Update on Justin Harris

Hi: I received this email letter below from Marist Running alumni Justin Harris. Jut is the steeplechase school record holder, a former captain and now an excellent triathlete/multi sport specialist.

What’s more, in working at the Shawangunk Running Company in New Paltz and now back at Bikeway in Wappingers Falls, Jut has promoted and taught endurance sports for the past few years. Without fail, friends and acquaintances of mine in the local running community rave about Jut’s humility and caring personality. They all like Jut.

As much or more than his successes in the sport (as you’ll see below and hopefully we’ll chronicle in the coming weeks), this means a lot to me. Here at Marist Running Central, we are trying to crank out great runners but also great people. Jut fits the bill in both.

Here is the email I received from Jut, and he graciously gave me permission to share it with all of you in the Marist Running Blogosphere. Best of luck to Jut in the coming races.


Hello everyone,

First, I want to thank every one of you that helped me get to the start line of the 2010 Columbia Olympic Distance Triathlon. I had 15 people donate to Team FIGHT, some friends and family, some complete strangers (not any more). Again, thanks for supporting a fantastic cause and for assisting me. Also, I'd like to thank my sponsors who all helped me during this tough time of being injured and to the Schofields for making me feel right at home.

I left Friday morning so I could get down there, set-up shop with my homestay (The Schofields), and just relax till race-day on Sunday. My Mom switched cars with me, giving me her new car. Without that switch my whole experience would have been much more stressful with my brother's beater truck that he's been so gracious in letting me use. Thanks Mom! I arrived at the Schofield's and right away Katie (one of the daughters) took me to packet pick-up. It went smooth until we got back home and I realized I had left my phone on the check-in table. Good thing I have a keen sense of direction as I was able to drive back on my own. Later in the day I met the rest of the family, Rick (father) Anne (mother), Kelly and Brian. Rick, Anne, Brian and I settled down for some pizza and went to bed.

Saturday I woke up, met up with Bec and Laurel (Editor’s note: The Wassner twins, seriously great triathletes!) to pre-ride the tougher section of the course. The course was much hillier than I thought but, since we climb up hills so much here in New Paltz, it made me smile. Toward the end of the loop I went to do a 3 min hard push and missed a turn. Bec and Laurel were apparently yelling at me to make a turn but with the aero helmet and rear disc wheel I never heard them. Whoops!

Again, went back to the Schofield's relaxed and enjoyed dinner and maybe a new pre-race ritual -- cheese cake with blueberries and raspberries. The big talk was about whether or not it was going to rain and waking up at 5am Sunday morning to it answered that question--- it was going to be a wet and wild kind of day. I thrive when race conditions are tough so I was a bit happy because of it (Editor’s note: Jut was always extremely mentally tough when it came to racing in tough conditions in college; no surprise here).

I arrived at transition, set up my things and began to focus on the task ahead; swim, bike and run as fast as I possibly can. My swim training has been going well thanks to Mike Trunkes (Editor’s note: Mike is the head cross country coach at SUNY New Paltz and a very fast masters runner!). We've been doing a lot of technique work and it showed as I shaved 2-3 minutes off of my 1500m time. The bike went really well except for a 2 min positioning penalty that put me out of qualifying for my Elite/Pro card. However, without that penalty, I out biked all the pro Men except for Andrew Yoder who ended up winning the race. My run went by without any pain thanks to Rob Sobel's racing orthotics that I have been testing. Overall I placed 15th and was 4th in the Elite Amateurs.

Although I just missed getting my Pro card, which happens to be my goal for this year, I left the race on a very high note. The fact that I was able to perform so well off doing so little because of my injury gave me a lot of confidence that I'm not that far off of that goal. Not to mention watching Laurel win the Pro Women's race was freaking awesome!

Again, thank you everyone for the support and your unrelenting belief in me.

Next races are two local ones: The Pawling Triathlon on June 5th and The Mt. Beacon Duathlon ($1,000 winning prize!) on June 19th. The next big one is The NYC Triathlon on July 18th, which will be the next chance I have to qualify for my Pro card.

Thanks,

Justin