Cabada Is Now Self Coached - Running Bjorklund Half On Sat.

Half-marathoner has cleared major hurdles

Things were good for American distance runner Fernando Cabada in 2008. While being coached by former marathon world-record holder Steve Jones, he won the USA Men’s Marathon title, in a race from Minneapolis to St. Paul, and earned a spot on the 2009 World Championships team. Things haven’t gone as well since then. By: Kevin Pates, Duluth News Tribune

Things were good for American distance runner Fernando Cabada in 2008. While being coached by former marathon world-record holder Steve Jones, he won the USA Men’s Marathon title, in a race from Minneapolis to St. Paul, and earned a spot on the 2009 World Championships team.
Things haven’t gone as well since then.
Cabada, 28, from Boulder, Colo., didn’t see improvement in his race times, battled injuries and decided in February to coach himself. He comes into Saturday’s 20th Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon with something to prove.
“Right now I’m on a mission and I’m more motivated than I’ve ever been,” Cabada said last week. “My confidence has grown by leaps and bounds the last few weeks, and if the (Bjorklund) half-marathon leaders take off sprinting from the start, then I’ll take off sprinting.”
He’s been in the thick of things the past two years in Duluth, placing second in 2008 in 1 hour, 5 minutes, 7 seconds, and third last year in 1:05:30. He has a half-marathon best of 1:02:45, from 2006, while the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon course record is 1:04:19, set in 2002 by Ryan Meissen of Hudson, Wis.
Two days after the 2009 Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon, he found he had an Achilles tendon problem and ultimately gave up his position for the World Championships marathon. In December he developed posterior tibial tendonitis in an ankle, which meant more time off. He’s been back training seriously since March.
On June 5, Cabada was fifth in a field of 6,860 in the Dam-to-Dam 20-kilometer road race in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1:02:36 for the 12.4 miles.
“I was heartbroken for months after missing the World Championships, and after that I’ve learned to love my running more and to give 100 percent. I needed a long race like (Dam-to-Dam), because I had lost my racing edge,” Cabada said.
Getting to the elite-runner level in this decade is another story in Cabada’s biography. He was raised by a single mother on welfare in Fresno, Calif., and then left for a better life in Boulder. He lives with two siblings, Corina, 20, and Dominic, 18, while his mother, Magdalena, is nearby in Longmont, Colo. Cabada ran 2:12:27 in the 2006 Fukuoka Marathon in his debut at the distance.
Namesake returns
When a record 6,876 runners line up for the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon, they’ll see a familiar face at the starting line. Namesake Garry Bjorklund, a Twig native living in Fort Collins, Colo., will address the runners before the 6:30 a.m. race.
The former U.S. Olympian at 10,000 meters is attending the anniversary race as a fan, not a competitor.
“This half-marathon has become a major event and I love the fact that it’s in Duluth,” Bjorklund said Sunday. “To be associated with a race like this has been a wonderful gift for me. I’m very proud of it.”
When race director Scott Keenan helped start the race he wanted to honor Bjorklund, who legitimized Grandma’s Marathon by running and winning the inaugural event in 1977, and then winning again in 1980 in 2:10:20. The Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon began in 1991 with 1,600 entrants.
Bjorklund, 59, who ran at Proctor High School and the University of Minnesota, is a private concessions contractor for the city of Fort Collins, where he’s lived the past 27 years.
Joining Cabada among the men’s favorites are Ethiopians Worku Beyi, 23, who has run 1:01:57 and Bado Worku, 21, with a best of 1:03:45, along with 2008 champion (1:04:48) Mathew Chesang, 28, of Kenya. Caroline Rotich, 26, of Kenya leads the women’s field with a best of 1:10:23. She was 10th in Saturday’s New York Mini 10K in 32:43.

 http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/image/id/52554/headline/Fernando%20Cabada/

I don't really know why runners need coaches anyway. All a coach does is give you someone else to blame.