This fall we were en route to a cross country meet at Nebraska, and during the 8 hour trip I was feeling particularly reflective, so I decided to make a list of all the reasons that I run. All of them. In the end the list was 21 items long, and each one has its own unique story and emotions attached to it. Some are much more obvious than others, and some are much more important than others; the main point is that they are all reasons why I run. I have given hints before in some other posts about my love for running in quiet places and on gravel roads, but my inspirations lie in other places as well. For the next few posts I really want to focus in on what gives me internal motivation and why it allows me to enjoy what I do. Hopefully from this you can be encouraged to really take a look at the reasons that you do what you do. After all, what's really gonna matter in 50 years? I know I won't remember too many races from my college days when I'm 70 years old, and neither will most people. So what REALLY keeps you going? Because if it's success and dreams of victories then I got some news for you from an inexperienced 21-year-old: when you aren't winning anymore it's gonna get REAL boring. So the first one I want to focus on is my parents.
My parents have been there for so many of my races that it's not even worth my time trying to count them. I suppose it started back in 7th grade when I was struggling to place above the bottom 5 in middle school cross country races and not even doing track because I played baseball in the spring. They were at the meets. It continued through freshman year of high school when Luke and I were moving our way up through the JV ranks in cross country. They were there. Later in high school when I was ascending through varsity races and finally joining the track team my junior year, they were there. My senior year at all my meets in track and cross country- they were there. My dad even videotaped my races so I could watch them time and time and time and time again back at home until I had them memorized. It was so normal to see them at meets because the meets were always nearby.
Then college running came. Now our meets were in Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Arizona, Oregon, Missouri, and all kinds of other places. Now I didn't get to see them at meets very often. No more videotaped races. Injuries didn't allow me to race when I did have a meet near home, and every time that happened I felt like I let them down- like they deserved to see me race after all I had done to get there.
This year during cross country was different. Because it was my senior year they were going to make it to every meet, and they did. They were at every single meet, and my dad even drove all the way to the regional meet in Illinois. Being able to race in front of them fresh and healthy was so amazing! Knowing that they had raised me and taken care of me, it is just hard to explain how much it meant to me to be able to- in a sense- give back.
Then during Christmas break, I learned that my parents were going to the conference indoor track meet to watch me race. The meet is in Flagstaff, Arizona. At the time of hearing this, I was injured, I had only once in college so far made it through indoor season healthy, so suddenly I had a real, tangible reason to make it to indoor conference: I was going to do it for my parents. This changed my whole racing mentality during this season, with the only thing mattering was if I could get a time into conference so I race for my parents, after all they had done for me, after all the meets they had been to, all of the investment in my running over the years, after all the time they've spent watching me run, after all the things they've said 'no' to just to worry about my running- it was the least I can do. What I've found is that racing for something other than myself is so rewarding.
I'll repeat that: what I've found is that racing for something other than myself is rewarding. I've discovered a passion for what I do like I've never had before because it has so much more meaning. It's not all about me and how well I can do, but rather how well I can do to give back something given to me. I am forever indebted to my parent's sacrifice, and being able to race at all in college is such a blessing, and now that I can sit back and say "This is for you Mom and Dad", it has meaning.
So this is for you Mom and Dad: you are one of the reasons I run and have discovered new passion for it.
P.S. Here's a treat for those of you who made it this far into the post: My mom told me this a couple years ago:
"...and I said that if somebody had told me during your junior year of high school that you would be running in Division 1, I would have laughed at them."
My dad's response: "Yup"
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Track vs. Cross Country
One argument I've come across in the past couple of years is the battle between cross country and track. We group people into essentially three distinct categories: a true cross country runner, a true distance track runner, and a true mid-distance track runner (I'm obviously excluding all the other track events, but I'm just focusing on distance running right now). We get the idea that it is incredibly difficult to have a mixture of any of the three above. As they say: some people are just track people, or some people are just good at cross country. I have this argument internally quite often, because even though I love cross country, it's pretty clear that I do much better comparatively in shorter track races like the mile and 1500.
Oddly enough it kind of reminds me of something that I learned in my History of Math class (just bear with me- I promise this won't be as boring as you may think it might be). We were talking about famous mathematicians and scientists who could prove theorems and do math across all the spectrum: geometry, algebra, calculus, etc...and when we started getting to the 1900s each topic got so incredibly deep and diverse that it had become impossible for any single person to be well-versed in all of the topics, and this becomes more and more true each year. The question I wonder to myself sometimes is: have we become too specialized in cross country and track?
What spurred my interest was a comment thread I was reading about Chris Derrick. He is one of my current favorite runners, because he is DOMINATING the USA XC scene right now, and I have always considered cross country to be about as pure as running gets. He crushed the competition in the 12k US XC Championships at altitude in Boulder, CO this weekend and won by 30 seconds over other acclaimed professionals. This was all great, but in this particular comment thread, I was reading about people saying how cross country is just his way of hiding from the real competition on the track because he doesn't have a good enough kick. Nobody good runs cross country, they say.
And they may actually be right. Kenenisa Bekele is widely considered one of the greatest distance runners ever, currently holding the world records in the 5k and 10k on the track, but some people forget that he was also a many-time World XC champion in the years between 2000 and 2010. He did it all in dominating fashion. However, since then the top track athletes in the world have rarely ventured on the cross country course, and the best cross country runners are not the ones you see competing for the gold medal in the Olympics.
Can cross country runners be successful in track? Can track athletes be successful on the track? There are obvious examples of where it can happen, as mentioned above (and Derrick dropped his 5k PR down to 13:02 last year, which is pretty darn good), but really think about this: where are the XC studs in track?
Another example: where were Colorado's distance runners at track nationals last year? For a team who has won the last two NCAA cross country titles, they don't seem to make much of ripple on the track. Why? Is the training too different? Are they burnt out from cross country? Do they not focus on track? I'll admit that I have no idea, but these questions have baffled me. In our post-modern society of extreme specialization in all aspect of life, does it have to be that way in running? Do we artificially group runners by their ability to kick in a 1500, outlast in the 10K, or push through an XC race?
I think that there is room for runners to be good at all types of races, or at least to enjoy them. As I say all the time, I love training and racing in cross country, but I also can't shake the feeling of throwing on those track spikes and flying around a 200m indoor track. I know this post is probably 100% mindless ramble from me, but the main point I'm trying to get across is: if you start labeling people as a certain kind of runner, that's what they'll become. Try all kinds of distances/types of races, and see what works best and is the most fun! It'll be worth it!
Nate
As always, let me know if I have woeful inaccuracies in here or if you completely disagree with me.
Oddly enough it kind of reminds me of something that I learned in my History of Math class (just bear with me- I promise this won't be as boring as you may think it might be). We were talking about famous mathematicians and scientists who could prove theorems and do math across all the spectrum: geometry, algebra, calculus, etc...and when we started getting to the 1900s each topic got so incredibly deep and diverse that it had become impossible for any single person to be well-versed in all of the topics, and this becomes more and more true each year. The question I wonder to myself sometimes is: have we become too specialized in cross country and track?
What spurred my interest was a comment thread I was reading about Chris Derrick. He is one of my current favorite runners, because he is DOMINATING the USA XC scene right now, and I have always considered cross country to be about as pure as running gets. He crushed the competition in the 12k US XC Championships at altitude in Boulder, CO this weekend and won by 30 seconds over other acclaimed professionals. This was all great, but in this particular comment thread, I was reading about people saying how cross country is just his way of hiding from the real competition on the track because he doesn't have a good enough kick. Nobody good runs cross country, they say.
And they may actually be right. Kenenisa Bekele is widely considered one of the greatest distance runners ever, currently holding the world records in the 5k and 10k on the track, but some people forget that he was also a many-time World XC champion in the years between 2000 and 2010. He did it all in dominating fashion. However, since then the top track athletes in the world have rarely ventured on the cross country course, and the best cross country runners are not the ones you see competing for the gold medal in the Olympics.
Can cross country runners be successful in track? Can track athletes be successful on the track? There are obvious examples of where it can happen, as mentioned above (and Derrick dropped his 5k PR down to 13:02 last year, which is pretty darn good), but really think about this: where are the XC studs in track?
Another example: where were Colorado's distance runners at track nationals last year? For a team who has won the last two NCAA cross country titles, they don't seem to make much of ripple on the track. Why? Is the training too different? Are they burnt out from cross country? Do they not focus on track? I'll admit that I have no idea, but these questions have baffled me. In our post-modern society of extreme specialization in all aspect of life, does it have to be that way in running? Do we artificially group runners by their ability to kick in a 1500, outlast in the 10K, or push through an XC race?
I think that there is room for runners to be good at all types of races, or at least to enjoy them. As I say all the time, I love training and racing in cross country, but I also can't shake the feeling of throwing on those track spikes and flying around a 200m indoor track. I know this post is probably 100% mindless ramble from me, but the main point I'm trying to get across is: if you start labeling people as a certain kind of runner, that's what they'll become. Try all kinds of distances/types of races, and see what works best and is the most fun! It'll be worth it!
Nate
As always, let me know if I have woeful inaccuracies in here or if you completely disagree with me.
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