Run Hub Northwest is excited to host its spring marathon and half marathon training program for runners for our sixth year!
Disclaimers and suggestions for participation
Due to health concerns related to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, our training program will be organized differently this year. You should only sign up for this training program if you are okay with virtual training and a virtual goal race, meaning the potential for no in-person practices or race. We are tentatively planning for small group, in-person practices by week 4 of the training program, but it is at the discretion of the coaching staff and guidance of local health authorities. We will require masks to be worn when you are not able to keep a 6 foot distance from others.
Participants of our 2020 Spring training Program who were not able to complete it may email info@runhubnw.com for a special code to save 15% on this year’s training program.
We will cap this year’s training program at 60 participants.
Please note that we do not offer refunds for any reason and the cost of this registration does not include the race registration for the Eugene Marathon or Half marathon race.
Suggestions for participation:
This will be a 14-week virtual training program with weekly team meetings via Zoom and individualized training programs written by the coaches using Google Docs. The first workout will be Saturday, January 16.
The goal race for this training program is the Eugene Marathon and Half Marathon on April 25, 2021. If it is a virtual event, the Eugene Marathon office has plans to have a course laid out with a start and finish line as well as mile markers.
We will have a virtual 2-mile time trial in week 3 of the training program. We are tentatively planning for small group, in-person practices by week 4 of the training program, but it is at the discretion of the coaching staff and guidance of local health authorities. We will require masks to be worn when you are not able to keep a 6 foot distance from others.
Each participant can expect to have a customized weekly training program written for them starting within a week of returning their athlete history questionnaire. We use a Google spreadsheet with a tab for each participant’s training plan. Coaches will continue to write a weekly plan for each athlete as long as the athlete has updated their training spreadsheet weekly. Team practices will be scheduled for Tuesday evening and Saturday morning, with a weekly or bi-weekly team meeting video conference call (day of week TBD). Tuesday evenings will be a higher intensity workout that will focus on running at faster paces and Saturday mornings will be the longest run of the week. The other days of the week will be laid out in each participant’s training plan based on each participants history and goals and will mostly include easy/recovery runs, days off, or cross training. There will be no official meeting time or location except for Tuesday and Saturday.
If you engage in many different forms of exercise please be aware that coaches may suggest that you rearrange or eliminate certain activities to successfully prepare you to run the half or full marathon.
If you have any questions, please email info@runhubnw.com!
The team’s head coach is Dr. Heike McNeil, Ph.D., a Professor of Chemistry at Bushnell University (formerly Northwest Christian University). An accomplished runner and athlete herself, Heike coached the NCU cross country and track teams from 2005-2018. During her time coaching at NCU, Heike’s teams were consistently ranked in the top 25 nationally, including a national championship for her women’s cross country team in 2015. Heike ran collegiately at Linfield College, did triathlons post collegiately and currently competes in trail and ultra events as well as racing her mountainbike. Heike loves to help athletes at all levels chase their dreams and see them reach their full potential. She is extremely excited to get to know the Run Hub athletes and can’t wait to work on training plans with them!
Dustin has been coaching for more than 20 years. Most of those years were spent coaching high school cross country and track athletes while working as a high school science teacher. For the last few years Dustin has been a coach for the spring training teams with Team Run Hub. As an athlete, Dustin ran competitively in high school and then for Missouri State University where he earned All Conference honors. Dustin is on the comeback trail after a couple of surgeries in 2018, but hoping to get healthy again and make an attempt to break 1:20 as a masters runner for a half marathon in the next year or two. As a coach, there is nothing Dustin loves more than to see his athletes grow and accomplish goals that they might not have thought possible.
Katie Fitch is excited to return as a Run Hub coach this spring and help all runners reach their goals. Katie is a lifelong distance athlete- swimming competitively through high school and then ran her first half marathon her sophomore year of college! She has been running races ever since. Katie has completed numerous half marathons with a PR of 1:36.59. She has run 6 marathons, qualifying for Boston 2x. She ran Boston in 2013 where she ran her PR of 3:23. She has also completed 6 half Ironmans and 1 full Ironman. Katie has participated in multiple training teams as an adult including 4 rounds with Run Hub. Outside of running she is a former high school chemistry teacher and a current education PhD student at UO. You will definitely see the teacher side of her come out while coaching!
Jake Stephens, PT, DPT, was born and raised in Southwest Ohio. Prior to calling Eugene his home, Jake attended Ohio University and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Physiology and went on to acquire his Doctorate of Physical Therapy. Physical fitness has always played a big role in Jake’s life as he was a Personal Trainer prior to becoming a Physical Therapist and was the team captain for his Division 1 collegiate Cross Country and Track team and continues to enjoy long distance running post-collegiately. In addition to running and coaching, Jake enjoys exploring the outdoors, playing board games, and watching Ohio sports teams!