Ever been asked, "if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?" Einstein? The President? Elvis? Nastrodamus? God? Paul Michel? All good answers, but I'll tell you who you answer should be: Jason Hartmann. Why? Because he's a swell guy. And as it turned out, I did in fact have dinner with him while hanging out with some friends a couple of weeks ago. We got into some kind of lengthy and highly philosophical conversation about priorities in life, figuring out what you're doing, and more importantly why you're doing it. Sometimes someone tells you precisely what you needed to hear without even knowing that you really needed to hear it. I was interested to hear about his approach to his running given that technically it is his job, and as such it could easily become a chore and merely a means to an end. The bottom line of his subsequent impassioned (and unrehearsed) rant that followed was that life is all about finding a dream to chase, and chasing it for the right reasons. Do something because you love it and because you want to see what you can make of it. Live simply, cut out the distractions, stay away from people and situations that bring you down, the hinderances, and things that take the joy from it and complicate things that should be simple. Don't do it to make a name for yourself or to prove anything. His brilliant analogy was that of chef that starts out with a great recipe and starts trying to make it "better" by adding more and more, till eventually it's not as good anymore. "Positivity!" Was how he summed it up. While not all exactly his words, you get the gist. Positivity!
Long run near Boulder Res.
Moving on. At the risk of jinxing myself, I will say that training and racing is going GREAT! I've finally been able to get my mileage back up to a greater volume than I have in nearly four years, and I feel awesome. Seriously, there have been a few Sundays when I have been sorely tempted to sneak in another run in the evening after a long run. It's like, "What?! Where did all of this energy come from? Where has this been all this time??!!" It's like I'm high on whatever it is that they smoke here except I'm not smoking it! I have even come to enjoy track sessions. Astonishing I know. Boulder is AMAZING!!! Soooo many trails, soooo many good training partners, and Boulder Creek is the best ice tub you could ask for. I could not ask for a better place to train, and a better environment to be part of.
Last Saturday was the Classic 10k in Springs, which went pretty well! It was actually my first 10k race not on a track, and first one at altitude, so it was an altitude PR (by default, but who's keeping track?). While perhaps I could have raced more intelligently (that first 5k has you thinking you'll feel like a champ the whole way) I was still pleased with the result and felt pretty strong. It was good to see the BRC out there repping and HUGE congrats to Tera who is on a comeback of epic proportions! Great job to Adrian, Steph, Sara, Aucencio, Matt, Tommy, Adam and Robby. Lots of green in the field that day. Keep the good races coming! Out.
Long run near Boulder Res.
Moving on. At the risk of jinxing myself, I will say that training and racing is going GREAT! I've finally been able to get my mileage back up to a greater volume than I have in nearly four years, and I feel awesome. Seriously, there have been a few Sundays when I have been sorely tempted to sneak in another run in the evening after a long run. It's like, "What?! Where did all of this energy come from? Where has this been all this time??!!" It's like I'm high on whatever it is that they smoke here except I'm not smoking it! I have even come to enjoy track sessions. Astonishing I know. Boulder is AMAZING!!! Soooo many trails, soooo many good training partners, and Boulder Creek is the best ice tub you could ask for. I could not ask for a better place to train, and a better environment to be part of.
Last Saturday was the Classic 10k in Springs, which went pretty well! It was actually my first 10k race not on a track, and first one at altitude, so it was an altitude PR (by default, but who's keeping track?). While perhaps I could have raced more intelligently (that first 5k has you thinking you'll feel like a champ the whole way) I was still pleased with the result and felt pretty strong. It was good to see the BRC out there repping and HUGE congrats to Tera who is on a comeback of epic proportions! Great job to Adrian, Steph, Sara, Aucencio, Matt, Tommy, Adam and Robby. Lots of green in the field that day. Keep the good races coming! Out.
