Snow, family, and return to "racing"

The last two months have been a bit of a roller coaster, mainly due to my annoying IT band. At the worst I was down to 15 miles a week and was afraid to run more than a mile away from my house in case the IT band tightened up and sent me walking home. Boo.

But enough of the bad, here's some good things that happened:
My family came to visit! They brought my new snazzy Subaru Outback to Colorado and we spent a few days in Winter park. I did some snow shoeing instead of skiing because of the IT band.

Andy had a great race at the Colorado 5 mile championships. He was so fast that they weren't ready for him at the finish and he had to do a pretend finish for pictures. Here's Andy being goofy and a yummy waffle from Walnut cafe. Mmmmm.


I had a little climbing mishap when my belayer slipped, pulling me off the wall and slamming my foot into the rock...But it's not broken!...but 5 weeks later I can still feel it...silly bone bruise. Thank god for the Adidas energy BOOST shoes! Seriously, it's the only thing that has been cushioned/responsive enough to run in since my foot injury.

I got to go home! First time since Christmas. Bye bye snow, hello eternal Houston summer. The Texas sun felt SO good after all this snow in Boulder. I did make a tiny mistake by trying to do some barefoot strides, but after a little ibprofen and a rest day everything is looking up again.

My mom put on a race to benefit camps for teens in foster care. Run for Hope was a huge success and a really fun race. Check out Love Fosters Hope if you want to donate or help out with providing hope to teens in foster care. It's an incredible camp and a very worthy cause to be involved in. I'm so glad I was able to go home and be a part of it. Side note, it was my first time to do a workout in 2 months and first time running in the new bright yellow Adidas uni. Time to race my way back to shape, one 5k at a time. Oh, and winning is always fun too. While I was yogging the 5k, Andy was actually kicking butt at Mt. SAC....running crazy fast in the 5k: 13:41 fast to be exact.

It also happened to be the weekend of the J Fred Duckett Rice Meet. I miss this blue track, my coach and old teammates so much! Doing a "workout" ...10 x 100m strides... at the Rice track with the girls was just what I needed. It definitely made me realize I need to find a group to train with here. Running is a social thing for me and I find I am pushed much more when I'm training with others.

I wasn't kidding about racing my way back into shape. I did another 5k a week later. The Boulder Distance Classic! As usual, my teammates rocked it. Way to go BRC Adidas! The race shirts had a tribute to the Boston victims and Henry gave a nice speech encouraging everyone to live without fear. So, I toed the start line in support of Boston and my teammates and later laced up my climbing shoes for an afternoon in Eldorado Canyon. Of course, it would have been nice to be racing at Stanford that weekend, but it was still a fun day and I'm getting healthy bit by bit.

Finally, the warm weather has arrived! To Cooper's dismay, it hit 80 degrees one day last week. We ran out 3 miles to a park which did not have a working water fountain. Let's just say it was a long 3 miles home for this pup and it made me actually consider getting a hobby jogger water belt. On second thought, I'll just run him by the Boulder creek. In typical Boulder fashion, two days later the snow came again! I am so over the cold. Bring on sport bra weather!

And for the final picture... I chopped off my hair! No more pink/blonde ends...for now.


So now I'm heading into May with a new car, recovered bum foot, pain-free IT band, stronger glutes and a lot less hair. Ok May, bring on my 25th bday (yikes, I feel old), the Bolder Boulder 10k and (please please please) more sunshine!
Nicole M.

Time for an update....

Hello folks,  sorry to have to put Shannon's famous Chicking blog underneath mine, as it is certainly more entertaining, but as usual it has been too long since my last post and there have definitely been changes.  First, of course being that we had our baby boy on March 1st, and he is now over 9 weeks old!  Crazy how fast time flies.  Other then that, I took a new job at a physical therapy clinic in Loveland which has been fun, and I have finally managed to start getting back in shape.

I am still being coached by Jon Sinclair, who has gradually been increasing the intensity of the workouts while trying to keep me healthy.  Always an arduous task with my nagging achilles, but so far so good.  This past weekend I was out in Indianapolis for the Mini-Marathon and ran a 1:06:48.  The course is fast but the wind played a major part in the slower times.  I was lucky enough to finish 6th by outkicking the guy in seventh by .15.  It felt like I was in one of those bike races where someone just keeps waiting for the sprint to start, and when it finally did, it was an all out dash for the line.  Races like that is what keeps me coming back for more!

It was great seeing all of you who made it out to the Boulder distance classic, it's always fun doing a team race where we can take it to the BTC.  And of course free beer after the race is always worth the pain.  Next up for me will be another race in boulder, the Boulder Boulder.  Hope to see lots of BRC runners out there so we can make another yellow train of awesomeness! Till then...

"Chick Fil-A"

I feel as though it is time to address the topic of "Chicking." Recently, we have started referring to it as being "Chick Fil-a'ed" because it just sounds cooler. Plus, there was a joke to go along with it but that's a story for another day. In any case, it seems to be a sort of recurring theme in running life right now.

I started thinking about it a few weeks ago when, during an especially slow span of time at the shoe store, one of the guys I work with brought up this little game called "Make It or Break It." Yeah I know. I didn't know what it was either and I felt totally un-hip and totally un-cool, but apparently these young people of today have invented some of their own games that are total knock-off's of the ones that MY generation came up with. This one is similar to Truth or Dare or Would You Rather, but entails one person presenting to another person an imaginary scenario that is made up of all of the ideal circumstances, but one aspect within those circumstances totally throws the whole thing off. For instance, would you want to live to be 150 years old, live in a Utopian society and never age, BUT you are blind for your entire life. Does the blindness break it or would you accept the situation in spite of it? Lame example but you get the point.

So I presented to this kid a scenario in which he met the PERFECT girl. I mean, Imaginary Girl was flawless: all the right personality traits, super attractive and so on. Oh, but wait, there's a catch...she's faster than him, sooo Make It or Break It, kiddo?
He looked shocked that I even had to ask. "BREAKS IT," he answered, without hesitation.
Seriously dude? Really? You just met your perfect soul mate but because she can out-run you, that's a deal-breaker?
Yes, apparently it is.

Then I think back a several years ago. I had this coach tell me un-jokingly that if I ever beat him in a race, he'd quit running. In thinking back, it made me feel kinda crummy because in my much younger brain it was comparable to having my coach tell me, "If you are ever more successful than me at this sport, I'll quit," I knew he'd have never dreamed of saying this to any guy, but who says that to their athlete anyway, regardless? You aren't competing against your coach for crap sake. Not to mention, I took it as a stab directed straight at me owing to the fact that while he may be a decent runner, he is no Olympian, and there are numerous women that I know who could easily outrun him. But then again, this guy, good person in daily life though he may be, seemed to harbor a very bizarre revulsion toward coaching females (apprently we are terribly frightening and may corner you and force you to talk about feelings), much less getting beat by them, so maybe I shouldn't have taken it so personally, but I did.

I don't get it.

And then I recall some of the many post-collegiate races over the last few years. There was this Turkey Trot in Wash Park a few years ago where Cassie was way up front, busy winning the women's race by about a half mile, and I was in second, running with this group of guys. This is a pretty big race every year, so there were plenty of guys to run with and tons of spectators. But from the sidelines, I heard a lot of:

"Don't let her catch you!"
"Don't let that girl beat you!"
"Hurry up she's right behind you!"

These were always accompanied by one of the guys putting on some crazy surge that lasted all of like 10 meters. I just thought it was great to have people to race with, way better than being in no-(wo)man's land. They, on the other hand, seemed to be fighting for their very lives. It's weird. I mean, WHY? Why is it so important to them? Help me out here.

Kind of like last weekend racing a 5k up at "The Rez" in Boulder. I was running with Nicole Feest, and there was this guy with us who kept passing us, then we'd pass him, then he'd come surging back, then we'd catch him, and I accidentally flat-tired him once and almost just straight-up took him out of action, and it went like this the whole. Freakin'. Way. If his breathing was anything to gauge off of, the poor guy--bless his little hypermasculine heart--was pretty close to having a stroke, so desperate was he to stay ahead. The final 200 meters, a spectator from the sidelines yelled, "STAY AHEAD! YOU CAN'T LET THOSE GIRLS BEAT YOU!" I might have given him a grumpy look had he not been, well, my boss's boss. So I didn't. But I still wanted to yell back, "YO BRO! HE'S ALREADY GETTING OWNED BY TWO OTHER ONES (Ellie Keyser and Rachel G-Ryan way up in front) SO WHAT'S TWO MORE?!" Ah, but there wasn't energy to spare at that time, so I refrained. But he beat us both by a wee hair anyway so I guess he'll survive another day...although he didn't really look like it at the finish line.

Now all of this isn't to say that I'm going to go all femi-Nazi and crazy and start protesting unequal treatment of women or whatever, I just want to say that I don't get it. I really don't. It's like men think that getting beat by a woman at anything is the equivalent of being neutered and I really want to know why this is. I even asked Make It or Break It kid the reasoning behind this and he didn't know either. I was hoping for some genuine insight into the male psyche to better understand this strange phenomenon. But he didn't know. Or maybe he's just not very good at self-psychoanalysis. Either way, being female, I can honestly say that while there is a certain satisfaction in out-running or keeping up with a person who has numerous physiological advantages over you, it pretty much ends there. It doesn't come with a feeling of superiority or anything, it's just more like, "Oh good, I worked hard enough to outrun some guys," and that's that. Whereas a guy who gets outrun by a girl acts like he's been totally emasculated for LIFE and cannot face another day in this cold, cruel, dark world. Like if you gave him the option of getting beat by a girl versus being swallowed alive and fully conscious by a Great Leatherback Turtle, whose mouth and esophagus looks like this...

...he'd take the turtle.
I can't be the only one who finds this to be strange. And it's not offensive really--to a certain degree it's even comical--just impossible to not notice. And I do wonder if men would be a bit more at ease with "chicking" if said chicks gave them a swift, healthy, slap on the rump upon passing. I think yes.

Welp, on that note, I haven't really got any other running-related things to say other than congrats to everyone who killed it up in Boulder and to everyone who took to the track at Stanford--big PR's for Bri and Mattie, yeeahhh buddy!!! Keep up the good work everyone.

Chasing Shadows

You can’t run from your shadow. And you can’t catch your shadow. 

It’s attached to you, and you’ll never get away.

I’m sure most of you remember the story within a story of a young boy named Peter Pan who chased his shadow. Like the Great Pan, we’re all chasing our shadows. The shadows behind us are our past, and they cling to our heels. The shadows in front of us are our future, our hopeful anticipation of our potential trajectory - Forward, to a new and better You. Like the shadow behind you, you can’t break from the shadow in front of you, and in some eerie perspective, the shadow in front you exists because of the shadow behind you, together they play with your mind like evil twins as the Sun moves across the sky.

The shadow behind you is the distant image of your former self. Where you used to be, and if you’re a runner, that former self has some lofty PRs that weigh you down like 20-pound weights on your ankles. The gravity of your former self is always haunting, like most shadows behind you tend to be. You can’t escape the shadow behind you, with every step you take, your shadow takes. It doesn’t matter how hard you try to get away, the shadow of your former self is always keeping stride: the ultimate competitor. But if you think this evil former self shadow is haunting, sometimes the potential self shadow in front you is always setting the bar, just out of reach.

The shadow in front of you is the anticipated You that you hope to be. And because of the shadow behind you, the shadow in front of you always sets a comfortable distance in front you - and you can never catch it. The shadow in front of you are your hopeful PR’s to come, the ones the shadow behind you sets. If you ran X time in your past, you should be able to run Y time in your future. The haunting shadow behind you is like an evil dog owner who keeps a sausage on a string, just out of reach of his pet. The shadow in front of you are you hopes and dreams, your anticipated improvements. Together, these evil twins are either holding you back, or taunting you as they’re just out of reach. The Tormenting Two are the curse of the competitive runner.

The challenge is acknowledging the Truth: The shadows of your past, or your future, don’t really matter. Sure, they’re visible - always - but only if you’re looking down. You’ll always have the races in your past, and you’ll always have the goals of your future, but the key is to not allow it to affect the present.

It doesn’t matter how great Yesterday was, or how great Tomorrow can be, what matters is TODAY.

And today, I feel like going for a run.

Track Adventures!!!

I know I said about a million times before that I don't really like track. And it's true, I don't. Don't get me wrong, I love the running part of it, just not the "on the track" part. But you know, sometimes you have to get over these things, kind of like your mom making you get over the fact that you didn't like eating your veggies but you have to because they're good for you. That sort of thing. It's springtime, so track happens. The big upside of track is that it provides ample opportunities to run PR's owing to its fast and (overly) flat surface, and for that reason alone I like it. The downsides of track include but aren't limited to: the TRACK part of track, the races being generally tactical; and the tactics are always the same: gun goes off, someone makes themselves the "sacrificial lamb" by setting the pace for the majority of the race before being rolled up, and in the meantime everyone else just follows in this big clump and flings elbows and spikes each other and you have to hug the rail so you don't end up running an extra 300 meters but you CAN'T hug the rail because everyone else is hugging the rail too, and you have to listen for splits, and if the splits are too slow or too fast then panic descends, and no one ever wants to lead, but someone HAS to lead...heavens, it's maddening. Far less preferable than the balls-out-from-point-A-to-point-B style of running roads and cross country, but that's just my humble opinion. And while track is fast, not just any track is fast. Us altitude peeps have to find a place to go that will enable us to be fast, that is to say, somewhere not 6000 feet in elevation. So that usually entails going down to sea level. And while finding a good meet, then getting yourself into said good meet, then working out the travel logistics and costs included in getting yourself across the country and everything that comes with that is sometimes a bit stressful (seriously, you never realize how great you have it in college), it almost always pays off. Actually though I wouldn't mind track as much if all tracks looked a little more like this:


So on to Mt. Sac. In spite of having competed there about a zillion times in the past, and in spite of working out travel plans based entirely upon the assumption that I'd be in that meet, I didn't get in this year. I was a bit salty about it and spent about two days spitefully referring to it as "Mt. Nut-Sac", and maybe I could have sent a few dozen more emails to the meet director and just badgered him till he couldn't take it anymore, but I didn't. Thankfully though, there are about half a dozen other good meets in the surrounding area for Mt. Sac rejects like myself, and I opted for Long Beach instead. It's still sea-level, it's still the track, it's still running, so whatever.

Okay before I go any further, I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, but I just wanted everyone to know that my California driving skills are totally badass. I didn't know I had it in me to cut people off repeatedly, because that's how you've got to do it in California. There, unlike here, when changing lanes, you DO NOT signal and then wait for a space to open and then give a happy wave of thanks to the non-aggressive driver behind you who politely let you in, you just signal for like a millisecond, then cut over whether there's an opening or not, and don't wave. Seriously, this is L.A., waving would probably be interpreted as a gang sign and you would be shot. So yeah don't wave.

Anyway, I had this really great streak of good luck on getting there. I got to Mt. Sac that first night to watch Birdsong, Scott, and Bobby race the 10k. I had no cash on me and parking was $10, and I guess I come across as a total bumpkin or something because the guy let me park for free instead. Then I got down to the track and couldn't get in because I hadn't paid the entry fee. So the Gate Keepers (or whoever they were) sent me over to buy a wristband to get in. Waiting grumpily in line while Birdsong finished his entire race that I didn't get to see, apparently I met like the founding father of Mt. Sac or something. He was this tiny old man who let me cut everyone in line--I guess he too thought I looked like a bumpkin--then gave me a wristband for free, and told me that all he wanted in payment was for me to tell everyone how great Mt. Sac is. So the point of this little story is that Mt. Sac is freaking GREAT.

Now, without taking away from the fact that I just said Mt. Sac is great, I will say that one more reason why I don't particularly care for many of these big-name track meets is because of all the fudging that goes on when people (and coaches) submit times to get in. Seriously people, don't put down some mark that's (knowingly) far beyond what you're going to run just so you can get in. I am curious as to why athletes and coaches seem to think they're doing themselves this huge favor by doing so. I mean cool, you're at some famous race, you're in the Olympic Development heat, and you might get pulled along to a fast time, but more than likely you're going to be out the back and running solo after 2k and running slower than you would have at a more modest race. I saw more than a handful of 5k's well over the 17:30 range, if that's the time they submitted to get in, they wouldn't be there. It irked me a little bit.

But that's okay, Long Beach was a good time. Well, all except for the little incident involving the meet schedule that was posted online the morning of the race stating that the 5k would be held at 8:30 A.M. instead the initially projected 7 P.M.. I read this at about 10 A.M. and um...panicked, to put it mildly. Bobby and Mack bore witness to what was very nearly a full-blown panic attack of unprecedented proportions. I mean, missing a race is the stuff of nightmares. However, it turned out to in fact be a typo, soooo yeah...

It was the first time I've set foot on a track in a year, and while my time wasn't really anything to write home about it was only 4 seconds off of my PR, a little win, and which after a two month layoff, a couple months of training at pretty modest mileage, and running the majority of the race solo, it's good to know that even though there's a lot of work to do I wasn't too terribly rusty. And I can't even lie, I actually want to race another 5k on track as soon as the opportunity presents itself, yes I just said that.

So that was the week's adventures, good work to everyone who ran out there. Next up we have a good group going up to Boulder this Saturday for the Boulder Distance Classic.

Until then however, I would like to take this moment to present to everyone my newly adopted spiny child, Oliver:

The Obligatory Post-Race Post

So just to be clear, I don't really like writing much about actual running. I'd rather come up with something relating running to life or relating running to the cosmos or relating running to Nutella, or something I read or saw that really grinds my gears: that is to say, basically anything on Letsrun.com or anything published by "Dr." Jason Karp (who seems to have a strange preoccupation with the idea that women shouldn't run through menstrual cycles. Which begs the question of how many of those he's had to run through, and also if he thinks this is still the 1800's or something. But, well, that's a somewhat squirmy and uncomfortable topic for all of us, so moving on...) or anything that puts the Kardashians into the limelight (seriously, does anyone know why the hell they're even famous?!). Or I write stuff solely for the purpose of processing something that totally made my mind go "boom". I don't really like writing about workouts or how many miles I ran last week (see previous post "Magical Numbers" for a more detailed rant on that one) and I don't really write about races because I don't remember much of them other than bits and pieces because I think my brain goes somewhere else during that time. But since the first race of the entire year is in the bag (finally), I think that warrants a celebratory post.

I always wonder during times of mandatory downtime if all those hours and hours of cross-training my legs off truly does make the comeback trail a little less long than it would be if I just chilled out for a couple months and ate Reece's Peanut Butter Easter Eggs and lapsed into a sort of injury-induced pseudo-hibernation. Every now and then I'd find myself tempted to make an excuse, "GAHH I don't need to go to the pool today, it doesn't do anything anyway. Plus it's -10 outside." Then I go and Tweet my gripes to the running world. But thankfully the compulsive side of me that feels a need to never, ever leave a blank spot in the training log wins out about 98% of the time. Really though, I don't know why I always wonder this, because fitness seems to come back crazy-fast for the most part, and it makes me shudder to think about how much it would have sucked to start back from ground zero.

Anyway, not totally sure where that was headed other than to say that thanks to those zillion cross training hours and not to mention the sage wisdom and guidance of Coach Cody--without whom I would probably have been running as much as I could as hard as I could like a month ago, then finding ways to "sneak" in just a "little bit more," and therefore would probably be sidelined again right about now-- workouts are just as good (maybe better, but talk is cheap) as they were pre-injury, and last weekend's race went swimmingly.

I guess I could say that the Boulder Spring 5 Miler was pretty solid, but one of my pet peeves is when people describe runs as "solid". It's only annoying because everybody does it, and it makes me wonder what the alternative is to a "solid" run. Vapor? Liquid? Gaseous? I could go all sorts of directions with that last one. But instead I'll just say it went well, felt like a good effort, and is a good starting point for this year. Plus, it was neato that there was $400 bucks for the win and I got that and didn't even know there was money in the race. That's like, a whole paycheck. I love a surprise. Also I have to lend a special thanks to BTC's Chuy Martinez for not leaving me out there in windy no-man's land for the duration of the second half of the race.

Oh, but of course I couldn't just go away and say, "A win's a win! Yeaaaah buddy!' I just had to go home and geek-out and look at last year's results and make comparisons. This year's race was notably less stacked than last year's, no doubt owing to the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile (where Bri was second American) and the St. Louis Half (where Mattie made everyone her b***h. There. I'll say it so that she doesn't have to because she's too nice.) and my time this year would've put me about 3rd last year. This thought led to my usual How-About-Instead-Of- Focusing-On-Bettering-Myself-I-Compare-Myself-To-Everyone-Else thought train. In this case it went like this:

1) Runner X ran Y time at this race last year.
2) Runner X then went on to run Z time at W race.
3) Therefore, I will end up running Z time at W race because I ran Y time that Runner X ran at this race last year.
4) Freak out.

After engaging in that thought process and acknowledging that my tiny victory in Boulder paled in comparison to what many of my teammates have been doing, I decided at that moment that I'm not thinking like that anymore because those thoughts are stupid and self-defeating and serve no purpose. Nope. Just not going to do it. They say that "Comparison is the thief of joy," because rather than being thankful for your own milestones and accomplishments, you stack them up against everyone else's milestones and it's positively soul-sucking. And guess what? Everyone else's milestones are none of your business anyway, and those people went through their own peaks and valleys to attain them. So be grateful for what you were able to do on a given day, acknowledge it and give yourself a quick pat on the back, then get back to work. Rant over. Anyway though, the end result of the race looked like this, or maybe this is just Art looking bashful with some of his lady friends:

Dear Lord my forehead is enormous. Shoot, there I go comparing again...

Before I forget, major props to Andy, Scott and Art for upping the amount yellow on the podium.

Well this has been quite the conglomeration of verbal vomit so I'll wrap this little guy up. Next up is the Mt. Sac 5k which will be a more honest test and I'll get to chase women instead of Chuy.

Toodles.

Divide For The Weekend

When I get time off work, I usually head up to a higher elevation. Whether it be Woodland Park or Divide, I never stay long, but long enough for my body to get a red blood cell boost. Coach Scott Simmons is like a mad scientist and his theories are very intriguing to us all. He is very intelligent and will approach every angle of training, never leaving a stone unturned.

So why do we go up to a higher altitude? Well, studies have shown that an increase in altitude will naturally increase EPO production and boosts the red blood cell count. These cells are responsible for carrying oxygen to the body's tissues (including the muscles). This is typically why people live at altitude or have altitude tents. Studies have shown that EPO production is greatest the first 2-3 days and usually plateaus and starts to decrease shortly after that time period. If we lived permanently at such high altitude, our bodies wouldn't be able to recover properly and we wouldn't get the boosts in our red blood cells that we are looking for. Due to these factors, we try to get to a higher elevation 2 days a week, if our schedule allows us.

Where do we Stay? Well American distance project has set up several different housing opportunities. Cathedral Ridge in Woodland Park is where I usually stay, but currently I'm at Stonehaven Inn Bed and Breakfast between Divide and Cripple Creek perched on the western slope of Pikes Peak.

Shortly after arriving at Stonehaven, Craig and I were greeted with warm smiles and pleasant conversation by owners Janis and Ferrel. Isolated and remote, this beautiful 3 story cabin is decorated with rustic furniture and would be a lovely get away for anybody looking for a quiet vacation. The hospitality of Janis and Farel is incredible and today after our run we were surprised with a home cooked breakfast. Fruit and yogurt parfait, followed by scrambled eggs, waffles, and sausage with orange juice to wash it all down. YUMMY! I can't help but feel like I am on a small vacation. If I wasn't writing this blog, I would probably be lounging in the hot tub, reading a book (psyche), or playing air hockey with Craig. Instead I am overwhelmed with the luxury of having the world wide web. Ha!

The running is an entire different story. With not a flat surface to run on, it's hard not to be out of breath shortly after stepping out the door. I guess 10,000 ft of elevation will do that to you. Thankfully we have beautiful snowcapped mountains to distract us from our shortness of breath. Easy running is all the doctor ordered!

Craig and I will be here until tomorrow morning before having to return to reality.

Until next time....

Brandon Birdsong

February Fun, Snow, and IT Band Issues

So much to talk about! February was a busy month. I accepted a job at the best running store in the US (sorry Luke's...but really, it's been named the best in the US) Boulder Running Company! Everyone there is so nice and knowledgeable. Besides the usual running, yoga, and climbing activities, February brought some pretty great adventures: Mardi Gras party, sneaking into a paint party concert and getting my ITband massaged to the point I wanted to cry...ok, maybe that last one wasn't as fun, but still necessary.

Despite being born in Louisiana, I am sorry to say I have never properly celebrated Mardi Gras, so I was thrilled to find out Andy's friend was a part of a Mardi Gras show/party downtown. The only downside to the experience is that now I have another thing to add to my to-do list: become a professional aerial artist. There's just not enough time in the day!

Valentine's Day:
I missed making cards for all of my Rice teammates and sneaking secret admirer letters to randoms in the library...don't worry Becky, it will happen again! This year I just made one silly poem for Andy.

ITband treatment:
One of the most painful experiences ever. All runners out there, don't wait till you're IT band is hurt, roll out now! You don't want to deal with this silly injury, trust me. Oh, and Mark and Heather are the best! Even if they make me want to cry at times...

First seriously snowy run. Frozen eyelashes :/

BRC Adidas kits arrived!


I'm so excited to be on the BRC Adidas team. Can't wait to race in the bright yellow!

Signed up for the MCAT. Lots more of this to come:


Well, that's about it for February happenings. So far I've been able to somewhat train through this annoying IT band injury. I'm hoping it will resolve itself soon so I can start thinking about racing!
Nicole M.

Gate River Run

Once a year, in March, one of the biggest road races in America descends upon Jacksonville, Florida: the Gate River Run. Doubling as the USA 15k National Championships, the race brings out some of the world's top elite runners to stride alongside 20,000 participants.

This is an event I would highly recommend to any runner: elite or recreational. It boasts great March weather and a cool town perfect for Spring Break.

Highlights
•All-around wonderful organization, encouragement and hospitality by Richard Fannin
•Also thanks to Bill and Heather Johnson, BRC/Adidas and many more
•Visit to Sanctuary on 8th Street
•Pre-Race talk by Craig Virgin
•Equalizer race and finish over the Hart Bridge
•Picnic diner hosted by race directors Doug and Jane Alred•After Party at 1904 Music Hall

First off, I owe enormous thanks to BRC/Adidas, Richard Fannin and all who helped in getting me to Jacksonville! I have never felt so welcomed, encouraged, and well taken care of, as a runner, as I did for the US 15k championships. So seriously, THANK YOU!

Friday, March 8, 2013
One of the great events Richard and all assembled was a visit to the Sanctuary on 8th Street.
This is an after school program for children living in poverty, often without even one parent to support them. The program offers food, help with school work and outdoor recreation. We as runners, visited the sanctuary to have a little Friday afternoon exercise with the kids. Lee Troop, a local Boulder, CO and Australian marathon legend, showed his amazing education skills organizing some games and stretches and really getting everyone involved. It was a sincerely hartwarming day, just seeing how excited many of the kids were to have a little one-on-one attention, even for a short time.

Friday night culminated with a USATF meeting and pre-race talk by Craig Virgin. Craig is a great motivational speaker, and true American hero. If you ever have the chance to meet him, do it.

Saturday, March 9, 2013
-The Race
In the hubbub of a cool spring break morning, I found myself, wondering through crowds reminiscent of Disney World. Navigating out of the fairgrounds, by kegs of beer, palm trees, port-o-potties; the ride is about to begin. If, like this runner, at this exact moment, you have never been in a road race the size of a small city: get ready for a do-it-yourself sporting event, parade and city tour rolled into one!

The gun goes off, signaling the massive start, traveling down Bay street on the North side of the St. John's River. The catch is that the elite women have already started, 6:35 ahead, leading to an all-out battle of the sexes and a chance for the equalizer bonus of $5,000 to the first person, be it man or woman, to cross the finish line.

After a crowded 4:40 first mile, the pack takes three 90 degree turns and heads onto the Main Street bridge. After a quick introduction to the far bank of the St. John's, you enter San Marco and what remains as a blur that I can only describe as "the neighborhoods". I hit the fist 5k in 14:40 just behind the lead pack of 13. Another couple twists and turns and we head onto Hendrick's Ave. With a long straight stretch, Michael Eaton and I push to make up the gap, in a confusing tornado of long-haired, blonde Adidas runners. We begin to catch the first elite women.

I still can't bridge the gap (not a pun). At 8k, I'm 23:40, one of my fastest times ever, running solo. I blend into the chase pack, and cross 10k in 29:29. Now, here is what Craig Virgin, the honored pre-race speaker and two time World Champion, would refer to as a moment of truth. I could tough out a couple miles with the chase pack or I could ease off and hope for a couple stragglers near the end. Rookie mistake, I let them go.

The climax of the race, culminates with a race grinding up and blazing down the 150 foot tall, mile-long Hart Bridge and a sprint around the Jaguar's stadium. With all my strength I push through the remaining kilometer and sprint in at 45:09, 22nd place, glad to be done, disappointed, but wiser.

It was a great experience for my first road race. Not the place or time I wanted, but a learning experience to help me sharpen up for the rest of my spring season. Next time I'll have to make a few subtle changes, and I'll be pushing the top 10.

After the race, I was lucky enough to spend time with my Dad and travel down to the coast. That's the great part about racing in at 8:30am: you still have an entire day post-race. The weather cooled, but Atlantic beach was nice enough for a quick knee-deep dip in the salt water. Fish taco's at Poe's Tavern near the beach, completed a lazy, well deserved and restful afternoon.

At 6pm, a huge group of the elite runners bussed over to the race director house for a catered outdoor picnic. This was a great chance for me to meet many of the other elite athletes.

Being a professional runner isn't like other professional sports. Many people have other jobs to support their running. For instance, I am in grad school, teach and tutor to earn enough to almost cover the month's rent. Thats it. I still need my parent's support just to make it through day to day. So, it was really interesting to see how, dedicated and talented runners all over the country make their way in life. Some are on teams that pay for housing and more, others are engineers, mothers and PhDs. In general, it is amazing and encouraging to see so many bright, and kind people that work really hard for the small (really small) amount of money and (trivial) fame involved in being a pro runner.

Some of the fantastic people I met include the magnetic Tim Richie, blonde charmer Michael Eaton, bearded Scott Smith, tree-tattooed Michael Crouch, master's all-star Kevin Castille, future prom king Anthony Solis, Jeff Sadler, the charismatic Giliat Ghebray, the illustrious Morgan Haws, Sarah Crouch, Katie Di Camillo, Addie Bracy, and D2 all-star Tyler Pennel. These guys and ladies are AWESOME. Cheer them on, make them your new best friend.

To kick off the weekend, we finished our night at 1904 music hall. Enjoyed a beer with Richard in congratulations on a weekend to remember. Not to mention, celebrated Brandon Birdsong-Johnson's birthday.

All in all, an awesome weekend and a great first encounter with big time road racing. Much more to come soon, from this young runner.
Andy

It's All In Your Head. Not.

I stumbled on an article the other day entitled "Rethinking Running Health", I was drawn to it as it seemed fitting for this particular time in my running life. "Injury is a frame of mind," cheered the introductory sentence beneath it. My hackles rose. "Oh isn't this just like Runner's World," I thought, maybe a little cynically, "Three days to your best marathon ever and now you can think away all of your injuries! Fantastic. Where do I sign up? Will it help if I wear a hat made out of tin-foil too?"

So before even reading the article, I automatically went on the defense as I initially thought that it was going to be another sports psychology article claiming that most injuries are "all in your head" and that pain is merely a physical manifestation of stress or some other negative emotion(s) like fear, anger, anxiety, or sadness. Pyschosomatic, they call it; where the brain takes negative, repressed emotions and reproduces them as physical pain (that's the psychology major talking there). Granted, I absolutely buy into that idea to a certain degree, in certain circumstances, as it has been proven a number of times. To apply it to everything is just hogwash, but everyone's experienced it at some point, whether you "believe" in the so-called psuedo-science of psychology or not. Who hasn't at one time gotten a headache after a few hours or a couple days of being really stressed out? There you go. If you've ever taken a Sports Psych course, you know that when it comes to athletes it's been shown a time and again that more highly stressed, type-A athletes get hurt more often, and that athletes who get injured are often in a negative state of mind when they became injured, and while these two examples don't really fall 100% into the "it's all in your head" mentality, they still go to show that when it comes down to it, you really can't separate the brain from the body.

Not sure where all I was going with that. So back to the psychosomatic side of things. While there's certainly some truth to it, I guess you've got to take the idea with caution as it is certainly not applicable to every situation and can really downplay actual injuries, which are never "all in your head." Even worse, putting too much stock into such a belief can make athletes feel like total wimps, which is something any competitive athlete at any level is hardwired to never allow themselves to become. At least for myself, and I know I can't be the only one, that "all in your head" attitude really instills a tremendous amount of self-doubt when it comes to paying attention to what your body is telling you. It's like, "Geez, is my hamstring really that sore or do I just think it is?" "Does my foot really hurt this bad or am I just nervous for such-and-such race?" "Am I actually this tired or am I just imagining it?" "Well everyone I know runs 130 miles a week and they're not hurt, so I can't possibly be and I should do that too." For chronic self-doubters like myself, it's really not good.

The problems arise when you get to the point where you don't know the difference between being smart and having a strong sense of self-preservation, versus being paranoid or being a total headcase. Which is unfortunate, because who wants to be known as the latter two? I will readily admit that at this point I can't honestly figure out if you can even be "smart" in this sport without being a certain amount of both of those other things. And for the record, being aware that you have the issue of being seemingly unable to differentiate between whether you're a headcase or smart really doesn't fix the issue one bit.

Man, back in my college days I used to want to be a Sports Psychologist, but now I am pretty sure that my head would explode before my first patient even walked through the door. Maybe that wouldn't be the greatest career path after all.

Anyway, that's my rant about that, I'm getting off track here. All of this thinking went on before I actually even read the article, and that wasn't really what it was even about so I never needed to get my bunhuggers in a bunch in the first place, but that's how I feel about things, in case you were wondering.

So when I actually clicked on it and read it like the studious, well-learned person that I pretend to be, I found that in saying "injuries are a state of mind," it didn't mean that "injuries are all in your head," which is a complete insult to athletes everywhere, but basically what it was referencing was the fact that in a typical, driven, highly competitive, type-A-never-deviate-from-the-assigned-task-at-hand athlete who is unwilling to adjust training or accomadate obstacles along the way, injuries are often a result of that type of thinking. So to that end, injuries can be the result of a state of mind. That's like a two sentence summary, so if you want to read it for yourself, it's right here:
http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/rethinking-running-health

Anyhow, creativity has really been waning these days for some reason, so in other news I pierced my nose the other day and was reading the after-care instructions later on. "Mix salt and warm water in a glass," it said, "Then, simply invert glass of salt water solution over site of piercing to create a vacuum 3x daily." 'Simply invert'? 'Create a vacuum?' WTF?! Have you ever tried to "invert" a freaking glass of salt water on your face? Much less "create a vacuum"? Well I tried it and so should you. Let me know how it works out.