Track and Field Blogs - Chad Johnson

My race with Nick Stanko in the Detroit marathon will obviously never be famous like Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley in Boston, but on a smaller scale it gave me a little taste of what it would be like. Even though I didn't win and it wasn't one the of major marathons I had a great experience. I still had pace vehicals leading the way through the city, good size crowds coming out the the tunnel from Windsor to Detroit, and all my Hanson teammates cheering me on on the bridge to Bell Isle. The day started off with a… more »

It's always exciting when we have a large group of guys getting ready for a marathon. It seems like we have the best performances when everyone gets ready for the same race. I'm not taking part this time but it always gives me confidence when the guys I run with every day do well. From what I've seen there are going to be at least a couple on them with break through performances next Monday. You always want to see that jump to the next level after you made a big step in your training. Sometimes it takes longer than… more »

The next race on my schedule along with a few other Hanson athletes is going to be the US 15k championships in Jacksonville. Training has been going better than it has in years for me. Kevin, Keith, and myself thought it would be a good idea to take a small break from marathoning and do a speed segment. I've hardly even touched the track since finishing 8th in the 2004 Olympic trials 5k. I was happy to find out the speed is returning to my old legs as I managed a 8:07 3k last weekend. It wasn't a pr but… more »

The Hansons are sending a large crew this weekend to run the USATF half marathon champs in Houston. We've had a lot of guys training well so hopefully we can put it together on race day. As ususal it's going to be a stacked field. I'm sure it's going to take a sub 64:00 to get in the top 10 assuming the weather will be good. It will feel good just to get somewhere warm and be able to race in shorts. My last three races have been the Twin Cities Marathon which was 40 and pouring rain, club cross… more »

My next major race in going to be the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth MN. This is a race I've always wanted to compete in because I would watch it back in high school. Last year was the first time I ran it and was able to win - I'm hoping to have a repeat performance. As a tune up I'm stepping on the track for a 5k next weekend. It will be a good test to see how I've recoverd from the London Marathon. I've only raced once on the track since the 2004 Olympic trials so I'm… more »

Well, it didn't go as well as I hoped. I think my offical time was 2:18:49. I probably got a little carried away in all the excitement of the race and ran some miles to fast. All the elite runners there were so fast I felt like trying to break 2:14 shouldn't be that bad. I should have reminded myself 2:14 is still a fast time. My first few miles were all over the pace - anywhere from 4:58 to 5:23. I was a little on the slow side then the pacemakers suddenly started flying. I was the only guy… more »

Only two weeks and six days to go. I've now had 7 consecutive weeks of mileage over 120 a week. I've been handeling the training for this marathon better than usual and my milege has been a little higher. Hopefully that translates to a faster time. Last week I was able to test my fitness a little. We got out of the cold weather and went to Virginia beach for the half marathon. We were able to do this only if we didn't race and ran marathon pace. I felt nice and relaxed and ran 1:06:48. A good sign considering… more »

While all my roomates are enjoying there time down in Florida this week, I'm stuck at the house alone in the cold. I've done a lot of training in cold weather so you think it would get easier after awhile. What keeps me going though is remembering some of the performances I've had after training in tough conditions. One particular race the comes to mind is a indoor 3k in Seattle a few years ago. I spent a month at home in northern Wisconsin training. I remember doing a 10 mile tempo run right before I left. It was below… more »

My latest race was the Disney Half Marathon a couple weeks ago. It was my first race back since the Olympic Trials and probably my last race before the London Marathon. It would have been nice to run fast to get my confidence up but I did get a lot of positives out of the race even though my time wasn't what I wanted. Before the race Kevin wanted me to run the race alone. Most of my best races have always come when I'm just hanging on to someone else. When I raced on the track and shorter road… more »