin—all three came home with huge PRs. We also had beachcomber Sheehan banging out an awesome one-minute two-second PR over 5k.

Throw into the mixer, Eric Nelson’s and Brandon Dase’s incredible performances in The Bear 100 trail race and it’s clear to see how great our Stablemates are going over all distances.

THIS WEEK

This weekend we have 10 Stablemates racing and a herd of Stablemates popping out training runs within a race (Cork to Cobh 15 miler).

Some of our elites will be on show this weekend. We have four-minute miler, Dustin Bybee running the St George marathon—Dustin’s on his way back from a longterm injury and is using St George as a fitness test for his build-up to dropping out the US Olympic Trials Qualifier (marathon).

Elite ultra trail runner, Jennifer Lambert will join Dustin on the start line of St George as she swaps her trail shoes for her racing flats.

In form, Scott Allen and Melissa Terpenning (a name for the future—watch this ‘filly’) will also go in the St George marathon.

US marathon Olympic Trials Qualifier hopefuls, Jaydn Asay and Rush Mills are racing the San Jose half and they’ll be joined by Stablemate, Sarbajeet Naug.

Still in the US, we have another elite out hammering the roads: Irish international and Olympic marathon hopeful, Joy Miller goes in the Ray Tanner 12k—in the sweltering heat and humidity of South Carolina, she’s going after the State record.

Across the pond, on the Emerald Isle, we have Stablemate, Liam Lyons racing. This will be his first outing in Stazza’s Stable colours—he’s running a local 5k.

Staying in the Rebel County (County Cork) we have a ruck of Stablemates using the Cork to Cobh 15 miler as a training run. All Stablemates are under strict instructions not to race it—I’ll have enforcers on the course to handicap any wild horses!

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Next week, we will launch The Big Interview—starting with former, marathon world record holder, Wilson Kipsang. (We had hoped to bring it this week but the plague struck Joachim The Viking.)

A great weekend of racing and miracles for Stazza’s Stable. 

Bennyboy Van Beekum’s two-in-a-row at the Huntsville marathon stood out. But it’s great to see Riley Cook bouncing back after his horrendous accident—he shattered his spine on his kids’ trampoline, performing a backdrop—Riley will now turn his attention to CIM, where he’ll join several Stablemates in the quest for Olympic Trials glory. Young Danny Ellis’ great win at the Bear 15 sets him up nicely for the Corner Canyon trail ultra. And of course, Oisin Spillane’s miraculous return from the dead was the real highlight of the weekend.

This Weekend

This weekend, we have seven goers. Eric Nelson—fresh from his great performance at the Leadville 100—and ultra trail legend, Brandon Dase, go in The Bear 100 miler. Both Stablemates are flying right now and will prove relentless in dishing out the pain to their competition. 

We also have Padraig Sheehan slipping on his dancin’ shoes this Sunday—he’s going in a secret 5k. Padraig’s in great form after spending several months bumming around beaches in South America. 

Then, over in Berlin we have, Marcus Brown, Mark Murphy, Klemen Magajne, and Sameer Khurana. All the Stablemates are looking for great runs—we’ll keep you posted.

Upcoming Races

We have rucks of Stablemates preparing for big races and the next few weeks will prove exciting as I’m sure Stazza’s Stable will dominate most of these big races. We’ll have big wins, huge PRs, and great fun.

Next Week

Now that we have the site up-and-running, we’ll bring you more great reads. Next week, to kick-off The Big Interview feature, we have an exclusive with former marathon world record holder, Wilson Kipsang. We chit-chatted over a cup of rosemary fused chai and chapati, in his hotel, Keellu Resort. We have Stazzasnaps and video footage of him training with Stazza’s Stable Stablemates—he had some interesting stuff to say about, Kipchoge.  We’ll have the usual race reports and round-ups, and other gems.

The Yard

The Stazza’s Stable Forum (The Yard) is all sorted now and we’ll open it very soon—for you delectable pleasure…

Welcome to Stazza’s Stable—the website. The purpose of this site is to create a home for Stazza’s Stable Stablemates and provide even more value to the Stazza’s Stable experience—copious amounts of Stazzalove and all that malarkey.

THE STABLE NEWS

On the site, you’ll find The Stable News—a hard-hitting, fast-talking, running tabloid.

Every Wednesday, we’ll update The Stable News with punchy content, including race round-ups, interviews, features, kit reviews, editorial, news, scoops, and a plethora of other gems.

THE YARD

We also have a password-protected, Stablemates forum (The Yard)—only for runners coached by The Stablemaster, and VIPs.

The Yard will facilitate discussion on all things running. Strava and Facebook aren’t great for discussion. So now, we’ll be able to chat and follow myriad topics, ranging from nutrition and training tips to reducing the risk of injuries. We’ll even have a speed-dating lounge for the lonely hearts. #stazzalove

ADS

There will be no spammy ads on this site. The only ads will be for Stablemates wanting to promote their business/interests/events, free of charge. This is your site—it’s not about making money.

THE STABLEMASTER SPEAKS

The Stablemaster Speaks is the weekly editorial from Coach Stazza. He’ll cover everything and anything in Stazzaspeak.

If you have any recommendations or if you want to publish articles/race reports, etc just give us a shout through the contact page or email Coach Stazza: stazzastable1965@gmail.com.

THE WEBMASTER

Finally, a huge thank you to Stablemate, Joachim The Viking Computer Wiz. The Viking created this site in his spare time. If you’re looking for a tailormade website or a custom built application, get in touch with him at joachim@rafikiweb.com.