April 2016: An ND Runner Month-In-Review

Ackley
Couresy: grandforksherald.cm

Women's Race of the Month: For the second time in as many months, Karley Ackley (Junior/Grand Forks Central), is in the women's race of the month for her outstanding 3200 time from April 28th at the Shanley Invite run at Concordia-Moorhead. She ran a time of 10:36.97, which moves her up the all-time Class A Girls List, passing Carly Emil for second place (Emil still has the record for fastest Class A Girls 3200 at the state meet). In fact, only two girls in overall history have ever run faster times: Krista Anderson (Leeds/Iowa), who ran 10:36.95 at the 2004 State Class B Meet (still the overall state meet record), and Mattie Shirley-Fairbairn (9th grade/Bismarck High), who last year ran 10:33.49 in a race where Ackley was also under 10:40.

I think what's even more impressive about this time was the fact that it was entirely solo. She won this race by 40 seconds! Or to see it another way: the 7th place finisher qualified for state but lost to Ackley by 75 seconds!

(This next section was a
dded after the article was finished)

Courtesy: marcfhenning.photoshelter.com

Women's Race of the Month #2: While reading through the 'Week that Was' on Letsrun.com, I stumbled across a race result at the US Half Marathon Championships in Columbus, Ohio on April 30th. A 'Semehar Tesfaye' placed 7th with a time of 1:14:12, and she was listed as being from Minot, North Carolina. Well, Minot North Carolina does not exist so I reasoned that it was Minot, ND. Turns out she is a Fargo South grad who then went to NDSU, Iowa State, and Arkansas (in that order). She ran collegiate pr's of 4:28 in the 1500, 16:04 in the 5000, and 33:49 in the 10,000, all of which put her on the ND women's all-time lists. Her senior year of high school at Fargo South she placed fifth in the 3200 with a time of 11:31 and placed 18th at the state cross country meet. According to her LinkedIn, she does in fact work in Minot now. 1:14:12 is an incredible time and very competitive nationally, as evidenced by her placing. More information on races she ran when I find them!

Lucas was 3rd at State XC in the fall.
Courtesy: inforum.com

Men's Race of the Month: Without a doubt, we have to look only a few days ago at the Kiwanis Meet at the Bismarck Community Bowl (April 30th) to find quite an impressive race. In the 3200, three guys from three different schools all ran times that would win state most years. However, what happened around those times equally astounds me. The winner of the race was junior Hunter Lucas from Fargo Davies. He ran 9:15.02, which stands as the 5th fastest Boys 3200 time in state history (Class A&B combined). In the middle of the season, that would stand alone as an amazing accomplishment, but looking further at the results details something amazing. Not only was he a member of the Davies 4x800 relay team that took 2nd place with a time of 8:29, but he also ran the open 800 with a time of 1:58.37! The 800 and 3200 are very close events on the schedule, and seeing people run both is rare due to the limited amount of time in between them. So, not only did he run one of the fastest 3200s in state history, but he also came back and raced one of the fastest 800s of the season so far! (and the 4x8 earlier too!!). Wow! Crazy what happens when the weather is actually nice for a meet, eh?

(Yes, 3200 before 800 is weird, but so are peanut butter filled pretzels and I accept those whole-heartedly)

Now, it would be an absolute tragedy to not mention the two other fine races run at the same time:

Last year's state champ in the Class A 3200, Sam Clausnitzer (Senior/Bismarck High), was right behind Lucas with a time of 9:17.56, which stands as the 8th-fastest time in state history (A&B combined again), and three seconds faster than his state-winning time from last year.

Wheeling has the top times in Class B
for the 800, 1600, and 3200.
Courtesy: minotdailynews.com

Last fall's state champ at Class B XC, Ryan Wheeling (Junior/New Town), also pulled off the impressive 3200/800 double, running Class B-leading times of 9:32.77 and 1:58.40, respectively. Even more impressive, recall that last year at state track, Elliot Stone (Shiloh/NDSU), broke the state class B 3200 record by running 9:24.93, and the previous record had been 9:27. How about this: since the 3200 (2 mile before that) started in 1971, only 5 times has the winning time at state B in the 3200 been faster than 9:32.* So, moral of the story is that this race was LIT.

High-School Round-Up:

Moving into early April, there was still a couple of indoor meets to clear up before moving outside. On April 1st and 2nd, Class A State Indoor and Class B State Indoor were held on respective days at the Shelly Ellig Indoor Track Facility at NDSU. Peyton Frolek pulled off an impressive triple in the Class B Girls, running 2:22.8, 5:17, and 11:21 for 800, 1600, and 3200 to win all three races. Also Class B, Wheeling (see above) ran 1:59 and 4:24 in the 800 and 1600 to win both. In Class A, Ackley and Clausnitzer (see above) both pulled the 1600/3200 double, running 5:07.6/10:59.8 and 4:24.6/9:33.3 respectively. Very impressive indoor times.

Also on Saturday, April 2nd, the University of North Dakota hosted its first meet at the new High Performance Center.** This new facility boasts a 300 meter mondo indoor track, a full-length turf football field inside the track, and adequate space for jumps and throws outside of the track area. It's truly a spectacular facility, and you should fully expect there to be more high school meets there over the next few years.

Beauty, eh?
Courtesy: valleynewslive.com

Asha Smith ran 2:14 in the 800 at state
a couple years back
Courtesy: watfordcitynd.com

Once outdoor got going, the girls started throwing down some great times. The first sub-2:20 800 was run by Asha Smith (Senior/Watford City) at the Bison-Miner Classic on Tuesday, April 12th, running 2:19.29. The first sub-5:00 1600 was run by Kelby Anderson (Junior/Bismarck Century) at the BPS at the Bismarck Bowl on Saturday, April 30th, running 4:59.18. Anderson's time barely missed out on the top ten all-time for Class A Girls. On top of  that, Ackley and Frolek have run 5:05.5 and 5:06.2, respecitvely. Get those three in a race!

The guys have been holding their own as well. At the Minot Carlson Invite on Thursday, April 14th, Sam Wilke (Senior/Bismarck St. Mary's) ran his second sub-1:59 800 time of the season, running 1:58.73. He now has three total and has been consistently the best 800 runner in the state this season. We also had the first sub-4:20 1600 clockings of the season at the River City Invite at the Community Bowl on Thursday, April 14. Leif Everson (Junior/Williston) ran 4:18.97 for the win, followed by Clausnitzer (see above) in 4:19.34. Everson's time places him only two seconds outside of top ten all-time. If you've noticed in all of these high schools posts that there are a lot of juniors running fast right now, you are right! The future indeed looks bright.

College/University Roundup:

The month of April brings two of the best track meets on the college circuit: the Stanford Invite and the Mt. SAC Relays. Both are accompanied by highly-competitive meets in nearby areas. Most schools make some kind of trip down to California in search of good competition and perfect weather. This year, like most years, did not disappoint.


Erin Teschuk (Winnipeg, MA, CA/NDSU) 4:15.30 1500 at Stanford April 1, 15:41 School Record in the 5k at Mt. Sac (Los Angeles area) April 14.

Brittany Brownotter (Bismarck High/NDSU) 17:02 5k at San Francisco on April 1.

Camron Roehl (Grand Forks Central/NDSU) 3:56.50 1500 (4:15.4  mile) April 22 on a windy day at NDSU.

Jaiden Schuette (Century/U-Mary) 4:40.98 1500 (5:05.8 mile) at Bryan Clay Invitational (Los Angeles area) April 14.

Lexi Zeis (Bismarck High/U-Mary) 16:38.16 School Record 5k at Bryan Clay Invitational (Los Angeles area) April 14. Moved up to #7 on the North Dakotan Women's 5k list.

Chris Jessop (Corvallis, MT/U-Mary) 31:30.37 School Record 10k at Mt. Sac (Los Angeles Area) April 14.

Sasha Hovind (Lisbon&Sargent Co./Northern State) 35:00.35 School Record 10k at Mt Sac (Los Angeles Area) April 14. Improved her #3 rankings on the North Dakotan Women's 10k list.

Madeline Strandemo (Fargo South/Minnesota) 10:03.52 steeplechase at Virginia Challenge April 22, which at the time placed her 5th in the D1 West Region standings.

Pro Roundup:

(I'd sure like to make this part longer someday)

Laura Roesler (Fargo South/Oregon/KIMbia Athletics) 2:00.72 800 FTW at Baylor's Michael Johnson Invitational on April 23. Her time was a track record and she won by 1.5 seconds over other professionals.

Remember high-school Laura Roesler
running 2:03 at the Olympic Trials?
Courtesy: gettyimages.com

Next month brings more high school meets (including the state meet!), more college meets (including conference meets!), and the Fargo Marathon. The weather is getting nice- get outside!
------------------------------

*Yes, I converted for 2 mile to 3200 in the years before 1980.
**Full disclosure, I'm a student-athlete at UND. If this seems self-serving, that means you haven't seen the facility yet.

Cali

We walked into the surprisingly small building and immediately saw the security line right in front of us. We packed into the small area like cattle, everyone milling about and not quite sure what to do. After the initial confusion was over, we all got our boarding passes and moved over to another small staging area and waited for the worker to open up the security line. When it was opened, the three people not on the track team went first, and then we made our way through. As I went through, I had a pleasant conversation with the TSA agent about the incoming rain, working part-time at an airport, and other general topics. She told me that the plane that just arrived had completed a 17 minute flight from Jamestown; four passengers walked off the plane. After security we were packed into the smallest room yet, with absolutely no room to move around, but I managed to maneuver my way to the bathroom to fill up my water bottle in the sink, because there wasn't any water fountains on this side of security. Once we began boarding, we walked outside to the plane and climbed up the steps. I momentarily stopped and took one last look at the North Dakota countryside. I took a deep breath and released it. I walked into the plane and got ready for take off. A few minutes later, the UND Track and Field team flew out of Devils Lake Regional Airport, headed for Denver and Los Angeles.

I think the most striking aspect of flying into Los Angeles is not the mountains, and it certainly isn't the ocean; no, the most dizzying thing to see is the houses. As far as you can see in any direction is tightly packed housing developments and roads. We fly past school after school, business after business, housing space after housing space, and land right in the middle of it all. When we walk out of the airport, we are treated to a clogged road full of busy people honking their horns at each other and folks on the sidewalk yelling for a taxi. Our hotel, not more than a few miles away, takes more than a half hour to arrive at. When we arrive, I head quickly to my room (no roommate- perks of having an odd number of guys and being the senior captain) and instead of relaxing on the bed (after all, it is almost 11:30 pm central time), I lace up the running shoes and head out to explore. This is where the real learning happens.

I must admit, running through the streets of LA at night by myself is a little unnerving. I'm the only distance runner, male or female, on this trip (in fact, my coach is with all of them at their meet this weekend), so I was running solo. My first thought is to find a nice running trail, but after a quick search, all I find is the main highway with tons and tons of cars and noise- this simply won't do. I cut off and head down one of the side streets. The sidewalks are not lit as well, but it's much quieter and peaceful. The first thing to strike me is that little gated communities and houses are everywhere. Call me naive, but it surprised me that I would be running past house after house and suddenly 'pay us a lot of money resort' appears on the left with a gate and a sign that says something like "ALL TRESPASSERS WILL BE TREATED WORSE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE OH AND WE HAVE A DOG THAT WILL EAT YOU IF YOU EVEN TOUCH THIS GATE WITHOUT PERMISSION". Inside will be lush green grass and gardens, super-expensive housing, a pool, and then outside the gate it will continue with house after house again. I guess I always expected these developments to be farther away from all the 'regular' housing developments, but I'd be wrong. I can imagine growing up here would give you some sort of disdain for the fancy people with fancy cars that live inside gates specifically to stay away from you, but paradoxically at the same time you might make it your goal to be successful enough to be able to do the same. Huh

So in North Dakota's oil fields, you have towns and you have gravel roads heading for the oil rigs and pumpjacks; they are separate. Not here. Similar to the gated communities (all 8 million of them), you can be running down a sidewalk through a community and suddenly there will be a little open space, an oil pumping station, and then back into the community. It's the goll darnedest thing I ever done seen. It seems people around here have made peace with the oil around the area (either that or the people in charge of making decisions in town have been paid a ton of money by oil companies just like many in the State of North Dakota government have been) but I'll let the reader make up their mind on that one.

Oops! Time to head back and try to remember the zig-zaggy route I took to get back to the hotel. I was having a lot of fun running because for the first time in more than a week I'm not running with pain. I somehow managed to get my hips out of alignment, but my athletic trainer Sara (bless her soul) fixed it and it feels sooooooo good. I somehow have energy in my legs again after a big, intense training block. I make it back to the hotel and call it a day. I'm asleep within half an hour.

After a lot of sitting around the next almost two days, it's finally time to head to the track. It's 9 in the evening, the temperature is hovering around the 60 degree mark, and the wind has went back to North Dakota where it'll stay probably. The distance events are the only thing going on this late at night, and the stands are much more empty compared to earlier in the day; actually, the only people here are distance runners, coaches of distance runners, and the other 4-6 people here because they simply want to watch distance running. So in a nutshell, it's a dream. I get checked in and go on warmup, where I see many other 5kers out and about, and I feel no tension- this is fun! Well, except the pb&js I had earlier, they are trying to give me troubles. I get back to the track and head over to the 'hipping area' where we get our hip numbers, and chaos breaks out. An announcement comes over the intercom for all men's 5k runners to head to the hipping area, and so all 80+ of us cram into this little tent to get our numbers. We need to get our spikes checked before walking in, and the line is out the door. Everybody is looked around, not really sure what's going on. Can we leave this tent now? Are there bathrooms to use if we can't? Where do we leave our stuff?

Announcer: *1st HEAT OF MEN'S 5K IN 15 MINUTES*

Oh my gosh oh my gosh I'm not even warmed up yet! I still need to use the bathroom and do my strides and do my stretching and...I look over at a fellow runner from South Dakota State and he looks at me, shrugs, and says 'I swear it wasn't like this last night'. Great. I'm officially flustered at this point, and I'm starting to get claustrophobic. I get my hip numbers after a frantic search to find any stickers with '11' on them and

*1st HEAT OF MEN'S 5K CAN GO ONTO THE TRACK NOW IF YOU HAVE YOUR HIP NUMBER*

head over to the exit of the tent and ask if we can leave the tent. Yes, he says. YES. I sprint to the bathrooms and do what I must before heading out and quickly getting my warm-up drills done. I realize that I'm still flustered, and I take a moment to simply breathe. I look up at the stars and see all three of them. Actually one of them is a satellite, so it's only two. I find myself missing those smaller meets back home where everybody knows each other and you can do your warmup without being herded like cattle and hollered at over the inter

*2ND HEAT OF MEN'S 5K CAN GO ONTO THE TRACK NOW. FIRST HEAT IS ONE AND A HALF LAPS IN*

Okay time to do this! I head out onto the track with everything I need- jersey and spikes. That's it. The race goes by in a flash, and shortly afterwards I find myself on my elbows and knees trying to breathe, because I really can't. Eventually all the other runners have cleared the area and it's just me. The athletic trainers come over to me and ask if I'm okay. I told them about my breathing problem, and we eventually ended up having a pleasant conversation about why I was having breathing problems. A man carrying a backboard started walking in my direction and I nervously asked them, "That's not for me is it? I'm honestly fine." They looked at each other and laughed. "No, he's just putting it away" they say. I laughed too and finished up by letting them know how much I appreciate all they do for track and that they should hear that more often. I turned around and smiled as I walked away. I'm reminded of the nice conversation with the TSA agent a few days ago in Devils Lake, even with how far away that was- here in LA I can have the same experience. I pick up a crumpled water cup up off the ground. My, what a mess after a long day of track. My, what a mess I am right now. My, what a mess all of us are. But you know what? I have a feeling it's going to be ok. At least for now, I smile. We're all ok.

March 2016: An ND Runner Month-In-Review

Well, there goes March. 1/4 of the year done already- crazy huh? Temperatures are starting to warm up, planting has begun in some places, and kids are getting outside to run outdoor track meets. The month of March can be kind of slow for track, because high school is just getting rolling, and most college athletes get some kind of a break after indoor season is done. However, that doesn't mean there wasn't some cool stuff going on.

Courtesy: nsuwolves.com

Women's Race of the Month #1: In what is quickly becoming a month ritual, Sasha Hovind (Lisbon & Sargent Co./Northern State) broke her own indoor 5k school record, but this time doing it on Division II's biggest stage: indoor nationals. She placed 8th with a time of 16:31.40, a new pr and record for her by 15 seconds. She also collected a first-team All-American honor for her top-8 finish. Her time also moves her up to the #4 spot on the ND women all-time 5k list.




Women's Race of the Month #2: Now that I've gone ahead and talked about high school indoor getting going, let's talk about a pretty darn fast race right from the get-go. The first meet of the 2016 ND indoor season actually took place at Concordia in Moorhead, MN on their small little 200 meter track. In the women's 1600, two of the fastest high school girls in the state, Peyton Frolek (Milnor-Wyndmere-Lidgerwood)- last spring's Class B state champ in the 800, 1600, and 3200- and Karley Ackley (Grand Forks Central)- second place last year in the Class A 1600, 3200, and State XC- raced each other and ended up running pretty fast. Frolek won in a time of 5:07, with Ackley right behind her in 5:08 (third place was then 15 seconds back in 5:23, and she's an All-State runner herself, to give you an idea of how fast they were going).

Frolek has been dominating
Class B girls distance
Courtesy: inforum.com

Ackley ran 10:38 in the 3200
last spring, the 4th-fastest
time by a ND high school girl
in state history
Courtesy: grandforksherald.com

So a little context here: let's look at the winning times in the 1600 for Class A and B girls in the last 5 years:
A:
2011- 5:13 (admittedly windy that year)
2012- 5:05
2013- 5:08
2014- 5:03
2015- 4:56
Avg: 5:05
B:
2011- 5:18
2012- 5:14
2013- 5:20
2014- 5:00
2015- 5:08
Avg: 5:12
So I conclude that 5:07 and 5:08 on a 200 meter indoor track and the beginning of the year is an impressive result, and I think it goes without saying that we can expect big things to come the rest of the season.

Nice uniforms, eh?
Courtesy: Michael Scott

Men's Race of the Month: As mentioned above, collegiate indoor national meets took place during the month of March, and to no surprise, Jake Leingang (Bismarck High/Oregon) ran in the men's 5000 meters at the D1 national meet (March 11-13). After running 13:46 in the 5k a few weeks before (and not competing at their conference meet, I'm guessing to rest for nationals), he ran 14:00 to take 9th place in the final, improving upon his 12th place finish from the 5k at outdoor nationals last summer. Top 8 in an individual event at nationals not only score points, but also secure All-American status for the season, which Leingang missed out on by 7 seconds (there was a decent sized gap between 8th and 9th place). Still that's a heckuva race, and it's worth mentioning that Leingang still has two years of indoor eligibility left, so expect big things there as well.


Other races at nationals to note:
Erin Teschuk (NDSU) finished 6th in the mile (4:38.94) and 4th in the 3000 (9:08.45) at the D1 national indoor meet, gathering first-team All-American honors in both.
Lexi Zeis (Bismarck High/U-Mary) finished 9th in the 3000 (9:35.32) at the D2 national indoor meet, gathering second-team All-American honors.

Other high school news to note:
Ty Boucher (Grand Forks Red River) ran the first sub-10 3200 meter time of the 2016 high school indoor season at a meet at Bemidji on March 29th. He won the race in 9:59.92 but was closely followed by David Hettich (GFC) in 10:03.07 and Ben Hutchinson (GFRR) in 10:06.42.

With April comes lots of exciting outdoor track action on top of the concluding high school indoor season. Additionally, we find ourselves a little more than a month away from the attention-grabbing Fargo Marathon. Until then, keep hoping for those beautiful 70-degree days.

(Oh and if there's anybody or anything that could be added to here, feel free to let me know)

Randy Lussenden- A Short Profile

Looking back at old high school state meet results in North Dakota, I stumbled across someone who very well might be the fastest North Dakotan steeplechaser ever. He's another product of Bismarck, which seems to me has produced an incredible amount of talent over the years. It's those hills, I tell ya...

From NDSU's website

 Randy Lussenden competed for Bismarck High School in the late 60s. In 1966, his second place finish at the state cross country meet in Valley City helped BHS win the state championship, dethroning Fort Yates (a Native school located in the far south-central part of the state on the west side of the Missouri). The next year in 1967, he won the individual title at the state cross country meet in Minot, not only breaking the course record held by Casey Ryan of Grand Forks, but also helping his team to a championship with a stunning 17 points scored, breaking the state record for lowest point-total at the men's state meet.* Then in the spring of 1968, he won the 1600m at the state track meet, running a new state-record time 4:20.4, while also placing 5th in the 800 with a time of 2:02.

After high school, he continued on to NDSU and put together a successful career there as well. He was inducted into the NDSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992 after securing All-American status twice. He is currently ranked in the NDSU top-ten list: 9th in the indoor mile with a time of 4:10.40, which actually won him the 1972 NCC Indoor Conference Championship title. Adding onto that, in 1971 he won two events at the NCC Outdoor Conference Championship: the two-mile and three-mile. In the NDSU track media guide both times are listed as 14:17.6, so I assume that time to be the three-mile time and the two-mile to be incorrect. He also, according to NDSU's Hall of Fame page, holds some retired records for track program, but I can't find those on their website. While at NDSU he was also two-time All-American in cross country, his best finish being in 1971 when he placed 7th at the National University meet (teammate Mike Slack, who ran the only sub-4 mile ever in ND, actually won that race and went on to take third at the national meet behind legends Pre and Garry Bjorklund).** It is indeed interesting that an incredible steeplechaser did not actually win anything or run anything fast relative to the steeple while in college. That came later.

After college he eventually ran with the Chicago Track Club and started competing in the steeplechase on the national scene. In 1974 he won the US Track and Field Federation 3k steeple with a then-record time of 8:38. Not to be outdone, at the Pan-American Games US Trials in 1975, he finished second to Olympian Mike Manley of the Oregon Track Club with a time of 8:27:85. Lussenden was actually in third coming into the last lap, but he passed one runner and almost passed Manley, who was only 1/10 of a second ahead in a winning time of 8:27.75. This secured for Lussenden a spot on the team to the Pan-American Games. The Pan American Games that year were in Mexico City (which is brutal because the city sits at more than 7000 ft altitude and racing any long-distance event that high is awful), and he went on to take fifth (competitor Manley actually won the race in 9:04, there's the altitude for ya).

In conclusion, we have a North Dakota high school state champion, All-American at NDSU, and representative of the United States on the national and international stage who ran what seems to be, if not the fastest, one of the fastest steeple times of any North Dakotan so far. Pretty nifty, eh?


*For those unfamiliar with how cross country is scored, it goes a little like this. Each finisher is assigned a place with a corresponding number, with the winner getting 1, second place getting 2, and so on. For scoring, a team's top five finishers all have their scores added up for total. Thus, the lowest possible score a team can get is 15 (1+2+3+4+5), and so to score 17 points at the state meet is pretty crazy. Bismarck did it again actually, at the 2011 state xc meet.

**Currently (since 1973) the system for cross country nationals is divided: if you are D1, you race at the D1 meet, and if you are D2 you race at the D2 meet. Before 1958 there was only one race, but that year what we now know as D2 broke off and split it into NCAA University (D1 now) and NCAA college (D2 now). Furthermore, in 1973, D3 broke off and created the system we still see today. Before D3, the best in the University division at their national meet could run in the D1 race (something like two days later I believe). I need to do more research to learn how this all worked.

Links I used for research:
1968 State Track Meet Results
2013 NDSU Track and Field Media Guide
NCAA Archive
NDSU Hall of Fame Page
Chicago Tribune Article
BHS 1966 State XC Champs
BHS 1967 State XC Champs
Eugene Register-Guard Article
Pan American Games Results
Spokesman Review Article

Same Planet, Different World

I wake up in my snug bed, content to sit there for awhile. I look over at my roommate, still sound asleep but with smartphone close at hand and lit up for the majority of the night. After turning my own phone on to see if I have any notifications, I waddle out of bed, trying to avoid the inevitable squeaking and squawking of the floor on my journey to the bathroom. As I creep down the stairs, I attempt to do the impossible: make a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave without waking up the freshman delegated to sleeping on the couch. It didn't work. After slipping on my shoes and taking my chances with rogue, untied shoelaces tripping me up, I leave the townhouse, making sure to leave the door open a crack so I can get back in without using the key I don't have. I continue my early-morning waddle over to the nearby beach to catch the sunrise; it does not disappoint. There is this half-cloudiness, half-haziness in the air from the light sea breeze, and the sun rising in the east bounces off of all of it, shining every color from orange to yellow to the already brilliant blue of the sky. I observe the beach- I have a teammate sitting not too far away on the sand, a nearby couple begins to pack up from a morning picnic date (donuts and orange juice to accompany flowers), and a procession of unrelated people walk past along the shoreline. I take another bite of oatmeal and think to myself- this isn't so bad.

One thing that was apparent to me was how the sunrise here was exactly the same as back home, even while everything else seems so different. It's astounding to me to see all these different groups of people come walking past, because the whole concept of vacationing to the beach in the middle of March is still foreign to me. Speaking from the perspective of the northern plains, I know many people who hit the months of February and March and want nothing more than to soak up the sun at the beach and live in what is described as paradise, and I know many people every year who do just that. Maybe it's because I've never taken much for 'vacations' in the sense that you go somewhere and essentially ignore responsibilities and your 'real life' for awhile. I guess the question I ask myself is whether these folks walking along the beach are content with where they are now, having successfully run away from home, or if their hearts may be yearning for home. Can we ever truly leave from home?

I'm waddling back to the townhouse now. My hamstrings and glutes are still a little sore from lifting on Tuesday, but I have a track workout coming up this morning. I opt to run to the track for my warmup, and on that 4 mile route I run through our resort, past a bunch of really nice beach homes, through another resort, and then into Myrtle Beach outside of the beach. Yes, it is true that Myrtle Beach does exist outside of the resorts, but it's much quieter. I wonder to myself what local Myrtle Beach-ites think about the tourism industry that inundates the town. Do they embrace it as part of their culture- the economic driving force of their metropolitan area? Or do they look upon wealthy outsiders with scorn, wondering if they could take their lax, money-spending lifestyle back to wherever it is they came from? I'll admit to having no idea, but I always wonder. Deep down, I hope to not be met with scorn by local simply because I'm an outsider. Irrational? Possible. True? No idea.

Well I made it to the track. Jim Shaw Stadium is the name, and it's actually nowhere near Coastal Carolina University, the school hosting this hugenormous spring break track meet. It's a public outdoor track/stadium area with posted hours for people to come use either the track or the turf field inside of it. They have made a name hosting large invitationals over the spring breaks of most universities, and looking around the track I see Ohio, Dartmouth, Purdue, U-Mass Lowell, and the heat sheets promise that Tennessee and Clemson will be here this weekend as well, not to mention the scores of smaller universities I don't recognize.

I've spoken here before about how track is a universal language, but apparently some are more, um, inclined than others to speak it properly. It seems to me that at a track where many teams are training that warming up in lane one wouldn't be a good idea, but nonetheless people are out there doing it. Now, it wouldn't be a problem if after one time of yelling 'track' they moved to the outside, but after I pass by, they move right back, as if not expecting me to every come by again. It confuses me, but I guess we aren't speaking the same language. I leave for cooldown. While running my cooldown, I come across a guy running in the opposite direction, wearing a green shirt that proudly says 'cross country'. I nod and say hello- he smiles, nods, and says hey. We continue on our way. He speaks the language.

One of my favorite parts of this trip is getting to watch all of the other teams, not so much how they perform, but how they train and interact. Most of the time we only see other teams at meets, and so we only see them when they are competing. However, on this trip we get to be around teams while they are doing their workouts. I get to hear what their coaches say, how they say it, and how the athletes respond. It's crazy to see how much respect some athletes have for their coaches because you can literally hear and see it. It's also crazy how much respect some coaches have for their athletes, because you can see it and hear it. They are so invested in each other that it's motivating just to be around. I mean, today there were a couple of hurdlers doing run-throughs in lanes next to each other, but they were on different teams. One girl was division one, and she and her coach were working on some highly technical aspects of her form that I don't even understand. She would pop out of the blocks and clear each hurdle easily, turn around, and come back to her coach for advise. The girl next to her was from a school I've never heard of, and I could tell that she was new to hurdles, either because she's trying it out or doing multis. She was working on the fundamentals of clearing a hurdle properly, and after each run through she would come walking back a little sad from consistent struggle, and her coach had a big smile ready, and would give her some emotional advice before digging into the specifics. I love it.

After that, it was back to the resort for food, recovery, and convincing myself that I had reasonable excuses to avoid homework, including (but not limited to): mario kart, super smash bros, march madness, eating again, and typing up a blog post. I asked Coach if we could go watch the 10k races tonight even though nobody from UND is competing. He said sure; he must speak the language. After all, even though we're 1600 miles away from Grand Forks, we'll probably feel right at home.

Where the Road Ends

The gun goes off. As the smoke is gently whisked away by the South Carolina sea breeze, 15 bodies take off down the backstretch, jockeying for position. As members of the crowd holler encouragement to the athletes, elbows attack chests, and spikes attack shins. Everybody looks for the inside on the corners and open space on the straights. Each time the group comes around the start line, coaches are screaming numbers at their athletes, followed by advice in the few seconds they get to make a statement before the group is gone again. With 300 meters to go, I start moving up onto the shoulder of the leader, fixing to get my final kick going at any moment. I have the second-fastest seed time, but that means nothing right now. Another runner moves up on my shoulder and the race is on. We are sprinting around the corner- 200 to go, 150, 100- there's the finish line. I'm getting tunnel vision now as I sprint towards the finish. If I can just get there....

I snap back to attention. I'm actually about 1600 miles north and west of this race, sitting at the funeral of my grandfather. We are back in Horace, surrounded by family and friends. My second family took off for South Carolina two days ago, but unexpectedly I was not with them. I can't help but imagine what the race I was scheduled to take part in would have been like, but that's not important now. I look down my row, at my mom, dad, brothers, grandparents, uncle, cousins, and girlfriend. It's crazy how everything can be put on hold when family has a need. Not only was I scheduled to go to South Carolina, but one of my brothers was planning on being in Florida for a mission trip, while the other had a high school band trip to Denver. The adults all had jobs that needed to be disrupted temporarily, but employers seem to be quite forgiving when there is a death in the family. It's understood. It's something everybody knows.

This is one of those times I'm thankful for having running in my life, because I can head out down the road and try to collect my thoughts. This is the closest death has ever been to me, and I'm trying to figure out what it all means. One second a person can be there, while the next they are gone. Even though I wasn't super-close with him, I can still hear his hearty laugh replaying over and over in my head. During my runs, I think back to when I was much, much younger, and I would get to spend some time out at the farm with Grandma and Grandpa. I would get to ride the tractor, play around in the shed, go visit the cats in the old barn on the north side of the farmstead, try to stalk deer through the trees (even if they weren't there), watch pheasants pick at the rocks on the gravel driveway, ride the 4-wheeler with Grandpa to go get the mail, play catch where we would try to throw the baseball over the powerline and to the other person, and be afraid of the basement like every kid is. I remember there was this little path through the trees (10 yards long maybe?) that I would run through instead of the taking the gravel road around the trees to get to the shed. I thought it was the coolest thing. It still is.

They eventually sold the farmstead and retired in West Fargo. I remember the day of the auction. I spent considerable time wandering through the trees and fields around the farm, because I knew I had to cherish the memories while they lasted. Now I look back at those memories. It's interesting how our brains work sometimes. I remember watching the movie 'Mr and Mrs Smith' one time, and literally the only thing I can remember from it was this quote: "I guess in the end you think about the beginning." It was profound then, and it is profound now. Whether it's the last day of school, the last day of camp, the last day of track, the last day of a job, or the last whatever of anything, we tend to look back on our experiences and how far we've come since the beginning. If we climb a mountain, we turn around to see how far we've come and what the start looks like. Another quote I recall is from a song by the artist 'Listener' who said "we only have what we remember".  We can amass all of these crazy items and possessions, but in the end it seems our memories are what prevail and captivate us. It makes me wonder if at funerals people think back to their weddings. Such a tragedy can lead some to dig into their memory bank for that intensely happy day in their lives. I'm sure my Grandma looks back and even though she has pain from her loss, smiles at what was.

This fall we were out deer hunting at the farm, because we've kept most of the farm and ranch land, even though the house was sold. At the end of one day, I went for a run down in the Sheyenne River Valley. I ran down the steep black dirt trail made by the ruts of pickup tires, weaving around corners and having my legs brushed with, well...brush. I made it to the valley floor, surrounded by hills and woods, when I came upon the old homestead my grandpa grew up in. As I came past the decrepit building that has since caved in, I recall stories grandpa told about vehicles actually driving across the rocks on the Sheyenne River due to how low the water level was; in fact, there was a county highway that supposedly went through there. They had a clearing where crops could be raised, which immediately went into the hills of the valley, covered with trees and scattered about with cattle. As I run the cattle trail into the woods and up the hill following the fence line, I disappear from everything. I come to a tree with a tiny little creek gently flowing past it, and I rest. The sun is beginning to set off in the distance, the evening glow in the sky does not disappoint. The wind is calm and even the nearby gravel pit trucks have stopped working- all is quiet and peaceful. I think of my dad working out here as a kid, fixing fence and loving the beauty. I think of my grandpa many years before- how quiet it must have been and what the landscape looked like. Things were different back then. I sit there and think about what it must have been like for grandpa as a kid out here. The weather is so beautiful and the stream gently flows past.

My thoughts come back to me at the church. As I sit at the funeral, I'm well aware that my body is asking me for food and water, reminding me of my morning long run already. Sitting here makes me think about what I'm actually doing. I suppose I could look at my running in two ways: on one hand, I could say that all of my pursuits are feeble, because I'll eventually die, as evidenced by where I'm at currently, and that it's not worth all of the work; I could also say that it's clear that our days are limited, so why not make the most of every moment? Performances will fade out of memory (remember who won the 10k at the 1980 Olympics? Yeah, me neither), but the way that we affect people will stick (I'm sure anybody alive in 1980 could tell you someone who impacted their life at that time). I've had some great talks with fellows runners lately, and I love the community that this sport can bring. I'd love to share as many of my experiences as I can, because having people to love this sport with me is what I search for. Because where the road ends, who will be with you?

So Rest in Peace in Heaven Grandpa. I know you positively impacted people in your life and you will be missed. But your memories will live on. Your childhood homestead down by the river may be in shambles now, the new farm technology may be unlike anything you ever knew, the people you grew up with might be scattered everywhere, but memories travel with us.

I can still hear you laughing.

February 2016- An ND Runner Month-In-Review

The short month of February is now behind us, but that doesn't mean it was without some exciting things going on in the world of running. Not only did February bring some fast times at big meets early on in the month, but the final weekend was conference time, and with that some great performances in crunch time.

Former ND high school
state champ (Courtesy:
gophersports.com)

Women's Performance of the Month: At the Big Ten Indoor Championships this past weekend, Madeline Strandemo (Fargo South/Minnesota) ran personal-bests in the mile in the both the prelims and finals. In prelims she ran 4:42.98 and in the finals 4:42.24, which gave her 3rd place in the Big Ten. Her time also places her just outside the top 50 in D1, while earlier in the month her 3k time of 9:21 also sits just outside of the top 50. Her mile is additionally the fastest time this season on a strong Minnesota girls squad that qualified for cross country nationals back in the fall.





Women's Performance of the Month #2: Last month I referenced the fact that Laura Roesler (Fargo South/Oregon/Nike) had started off her year by running the 800 in 2:05, 2:04, and 2:03, respectively. She kept the momentum going, starting out the month with a 2:02 for second place at the Armory Invitational in New York on February 6th. She then ran at the prestigious Milrose Games also at the Armory in New York, running a time of 2:00.49 for third place. Apparently 2:01 was worth skipping. She's well on her way to making the US Olympic Team this year, in my opinion!

She still has #Nodak on her twitter
(courtesy: Pat Holleran's twitter)

Another former ND state
champ
Courtesy: goducks.com

Men's Performance of the Month: At the University of Washington on February 12th, Jake Leingang (Bismarck High/Oregon) ran in the fast section of the 5k (fast as in the winning time was 13:35), and he ran 13:46.41, which was not only a personal-best for him, but also sits him 12th in D1, and top 16 can compete at indoor nationals in March. It was also the second-fastest 5k run by a North Dakotan, only trailing Andrew Carlson.
-----




The first big weekend was Friday-Saturday, February 12-13. The two big local meets were at North Dakota St and South Dakota St.

MSUM has a strong twitter game
Courtesy: msumdragons.com

For the second month in a row, the facility record for the Shelly Ellig Indoor Track at NDSU was broken in the mile, except this time it was in the men's. Brady Speicher (Perham, MN/MSUM) ran a 4:07 in the mile to get not only the building record, but also into the top-ten lists for all-time in the state. The track-conversion for his race gives him a good enough time to run at the DII National Meet in March.

I ran with Elliot once
this summer. He kicked
my butt.
Courtesy: gobison.com

Speaking of NDSU, Elliot Stone (Shiloh Christian/NDSU) competed at South Dakota St unattached in the 3k and ran 8:27,94, which
dips under the US Junior National qualifying standard of 8:31 (the standard qualifies for the 5k race). The US Junior Outdoor Championships is June 24-26 in Clovis, California.

Still killin' it, a month later
Courtesy: nsuwolves.com

Also at SDSU, in the women's 5k, Sasha Hovind (Stirum, ND/Northern State) won by an incredible 30 seconds with a time of 16:48, while in the men's 5k, Chris Jessop (Corvallis, Montana/U-Mary) broke the his own Mary school record with a time of 14:40. Hovind also broke the NSU indoor 5k record at the conference meet at the end of the month, running 16:46 to win the title.

There should've been an award
for best beard in ND in
2015, and Chris should've won.
Courtesy: goumary.com

As for indoor conference championships this month, here's a list of conference champions either from North Dakota or North Dakota schools:

North Star (NAIA):
Matthew Young (Woodland, WA/Jamestown U)- Men's Mile in 4:28
Eddie Meneses (Las Vegas, NV/Dickinson St.)- Men's 3k and 5k in 9:15 and 16:21, respectively.
Samantha VanHeuveln (Danvers,MN/Jamestown U)- Women's Mile, 3k, and 5k, in 5:33, 11:02, and 19:43, respectively.
Summit League (D1):
Erin Teschuk (Winnipeg, MA/NDSU)- Women's Mile and 3k in 4:41 and 9:08, respectively.
Northern Sun (DII):
Alexis Zeis (Bismarck/U-Mary)- Women's 3k in 9:42
Sasha Hovind (Stirum, ND/Northern State)- Women's 5k in 16:46

Now that March is here, we start the transition to outdoors. As I've said above, this month will bring some athletes competing at national meets, but most people will begin to move to outdoors (at UND we actually take a trip to South Carolina over spring break to run in a couple of meets). High school practices will start ramping up, college athletes start sharpening up their outdoor events, and post-collegians around here will be relishing getting some warmer weather, while some will probably keep training through in preparation for the Fargo Marathon in May. We can all agree that this warm February can transfer over to March, right?!?!

Happy Runnings,

Nate

(As always, if I've made an error or left something out, feel free to let me know and I'll change or update it)