One Track Mind

I've been so busy recently that I haven't even had time to write about getting hit by/colliding with a car on a run a week or two ago. The short version was that I had a walk signal and a car cut me off, sending me crashing to the ground. Other than nearly being scared to death, I was fine. It's amazing how quickly one's life can change forever, though. The woman stopped to apologize, and I just told her to be safe out there. Hopefully it scared her into being more careful. The Boston area as a running location scares me, and we weren't even in a particularly unsafe place, traffic-wise.

I am incredibly exhausted after spending the last two days up at Dartmouth and getting little sleep the last two nights. I wouldn't trade it for anything, though, because being a coach is the best job in the world, as far as I can tell. My 1-1/2 years of grad school (which I will be done with in about six weeks) have helped me confirm that yes, this is indeed what I want to do with the rest of my life (or at least the next big chapter). I am in the process of looking for coaching jobs for next year.

Though this has been a bumpy outdoor season at Tufts, we had an amazing moment today where two of the runners I coach were heading up the homestretch of the New England T&F Championships, both in contention to win the 1,500 title. They may have finished within a half second of one another, but they both got to that point in very different ways. (They ended up going 2-3, both running 4:31). Both of them have been fighting injuries this season, but with different timing. I don't think I've had them do one workout together all season, because one didn't even run her first workout until about a month ago, so they've been on completely different schedules until now.

I wasn't sure if an athlete could salvage an outdoor season this well after having to take nearly five weeks off from running beginning March 11th, but I knew that if anyone could do it, it was S, because I've never seen anyone so determined to pull something off. It was weird to find myself scrambling to come up with a training schedule that would get her ready in six weeks. I felt like I was researching a "get fit in 40 days" article for a magazine. I think the fact that it has worked out for her has little to do with the schedule and a lot to do with her determination.

In her first meet back, S ran the 1,500 in 4:52. Though she wasn't very encouraged by this, she looked great in the race, and I knew that she'd feel significantly better in a week or two. She's been heading in the right direction since then--and was coming off the best indoor season of her life--but none of us would have predicted that she'd run 4:31 today and automatically qualify for nationals. We would have settled for having her just sneak in to the field! Though she ran a 4:57 mile indoors, this was an 11-second 1,500 PR, and an equivalently better time than her mile, obviously.

Our other athlete was just a few seconds off her own PR/school record, and is right where she needs to be, despite less-than-ideal training recently. It's great to see their hard work paying off, and it couldn't happen to better kids.