HEPS Preview: The Art of Celebration

They interviewed my buddy Erison on HepsTrack.com (an extremely thorough "all things Heps" website) a while back. He's an Olympian and all, so it was pretty warranted. This question and answer, however, was a little more out of left field:

Q: The headband-wearing anchor on that Championship of America team was a guy who we hear had never beaten you in a head-to-head matchup. Is it true that in practice Liam Boylan-Pett would conclude his training runs with a wild celebration?

A: I don’t know about all that, but I think he practices them in the mirror before races.

In the mirror before races, Erison? It's true, but why tell the public?

Irregardless, HEPS is one hell of a day to win a race. I was lucky enough to do it three times. Each time had a little bit different celebration, and, to be honest, each one was in all likelihood subconsciously planned.

Indoor HEPS at the Armory 2007. No one from Columbia had ever won the mile. So when I won, I decided to rep the school:

Pop!

Subconsciously this one started with the 2006 NCAA BBall tourney when the Jersey-Pop became commonplace. (Please check out that link, its a bayd-ass pic. I only didn't put it in the body of this post because it makes my jersey-pop look extremely weak.)

Indoor HEPS at Cornell 2008. I had a stress fracture that winter. Winning wasn't going to be the most easy thing in the world. I ended up bombing in the 4x8 later that day, so I still have somewhat of a sour taste in my mouth about the whole meet, but rocking that mile win was fricken awesome. Plus, there was a great Columbia Cheering section so I had to point at them to thank them as I crossed the line:

That was a fun/intense race.

The crowd in that one was the subconscious planning. It was one of the most intense races I have been a part of. I'll be the first to admit that I don't like Cornell, but they packed their gym and it was raucous in there. The first turn was one of the loudest turns I've ever run around. Plus, the mini-dog pile the us Columbia kids formed was awesome.

Outdoor HEPS 2008 at Yale. It was my first outdoor title. I don't have a picture of the win. Ben True was pretty much untouchable my junior and sophomore year outdoors (although I fought valiantly with him for 2 second places in the 1500). He wasn't his normal self senior year, but that didn't mean I couldn't be jacked with the win. I took the lead with 300 to go. By the homestretch I was clear:

Don't ever look back.

It was pretty much relief down the homestretch. I smiled, raised my arms, and was genuinely happy. If I wouldn't have won an outdoor title I would have been pretty upset.

So there you have it. College Basketball, Intensity, and Relief were the reasons I celebrated. And practicing in the mirror never yielded results as good as the actual race.

And to end this pat-myself-on-the-back-for-winning-a-few-races post, I'll say that HEPS is going to be sweet. My entire HEPS preview almost read like this: "IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!" It's back in the Armory, kids are ready to run fast, and the Columbia Women have a shot at winning the team title. HEPS is a fantastic meet where times don't matter, but you sure as hell better run fast if you want to win...

Here's my favorite post-race HEPS pic. This one wasn't planned at all. And that's why it's my favorite. It's Coach Wood and I pumped we got a win at HEPS:

Videos and Mad Men

Here are some links to the videos of the races….

The race: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/237334-2010-brasschaat-meeting-flanders-cup/346717-m-1500-h02-section-a

And the interview: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/237334-2010-brasschaat-meeting-flanders-cup/346890-liam-boylan-pett-after-1500-at-2010-braschaat-meeting

And then, I’m also in the kick of the week video on FloTrack…it’s too bad that I’m one of the guys getting outkicked.

It’s starting to look like I’m not going to get in a race until Dublin on the 21st. I would have liked to get into one more, but not much you can do sometimes, so will just wait around until that one and try to take care of business there. Plus I get to race in Charlevoix on the 24th for the Ryan Shay Mile, so there will be plenty of times to race.

With no races this weekend, it means there is going to be a lot of downtime. To remedy that, we have been watching “Mad Men” the show about the 1960s adtvertisers in New York City. These dudes were crazy. They drink like fish, whore around like they live in Amsterdam, and then make some darn good commercials. We have decided that Don Draper is all that is man. We have also decided that I am pretty much the exact opposite of Don Draper. I don’t know where that leaves me.

Was able to get in some barefoot strides on a soccer field this morning and now probably going to relax the day away. We went to the Heineken Museum yesterday to meet my friends from Columbia Jon and Ana who happened to be in town for the day. It was pretty cool checking out the old brewery and they had a lot about commercials. Overall a fun experience.

Enjoy the vids. Let’s Go!

Old Heineken Brewing Factory

That's Where That Came From!

I have told Headband Origin Stories before (something about the Charlotte Hornets), but it turns out I was wrong all along.

Like a lot of good things in this life, the LBP Headband came from, as it turns out, my Dad. Yup, that’s him rocking the headband back in the day during a Kalamzoo Klassic 5k Run circa 1978. There was only a 23 year drought, but I kept the fad going my sophomore year of high school. Thankfully, my Dad had the right idea back in his running heyday.

A Happy Father’s Day to all!
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Training this week was pretty fun. I did some easy aerobic stuff on Tuesday and then came back on Friday for some 1500 pace stuff doing two sets of 1,2,3,4,4 all at 58 pace but with the second 400 on each set getting faster each 100, so going 16,15,14,13 (although on the last set Bumbi led me through in 14.4, 14.4, 13.4, 12.8 for a little under the suggested 58 pace). It was a fun workout and hopefully let me know that I’ll be ready to trounce out some 58 second laps come USAs and the summer season.

As of now, it looks like I’ll be heading to Vancouver for the Harry Jerome Track Classic on July 5th to kick off my summer season…I’m pretty excited about it, and am really excited to check out the city. From there, who knows what will happen, but I am definitely going to be ready to run some good races this summer, so I’m pretty syked to get going.

Prelims of the 1500 are Friday night in Des Moines…wish me luck, its go time now; the race I’ve been looking forward to all year. Can’t wait.

LET’S GO!!!!!!!

Headbands

As some of you may know, I do like to wear a headband when I race. I also like to wear a headband when I am busy doing super awesome LBPjams in my living room. But some of you may not know why I wear a headband for competitions. Well, this entry will have some answers.

In the past I have mentioned how basketball players have an affect on me. Cool basketball players especially. This has been true for an extremely long time. Growing up, I was sure I would be the next Isiah Thomas. Then, I realized I was white and probably not going to be taller than 5’10”, so I adopted the hope of being Dan Dickau instead. Even so, my basketball skills dwindled as I decided to run more and more. (I know, hard to believe after seeing some of those nerf hoop dunks.)

But just because I wasn’t going to play bball in college didn’t mean that I was going to stop trying to be like a basketball player.

It so happened that my sophomore year of high school my cross country team had a fairly good shot at winning the State Championship. My brother had left for Columbia, but we had some older guys on the team who stepped up in a leadership role. Jimmy Watkins was our team captain and he and I were watching the basketball playoffs the summer before that cross season. The Charlotte Hornets caught our attention. The entire team wore headbands. And as Sports Illustrated put it: “their headbands, a symbol of solidarity that they adopted for the postseason.”

We were in: Headbands it was.

And so, we rocked headbands as a team that year. All seven that toed the line each race. Bright white ones that turned brown and yellow as the season wore on. A stench would surround our pack as we huddled together for the pre-race chant. And a stench would follow us as we made our way through the finishing chute after the race.

In the end, we didn’t win our state title. It was the year that my appendix burst three days before the state finals. The team ran valiantly for a 9th place finish without me (even with a terrible finish from me we would have been 2nd). But I’ve worn a headband ever since, and I don’t plan on stopping soon…
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Had a nice week of training in the HEAT of DC. Friday was the big workout this week and was able to have one of my better 5k type workouts that I’ve ever put together.

400-66.2, 800-2:12, 1200-3:17, 1200-3:21, 1200-3:15, 800-2:04, 400-60(31-29)

That was the workout…hopefully the track fans can understand what it means. The first number is the distance run and the second is the time it took. I was sucking wind by the end, but I’m definitely in some good shape.

Have the Puma mile this weekend out at Mt. Sac. Flotrack will be showing it live, so be sure to check it out (10:45 Eastern Time). http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/236732-puma-mile-2010

LET’S GO!!!!