Coach Kiprunning Testimonial: Jed E.

Jed E. recently set a new PR in a 41-mile trail race. He also won the event. This is his testimonial about his experience training with Wilson Komen.

I wasn’t a runner until my late 30s, when I finished a 41-mile, one-day hiking challenge and set myself a goal to repeat it—and PR it—every year. Nine years later, I’m an ultrarunner who with Coach Wilson’s help just PR’d my main event for the sixth consecutive time.

A few months before my start this year, I knew I was in trouble. Just when I wanted to ramp up training, I was getting new pains in my legs. I decided to hire a coach for advice on my injuries, and to see how a professional training plan would differ from what I’d made up for myself in the past.

Coach Wilson admitted he had little experience coaching trail runners, and I got nervous when, weeks into training with him, my random aches turned to sharp shin splints and I had to cut back my training even more. He was great at recommending recovery techniques, and adjusting my training to keep me active and stable, but with four and then three weeks to go, I couldn’t shake the pain and started having doubts. In my training the year before, I’d done half a dozen training runs of 15-26 miles, but this year my longest run in the six weeks before my event was 11 miles, and my pace on short runs was slower as well.

I talked the situation over with Coach and we decided I should start but take it easy and be prepared to drop rather than injure myself worse. The day came, and it was 50 degrees, raining steadily, and the course was 41 miles of hills, mud and puddles. After the first 10 miles, I was right on pace and feeling good, and I never looked back. I finished first, 30 minutes faster than my last PR, and my legs had never felt better (after 41 miles, anyway).

It’s not just the tips on technique, products, training, and race plans that make Coach Wilson a great coach; it’s the mental side. I could never have done what I did this year without him—in fact I wouldn’t have tried. Now I’m looking forward to the next PR—and mixing it up with some shorter races too.

(See a complete list of trainee testimonials for Wilson Komen.)

Kiprunning Return: Run after the Women 5K

I have written elsewhere about the two ankle surgeries that I have undergone to repair a talar dome osteochondral defect in my right foot. I went down with this injury in July of 2018, and just as I started to make a comeback last fall, after my first (extensive) surgery, my foot exploded in pain once again, and I soon discovered that I required a second procedure, which I had in December 2021.

The recovery for the second procedure was nowhere near as lengthy as my first one, and thankfully, I was able to start running again in early March 2022.

It remains to be seen what the future will be for me. This is a major injury that has permanently reduced the range of motion in my right ankle, and I haven't run more than ten consecutive miles since the early summer of 2018, because my right leg has a lot of difficulty sustaining itself, it seems.

Today, though, I tested things out at the DC Road Runners Run after the Women 5K, the first race in their summer Bunion Derby Series.

I did okay!

Joseph P. Fisher finishing the 2022 Run after the Women 5K

20:13 for a 6:31 average pace.

To date, my longest run has only been six miles, and I have only run that distance twice, the second time being this morning.

I guess we will see how this goes.

Congratulations to all of the finishers.