Running With the Boys

AM: 5+ miles
PM: 5.5-6 miles

Jordan and I both felt less than stellar on our short morning loop, but fortunately the evening jaunt was much better. It also helps that the temps have cooled down drastically in the past few hours and the humidity is virtually nonexistent. It's almost unfathomably nice for early July, although I can't help being a bit peeved that the front didn't roll in prior to that horrendous 5k on Tuesday. Oh well.

We also had my (former) teammate Mike Crouch along for the evening run. He's staying with us for a few days before traveling to Atlanta to run the Peachtree 10k (which he is doing as a workout), then heading to Florida to compete in the NACAC Under-23 track meet. It's a big honor to be chosen for the team and I know he's excited to wear a USA jersey for the first time. In the meantime he is gracious enough to run with us slowpokes and not push the pace too much.

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An Interesting Flight

AM: 6 miles
PM: 4 miles

Today's waking hours were largely dominated by coast-to-coast travel. Seems like just yesterday Tanya and I were headed out west for the Stanford Invite...now, five weeks later, we're making a return trip with Pezz and Mike in tow (Simmons and Futsum to join us tomorrow). Everything was progressing as usual until our layover at Dulles airport in DC, which is when things took an unexpected turn for the better (and more coincidental). I'll excerpt from Jilane's blog to share the story:

Also of "running world" note... Dan [Jilane's boyfriend] took off for San Francisco this morning for a squash tournament, only to be booked on the same flight as the Queens team! How jealous was I?? Meago is heading to the Pacific to throw down another sick 10k out at Stanford, so two of my all-time favs got to bond a bit in the terminal before boarding. Further confirming the "damn this world is small" thing, Dan and Mike Crouch were seated next to each other on the flight. Dan attempted to explain how he knows Jeff and Meagan, but something got lost in translation, as 15 minutes later in the conversation, Mike cuts him off to say, "Wait, just so we're on the same page here, you're dating Jeff?"

Can't make that stuff up.

Yup, that's right, less than a week after I had some delightful care and share with Jilane at Penn, I end up on the same flight as her boyfriend headed to California. And, apparently Mike thinks he and Jeff are dating. I love it.

Anyhow, that encounter was by far the highlight of the day. By the time we arrived at SFO, claimed our luggage, checked in to the Super 8 Palo Alto (which was a headache I don't have the time nor energy to detail here) and made it to Stanford for our shakeout, it was close to 7pm. Worse, the wind was gusting upwards of 25mph--waaaaay too much for comfort. If it's like this on Saturday I could straight up cry. But since it's Stanford and the racing conditions are always perfect here, I'm choosing to push that unpleasant thought out of my mind altogether.

I'm tired. It's been a long day. Must sleep.

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JC Smith Invitational and Blue Shoes Mile

2 mile w/u+ strides
3k race (minus two laps) in ? (I forget)
2 mile c/d
Total: 6 miles


View of downtown Charlotte from the JC Smith track

To echo Jordan's blog intro, what a day of racing! It started with a few hours at the Johnson C. Smith Invitational meet across town. You may recognize the name, as JC Smith is the track where we work out every week. So essentially this was our home meet. As if that didn't make it feel relaxed enough, add the fact that there were, oh, about four schools competing and that none of us were really racing our events. Basically we were just there to put in a few morning miles before starting off the weekend.


Jess, Tanya and Holly post-"race"

In Jordan's case, however, the meet was a chance to get in a solid long workout effort while dusting some college kids on the track. He planned to run the 3k at 9am, get in a few minutes uptempo afterward, then double back in the 5k at 9:45. Basically three mini-tempo efforts. See his blog for all the pertinent details, but suffice it to say he schooled all the competition while barely breaking a sweat. I, on the other hand, dropped out of the 3k a few laps short after feeling a bit of warning pain from my foot. But enough about me.


Jordan cruises to victory in the 3k

After a late morning/early afternoon brunch in the dining hall (no doubt Jordan's favorite part of the day), he and Tanya and I took the fastest showers on record and threw on some casual clothes to take a road trip down to Furman University in Greenville, SC, for the Blue Shoes Mile. Mike and Blake were both slated to toe the line, and we wanted to support our friends while hopefully watching a fast, exciting race.


Tanya stakes out her spot before the Blue Shoes Mile

Despite excessively windy conditions, we were not disappointed. Mexican 1500m record holder Pablo Solares took the race out hard and never looked back, clocking a 3:59 for the "W." Although Blake had a less than stellar day and dropped out at 500 meters, Mike ran tough and strong for a third place finish and huge mile PR. Had the conditions been better, I wouldn't have been surprised to see both him and our friend Dave Nightingale dip under the elusive 4-minute barrier.


Dave Nightingale and Mike racing the final turn

Event 25 Men 1600 Meter Run Blue Shoes College
================================================================
Name Year School Finals
================================================================
1 Pablo Solares Unattached 3:59.27
2 David Nightingale Unattached 4:04.11
3 Michael Crouch Unattached 4:04.71
4 John Richardson Unattached 4:06.93
5 Nate Peck Unattached 4:09.55
6 Thomas Morgan Unattached 4:10.99
7 Patrick Morgan Unattached 4:12.77
8 Steve Magness Unattached 4:14.28
9 Moise Joeseph Unattached 4:14.69
10 Matt Elliott Unattached 4:16.98
11 Brad Orr Unattached 4:21.03
12 Josh Houser Unattached 4:21.60
-- Nick Polk Unattached DNF
-- Blake Bolden Unattached DNF

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It's Like An Alarm Clock

46 mins.
6 miles

So picking up where we left off, my throbbing legs gave me a rather rude awakening circa 5:30 this morning. Awesome. Since I was unable to go back to sleep, I occupied my time by blogging, talking to Jordan, walking to the drug store to procure some ibuprofen, and watching the news on KRON 4 (home of the now-famous "Whistles Go Woooo!" news story that I suggest you watch immediately if you've never had the privilege before).

Around 8:30, Mike and I piled into the rental with Scott and headed out to some trail by the bay that Scott knew about. It was actually just past the Google corporate campus and several other Silicon Valley companies in Mountain View. The morning was warm and a touch humid, especially near the marshy area where we were running, but it felt good to loosen up the legs and put in a few easy miles. The view certainly didn't hurt either; after seeing the bay on one side and mountains on the other, I was having a hard time remembering exactly why I lived in North Carolina instead of here.


View of the bay at sunrise from the trails in Mountain View

The rest of the day was spent traveling, which is always exhausting, but by 11pm I was asleep in my own (twin extra-long prison issue) bed. Time to rest up and hopefully make up for last night's fitful sleep.

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Stanford Invite 10k

AM: 20 mins.
2.5 miles
PM: 20 min. w/u + strides (2.5 miles)
Target: 10k race @35:50 (5:45 pace)
Actual: 36:12 (5:48 pace: 1 mile @5:43; 5k @17:57)
12 min. c/d (1.5 miles)
Total: 10-10.5 miles

I should still be sleeping. As I'm typing this post-dated entry, it's 5:45am on Saturday morning. Our flight isn't until 12:30 and Mike and I don't even have to go do our recovery runs until 8:30, which is, yup, almost 3 hours from now. However, because my body is still out of whack from the time difference and because my legs are literally throbbing, here I am. So, instead of sleeping, I will attempt to recap my day and 10k race.

Yesterday started out quite pleasantly, and unlike this morning I was able to sleep until almost 8:30. When I awoke I peeked outside and was greeted by clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine; by the time I headed out for my shakeout around 10, it was clear this was going to be another positively gorgeous day. I wished I could've run much farther because it was so nice out, but reminded myself I'm not here to merely go for a jog. Likewise, as I stared wistfully outside my hotel (or, let's be real, motel) room window all afternoon yearning to be laying outside at the beach, I had to remind myself I wasn't here for vacation. Which is unfortunate, because I wouldn't mind spending another day or 20 here.

After sitting around all day--and I do mean all day; it was as boring as it sounds--we headed up to the track around 5:30pm. For me this meant more sitting around, just in a different location, but it was pretty fun watching many of the other distance races. To be honest it was also quite humbling to be in the presence of so many talented runners, and to realize that there were literally dozens if not hundreds of girls there who could beat me any day of the week without a second thought. I quickly learned that everyone is fast at the Stanford Invite, with very few exceptions.

I'll spare you the minutiae of the next few hours and skip to Mike's race, which went off just before I was to commence my warmup. He was in the fast section of the 5k--probably the only D2 runner in that section, and one of the few D2 runners in the entire 5k field--and held his own, kicking hard and passing a ton of guys in the final lap to finish in a comfortable PR of 13:46. As soon as I finished cheering for him, I threw on my trainers and headed out to warm up. I was greeted by a truly great surprise when I made it back to the track and started doing my strides: Ryan Graddy and Nick Sarro! Jordan and I ran with Graddy, who is in med school at Brown, when we were in San Diego over Christmas break, but I hadn't seen Sarro since Senior Week almost a year ago. It was great to see them and, later, hear them cheering for me during my race. Definitely made my day.

Ok, now on to the race itself: basically, this was the hardest I have ever run in my entire life. Or, at least, it hurt as much or more than any race I have ever run. I missed the auto time of 35:50 but I can assure you it wasn't for lack of trying. I felt awesome through the mile, comfortable through the 5k, and then the monkey jumped on my piano (or whatever that metaphor is). By 6k I was hurting and desperately trying to keep with my original strategy of staying with a pack. I competed well, passing girls who were falling off pace and catching up with girls who were running ahead of me, but after a while everyone was strung out and I found myself out there in no man's land. When I crossed the line with what I thought was 5 laps to go, I heard Scott yell "6 laps to go!" Um, I cannot quote for you verbatim the thought that crossed my mind in case any women and children are reading, but suffice it to say I was not thrilled. The final mile was absolutely torturous, but I amused myself with thinking of creative ways to sustain an injury and drop out of the race. By the time I hit a lap to go, I was in the red and basically willing myself to keep it together. I passed one girl on the final straight and kicked (if that's how you could describe it) with everything I had, but I had already known for quite some time that it wouldn't be enough to bring me under 36 minutes.

Now that the dust has settled and I've spoken with Scott and Jeff, I can analyze this race relatively objectively. Initially I was crestfallen to have missed the time after putting in so much hard work--and, more importantly, after believing I was fit enough to run it--but I have to look at this as a great first step. This was my first outdoor track race since high school, first 10k track race ever, and first time competing against this caliber of competition. My time was also well below the provisional standard of 37:2x needed for nationals, so there's a strong chance I will get in with this time anyway. As Jeff said, when you look at how my fitness has progressed over the past few months, our strongest feeling should be one of excitement. I have made some huge jumps in fitness and I know I can continue to do so over the course of this outdoor season. I remember running a 10k road race in Dallas almost exactly a year ago and texting Jordan (who I wasn't dating yet but he was so obviously trying to woo me), absolutely thrilled that I ran 37:55 and notched a huge PR (I'm embarrassed to say I don't think I'd broken 39 minutes before). To look back and realize how much my mindset and my personal standards have changed since then...well, it's a great feeling. The glass truly is half full.

Apologies on the length. Photos to come if I feel like it.

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Do You Know the Way to San Jose

AM: 45 mins.
6 miles
PM: 3 miles + strides

Welcome to the longest day of my life. I mean, not literally, but it had to be up there. It all started when I woke up early to finish packing and squeeze in a run prior to meeting Scott and Mike. My run was pretty craptastic but I'm not super concerned about it. We left for the airport at 9:30, eager to get to California so we could mentally and physically prepare for tomorrow night's races.

The first leg of our trip, Charlotte to Phoenix, commenced just a few minutes off schedule. We were in the air by 11:30 but, to our dismay, were seated in the very back of the plane. As in, literally the very back seat. As the flight progressed it became increasingly apparent that we would be cutting it very close for making our connection in Phoenix. The time between flights was a mere 30 minutes, which is pretty iffy even under the best of circumstances, and these certainly weren't the best of circumstances. By the time the entire planeload of people filed out and we made it into the terminal, we were looking at about 15 minutes until our flight was supposed to take off. "Don't worry," the flight attendant on our flight had said, "they know you're coming."

Well, they may have known, but they certainly didn't care. We reached our gate at 1:24 only to discover that the boarding door has been irreversibly closed at 1:22. FML. Long story short, we ended up getting booked on the next flight...which didn't leave until 5pm Pacific time. Sigh. I suppose the silver lining is that by the time we arrived in San Jose, procured our rental car, checked in to our hotel, changed clothes and headed to Stanford for our shakeout, it was well past 9pm. Since I'm not racing until 10:10 tomorrow night (which will be 1:10am to my poor, bedraggled body), at least I would have a chance to simulate what the late-night running would feel like.

To my pleasant surprise, I felt amazing on tonight's jog. I guess what everyone says is true; the air around here is magical. Mike, Scott and I opened up the run by taking in a few laps on the Stanford track. Talk about surreal; to think that the very place where I was casually jogging tonight would be the site of my long-awaited race tomorrow night was hard to wrap my brain around. There were a few other athletes milling around and getting in their last-minute race prep (including Sara Hall, who was apparently just learning how to go over the water barrier for her debut 3000m steeplechase), and after a few laps we decided to cruise down the bike path/gravel trail around campus for the rest of the jaunt. I finished up on the track around 22 minutes for some stretching and a few strides. The air was completely still, as evidenced by the motionless flags hanging on the pole, and I can only hope for a replica of tonight's weather tomorrow.

Once Mike and I were finished with our respective routines, Scott picked us up and we packed it in for the night. I'm exhausted and need to get in a good night's sleep. I'm also beyond nervous and could very well vomit by the time you're reading this. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

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