Masters Weekend Races and Runs

Once I get out the door, I'll end up with about 12 miles this week, which is pretty much average for the past couple of years. In the past month I have run three "races"--a 3200 solo in the dark with short warmup, a mile with lots of company but virtually no warmup, and a 5000 with plenty of warmup--all of which age-graded at exactly 78.5%. Weird.

I was a baseball player who didn't grow before the diamond grew, so when I went from Little League to Senior League, singles became one-hoppers to SS. I was frustrated with my baseball experience and running seemed more suited to my needs (not my talents, since I was terrible in HS). I kept running in college because I couldn't see how anyone could fill the time when you only went to class three days a week, and I didn't want to get a job. When I graduated college I toyed with the idea of racing bikes, but it wasn't long before I came back to running.

Early inspirations included some local masters (one lived across the street from my uncle) and the juniors and seniors on my high school team who, after my freshman XC season, threatened to hurt me if I didn't run track in the spring. Now it's guys like Sidney Howard ("Keep the jog alive"), whose amazing accomplishments are still eclipsed by his joy for the sport. And it's many of you, too.

SSU, welcome aboard. great post.

I also had the chance to meet Alberto. A couple of years ago when I lived in Maryland I flew out to Oregon for the Prefontaine Classic. I drove up to Beaverton to check out the Nike complex. I saw some people on the track and it was Alberto with his training group including Goucher. Alberto saw me watching the workout , came over to me and said I could use the track as long as I didnt run in lane one. I elected to run the trails around Nike. It also reinforced that I should try and never judge anyone until I meet them myself. Alberto was a legend to me when I was younger and he certainly seemed like a great guy for the few minutes I was around him. Again thanks for posting and hope you keep up your posting and running. OMBTS

The weather finally seems to be breaking here in the midwest and I had a nice week of 42 miles including two decent quality days.

I believe that "Skinnbones" ran the 5-K in the meet that I helped put on (I was giving splits for the race he was in) and even though he may have started too fast, he fared well (6th place I think) against the college guys.

Let's hope that this nice spring weather keeps up!!

influences:

Local Police Department

1968, Tommie Smith, John Carlos

1970-74 Browning Ross, Marty Liquori, Tom Donnelley, Hal Higdon

2007 Nolan Shaheed, Ed Whitlock, Ryan Hall and of course the "Masters Weekend Races and Runs" thread

I may be on the shelf at the moment but still have some blood coarsing through these old veins and will indeed be back again for the 87th time...have never ever stopped running/racing for forty consecutive years...original impetus was early 60s when I discovered as a young Philadelphia juvenile delinquent that I could outrun all pursuers (cops etc)and avoid the wrath of my hard punching old man...in 1968, I wanted to sprint like Smith, Carlos, Charlie Green et al.

Once I got into the structured portion of sport, administrator Browning Ross (a 1956 Olympian and founder of Road runners Club of America), coach Tom Donnelley (a former IC4A champ while at Villanova, then rival HS coach at La Salle, now long-time Haverford mentor), athlete Marty liquori (toughest American trackster in my own Philly backyard while at Villanova), journalist Hal Higdon ("On the Run From Dogs and People author...former young Michigan stud and early on masters bad ass)...today, my role models are the guys who are still making it happen later in life...the Ed Whitlocks and masters studs between my age and his (and as a hard core fan of the sport, I dig watching our emerging stars, high school, college, post-collegiates..a good time to be a USA fan...athletically speaking)

...I am continually reminded, after all that today's 60 is the new 40!

Am, as always, enthused to hear of the great training/racing by my coleagues on this thread...every single one of you poster/friends (healthy or otherwise)are genuinely ispiring to me...and thank you for that.

stay well,

MF

Another 46 mile week for me. Tuesday's track session was 3x (6x200) alternating 33 & 43 second 200s. Winds were 25-30 mph with gusts to 40. Weather pretty much was crappy all week long - snow, rain, wind, sleet, sun - and that was just today during the 20 minutes it took to mow the lawn.

It was my best friend who got me into running. He wanted to go out for track when we were in 8th grade, which was the first year we could. It was my first time in any organized sport. I started out as a hurdler and 400 meter guy. My high school coach (who produced 2 HS State Champ CC teams in Ohio plus many individual studs in one of the smallest schools in the biggest division) moved me up to the 800 during my sophomore year and finally the mile my senior year.

To nyloco: Whoo hoooo! Great relay runnin' Scott!!

Good evening,

Just got back from a fun outing. Did the Mt Si Relay (Trails mostly with some road), and our over 40's team (Washington's Masters Elite) won the overall by 30 minutes. I think we averaged just under 5:30's for the 57 miles. Fun group with good brews afterwards.

About 65 miles in six days with one good workout of 8 x 800 in 2:22 on Weds.

Cheers,

tony

Good evening everyone.

First let me say that while I am not a masters runner yet, I have really enjoyed lurking on this thread and reading some of these great stories. There\'s a lot of awesome stuff in this thread every week. Why I\'m posting is because I\'m conducting a study to complete my MA degree in kinesiology at San Jose State University and would love to get the chance to talk to those of you who participate in this thread.

I\'m looking at online communication in the distance running community, specifically I\'m focused on participation in online training forums such as this thread, and motivation, social support and athletic identity. I don\'t want to hijack this thread and take up too much space with all of the details but anyone who would be interested in a 30-60 minute conversation about their experience posting on this thread can email me.

Participation is totally anonymous and this study is being conducted with approval from an independent academic review board to ensure that my study is conducted with the highest ethical standards. I\'m interested in participants from all over but those that are on the west coast and California especially are needed in the next few weeks. This thread really stands out as one of the few places on these boards where people interact in a positive way and really seem interested in contributing to the discussion and not needlessly tearing everyone and everything apart.

I\'m a post-collegiate runner now competing for the Aggies Running Club and have spent the last few years as a grad student at San Jose State while also coaching cross country the Santa Cruz area. Thanks for you’re time and anyone who is remotely interested in talking with me can email or call at any time. Have a great week of running.

-Aaron Jacobsen

aaronjacobsen@hotmail.com

(831) 419-1861

Sore, no other word to explain how I feel. Very very sore.

NYLOCO, you are a hoot, and we had a great weekend. I've made a great deal of personal pledges to myself this weekend on the way back to racing. Told my husband, I've been fast, I've been slow, I prefer fast.

Will be walking for several days before trying to run.

16x

Its cool that one of our long-time posters, Ghost of Igloi, really helped me to become a runner 30+ years ago. I was an average runner in New Mexico after my Junior year in High School. Ghost moved to my town to coach at a small junior college. He took me under his wing, and let me run with his athletes, including the excellent Kenyan, Ben Mokua Muturi. This exposure and guidance changed everything. Soon, I was winning races and setting records after being an also-ran the year before. No one really thought about college in my large family, but one year later I was on my way to college to eventually earn a graduate degree.

Ghost continued to coach me in New Mexico and Kansas. I got faster and faster. The whole experience led me into teaching and coaching which has been an unbelievable and fantastic life. Now at age 47, I still race, and win, and even still beat Kenyans here in New Mexico. Thanks "Ghost". I just hope that I can instill such life-changing ideas in my athletes as Coach did in me.

I managed 83 miles this week (the highest so far this year) with 6 at 6:20ish, 5 x 2000 w/200j at maybe HM pace, and a 12 mile "long" run. Weather was AWESOME for running this week! Got a local 5k race coming up this week. Should be fun.

I've been wracking my brain the last couple of days trying to remember how exactly I got into running, and I just can't. There isn't any clear "start" date, or key event I associate with starting to run. I've just always run, I guess.

I was never particularly "good" as a runner, and didn't compete in my youth. I always had other sports on the go - wrestling, badminton, ball hockey - and running was just an activity that I somehow seemed to drift into.

I never ran a whole lot when I was younger. I probably averaged 25 mpw through my twenties to mid-thirties. The first time I raced was when I was 26 or 27, at a road race in Bermuda (I was running a construction job at the time). And then I raced sporadically (maybe 8 times total) over the next ten years. I started getting "serious" about racing when I was maybe 36 or 37.

I've always been drawn by the hypnotizing light of the marathon, and yet I HATE running the damn things. :-) More recently, I've enjoyed dabbling in the 800/1500 as an old bastard, although I think the half marathon may be my favourite distance.

The runner I find to be the single most inspiring (I can't say his name in my brain without tearing up) is Terry Fox, who ran halfway across Canada on one leg to raise money for cancer, and died trying.

Terry Fox was amazing.

I think it is interesting how people come to running.

When I starting running I did so because there were no other sports for girls. In junior high we had 2 meets. We went to one school for a meet, and they came once to our track.

The first time I every ran an 800 meters in high school I ran 2:32. The second time I ran 800 meters I ran a 2:24 and won the largest invitational that you could participate in the region. So, it was at that point I was going to be a runner. I became a state champion my last 2 years of high school, and runner up in cross country, so I was able to go on and run collegiately and then just had the interest to take it farther past that.

Here in San Diego they ran the Lajolla Half marathon yesterday and the winner was disqualified for not having a official bib, Allen Wagner bought his bib from friend according to the North County Times article in this mornngs paper. His short lived winning time was 1hr10;40. Wagner stated in the article he was trying to qualify for the Olympic trials. Sean Mirren has the winning time1hr13;11.

I forgot to mention in my post that our lives will be disrupted again this summer. My wife is being transferred by the military yet again - this time after only two years.

On the plus side, we're moving back to familiar haunts, she'll be home all the time (she's on course out of town, only home on weekends for a full year), and has a much lower chance of being deployed overseas to, say, Afghanistan (I suppose I should feel guilty for not wanting her to deploy, but I don't - she's done time in unfriendly places before).

On the downside, our son will have to do his final year of high school in a new town, which sucks for him. Thankfully we have both family and lots of old friends where we're moving, so it should be a smooth transition.

This means I have to get the house ready to sell, which ius always a huge hassle. Mind you, this is the fifth one now, so it's becoming old hat. I'm a master de-clutterer and fixer-upperer.... next time, though, I should do that stuff when we move IN, instead of when we move OUT, so WE can enjoy the uncluttered house with all the little niggly shit fixed up.

I decided that last week was the week to start training. Got this marathon in Switzerland lurking in September. My first since~ 85. So an hour a day with any time missed made up for the long run. I'll do this for a month then bump things up.Can't beleive how tired my legs were on days 3&4. Oh well.

I was a sprinter in high school and my first trip to college. During the late '60 track was on TV every Sunday during the summer. I enjoyed watching all events but was focused on the sprints. I remember watching a cute Francie Laurreau running. I hated it when Jan Merrill and Mary Decker came along. Can't remember much about the sprinters. I ran always to keep fit even when I was seriously into

B-Ball. At 5'9" I would never make money but I thought I could jump. One of season a friend memtioned his mother (then 44) ran every morninbg I should join her. I did and this woman had a body any 18 year old girl would pay money to have. Legs that didn't jiggle. She got me into my first road race. From there I progressed fast with the help of 'My Private Idaho'. When we all leftb Monterey, CA I moved to Dallas and trained under Robert Vaughn. On of my good training buddies None other than that cute girl I watched on TV, Francie L-Smith. Fuuny.

Running has given me soo much and I try but will never be able to fully repay what it has done for me. It is now my lively-hood at CRC. It introduced me to my wife, who is now the real runner in the family. And so much more. Reading what some of you younger old farts do keeps me hopeful that maybe ....

Well, I am beyond a master being 55, but there is no Senior thread, so I'm here.

I am tapering this week for a 50 mile trail race, so my mileage was low last week, in the 40's. I've been running near 70 miles a week or more the past couple of months.

My inspiration was my cousin. I was at my aunt's house in Framingham, Ma doing yard work when she and my uncle took me to the Boston Marathon in 1968, I was 17. We went to see my cousin run who was in college. Standing on the side of the road handing out orange slices changed this inner city Boston kid.

Fast forward 9 years to 1977 and I am now a runner, running along my favorite trail in the Fells, a bunch of woods north of Boston and along comes Bill Rodgers cruising down the trail on a training run. More inspiration for me! I went on to qualify and run the Boston Marathon in 1980 and rode on the bus to the start with my cousin who I went and watched that day in 1968. I went on to run 13 Bostons, have been an ultrarunner the past 10 years and I hope to qualify for and run Boston again next Spring.

My story is more or less an evolution. I loved track from an early age, maybe 10 or 11, but got waylaid by trying to be a rock star. Bassist Jack Cassidy of the Airplane and Hot Tuna was my idol. Thing is, I sucked at music: tone deaf, marginal at keeping a beat, and no manual dexterity. I was washed up and left behind by age 15.

In high school I dabbled in track (pole vault and long jump), but didn't give distance running much thought because of childhood asthma. Went out for track in my senior year and quit after one day because I thought no way would I even score a point for the team that year. After feeling guilty about being a quitter I started running a little on my own.

I decided to give DIII college track a try. Our coach was not a running coach--baseball, soccer, basketball were his forte'--but he filled in for a couple years while the school tried to get a full time track coach.

Either he was a complete crank or a total genius.

He seemed to have no respect for distance or middle distance runners--and would let us know several times a week that we were crazy, insecure, and unstable. For workouts he'd write up Jim Ryun-type training: 1X660 in 1:16, 1X550 1:05, 2X400 in 52, etc...we'd balk at the times, and then he'd haul is into the locker room for a 45 minute lecture on why we were not real men, let alone athletes. In those lectures he would often single out one or two us for derision.

Under is tutelage I finished DFL in our conference meet two years in a row (880 freshman and 3 mile soph). The latter was particularly humiliating and I almost quit the sport. They hired a new coach and I stayed in school and kept running. As a senior I finished all conference and set a school record in the steeplechase, and that was the first time I'd ever run the event.

To this day, I'm not very talented but remain driven and competitive as a masters runner. I still remember this old coach who didn't know squat about distance running or runners, and how he would use negative feedback and ridicule to motivate. Thirty years later, I continue to run just because I like it. But that inner fire for competition still burns, so maybe he was on to something.

AK-49. You suck. You're a lazy bum. You'll never amount to anything. Now get out there and suffer, you dirty rat.

Hope that makes your day ;-)

I had a soccer coach who went on to coach the national under-18 squad. He was so foul-mouthed he made us jog a 1/4-mile away from the parents on the sidelines so he could let loose. We won three league championships in one year.