After a successful summer and fall on the roads, I decided it was time to return my attention back to my second love (cross-country is my first) this Spring: the Track. I ran a 1500m last Saturday at the University of North Florida's top notch track and field facility. This is Spring Break meet is perfect for an aging never-was like myself, because there are a lot of college kids from around the southeast who come to race and a lot of them are running for programs that carry talent about on par with mine. This isn't a dig--this is the truth, and I am happy for it all. I love getting the chance to race, and it was especially nice to do it in my hometown in front of parents and one of my best friends. I didn't have a team out there, I was wearing an old singlet from the BK Alum TC, and I was just out there for me.
It is nice to cling to my youth for one more spring. I just got word that I have been entered into the 1500m at the FSU Relays as well, so that will probably be one of my last "real" track meets ever. I have done my time I am afraid, and hung on as long as I can. Alas, the marathon is calling my name from Boston and I can't run hard speed intervals forever. I can certainly try, but I also just know in my heart that my body has reached its limits for the shorter and quicker stuff. I do still think I have another PR or two in the 5000m and certainly more than a few in the ten, but the Metric Mile? I have about reached my limits.
I don't feel this is anything to be upset about, like Quenton Cassidy's realization in the final pages of "Again to Carthage," I have finally accepted my fate.
The most fascinating thing I learned from my 4:19 (which converts to a 4:39. mile) is how quickly that time goes by on the track. It isn't something I forgot, it was something I learned from being on the roads for so long. You see in 10Ks & half marathons and even XC to an extent you have a lot of time to think and you have a lot more control over your race. On the track, especially in the shorter races, the margin for error is a lot smaller. As I was cooling down and then hanging out the rest of the day I was surprised how much energy I had left. The race itself had hurt like hell, but it wasn't exhausting like longer races where I usually require a nap afterward. Definitely a catch-22; I wanted to go out and race another one.
Hopefully, I get that shot at FSU if they accept my entry--if not, I will be able to get into the 5000m, and that will be alright, too.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
State XC, a change in AT pace, and the future.
Well... It has been way too long since I last wrote. There is lots to report--who has the time for a blog? I don't know how the dedicated ones do it! Yeah, I do. Just answered my own question. Like so many things, if it is important to you you will find the time.
I can't remember all the things that have happened since I last posted, but I know a few of the highlights. The team I help coach earned runner-up honors at the Florida State XC meet, I got a new PR in the half marathon of 1:13:38, and it has been a month since Christmas and New Year's. WHAT?!?!
The first two are the ones to be proud of to be certain. The kids absolutely crushed it at state. Everyone had a job to do, and they went out and took care of it. An article ran the week of the meet about how there were really only two teams with a chance to win and it was a guarantee that they would finish 1-2. That is why we run the races--one of them tried to do too much and our guys ran smart the first mile and went to work in the last 2k. Now on to track...their goals are just as big.
My half was a similar situation of running under control for the first few miles. Traditionally that is how I try to run most of my races no matter the distance: keep from really redlining until you must. My goal was to run 18 minute 5Ks all the way through and I was just a few seconds off pace of that through the first 3.1. I kept moving up and taking fluids for the next 5 miles and got to a point where I was just trying to catch the next pack or victim of a too hard early pace in front of me. I felt great which is always nice on race day--let's face it that does not always happen.
In fact, it hardly ever does. Anyway, by the time I got around to the ten mile mark I was a few seconds off my ten mile PR and knew that nothing was going to stop me on that day. I went on to pass three more people in the final 5k for a 6th place finish at the Jax Bank. Stoked for the future...
And now with the Tallahassee Marathon this weekend--I have to say that it is time to return to the marathon in one year's time! I am making my last go of it on the track this spring running two 1500s at UNF and one at FSU (if they'll have me) and then it will be mostly road racing for me and the 5k will be my shortest distance other than the ever tasty Breakfast on the Track :)
Thanks for reading and look for some training stuff from me soon. Happy Running!
I can't remember all the things that have happened since I last posted, but I know a few of the highlights. The team I help coach earned runner-up honors at the Florida State XC meet, I got a new PR in the half marathon of 1:13:38, and it has been a month since Christmas and New Year's. WHAT?!?!
The first two are the ones to be proud of to be certain. The kids absolutely crushed it at state. Everyone had a job to do, and they went out and took care of it. An article ran the week of the meet about how there were really only two teams with a chance to win and it was a guarantee that they would finish 1-2. That is why we run the races--one of them tried to do too much and our guys ran smart the first mile and went to work in the last 2k. Now on to track...their goals are just as big.
My half was a similar situation of running under control for the first few miles. Traditionally that is how I try to run most of my races no matter the distance: keep from really redlining until you must. My goal was to run 18 minute 5Ks all the way through and I was just a few seconds off pace of that through the first 3.1. I kept moving up and taking fluids for the next 5 miles and got to a point where I was just trying to catch the next pack or victim of a too hard early pace in front of me. I felt great which is always nice on race day--let's face it that does not always happen.
In fact, it hardly ever does. Anyway, by the time I got around to the ten mile mark I was a few seconds off my ten mile PR and knew that nothing was going to stop me on that day. I went on to pass three more people in the final 5k for a 6th place finish at the Jax Bank. Stoked for the future...
And now with the Tallahassee Marathon this weekend--I have to say that it is time to return to the marathon in one year's time! I am making my last go of it on the track this spring running two 1500s at UNF and one at FSU (if they'll have me) and then it will be mostly road racing for me and the 5k will be my shortest distance other than the ever tasty Breakfast on the Track :)
Thanks for reading and look for some training stuff from me soon. Happy Running!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
the GOP election postmortem
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...
"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...
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.
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