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.
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