The Boilermaker 15-kilometer road race in Utica was canceled this week, the latest event on the running calendar to fall because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Elite runner Jake Andrews of Troy was supposed to compete in the Boilermaker next month, before it was rescheduled to September and finally called off. Last year, he was the top Capital Region finisher (25th) in the popular event, which draws an international field of more than 19,000 competitors.
“It has a big race feel in a small area,” Andrews said.
The Boilermaker is still offering a virtual event in September, when runners can run the distance and submit their time. That doesn’t interest Andrews, 26, an RPI graduate who competed in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February.
“I enjoy racing people and, yeah, without that, the virtual races don’t really do it for me,” Andrews said. “To be honest, I don’t care about finisher medals. I have thousands. So I like racing people, getting to the line and bumping elbows. So the virtual race doesn’t do much for me.”
The problem is there’s little else these days. His last race was the Olympic Trials in Atlanta, where he came in 133rd with a time of 2 hours, 29 minutes and 13 seconds on a hilly course with strong winds.
“The Trials was not a great race for me,” he said.
He figures he’s done until next year. He hopes to run in the 2021 Boston Marathon after that prestigious race was also nixed this spring because of COVID-19. He continues training in the hills of Troy, where he lives in a home near the RPI campus.
“Yeah, it’s definitely frustrating, but I will say, one of the things that’s a benefit of running, as most endurance athletes, I can train on my own,’’ Andrews said. “I enjoy running with people. I have some teammates I run with. But really, most of the training can be done completely on my own, so that’s not too difficult and as a runner, I enjoy running. It’s definitely a motivational drop-off when you know that, for the foreseeable future, you’re not going to be competing.”
With no races, Andrews can increase his training to 100 to 110 miles a week. But he’s tapered that recently because he’s renovating his kitchen. He’s a sales engineer for Trane, where he works with engineers and contractors, mostly on new construction and renovation.
He lives with his girlfriend, Shylah Weber, who is a competitive cyclist.
“I’d normally be in a training phase, but with the opportunity to be working from home, it’s kitchen time,” he said.
Andrews grew up in a running hotbed in the Syracuse area. He caught the running bug when he lapped his schoolmates while taking The President’s Challenge fitness test. He set his high school’s record in the mile and 3,200 meters.
At RPI, Andrews qualified for the NCAA cross country championships and was a two-time all-league and all-region selection. He continues to be coached by RPI cross country head coach John Lynch.
When will he get to race again? He pointed out there’s more to think about than just the runners.
“The people coming out of the crowd, people working the water stations, things that aren’t directly race-related,” he said. “Ten thousand runners picking up their packets the day before the race. How are you going to ask volunteers like, hey, they have to wear masks for this six-hour shift? There’s a risk for that, too.”
Whenever he does resume, he’ll try to better his personal best of 2:18:43 in the marathon, set in Sacramento last December. He's qualified to run his first Boston Marathon. Though the Olympics have been postponed until next year, Andrews doesn't expect the Marathon Trial will be re-run. He's aiming for the 2024 Summer Games.
“I’m trying to get back to the Trials and do better, as well as just continuing to run faster and see what I can do,’’ Andrews said.
msingelais@timesunion.com • @MarkSingelais
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Elite runner from Troy eager to compete again - Times Union
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