Ireland and Ryan Shay Mile Recaps

Finishing up the Ryan Shay Mile.

A lot has happened since I left Dublin. Almost all of it has gone unreported on runLBP. What follows will be a lengthy (extremely lengthy…save it for work on Monday) recap of the end of my European racing season, a recap of the Ryan Shay Mile race, and what to expect coming up. Please excuse the lack of cohesiveness to the post…it will be in a bulleted format.

• The Dublin race left a lot to be desired. It was nice to know that breaking 4 wasn’t a fluke as I was able to get under the barrier for the second time. However, I once again didn’t race the way I would have liked. I found myself mid-pack the entire way in a slower race. Thus my 57point last lap didn’t help as I was too far away from the real race to really take care of business. Bumbi was half a second ahead of me and felt similar to me as we both realized we couldn’t be that upset with our races but couldn’t be that happy either. We resolved the issue by listening to Rage Against The Machine…
• Speaking of music. My newest jam is straight Euro. Bumbi and I were loving it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTJSt4wP2ME
• Got the hell out of Ireland the morning after the race. It’s funny how I get to travel the world, but a lot of times I stay at an airport hotel and run at a track near said hotel. Needless to say, I didn’t get to see much of Dublin. I did, however, make it back to the good ol’ USA. Not without a hitch though. The Chicago airport failed to get my bag to the Detroit airport with me. Thankfully, due to forgetting this on the way to USAs and getting a stern talking to from Coach Henner, I had my flats in my carry on luggage. Thus, the lack of clothing/actual running shoes wasn’t as big of a deal leading up to Ryan Shay as one would think. And thankfully Will is the same size and had some running shorts I could wear. Oddly, I don’t think he followed my “bring two extra pairs of underwear rule” as I was relegated to one pair for most of the weekend up north. It was nice to be back on Michigan soil and racing for only the second time in my home state since high school. Also, my uncles cabin that he let us stay in is an amazing house on Lake Michigan. So we had a star treatment for the race.
• Ryan Shay Mile: the race itself was awesome. I was singlet-less and was almost forced to wear a way too tight women’s jersey that Christine brought along, but thankfully Rob Novak came through with an extra NYAC singlet. (Rob ended up taking 3rd in the race for a big what would be PR, but road miles don’t count officially.) It was a pretty cool experience. They announced us in front of the finish line crowd and then drove all of the competitors up to the start line in the back of a truck. Crammed next to the rest of the runners the drive seemed to be taking a really long time. I made eye contact with a Kenyan runner and nervously said: “damn, this seems like more than a mile.” He nervously laughed.
• There was an arbitrary start line and they sent us off with the blow of a horn. There was a $250 bounty for being the leader at the half-mile. Some people were serious about getting that cash money. I didn’t see the quarter mile mark, but we were supposedly through in 55 seconds. Approaching the ½, I looked up at the clock and saw 1:47…I was sitting on Jeff See’s shoulder at this point and somehow calmly said, “if that time is true we’re f!*#ed.” Rumor has it we were through in 1:53 and I was in around 6th place (it is also worth mentioning that one of the runners was clearly trying to get the $250 bounty because he dropped out before the half realizing he wasn’t going to get it).
• The next quarter things slowed down. I started to relax and realized that I had a shot at this thing. The runners ahead of me had gone out a little too hard and were starting to come back to me. I remained on See’s shoulder. With 400 to go there was a hill. I straight sprinted down it. Flattening out, I found myself right next to the leader and decided I might as well make a run for it. I probably went too soon. But when you go you gotta go…so I started rolling.
• The finish line seemed like a ways away, so I was charging and trying to avoid locking up. It didn’t quite work. With probably 100 to go, See went by me. I tried to find an extra gear, but probably wasted it on the downhill. I still fought hard and See only barely pulled away from me. I crossed the finish line in 2nd, with a 3:56 to my name and 500 bones in my bank account. And I was happy with how I raced. One of my mantras that Coach Wood passed on to me (and bear with the language, Coach Wood even said he doesn’t like to swear while telling us) is sometimes you just have to say, “F-word it.” Nothing is ever going to go perfectly, so you have to go out there and run. And that’s what I did that weekend. No luggage, no problem. Don’t feel good on the warm up? Who cares. Leading up to Penn last year, John Maloy told me that he didn’t feel that good. I looked at him, told him, “you don’t have to feel good to run fast,” then smacked his but and did a strider. He split 1:48 twice that weekend and was on a 7:16 4x8 team.
• Also…it was great to run in the Ryan Shay Mile. For those of you who don’t know, Ryan was a legend in Michigan running. He is the only person who has ever won 4 individual state cross country championships (he even won as a freshman!). I ran against his younger brother Stephan in high school (Stephan is also trying to pursue a running career right now…we don’t race much any more as he is more of a distance guy) and always had to bring my A-game if he was going to be around. Tragically, Ryan Shay died while running the 2008 Olympic Trials Marathon in Central Park. I was watching in the park that day and was shocked to hear of the terrible news. This was the 3rd year of the Ryan Shay Mile and they really put on a great race. The Shay parents were in attendance and it was great to be part of a race that remembers a great competitor like Ryan.
• Since the mile, life has been a little hectic. My flight back to DC was less than ideal as I ended up staying the night in the Atlanta airport. I then moved out of my DC house and don’t really know where I’m going to live. That will all figure itself out soon enough. I head to Nova Scotia on Monday for a Tuesday night 1500…I am extremely excited. The end of the season is approaching and last week wasn’t perfect. But you don’t have to feel good to run fast.

Let’s Go!

Dublin Track for the Morton Mile.

Climbing up the Sleeping Bear Dune.

Shay Mile Awards Stand

Beautiful Lake Michigan...

Rudyard Kipling was a 4:30 Miler

It is tough being at home when Penn Relays is going on. As you can see from my Penn Relays post earlier this week (and be sure to check that out), it is one of my favorite weekends of the year. However, sometimes you have to pay attention to the bigger plan and hope that you’ll be able to see Usain Bolt in person some other time.

Also turns out that I had some work to do this weekend. I am closing in on the end of the semester, which for me means the end of the line and hopefully a Master’s Degree at the finish. But I am working on my capstone project, and yes (surprise!) it is running based. I am doing a little piece on the mile and what it means to me and what it should mean to others. Part of it looks like it is going to be published so things are looking good on that front.

I bring this up because I have been reading any book I can find on distance running, and especially the mile. I would bore you with quotes that I found interesting, but then I was glancing back through Once A Runner, the book that many claim is the best running book ever written. In all honesty, it captures the essence of the sport and I think does a fantastic job. One section at the beginning of the book is introducing the protagonist, Quenton Cassidy.

On the third floor of Doobey Hall a battered oak door held two three-by-five index cards neatly thumbtacked one atop the other.

The top one said in Smith Corona pica:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling, 1892

The other card read:
Rudyard kipling was a 4:30 miler.
-Quenton Cassidy, 1969

Now I laugh at this quote because here I search long and hard for quotes that will help my piece out and then this Cassidy character tells me that they all mean nothing unless the guy who wrote it is fast.

But Cassidy is full of it, because Kipling can write. Sometimes that’s better than running fast.
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Had another good week of training and getting pumped to head out to Stanford to race this coming weekend. Should be a nice 1500 heat and hopefully I can get another good race in. It’s all still leading up to hopefully being ready to go come USAs…so just gotta keep on the grindstone and get in some races in the meantime.

Workouts this last week were strength based with some 800s on Tuesday and then some split 800s (5-3) on Friday at more 1500 pace effort. Probably wont back off too much this week and then pop a nice time out in some Cali weather…definitely looking forward to it.

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!!!!

4x4s

I have been reading Bill Simmon's The Book of Basketball. It has been an entertaining read, especially in his ranking of the top 96 NBA basketball players of all time (even if it was completely Boston skewed and he either berates a really good player for his fallbacks - Kobe doesn't seem all that great - or praises him as the greatest ever - Kevin McHale is written as being astoundingly good). One thing that Simmons keeps on bringing up is his Mt. Rushmore's. So, as Mt. Rushmore is home to the faces of four of our nations greatest presidents, Simmons has Mt. Rushmore's for fast food, sports movies, and so on.

The track world has an equivalent to a Mt. Rushmore hypothetical game, only way better. Ours is the 4x4.

The 4x4 is the most exciting race in track. Even back in middle school people loved the 4x4. I remember lining the fence to watch the high schoolers run the 4x4 when I was in middle school. And in hypothetical games (of which runners are very familiar due to spending hours with one another on trails, roads and tracks), it adds a fun layer.

The great part of your very own 4x4 is that it also allows you to analyze your four favorites of something by the order you run them in your relay. So say I was going to do a 4x4 of my favorite fast food chains, it would go as follows:
Lead-off: Wendy's
Second: Taco Bell
Third: In N' Out Burger
Anchor: McDonalds
An analysis: Wendy's leads off my relay because it is a reliable fast food chain that isn't going to knock you out of the park but it always going to produce some nice solid food (no one can complain with a 5 piece chicken nugg and a frosty). As with a lead-off leg, your team is just looking for a solid racer who isn't going to mess up, but just hand off near the front of the pack. The second leg is when things usually heat up, most of the time the legs are going to be fast, and you have to be able to put a fast runner out there for the sake of staying in the race. Taco Bell is your second leg due to its ability to put forth fast times (crunchwrap supremes) and go. Then you go In N' Out, even though I have only been there a few times, because it is going to do pretty much the same thing for you every time, which is exactly what you want out of a third leg. It is going to keep you in position leading into your anchor leg. And the anchor leg is where you definitely put your big gun. Some teams put their big-gun second, but that is a way of hiding your strongest runner, and it ultimately means that you're a little frightened of what to do with that fast leg. McDonalds never backs down. The place is fast food royalty. It can run a race any way (McDonalds reference: cheeseburgers, big macs, chicken sandwiches, McNuggs, fries, salads and fruit for healthy options) and it closes hard no matter what the case (McFlurrys).

So, next time you're out for a run (or just bored sitting around) try to develop some of your own 4x4s. And for those of you new to the site, I usually end each article and then do a summary of my training for the week, here is that summary.
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Had a nice week with my first day off where I didn't actually feel like I needed a day off on Saturday. It was nice being back in DC with some higher quality weather and got in some good training for the week. I put up 65 miles in 6 days with a long run of 13. The workouts worked both some aerobic and anaerobic capacities as Tuesday I did some 1ks and then Friday saw Bumbi, Krisch and I running some hills and then 400s and 200s on a snow covered track. 9x1k is not a fun workout, even if it isn't super fast, but its one of those things I need to work on. And then the 400s were at a faster 3k pace while I got to run some 200s at mile pace on the hills and track combined workout. I like that stuff so much more than 1ks.

The racing schedule is still up in the air, but I do know that I am going to be opening up next weekend at Penn State! Not exactly sure what I will be racing, but definitely looking forward to getting out there and getting the competitive juices flowing again.

I hope you enjoy the site, check everything out and email me if you have any comments or suggestions. Let's Go!

Running Shorts

I think that most runners go through phases with running shorts. When you first go out for middle school track, you look for ways to hide the fact that your thighs are as white as a ghost and force your parents to buy you spandex half tights to wear under your way too small running shorts. There is inevitably one kid who’s spandex don’t fit him because his legs are too skinny and he decides to go with the look of one baggier pair of spandex atop the other, more snuggly fitting pair. He thinks he has hidden his small legs, but instead he has drawn more attention to how stilt-like they are. Most kids disregard the school issued drawers and rock shorts of the basketball variety, which is probably the best call.

By the time you make it to high school, you have accepted the fact that running shorts are a little too small, and because you are sick of the football and baseball players calling you a homo for your shorts, you overcompensate. So you get the shortest shorts you can find, preferably of the American Flag variety and any other hideous design that running stores sell. A runner often embraces the shortness of his shorts at this time. You’re like the John Stockton of your high school track team. And because of this comes scenes like the one in “Juno” with the short shorts (side note: best part of that movie is when Michael Cerra is running through the hospital and you can hear the spikes of his shoes scratching against the tiled floor). I think in high school, the shorter the shorts, the more confidence you have in your running. If you’re fast, no ones going to make fun of the shorts you wear.

As you start to age and perhaps one day join a collegiate team, you find yourself surrounded by a lot of runners who are cocky and willing to wear shorts of the itsy bitsy, teeny weeny variety. And in seeing all of these short shorts, you realize what a fool you liked like in your dainty little things, and decide to go back to some normal running shorts, ones that won’t impede your ability to run quickly, but also not show too much. The perfect balance.

Sometimes, you can’t really help it though. The race day shorts issued by Columbia were not the longest things in the world, in fact they were extremely minute. It didn’t help that they rode up once you started running. The main problem with short shorts is that you look like a goof in them. Case in point: Jonah Rathbun. He was aware of this, and has been quoted as saying, in regards to Penn Relays ’07: “Greatest athletic accomplishment of my life, and every single picture of me has me in those doofy ass shorts.” (Pictured below, it also did not help that Jonah was making the face of a complete “doof,” I imagine him saying, “derrr, we’re number one, derrr,” and then snorting and pushing his glasses back up on his nose while the picture was being snapped.)

Eventually, your days of running extremely fast without care come to an end; whether it is age, injury, or inability to perform. It is at this point that you hang up the normal pair and move to a more basketball styled short. Not gangster style b-ball shorts, but the ones that end a little above the knees. Every once in a while you’ll pull the shorter ones over the legs and do a stride or two on the local track, but that’s just to relive the glory days. And you stay in the normal sized shorts for the rest of your running life. And as far as half tights go, I have no idea how those factor in, all I know is that I don’t like wearing them unless its really cold.
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Had a nice day in Belgium. Talked to coach on the phone and I may be running another 8, but we’ll see. I would like to if its possible, but they are a little tougher to get into since lanes are at a premium, unlike the 15 where you can throw a bunch of people in there.

I did have to travel to the coffee shop twice since as I sat down the first time I realized that I had forgotten my computer. One hour later I was back at it drinking some coffee and writing up some emails trying to figure out my life. Oh, and had my first Belgian beer of the trip. I liked that it came in a fancy glass. Duvel was the brand, and it wasn’t too bad. I wish I was a beer connoisseur so I could explain why it was good, but to me, beer is either good or bad.

Only a week left in the trip, and excited for the races to come.