I really wanted to come up with something better for this post, but I am just burnt out on politics right now. This is all I can muster. The following is what I have to say to the conservatives who think their message wasn't part of the problem during the course of the 2012 campaign:
"You stacked the deck with your Citizens United Supreme Court decision, limited the number of days people could vote in some states while fighting a phony war on voter fraud in others, your candidate had been running for president for seven years; all of this in your favor and you still couldn't win. Only 39% of whites voted for the President and it seemed like the rest of the country who are all a bit more peppery did. You had the money, the marketing, the advantage because the economy is still not "fixed".... maybe it is time to take a look in the mirror and figure out a better and more uniting message than the one you have been using for the last decade."
Truthfully, I hope both sides work together for a change to get something done. That would be a sight to see.
In other news, I had the distinct pleasure of driving to Charlotte, NC on Black Friday for one of my favorite cross-country meets: Footlocker South Regional. It had been eleven years since I last raced in the McAlpine Greenway Park, but every single step was exactly as I remembered it. This wasn't a completely self serving trip though as I took a handful of members of the More Otters track club to go after some fast times to close out the season. The result? Two PRs and three 2nd best times ever. Not a bad way to end the XC season. Three of the kids I took to Footlocker have been under my coaching tutelage since I started in fall of 2008. I don't know what this team looks like without them and the other members of their senior class. They all started when they were in the 8th grade and I have been so very lucky to have been a part of their lives. They are really special kids, and smart as all get out, too. The colleges they are considering: Georgetown, Catholic, FSU, Northwestern, ND, Indiana, Wake, UNC, etc. This train she's bound for glory...ain't she?
It definitely is and it's because of them. I am a lucky guy for getting to surround myself with smart, young adults like them.
Until next time, Happy Running...
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
To any undecideds, I say four more years
The Greater Fool is actually an economic term. It's a patsy. For the rest of us to profit we need a Greater Fool. Someone who will buy long and sell short. Most people spend their lives trying not to be the Greater Fool. We toss him the hot potato. We dive for his seat when the music stops. The Greater Fool is someone with the perfect blend of self-delusion and ego to think that he can succeed where others have failed. This whole country was made by Greater Fools. --from Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom
A funny thing happened on the way to the office. As I sat waiting for a green light, the passenger in the truck next to me got my attention. Thinking something might be wrong, I unzipped my window to the very original joke of, "I thought you would want to know: someone put an Obama sticker on your car." Never being one of witty retort (maybe I am just too analytically inclined), all I could come up with was the dry and very real truth: "Yeah. That was me." Clearly out of pithy one-liners, he closed with a "Thought you'd need to know." Since that happened Saturday morning I have spent the vast majority of my time letting all the things I should have said float into my consciousness. Even during the rest of my drive (while I was replaying Kermit the Frog and Seth Myers's "Really?!?!" sketch from Weekend Update last year), I was coming up with things to say; full of snark, mean-spirited, humorous (at least in my own mind). But, what I should have said was very simply, "It's President Obama."
I put a lot of this new and disrespectful trend of saying our leaders' names colloquially on young liberals during President Bush's time in office. Maybe they didn't know any better as this was the first time they felt they needed to stand up and be counted against an administration whose views they did not share. That does not matter, though... He is the President, and you are to speak of him and the office with respect. While liberals might have used President Bush's last name in ignorance and without respect, it seems to me that many conservatives today (particularly those who identify with the Tea Party movement) use President Obama's name with a combination of disrespect and hatred that simply does not belong in our American discourse. The last time, I checked government should be by the people and for the people, and when your political party wins or loses you treat the other side with the respect you would like to be treated with... I think there is some sort of Golden Rule about that, but in full disclosure it has been a while since I set foot inside a church. Either way, my President is your President too, and there is nothing or no one from whom we need to "take our country back" unless we have been invaded by Canada overnight--in which case, let's run those LaBatt Blue-drinking tundra-trudgers back across the border.
In case you are arriving at this one man show late, here is some information on my politics you might need to know: when I first became interested in politics I would describe myself as a conservative. Once President Bush had our country's sons and daughters invade Iraq for no good reason, I started to see things a little differently. Do not think that I am some anti-war hippie (I am admittedly a pacifist, but that is neither here nor there and there is a big, bad world out there in which not everyone shares our goals of peace and prosperity); I have been for the War in Afghanistan since about o-nine-hundred on September 11th, 2001. I will be for it until the job is done for lack of a better word, and if you are not sure why you can look up who gave the Taliban their guns in the first place. That said, if we keep getting involved in nation-building (also for lack of a better word) and then leave when everyone gets bored of it, we will have a couple of more Afghanistans on our hands. Anyway, while I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative, I have never let a political party tell me who to vote for, nor will I ever vote for a party alone--I vote for a person. If you would like some examples, here you are: I love Senator Rubio (though I voted for Governor Crist because we need a few more I's next to names in Washington). I can't stand Senator Reid. I love the President, but I fear Congresswoman Pelosi with her crazy eyes. I will never belong to a political party. I am more than one thing, and I do not feel compelled to paint myself with such a simple, broad brush of certainty when the world is way too complex for one side or the other.
"Now, let me be clear," I will be the first person to say that I drank the Kool-aid like nobody's business four years ago during then Senator Obama's campaign for the White House. There was a style and tone to his rhetoric that I think this country needed then and I still think it needs today. But, as so many on the right have been quick to point out, rhetoric on a campaign trail does not convert to action and success inside the beltway. He said he was going to throw out special interests and lobbyists, close down Gitmo, balance the budget, reform our immigration policy and enforcement, and re-shape the way Washington does business. Obviously, we are still waiting for a few of these things to happen, but this is the real world and we can't expect everything to get done at once. For what it is worth, I do believe he will get more of these things done in a second term. And, while so many on the right would say nanny-nanny-boo-boo to me because this President's "socialist policies" (really?!?) have failed, I would say to them that having lefty policies is not why they see this Presidency as a failure. It is because he got into office with a Democratic majority in Congress and a referendum from the country to fix it all at once and what did he do when he got there?!? He ran to the middle of the road. Then, instead of compromising and governing with the other side, he allowed the Democratically-controlled Congress to take the ball and run with it flushing all his good will from the 2008 campaign down the toilet. They (Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi) basically told the American people and any Republican representatives that "we are in charge so get used to it." In response, you have the rise of the Tea Party and elected officials like Senator McConnell who actually said that "our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term."
Well, at least he said President Obama, but how can we expect the President to meet any conservative in the middle with an attitude like that?
When you are an elected official you have a duty, a privilege, and an honor of working with other elected officials to find common ground. Maybe one of these centuries that will happen again, but there seems to be a tone of hate in our discourse that was not always present. The people on the left seem so disrespectful of the right, while the right seems so angry about every little thing out there. Have you listened to any conservative talk radio? I do not know how those guys stay so angry all the time. I am sure it is just as bad on Air America, but I don't get that on my radio dial so I'll just have to assume it is. It is all just really sad to me how little governing actually occurs these days.
Well, I am supposed to be using this time to explain why I think four more years of President Obama's policies would be a good thing for you, but that is not necessarily what I think. I don't necessarily think that his policies would be good for me and my family for the next four years. That said, I do think the President will do a better job for the country (all 300 million of us) and the world (all 7 billion of us). I feel that way because we are in this together. We live in a national and global community where we can give a hand up rather than a hand out. If that means some of us have to pay a little bit more so more kids can go to college or more workers have bridges to build, so be it. If that means we can drop a few more cases of food into a war zone (along with our guns when needed) then I am for that, too. And, one day when I am rich (we can hope right?) I plan on paying a little extra in taxes to pay for the things that everyone needs, because that is the only way it is going to work.
Hope & Change and big ideas take time to work. They take a lot longer than four years to right a ship especially in a society that wants (and can usually get) everything to happen instantaneously. Patience is a virtue, and I feel this President has earned our patience while he continues the work of this great nation both here and abroad. President Roosevelt's policies didn't work overnight either, and President Obama's may not come to fruition until he is out of office; however, they can lay the ground work for a 21st Century that is better for all of us: the 100%. That is why he is my President (and yours), and I hope this Greater Fool continues to be for the next four years as well.
President Barack Obama remains the right man at the right time.
A funny thing happened on the way to the office. As I sat waiting for a green light, the passenger in the truck next to me got my attention. Thinking something might be wrong, I unzipped my window to the very original joke of, "I thought you would want to know: someone put an Obama sticker on your car." Never being one of witty retort (maybe I am just too analytically inclined), all I could come up with was the dry and very real truth: "Yeah. That was me." Clearly out of pithy one-liners, he closed with a "Thought you'd need to know." Since that happened Saturday morning I have spent the vast majority of my time letting all the things I should have said float into my consciousness. Even during the rest of my drive (while I was replaying Kermit the Frog and Seth Myers's "Really?!?!" sketch from Weekend Update last year), I was coming up with things to say; full of snark, mean-spirited, humorous (at least in my own mind). But, what I should have said was very simply, "It's President Obama."
I put a lot of this new and disrespectful trend of saying our leaders' names colloquially on young liberals during President Bush's time in office. Maybe they didn't know any better as this was the first time they felt they needed to stand up and be counted against an administration whose views they did not share. That does not matter, though... He is the President, and you are to speak of him and the office with respect. While liberals might have used President Bush's last name in ignorance and without respect, it seems to me that many conservatives today (particularly those who identify with the Tea Party movement) use President Obama's name with a combination of disrespect and hatred that simply does not belong in our American discourse. The last time, I checked government should be by the people and for the people, and when your political party wins or loses you treat the other side with the respect you would like to be treated with... I think there is some sort of Golden Rule about that, but in full disclosure it has been a while since I set foot inside a church. Either way, my President is your President too, and there is nothing or no one from whom we need to "take our country back" unless we have been invaded by Canada overnight--in which case, let's run those LaBatt Blue-drinking tundra-trudgers back across the border.
In case you are arriving at this one man show late, here is some information on my politics you might need to know: when I first became interested in politics I would describe myself as a conservative. Once President Bush had our country's sons and daughters invade Iraq for no good reason, I started to see things a little differently. Do not think that I am some anti-war hippie (I am admittedly a pacifist, but that is neither here nor there and there is a big, bad world out there in which not everyone shares our goals of peace and prosperity); I have been for the War in Afghanistan since about o-nine-hundred on September 11th, 2001. I will be for it until the job is done for lack of a better word, and if you are not sure why you can look up who gave the Taliban their guns in the first place. That said, if we keep getting involved in nation-building (also for lack of a better word) and then leave when everyone gets bored of it, we will have a couple of more Afghanistans on our hands. Anyway, while I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative, I have never let a political party tell me who to vote for, nor will I ever vote for a party alone--I vote for a person. If you would like some examples, here you are: I love Senator Rubio (though I voted for Governor Crist because we need a few more I's next to names in Washington). I can't stand Senator Reid. I love the President, but I fear Congresswoman Pelosi with her crazy eyes. I will never belong to a political party. I am more than one thing, and I do not feel compelled to paint myself with such a simple, broad brush of certainty when the world is way too complex for one side or the other.
"Now, let me be clear," I will be the first person to say that I drank the Kool-aid like nobody's business four years ago during then Senator Obama's campaign for the White House. There was a style and tone to his rhetoric that I think this country needed then and I still think it needs today. But, as so many on the right have been quick to point out, rhetoric on a campaign trail does not convert to action and success inside the beltway. He said he was going to throw out special interests and lobbyists, close down Gitmo, balance the budget, reform our immigration policy and enforcement, and re-shape the way Washington does business. Obviously, we are still waiting for a few of these things to happen, but this is the real world and we can't expect everything to get done at once. For what it is worth, I do believe he will get more of these things done in a second term. And, while so many on the right would say nanny-nanny-boo-boo to me because this President's "socialist policies" (really?!?) have failed, I would say to them that having lefty policies is not why they see this Presidency as a failure. It is because he got into office with a Democratic majority in Congress and a referendum from the country to fix it all at once and what did he do when he got there?!? He ran to the middle of the road. Then, instead of compromising and governing with the other side, he allowed the Democratically-controlled Congress to take the ball and run with it flushing all his good will from the 2008 campaign down the toilet. They (Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi) basically told the American people and any Republican representatives that "we are in charge so get used to it." In response, you have the rise of the Tea Party and elected officials like Senator McConnell who actually said that "our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term."
Well, at least he said President Obama, but how can we expect the President to meet any conservative in the middle with an attitude like that?
When you are an elected official you have a duty, a privilege, and an honor of working with other elected officials to find common ground. Maybe one of these centuries that will happen again, but there seems to be a tone of hate in our discourse that was not always present. The people on the left seem so disrespectful of the right, while the right seems so angry about every little thing out there. Have you listened to any conservative talk radio? I do not know how those guys stay so angry all the time. I am sure it is just as bad on Air America, but I don't get that on my radio dial so I'll just have to assume it is. It is all just really sad to me how little governing actually occurs these days.
Well, I am supposed to be using this time to explain why I think four more years of President Obama's policies would be a good thing for you, but that is not necessarily what I think. I don't necessarily think that his policies would be good for me and my family for the next four years. That said, I do think the President will do a better job for the country (all 300 million of us) and the world (all 7 billion of us). I feel that way because we are in this together. We live in a national and global community where we can give a hand up rather than a hand out. If that means some of us have to pay a little bit more so more kids can go to college or more workers have bridges to build, so be it. If that means we can drop a few more cases of food into a war zone (along with our guns when needed) then I am for that, too. And, one day when I am rich (we can hope right?) I plan on paying a little extra in taxes to pay for the things that everyone needs, because that is the only way it is going to work.
Hope & Change and big ideas take time to work. They take a lot longer than four years to right a ship especially in a society that wants (and can usually get) everything to happen instantaneously. Patience is a virtue, and I feel this President has earned our patience while he continues the work of this great nation both here and abroad. President Roosevelt's policies didn't work overnight either, and President Obama's may not come to fruition until he is out of office; however, they can lay the ground work for a 21st Century that is better for all of us: the 100%. That is why he is my President (and yours), and I hope this Greater Fool continues to be for the next four years as well.
President Barack Obama remains the right man at the right time.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Training, the BK yesteryear, & the Maclay today
Sorry to my three readers about the lack of posts. It has been a long transition from summer running to fall running, from the conventions to the debates, from coaching summer training to coaching fall racing, and from vacation to working back overtime at Starbucks. I have a litany of excuses (or reasons) for not writing but I will not bore you with them more than I already have.
My training has been going well after a small tussle with pre-patella bursitis last month. I am back running 5 flat pace in my intervals and alternating each week with a long run of 10-11 miles or a tempo run at the St. Mark's TH. I feel like another month of this training I will be ready for a big PR at the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon in December. I plan on upping the long runs each week until I reach an hour and forty minutes on the clock. Since the Maclay kids set a trend of forgetting their watches at practice we have had to give out push-ups to fix the problem. The coaches do them as well so I have taken to doing an hundred push-ups a day to make myself stronger, too. They have never been my strong suit so it is good to crank them out now on a regular basis.
Last night, I took the JV Marauders to my alma mater in Jacksonville. Bishop Kenny High School plays host each year to the North Florida JV Championships. The more things change the more things stay exactly the same. Twelve years ago at this meet, I ran to a PR of 17:01 (3 miles) to make it as an alternate for the varsity team that went on to win the Florida state meet in 2000. Pretty sure I remember every step of that race. I told the Maclay kids that it was probably the best race I have ever run, and they responded with a bunch of hard efforts themselves on the stadium course by the St. John's River. I also got to see two of my best friends (and fellow BKCC alums) Mike Zimmer who lives and works in Jacksonville and Kevin Curran who teaches and coaches at Bishop Kenny. It was also good to see meet timer extraordinaire Stuart Toomey from 1st Place Sports who I have not seen since before his wedding last year.
Always good to see old friends.
It looks like the Bishop Kenny staff did a great job with their meet, because all my kids could talk about on the way home to Tallahassee was how they want to go back next year. Admittedly some of them should be on varsity next year, and they know that. Any high school coach will tell you that it is the little things season after season and year after year that make the difference between making a varsity team or remaining on JV. Talent only gets you so far; you have to want it. Everyday. I hope the Marauders of Maclay continue to realize this and buy in whole heartily to the system. If they do, the ceiling will be quite high.
Look for a post about InDecision2012 in the next week from me. I am sure you will never guess who I am voting for... Thanks for reading and Happy Running!
My training has been going well after a small tussle with pre-patella bursitis last month. I am back running 5 flat pace in my intervals and alternating each week with a long run of 10-11 miles or a tempo run at the St. Mark's TH. I feel like another month of this training I will be ready for a big PR at the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon in December. I plan on upping the long runs each week until I reach an hour and forty minutes on the clock. Since the Maclay kids set a trend of forgetting their watches at practice we have had to give out push-ups to fix the problem. The coaches do them as well so I have taken to doing an hundred push-ups a day to make myself stronger, too. They have never been my strong suit so it is good to crank them out now on a regular basis.
Last night, I took the JV Marauders to my alma mater in Jacksonville. Bishop Kenny High School plays host each year to the North Florida JV Championships. The more things change the more things stay exactly the same. Twelve years ago at this meet, I ran to a PR of 17:01 (3 miles) to make it as an alternate for the varsity team that went on to win the Florida state meet in 2000. Pretty sure I remember every step of that race. I told the Maclay kids that it was probably the best race I have ever run, and they responded with a bunch of hard efforts themselves on the stadium course by the St. John's River. I also got to see two of my best friends (and fellow BKCC alums) Mike Zimmer who lives and works in Jacksonville and Kevin Curran who teaches and coaches at Bishop Kenny. It was also good to see meet timer extraordinaire Stuart Toomey from 1st Place Sports who I have not seen since before his wedding last year.
Always good to see old friends.
It looks like the Bishop Kenny staff did a great job with their meet, because all my kids could talk about on the way home to Tallahassee was how they want to go back next year. Admittedly some of them should be on varsity next year, and they know that. Any high school coach will tell you that it is the little things season after season and year after year that make the difference between making a varsity team or remaining on JV. Talent only gets you so far; you have to want it. Everyday. I hope the Marauders of Maclay continue to realize this and buy in whole heartily to the system. If they do, the ceiling will be quite high.
Look for a post about InDecision2012 in the next week from me. I am sure you will never guess who I am voting for... Thanks for reading and Happy Running!
Friday, September 7, 2012
Running Independently: Getting Caught Up...
Running Independently: Getting Caught Up...: Well, I am way behind on some of the topics I have wanted to write about over the last month. I have so much to choose from as both the RNC ...
Getting Caught Up...
Well, I am way behind on some of the topics I have wanted to write about over the last month. I have so much to choose from as both the RNC and the DNC have given me enough to roll my eyes about for the next two months. I'll get to election coverage in a few weeks, in short here is what I gathered from the conventions: both like hard work, Republicans like big money, Democrats like loud cheering and level playing fields, Republicans have a lot of white people in their audience, and Democrats aren't sold on God or something having to do with Jerusalem that I do not really understand. As always, I ask where is the viable independent candidate in the room?
It takes time to change a culture, but it is possible if you are willing to work for it.
This was the scene in many Americans' homes last month as Galen Rupp and Leo Manzano brought home silver medals at the London Olympics. I repeat. American distance runners medaled at the Olympics. Those two had me smiling for the course of three weeks--that is all I wanted to talk about with anyone. Americans out-kicking Africans is news worthy. Not "Sports Section" news worthy; it is "we interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast" news worthy. With a 400m to go in the 10,000m I say to my wife, "He (Rupp) can medal, he can medal!" With 100m to go: "He can win! OMFG!!!! Go. RUN! GO GO GO. COME ON, GALEN!!! AHHHHHH!!!!" Both of us screaming and jumping up and down, as he and his training partner Mo Farah of Great Britain go 1-2. I have been a fan of distance running since the Spring of 1999 the season of my first track and field campaign. Since that time I can't recall a moment where I was prouder to be an American distance runner. Rupp and Manzano put us back on the map. Then you see workouts like this, and you see that the culture itself is changing. There are coaches, athletes, and new media out there to promote the sport and put American distance running back where it belongs: as part of the larger sports discussion.
There is a part of "Once A Runner" where the protagonist Quenton Cassidy is talking about winning on the world's biggest stage and how everything has to go so right for it to happen. "You have to be so lucky after you are already so good." I am paraphrasing now (as two of my runners have borrowed my copies of the book), but he says it is like a parent saying their child is going to win an Oscar one day after they did so well in their 2nd grade play; Yeah, they just might, but it sounds kind of silly to even talk about, right? Just like a decade ago it was silly to talk about US distance running in the same breath as the Ethiopians or Kenyans. The term "Top American finisher" worked its way into the lexicon, and that is not what you want to hear ever.
Then the Big Three came along and the culture started changing...
It was December 2000 when Alan Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Ryan Hall toed the line together at the Footlocker XC Championships. I was there as a high school junior and watched it happen. It felt different. They went 1-2-3; champions from their respective corners of the country. American born talents. Twelve years later, Webb has retired as the fastest American miler in history. Ritz finished 13th in the Olympic 10,000m (his third Olympiad), and while Hall DNF'd the marathon he is still the most consistent and fastest marathoner in the United States and takes the pace to the competition no matter what the race is.
It takes times to change a culture. It took time for the general public to fall out of love with track and field and it will take time for them to fall back in love with it. But Olympics like this certainly help. I still believe it is possible, and it might just take a distance runner on a Wheaties box to do it, but again these things take time. It takes time to convince the athletes you coach that they are as good as the dreams they have for themselves. It takes time for them to realize that they can be the best runner on their team, in their city, or in the state. As a coach it is nice to have distance runners bringing home Olympic-sized bling to the United States, that way I can tell my kids that it is absolutely possible to do if you are willing to work for it.
It takes time to change a culture, but it is possible if you are willing to work for it.
This was the scene in many Americans' homes last month as Galen Rupp and Leo Manzano brought home silver medals at the London Olympics. I repeat. American distance runners medaled at the Olympics. Those two had me smiling for the course of three weeks--that is all I wanted to talk about with anyone. Americans out-kicking Africans is news worthy. Not "Sports Section" news worthy; it is "we interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast" news worthy. With a 400m to go in the 10,000m I say to my wife, "He (Rupp) can medal, he can medal!" With 100m to go: "He can win! OMFG!!!! Go. RUN! GO GO GO. COME ON, GALEN!!! AHHHHHH!!!!" Both of us screaming and jumping up and down, as he and his training partner Mo Farah of Great Britain go 1-2. I have been a fan of distance running since the Spring of 1999 the season of my first track and field campaign. Since that time I can't recall a moment where I was prouder to be an American distance runner. Rupp and Manzano put us back on the map. Then you see workouts like this, and you see that the culture itself is changing. There are coaches, athletes, and new media out there to promote the sport and put American distance running back where it belongs: as part of the larger sports discussion.
There is a part of "Once A Runner" where the protagonist Quenton Cassidy is talking about winning on the world's biggest stage and how everything has to go so right for it to happen. "You have to be so lucky after you are already so good." I am paraphrasing now (as two of my runners have borrowed my copies of the book), but he says it is like a parent saying their child is going to win an Oscar one day after they did so well in their 2nd grade play; Yeah, they just might, but it sounds kind of silly to even talk about, right? Just like a decade ago it was silly to talk about US distance running in the same breath as the Ethiopians or Kenyans. The term "Top American finisher" worked its way into the lexicon, and that is not what you want to hear ever.
Then the Big Three came along and the culture started changing...
It was December 2000 when Alan Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Ryan Hall toed the line together at the Footlocker XC Championships. I was there as a high school junior and watched it happen. It felt different. They went 1-2-3; champions from their respective corners of the country. American born talents. Twelve years later, Webb has retired as the fastest American miler in history. Ritz finished 13th in the Olympic 10,000m (his third Olympiad), and while Hall DNF'd the marathon he is still the most consistent and fastest marathoner in the United States and takes the pace to the competition no matter what the race is.
It takes times to change a culture. It took time for the general public to fall out of love with track and field and it will take time for them to fall back in love with it. But Olympics like this certainly help. I still believe it is possible, and it might just take a distance runner on a Wheaties box to do it, but again these things take time. It takes time to convince the athletes you coach that they are as good as the dreams they have for themselves. It takes time for them to realize that they can be the best runner on their team, in their city, or in the state. As a coach it is nice to have distance runners bringing home Olympic-sized bling to the United States, that way I can tell my kids that it is absolutely possible to do if you are willing to work for it.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
A Runner's Nod to Palahniuk
So, you let
the waiting ensue. You’ve applied for Grad school. You’ve gotten engaged.
You’re life is literally about to start. But, there is always a “but.” Grad
school (if you get in of course) is six months away. The wedding is now less
than four (holy the hell did that get
here so fast?), and you’re still working your college job with no confirmable
end in sight. What do you do? You consider your options. What do you do if you
don’t get in? What if you’re stuck working a chimp job until your forty? Then,
you start to consider your past, and this is where you start to worry: the
waiting ceases and the questions begin.
This is
what they sound like: If I had double majored in English, would I still be
working at this Mecca
of a Latte Machine? Would I be asked by people if these donuts were made fresh
this morning? You wouldn’t be forced to quell the little voice inside your head
that told you to respond “Yes and if you come back tomorrow I’ll be sure to
throw you into the scorching Krispie Kreme conveyer belt we keep in the 10 x 10 foot back room we have!”
You ponder: if you can do anything with an English degree, why can you do
nothing with a Theatre degree? They’re not that far apart from one another. If
you had majored in Religion would you have started one of your own by now? Why
are you forced to wait another three months before you hear back from
Admissions? You guarantee yourself that no one else could have applied before
you. You ask some more. If hell exists can I just go there now while I wait for
these people to stop dragging their frickin’ feet all damn day? You’d wonder
why your boss’s boss drags his damn feet all the time, informing you in
November that after the holidays you’ll get promoted, and then when that passes
he tells you February. Then you look at your watch and it says that it’s
already the 19th day of the 2nd month, so don’t hold your
breath on that one either.
This is
when the tartan oval comes into play. Not familiar with this medieval torture
device are you? Well, let’s put it this way: the Spanish Inquisition would have
preferred this to the Iron Maiden. But this is no ordinary form of suffering.
This is self-prescribed gut wrenching interval work, my friends. 8 sexy lanes
of pure misery set against the backdrop of empty stadium seating that teases of
the roars of the crowd come May! Twelve 400s, sixteen 300s, 8 by 800 meters . One mile
under 5, followed by 2 twelves, 2 eights, and 2 fours. To hell with questions
now! Your mind has no time for such things; it is trying to figure out the best
way to get oxygen to your limbs because the normal way isn’t working. Questions
be damned! You have a 400 to run under 70 followed by a 50 meter turn and burn.
Who gives a crap about grad school!?!
Then your
mind gets in on the game. You can’t do this anymore it says. You haven’t caught
your breath from the last calf splitting interval. This is when you start to
talk back. You no longer ignore your mind like you have been your body. These are my legs not yours you scream so get used to it! Tomorrow you get a
nice long 14 miler of recovery run. Let me have my time with this red oval.
I’ll scratch my own name into it with the pounding of long spikes towards the
depths of hell. Satan himself will go wide-eyed when he feels the heat coming
off these teardrop thighs. You have no time for your insolent mind’s petty
remarks.
The smell
of track season is in the air. The cool Panhandle Winter trying to hold onto
you, but you already begin to feel the warmth of Spring on your shoulders. You
know there is a PR waiting for you come the summer; you don’t put a time to it
yet. It’s not ready, but you feel it nonetheless. This one will be worth
waiting for, because it doesn’t require you to wait on someone else. This is
your time, your sweat. This is your tartan oval. This is your 80-mile week.
The wait is
for the sedentary and their pedestrian motor vehicles.
Questions
be damned.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
To the three of you who might be concerned, I have not forgotten about my blogging obligations. I have been very busy at work as well as with running & coaching. I have lots to say about TeamUSA, #NBCfail, and the London Olympics, as well as some thoughts on my team's trip to running camp last month. The cross-country season is right around the corner and I hope to keep you guys posted on everything that is going on there, too.
Until then, Happy Running!
Until then, Happy Running!
Friday, July 6, 2012
An American Medalist in London
A week ago I was all jazzed because Galen Rupp closed in 53 seconds out-kicking Bernard Lagat for the win in the 5000 meter run at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. I thought then that he would have a shot at getting a medal in London in a month....Now? Maybe in the 10,000m, Galen. In Paris today, Dejen Gebremeskel closed in 54 seconds but ran a world leading time and 36 seconds faster than Rupp did in an admittedly more tactical affair in Eugene. The race in London will surely be tactical too, but it will come down to who puts themselves in the best position with 400m to go. If Rupp or Bernard Lagat or Lopez Lomong do not put themselves in third with a quarter left they are going to be like Bumbalough was last week--sure you can hang on but you sure as hell ain't passing anyone. Enjoy the view from 4th place.
Like I said, Rupp has a better chance in the 10,000m. He and his training partner Dathan Ritzenhein are of the age and experience now that when it is time to race they will be ready. It also does not hurt that they workout with the favorite to take home gold in the 5 or the 10: Mo Farah of Great Britain. It is way too early for me to make any predictions but I will state the obvious that these Olympic Games will be a sight to see for fans of Team USA. I like the chances of Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan, and Desi Davila in the marathon as well. The success of Team USA would have some nice symmetry since it will have been a little over a decade since the turning point (a race I was very fortunate to witness in person). Almost all of Team USA (at least on the men's side) have Hall, Ritz, and Alan Webb to thank for re-energizing a youth that had drifted to soccer, basketball, and Xbox360.
I still see it being another Olympic cycle before America gets gold in a distance event, but it is time for someone to crack the top three. I guess this is why we run the races...
Happy running everyone.
Like I said, Rupp has a better chance in the 10,000m. He and his training partner Dathan Ritzenhein are of the age and experience now that when it is time to race they will be ready. It also does not hurt that they workout with the favorite to take home gold in the 5 or the 10: Mo Farah of Great Britain. It is way too early for me to make any predictions but I will state the obvious that these Olympic Games will be a sight to see for fans of Team USA. I like the chances of Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan, and Desi Davila in the marathon as well. The success of Team USA would have some nice symmetry since it will have been a little over a decade since the turning point (a race I was very fortunate to witness in person). Almost all of Team USA (at least on the men's side) have Hall, Ritz, and Alan Webb to thank for re-energizing a youth that had drifted to soccer, basketball, and Xbox360.
I still see it being another Olympic cycle before America gets gold in a distance event, but it is time for someone to crack the top three. I guess this is why we run the races...
Happy running everyone.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Bring Back the Mile
Everyone in the country should know who Bernard Lagat is.
Everyone in the country knows who LeBron James, Payton Manning, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, and Michael Johnson are. They are the best at their craft: forward, quarterback, swimmer, sprinter. Lagat? I don't know. Alan Webb? Maybe. Jim Ryun? Steve Scott? Vaguely. Everyone in the country should know these names.
The Mile should be as easily celebrated as the 100 Meter Dash for the casual sports fan. It is four minutes long and fits into most attention spans of the American couch potato. It is more dramatic than stock car racing, more exciting than golf, and not as time-consuming as any of the Big Four team sports. As a student, athlete, and coach of track & field of course I am going to have these feelings, but I am also the guy who can sit happily and watch a marathon or 25-lapper on the track and not get bored so I get pissed when they go to commercial in any event longer than four laps. I'm an adult so I appreciate that not everyone is going to share my feelings on the 10,000 meter, but surely we can all get together for less than four minutes and watch the Mile, right?
Alan Webb had a chance to bring the country back to the Mile in 2001. ESPN broke away from SportsCenter then to show his attempt to break Jim Ryun's national high school record in the Mile. He did so. To my knowledge, ESPN hasn't done that since and instead has broken away from Lagat winning distance races to go to an attempt at a no-hitter a few years ago. I swore off ESPN for a whole month after that I was so pissed. I know a whole month--I really showed them.
Back to Webb... he had his chance. It has been a topsy-turvy decade for him. He went to Michigan and then left that great situation for reasons passing understanding. He had his best season ever in 2007 setting the American Record in the Mile, and then followed that up in 2008 with one of his worst seasons. He has gone through coaches and training partners and is still kicking. He is trying to make it to London this week in either the 1500m or the 5000m. I don't expect him to make it in either event. Anyway, he had his chance.
Why isn't the Mile the premier event in track and field? How is it not celebrated by sports fans and casual fans alike? Part of it is our doing... in a lot of states, high school associations run the 1600m instead of the Full Mile (1609 meters). On the world stage they run the Metric Mile (1500m) and the 3000m instead of the 3200m or a true Two-mile. Confused yet? In college indoors they run a full mile but outdoors they run the 1500m at championship meets. Pick a distance and go with it, people! In this regard, I feel we (the USA) should just do ourown thing: The Mile. I feel that is the most commonly asked question of a runner from a non-runner: "How fast do you run the Mile?" I usually just tell them my 1600m PR and not bother with the global-political sports landscape.
Another issue is coverage. NBC, ESPN, etc. are great... for televising sports that do well on television: football, basketball, and even soccer is getting good pub. Track just doesn't work on television to me (it can it just doesn't with the team sports' suits running the show). It does work very well online though with knowledgeable people and analysts who care deeply about our sport. Think Ryan Fenton & Flotrack.org, Doctor Bob & distancepreps.com, and Jason Byrne & Milesplit.com. When these guys get the chance to be the central body for covering our favorite events in the sport they knock it out of the park (forgive the baseball analogy). When I see that NBC or ESPN has the video rights to an event I groan because I know the coverage is going to be piss-poor to lukewarm at best.
If these guys had the sort of power (and probably more importantly money) to get the rights to cover our sport 24/7, it could go a long way to getting people more interested in our sport. Even if it didn't, maybe more average people would be able to pick Lagat out of a line-up...or at the very least be able to not only watch but really enjoy the Mile.
Everyone in the country knows who LeBron James, Payton Manning, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, and Michael Johnson are. They are the best at their craft: forward, quarterback, swimmer, sprinter. Lagat? I don't know. Alan Webb? Maybe. Jim Ryun? Steve Scott? Vaguely. Everyone in the country should know these names.
The Mile should be as easily celebrated as the 100 Meter Dash for the casual sports fan. It is four minutes long and fits into most attention spans of the American couch potato. It is more dramatic than stock car racing, more exciting than golf, and not as time-consuming as any of the Big Four team sports. As a student, athlete, and coach of track & field of course I am going to have these feelings, but I am also the guy who can sit happily and watch a marathon or 25-lapper on the track and not get bored so I get pissed when they go to commercial in any event longer than four laps. I'm an adult so I appreciate that not everyone is going to share my feelings on the 10,000 meter, but surely we can all get together for less than four minutes and watch the Mile, right?
Alan Webb had a chance to bring the country back to the Mile in 2001. ESPN broke away from SportsCenter then to show his attempt to break Jim Ryun's national high school record in the Mile. He did so. To my knowledge, ESPN hasn't done that since and instead has broken away from Lagat winning distance races to go to an attempt at a no-hitter a few years ago. I swore off ESPN for a whole month after that I was so pissed. I know a whole month--I really showed them.
Back to Webb... he had his chance. It has been a topsy-turvy decade for him. He went to Michigan and then left that great situation for reasons passing understanding. He had his best season ever in 2007 setting the American Record in the Mile, and then followed that up in 2008 with one of his worst seasons. He has gone through coaches and training partners and is still kicking. He is trying to make it to London this week in either the 1500m or the 5000m. I don't expect him to make it in either event. Anyway, he had his chance.
Why isn't the Mile the premier event in track and field? How is it not celebrated by sports fans and casual fans alike? Part of it is our doing... in a lot of states, high school associations run the 1600m instead of the Full Mile (1609 meters). On the world stage they run the Metric Mile (1500m) and the 3000m instead of the 3200m or a true Two-mile. Confused yet? In college indoors they run a full mile but outdoors they run the 1500m at championship meets. Pick a distance and go with it, people! In this regard, I feel we (the USA) should just do ourown thing: The Mile. I feel that is the most commonly asked question of a runner from a non-runner: "How fast do you run the Mile?" I usually just tell them my 1600m PR and not bother with the global-political sports landscape.
Another issue is coverage. NBC, ESPN, etc. are great... for televising sports that do well on television: football, basketball, and even soccer is getting good pub. Track just doesn't work on television to me (it can it just doesn't with the team sports' suits running the show). It does work very well online though with knowledgeable people and analysts who care deeply about our sport. Think Ryan Fenton & Flotrack.org, Doctor Bob & distancepreps.com, and Jason Byrne & Milesplit.com. When these guys get the chance to be the central body for covering our favorite events in the sport they knock it out of the park (forgive the baseball analogy). When I see that NBC or ESPN has the video rights to an event I groan because I know the coverage is going to be piss-poor to lukewarm at best.
If these guys had the sort of power (and probably more importantly money) to get the rights to cover our sport 24/7, it could go a long way to getting people more interested in our sport. Even if it didn't, maybe more average people would be able to pick Lagat out of a line-up...or at the very least be able to not only watch but really enjoy the Mile.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
All men are created equal...
That is to say no matter to whom you might be attracted.
A Federal appeals court recently overturned a part of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act of 1996) to the delight of many progressives, liberals, and people such as myself who do not care what people do with their private lives. This decision that you can read about in the USA Today is really just a precursor to this debate moving up to the Supreme Court. The sooner the better. The more this topic is discussed and debated in public the better; that is how progress is made even if there are a few setbacks along the way.
It comes down to this: we live in a vast, strange world where governments, small businesses, corporations, churches, families, friends, individuals are all trying to have a say in the way we should be living. A lot of that is negative influence, a lot of it is positive. In a world where so many people are trying to pull us in so many different directions with malicious or benevolent intent, why should we be legislating against something as basic and essential as love? Healthcare, foreign affairs, the deficit, and education are important issues that deserve healthy debate.
Love between two consenting adults deserves admiration from each of us; nothing more, nothing less.
A Federal appeals court recently overturned a part of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act of 1996) to the delight of many progressives, liberals, and people such as myself who do not care what people do with their private lives. This decision that you can read about in the USA Today is really just a precursor to this debate moving up to the Supreme Court. The sooner the better. The more this topic is discussed and debated in public the better; that is how progress is made even if there are a few setbacks along the way.
Gay Marriage is a common sense issue to me. I just do not understand how so many people get nervous with the idea of two men or two women living next door having the same basic human rights as my wife and I. William M. Welch reported in his article that "because of the law [DOMA], same-sex married couples in states where such unions are permitted are denied federal benefits including Social Security protections and access to family health coverage as well as joint tax-filing status."
Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere the last time I checked.
When Amendment 2 was on the Florida Ballot in 2008 (for the record I voted "No" but it passed nonetheless), one of the arguments against Gay Marriage was that it undermined marriage between a man and a woman. Really? How does any marriage (gay or straight) affect my marriage? The marriage next door is not my business; the one inside my house is and I certainly don't need the government or a church telling me how to live my life.
Furthermore, it seems to me that with the divorce rate still hovering around 50% that "man and wife" haven't exactly been the ideal when it comes to making things work. Granted some people shouldn't have been married in the first place, but can't you try and gut it out for more than a year? Maybe we should give same-sex couples a chance to show the rest of us how to be married since so many heterosexual couples are unable to hold up their end of the bargain. Or we should take away all the rights married couples have period until everyone is treated equally under the law: "Oh, I am sorry, sir you can't come in to see your first son be born; we have revoked all visitation rights." That might change things up pretty quickly.
Love between two consenting adults deserves admiration from each of us; nothing more, nothing less.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
A night run...
He hadn’t
planned on going out that night. It had become a day off after two afternoon
beers that he also hadn’t planned on. But hey, a 13-mile day yesterday and a
race in a week, what was one day off anyway? His wife was at a girlfriend’s
house. He tried to get out of the empty house, going to Borders for a cup of
coffee with a splash of whole milk. Somehow, a semi-crowded Saturday evening
café would be better than lying around with three dogs snoring around him.
After 37
minutes of reading, and flipping through the new “Fahrenheit 451” graphic novel, it was
time to doddle along somewhere else. After all, the semester was going to start
in two weeks and he was already putting work off that needed to be done soon.
Ever the procrastinator he couldn’t start anything on the computer without
first checking his email and Facebook. The notifications substituting for the human
experience would distract him a little while longer from his work.
And, then
right there, his night changed. Two status updates that fired up the guilt that
only an empty box on his training log could conjure: one of his friends had run
a 4:24 mile and the other had done a six-mile tempo run. And, what had he done
today? Not a thing. Maybe it was the reading he had been doing that summer or
the Catholic upbringing telling him he should feel guilty that his friends and
former teammates had put in their work, but he went straight upstairs and
slipped on a pair of his favorite running shorts.
Out the
door three minutes later, he was already cruising at 6:50 pace. He thought
about the mistake this might be with four slices of BBQ chicken pizza sitting
in his stomach from not two hours before, to say nothing of the coffee. But,
from what he had learned about his body in December, the qualms of the machine were
meaningless when his mind was in this mood. He was practicing running down game
like his homoerectus brethren from
many hundreds of millennia ago. The human body had evolved itself into an
endurance machine; he knew in his heart what so few did. Distance running had
made humans human. This five-mile excursion was really nothing but it had to be
done at this point. It paled in comparison to his former teammates’ efforts,
but it was better than the nothing he had practiced all day. The Tallahassee night was
calling him.
Only his
stomach complained for the 34 minutes, wishing he would stop for long enough to
lose his dinner at a crosswalk. No such luck. Not on this night. Everything
else was moving in harmony with the full moonlit night. His legs which had been
designed to place soccer balls just out of reach of sweepers had shed all that
power for lean muscle. And, while he could no longer get close to dunking a
basketball and his 5’11’’ frame was still a ten-spot too heavy for a pure
distance man he had gotten it down as close to the look of a distance runner as
possible for now. His body was that of efficiency, sliding across the sidewalk
of a quiet capital city neighborhood. Maybe it would try its hand at a marathon
or beyond again one day, but for now, this was pure joy moving along at a nice
and easy 9 miles
an hour.
His mind
wandered through the decade he’d spent running. A few years ago even, he would
not have left the house after a dinner that size, but his mind was in control
now. It truly was mind over matter. He knew what he was capable of. His body
had been voted down for a long time, but those were merely the battles…this
time his mind had won the war for good. He floated along like the meaningless
headlights passing in the midnight cool. Bliss? Perfection? It mattered not.
He moved
through the shadows, and they moved through him…
Author's Note: This is a bit of auto-biographical fiction from my grad school days a few years back. I hope to have pieces like this throughout my manuscript; little snippets of life in the moment.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
This blog and its name...
After a few posts I figured it is time to explain in more
detail the idea behind this blog. I want to be a writer and as Stephen King
once said if you want to be writer you need to do two things: read a lot and
write a lot. So, this is one of the avenues in which I am writing more. I have
also recently started a series of short stories that I hope will turn into a
book one of these days. Obviously, it is tough to spend the time I want
writing between work, coaching, running, and of course living. It has taken me six weeks to get three stories written; needless to say it is going to be a
process. In the meantime I can try and get some readership here.
Why Running
Independently? First, the running aspect. Even though I run with people on
occasion and train a few days a week with the kids I help coach, the vast
majority of my training is self-motivated and lonesome. The Tallahassee chapter of the BK Alum Track Club
has moved on to other things in other cities, but I remain in the Capital City...Trial of Miles, Miles of
Trials. Like so many things in life, running is important for me to do by
myself--it is part of the challenge, part of the grind. If you cannot get out
there and do it when no one else is then it might not be worth your time...this is especially true if you
are more than just a casual runner. Think Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own: "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone
would do it. The hard... is what makes it great."
Just like my running,
I do not believe in labels or parties when it comes to politics and current
events. Everybody's worldview is unique. Everybody's. The kid who was born on
the same day as me in the same hospital who happens to live next door is going
to see things a little differently than I am. So, how is my pale Anglo-mutt
worldview supposed to tell someone who was born in New Jersey
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Race like Ritz
It is the night before the FHSAA Class 1A State Track meet, and all season long I have been trying to get my athletes to approach racing like Ritz. Often times, I have to remind myself that I am not the one competing anymore. In the interest of full disclosure I never competed past the District meet during my high school years of track and field. Admittedly, I get a little jealous of these young guns this time of year, and how I wish I was blessed with both the genetic lottery and work ethic of Ritz.
For those of you who don't know, Ritz is the shorthand name for the one and only Dathan Ritzenhein. He is my favorite athlete running today because of his unbelievable capacity for hard work. He could have called it quits many times after bouts with stress fractures, complications, and other injuries both collegiality and professionally. He is one of the "Big Three" who is credited with revitalizing American distance running in December of 2000 at the Footlocker XC Championships (read about that here). He won the NCAA XC championships when he competed for Mark Wetmore at the University of Colorado. In the summer of 2009, he broke the American Record in the 5000 meters going under the 13:00 barrier for the first time. No American had done that since Bob Kennedy. After Ritz did so, it was as if people believed it could be done again--they just needed someone to break the seal. Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky, Bernard Lagat, and Galen Rupp all followed suit soon after Ritz.
More recently, Dathan just missed qualifying for the US Olympic Marathon team in January finishing 4th after being dropped by the three leaders earlier in the race... He came all the way back to watch 3rd place cross the line just a few seconds ahead of him. That has to be one of the worst feelings in the world. Now, he has rededicated himself to the track where I think he belongs. He looked good a few weeks ago at Stanford taking the win in the 25 lapper, and I know he will continue to build on that as we move closer and closer to the Olympic Trials in Eugene this summer.
His fast times are not why I want young runners to look up to him. It is because of the way he attacks races--all races. It doesn't matter the distance. 5000m, 10000m, half marathon, marathon. Road, track, indoors, outdoors. If he is in the race you're going to know it. The only other American like that is Ryan Hall who made the race during the 2011 Boston Marathon happen because of his front running tactics. Like Hall, Ritz isn't scared. He wants to race. If the race goes out fast so what? You can't do anything about it--you just have to go. This is how I feel distance running was 40 years ago. Distance didn't matter; surface didn't matter. If you were a 5k specialist and the race was a ten miler on the road so be it. Shorter versus Bachelor versus Lindgren versus Pre versus Young versus Rodgers versus Kardong versus Salazar (now I am just listing some American greats, but what these guys had in common was none of them cared what the distance was... they just wanted to kick your butt or die trying).
During championship meets like the one tomorrow night, I make a single pledge to my kids: I will not call a single split. I tell them just get out there and race. Be smart, be patient, bump elbows, get tangled up, don't let any gaps open up. Be like Ritz: RACE.
For more on Dathan Ritzenhein you can read his blog at http://dathanritzenhein.competitor.com and he is on Twitter @djritzenhein
For those of you who don't know, Ritz is the shorthand name for the one and only Dathan Ritzenhein. He is my favorite athlete running today because of his unbelievable capacity for hard work. He could have called it quits many times after bouts with stress fractures, complications, and other injuries both collegiality and professionally. He is one of the "Big Three" who is credited with revitalizing American distance running in December of 2000 at the Footlocker XC Championships (read about that here). He won the NCAA XC championships when he competed for Mark Wetmore at the University of Colorado. In the summer of 2009, he broke the American Record in the 5000 meters going under the 13:00 barrier for the first time. No American had done that since Bob Kennedy. After Ritz did so, it was as if people believed it could be done again--they just needed someone to break the seal. Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky, Bernard Lagat, and Galen Rupp all followed suit soon after Ritz.
More recently, Dathan just missed qualifying for the US Olympic Marathon team in January finishing 4th after being dropped by the three leaders earlier in the race... He came all the way back to watch 3rd place cross the line just a few seconds ahead of him. That has to be one of the worst feelings in the world. Now, he has rededicated himself to the track where I think he belongs. He looked good a few weeks ago at Stanford taking the win in the 25 lapper, and I know he will continue to build on that as we move closer and closer to the Olympic Trials in Eugene this summer.
His fast times are not why I want young runners to look up to him. It is because of the way he attacks races--all races. It doesn't matter the distance. 5000m, 10000m, half marathon, marathon. Road, track, indoors, outdoors. If he is in the race you're going to know it. The only other American like that is Ryan Hall who made the race during the 2011 Boston Marathon happen because of his front running tactics. Like Hall, Ritz isn't scared. He wants to race. If the race goes out fast so what? You can't do anything about it--you just have to go. This is how I feel distance running was 40 years ago. Distance didn't matter; surface didn't matter. If you were a 5k specialist and the race was a ten miler on the road so be it. Shorter versus Bachelor versus Lindgren versus Pre versus Young versus Rodgers versus Kardong versus Salazar (now I am just listing some American greats, but what these guys had in common was none of them cared what the distance was... they just wanted to kick your butt or die trying).
During championship meets like the one tomorrow night, I make a single pledge to my kids: I will not call a single split. I tell them just get out there and race. Be smart, be patient, bump elbows, get tangled up, don't let any gaps open up. Be like Ritz: RACE.
For more on Dathan Ritzenhein you can read his blog at http://dathanritzenhein.competitor.com and he is on Twitter @djritzenhein
Saturday, April 21, 2012
We're for freedom of speech everywhere
"We're for freedom of speech everywhere. We're for freedom to worship everywhere. We're for freedom to learn for everybody. And because in our time, you can build a bomb in your country and bring it to my country, what goes on in your country is very much my business. And so we are for freedom from tyranny, everywhere, whether in the guise of political oppression, or economic slavery, or religious fanaticism. That most fundamental idea cannot be met with merely our support. It has to be met with our strength. Diplomatically, economically, materially. And, if Pharaohs still don't free the slaves, then he gets the plagues or my cavalry, whichever gets there first.... No country has ever had a doctrine of intervention when only humanitarian interests were at stake."
This is not at all something I take lightly. The loss of any human life should not be taken as such, and when there is a systematic approach to taking human life the only action for a super power is to see that those taking life should be stopped and held responsible. The above quotation was written by Aaron Sorkin during season 4 of "The West Wing" where a genocide was taking place (think Rwanda) in a small African nation. This was President Jed Bartlet's response in the episode entitled 'Inauguration: Over There.' For months I have been looking for anyone in the our government to take any interest in the the thousands of lives lost in Syria, so much so that I was even hopeful that some Republican presidential candidates would step to the plate to ask the current commander-in-chief to act. So I was quite pleased last week when the Syrian government tentatively agreed to allow the United Nations to step in with a cease-fire. That said, the government was still attacking its citizens a week before the agreement was to "take hold." (USA Today, 7 April 2012)
My position on intervention might surprise some of you as I am sure most of you see me as a bleeding heart liberal who doesn't think American fighting men and women and their guns should ever step foot in a foreign country. Certainly that has been my position since the Iraq war started in March of 2003 and "ended" in May of 2003. Unlike some hypocrites and panderers in Congress I really was against the war and never was for it. Afghanistan is another issue... The appeasing attitude of hate held by the Taliban created an atmosphere ripe for al-Qaeda to murder a few thousand of my fellow citizens so I will always be for (for lack of a better word) the war in Afghanistan; especially since we screwed it up the first time around in the 1980s. It is time we get this one right, and I do not care how long it takes. We do need to realize though that it is a country dominated greatly by regional tribalism and perhaps our brand of democracy does not have to be theirs as well--different strokes for different folks.
Back to Syria. The AP is reporting today that "the U.N. Security Council voted Saturday to expand the mission to 300 members in hopes of salvaging an international peace plan marred by continued fighting between the military and opposition rebels." Apparently the "onus" is on Syria, but at a certain point we need to say enough is enough. Even though as one of my Facebook friends Jon Paul pointed out that we won't intervene in a country's affairs if they don't have natural resources we require for our day to day lives, we certainly should when humanitarian issues are at stake. I expect more out of my government, my President, and my fellow Americans--call me pie in the sky and naive, but that is just out I feel.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
The Greenway
It didn't seem too odd at first;
A usual weekend evening moving long
at a decent clip.
The granola women were out with
the dogs that were too big for them.
The Earth did a special thing spawning those
oddly sexy beings.
After the downhill and through the crowd,
the field narrowed to the path.
Three minutes and one U-turn later
I come up on the bird of prey herself.
And, although I was out late and she was
up earlier, we were as similar as can be; hunting.
Alas, Old Lady Wisdom seemed thoroughly
uninterested in what I had to offer retreating
to higher pine pirch.
I moved along: through the picture frame
of the tree line finding myself face to face
with the reflection of a park bench that I had
never truly seen before. And then
it made sense,
A smile, a thought, and a mile and a half to go.
A usual weekend evening moving long
at a decent clip.
The granola women were out with
the dogs that were too big for them.
The Earth did a special thing spawning those
oddly sexy beings.
After the downhill and through the crowd,
the field narrowed to the path.
Three minutes and one U-turn later
I come up on the bird of prey herself.
And, although I was out late and she was
up earlier, we were as similar as can be; hunting.
Alas, Old Lady Wisdom seemed thoroughly
uninterested in what I had to offer retreating
to higher pine pirch.
I moved along: through the picture frame
of the tree line finding myself face to face
with the reflection of a park bench that I had
never truly seen before. And then
it made sense,
A smile, a thought, and a mile and a half to go.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
This is a thought I scribbled down last winter after running through the Tallahassee trails bundled in every bit of clothing I could find...In retrospect, this 'sub-elite' system still might work but I know that not even the best distance runners in the country make the kind of scratch they really need to retire after their running career is over.
I noticed an interesting thing this morning as I ran in 30 degree weather once again. Other than the six figure salary of my current running heroes, one of the big difference between the elites and those of us chomping at the bit for "sub-elite" status is consistency in clothing. Today, I had Saucony shoes, underarmor socks, Puma half tights, an Adidas top, and Pearl Izumi gloves on my run. Oh and Zoot compression sleeves. Six different corporations sponsored me on my run today. Now, this is just wishful thinking of course but if I were Nike or Adidas or K-Swiss (I know one of the shoe reps... just saying) I would look at the sub elite age groupers, those of us who are knocking on the door of sub-elite or elite status and give them a small contract, per diem maybe or a stipend, and all the gear they needed. Maybe pay for travel? Get a group of sub-elites together and send us to Atlanta for a road race or something? We'd still have to keep our day jobs to ensure that running remains a passion, but what could we do with a few extra hours in the day?
Would that make the difference between me being a hindrance on my loved one as I strive for my 80+ mile weeks? Maybe. It would make it just a little easier, and maybe that would be the difference between sub 1530 and sub 1400, a sub 2:40 marathon and a sub 2:25, or a 72 minute half and qualifying for the Olympic Trials... If I had an extra 10-20 hours a week I could train an extra 20-40 miles a week probably (this including getting good sleep at night and requisite naps during big training weeks).
And, Nike can't tell me it would be bad for business to pay me 10 grand a year to wear all your products when I train and race. 10 large is a hiccup in these companies' books. Think what the company would get in return: people wanting products. Locals would come up to you at road races and ask, are you sponsored? do you like the product? the company? And, we'd all say hell yes. Then you would have more people wearing your product and wanting to work harder to get sponsorship on any level. I think some of this would create the time and money needed to train at a more elite level. Again, I do not think that this little bit extra would get me or anyone I know on the next Olympic team (not necessarily), but it might get a few more sub-elites knocking on the door of the Olympic B Standard or maybe even stepping to the line at the Trials.
Friday, April 6, 2012
I think I am only ten to fifteen years late on the Blog bandwagon, but as the great storyteller Stephen King once said, "if you want to be a writer you must do two things: read a lot and write a lot." So, as I have the reading thing down pretty well, here is an attempt to write more. Furthermore, as I was recently reading an article in the Tallahassee Democrat about a visiting author to FSU who said good writing can come from bad writing and bad writing can come from good writing. Her point was simply that you need to write.
This is part of an effort for me to do several things: 1) have my work read, 2) get my voice heard on a number of issues important to me and to society (as unimportant and insignificant my point of view may be in the grand scheme of things), and 3) have fun! I do not know if I will ever have my fiction published or even read, but I am still going to do it for me. PYBITS is what it shall be called, that is what I am calling my new take on writing fiction. I think it is the only way I can do it right now without being in a workshop or taking a class where deadlines positively force creativity. PYBITS stands for Put Your Butt In The Seat. That is what needs to happen. I am tired of saying I want to be a writer without every putting pen to paper to take on the pages of ideas I have.
I am happy and thankful for this medium and this technology to allow anyone to just sign up for an account with Google and "Boom!" they have a voice. The voice of this person might be unknown, quiet, brilliant, or just plain wrong on all the issues, but it is still a voice to be heard and that is a pretty cool thing.
It's a funny world we live in; it really is. I hope you will join me in exploring the absurdity of life and all that comes with it.
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