This past Monday the US team selections for the World Champions Marathon was announced. I have know for the past couple of weeks that I would be selected for the team, but for it to finally become official has been very exciting for me. This is my first World Championships Team, hopefully the first of many more teams to come. So, in my excitement I have decided to start this blog to share with anyone willing to follow me what my training and daily life will be like over the next 3 1/2 months as I prepare for the biggest race of my career so far.
Lets start off with a little background: I grew up in Fountain Valley, Ca and attended Fountain Valley High School, where I first started running competitively. I earned a scholarship to Cal State University, Fullerton. At Fullerton I found out how to train smarter and more consistently while keeping myself injury free. After graduation I decided to try to become a professional runner, and I ran my first marathon in Chicago in the Fall of 2006. I finished as 10th american there with a time of 2:16:58, good enough to qualify me for the Olympic Trials the next fall. After Chicago I got in contact with various coaches and ended up finding a terrific team out in Rochester Hills, MI; the Hansons/Brooks Distance Project. I was a Hansons Runner for 3 years, and picked up 4 top 10 US Championship finishes and 2 Top 10 finishes at Major Marathons (Boston in 2008, and New York in 2009).
In 2010 I felt that it was time for me to move on to a new location and team, both personal and professional reasons. I Came out to Flagstaff in March 2010, joining the McMillan Elite training group. Shortly after moving to flagstaff, I picked up 2 more top 10 US Championship finishes and then a 3rd place finish at the San Diego Marathon with a 2:11:48 finish. These results earned me an individual contract from Adidas, which I represent proudly. After signing with Adidas I raced Chicago again, hoping to find the magic that I found there my first time around. Unfortunately it was not my day and I finished 15th overall with a disappointing 2:18:12. Shortly after that I ran the Houston Marathon, and after pace-setting for the first 25k, I hung on to finish 2nd overall with a 2:11:30, which qualified me for the World Championships. More recently I just took 4th place at the US 25k Championships and ran a personal best in the 10k on the track in 28:29.71.
So there is a brief history lesson. Please feel free to comment and ask questions about what you would like to know about my training and daily life as I lead into the World Championships Marathon on September 4th. You can also follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/NickArciniaga or facebook and ask me questions there. Take care and Thank You for reading!
- Nick
PS - Carolyn, I Love You. ;-).
Hi Mom!
Nice Blog Nick! It's awesome to see how well you're doing and it'll be cool to keep up on your pro progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks Scot! How have you been dude?
ReplyDeleteGlad you're sharing your thoughts with us Nick. You have a gift for writing, can't wait for the blogs.
ReplyDeleteVery nice, that you said Hi to your mom. You were always a quick learner.
ReplyDeletehahaha you have a whole 5 followers!! You're a superstar...what are you going to do for a job when this running makes you no money?? How about retirement?
ReplyDeleteI'll be following you Nick. Good luck, Congratulations again!
ReplyDeleteHow are you goimg to acclimatize for the humidity in Daegu?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #2, Great Question! I will tackle that more in depth in upcoming blogs, but here is a short, quick answer. In June, at USAs, I'll meet with guys from USATF to talk about Daegu weather and acclimatization more in depth. The plan as i understand it right now is to wear more layers (multiple long sleeves and such) while training here in Flagstaff over the summer. I also plan on doing multiple secondary runs on the Alter-G treadmill we have available to us. I have used it before and I sweat a ton and the room becomes very humid when I use it (opinion, not fact). And lastly, Team USA is supposed to head over to South Korea for our training camp 2 weeks before the Championships start. So those 2 weeks is when I will get my real acclimatization, but hopefully I will have done enough beforehand to make it a smooth adjustment.
ReplyDeleteBlog - great idea! Best of luck - I'll be cheering for you!!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations in your selection and I hope that you can perform great with them.
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