“You may feel you’re done — there’s no such thing;
Though you’re standing on your own, your own breath is king.
The beginning is now — don’t turn around;
Regrets of bad mistakes will only drain you.
There’s another train — there always is;
Maybe the next one is yours;
Get up and climb aboard another train.”
– Pete Morton, Another Train Continue reading
As the 2015 World Championships, were concluding, I heard one commentator speculate about how 100 and 200 gold medalist Usain Bolt would fare against 5k and 10k gold medalist Mo Farah in a 600m race. (Or maybe it was 500m, but it was clearly intended to be the “crossover” distance where the two would be competitive). When I heard that, I experienced deja vu, because back in 2008, there was a fairly serious discussion of having Bolt face the world’s most accomplished distance runner at the time, Kenenisa Bekele, at a “neutral” distance. Seven years ago to the day, I critiqued that suggestion, and am reposting that critique since it seems apropos today applied to Bolt v. Farah. Continue reading
You’re back on campus, and you’re trying to remember your class schedule. You rush into a classroom, but it’s the wrong class or the wrong time… and although you were vaguely aware of it before, you’re suddenly hit with the full realization that you’re naked… or in your underwear… and you’re trying to cover up using a notebook, but the pages – the pages on which you’ve written down the homework assignment – are loose and keep falling out. Somehow you make it to class, but it’s a French class, and you don’t actually take or know any French… or it’s Chemistry, but you never actually started the semester long project that is due today. Maybe it dawns on you that you never registered for classes at all, or never paid your tuition. The embarrassment of standing there in your underwear having screwed up so thoroughly hits you like an emotional tidal wave.
And then you wake up. Continue reading
The 2015 IAAF World Championships ended Sunday in Beijing — finally — and what a strange, exhilarating, frustrating eight days it was. Continue reading
With all that’s happened at the World Championships in the last two days, writing about the women’s 10,000 is like writing about ancient history. It was so long ago — do you remember? It was the race when three American women finished third, fourth, and sixth, a team performance that was better than Kenya and better than Ethiopia. Remember how Molly Huddle had the bronze medal in sight, but let up a few meters before the line and was passed by Emily Infeld? We all cringed when that happened, knowing that it would instantly join other video exhibits of why you should always run through the line. Continue reading
(Photo: IAAF)
The men’s 100m final at the 2015 World Championships was considered by many to be a battle for the soul of track and field, with Usain Bolt cast as the good guy, and Justin Gatlin (among others) cast as the villain. In this morality play, a Bolt victory would prove that a clean athlete could win, even in an event with a long history of harboring cheaters. A Gatlin victory would prove — what? — that cheating pays off eventually, because the effects last long after the initial offence? Continue reading
In these dark days of professional track and field when doping suspicions hang over the World Championships like the pollutant-heavy atmosphere hangs over Beijing, what I’m about to suggest might be the worst possible advice for everyone involved. But I’d like to recommend that if you haven’t done so yet, enter the LetsRun/Running Warehouse World Championships Prediction Contest. Continue reading
As a spectator, fan, coach, or athlete, races don’t always go as planned, and when that happens, you do your best to accept the outcome and move on. But I have a vivid memory of watching the TV broadcast of the women’s 1500m final in the London 2012 Olympics and thinking, “that was so, so wrong!” Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago, I went for two separate runs with students I had coached at Concord Academy. The first run was with Kyra, recently graduated from college (where she did not compete) and now returning to regular and purposeful training for the first time in years. The second run was with Adam, a rising senior who competes for his DIII college team and hopes to help them qualify for the NCAA XC Championship this year. It was good to catch up with both Kyra and Adam, and I enjoyed both runs, although neither was especially easy for me. In fact, I had to conclude that what had once been the most natural way for me to spend a pleasant hour socializing had become a reminder of my changed status in the world of running. Continue reading
the runner eclectic 