Running
It was 2010, and I thought I would give middle school track a shot. The first practice, I ran 3/4 of a mile and came back home complaining of immediate shin splints. 364 days later, I returned for my second purposeful run, and have since adopted a preventative care strategy manifested in dozens of pairs of neutral running shoes.
I was introduced to running by my friend Solomon, a world class rock climber at Stanford. In 8th grade, I ran ONE good race (a 5:27 mile) and let a hyperbolic hothead of a coach coax me to the aspiration of breaking the school record set the year before by my next-door neighbor, Dillon McCourt: a 5:14. To both of our displeasures, the rest of my races were tightly distributed about 5:55.
Solomon dragged me out of soccer and into cross country, and little did either of us know how huge an impact it would have on my lifestyle. My high school career began slowly: 20:20 for my first 5k, and 19:05 for my last freshman year. I drastically improved during the winter and spring, achieving a 10:30 first 2-mile, and 4:47 mile at PAC-10s, edging out the favorite-freshman: Paul Power, for top freshman miler. Even more rapidly came my demise: an 8 month struggle with stress fractures in both of my tibias, filled with boredom, inactivity, months of indoor pedaling, and hours of rediscovering Coldplay's Death and all His Friends without ever remembering the track's name. Returning to the track my sophomore year, I had very little muscle left to blunt each impact, and I had grown an incredible 4 inches in that time. I was not lanky; no, that quality is reserved for people well above a 5'6" stature. I was just undeveloped. Further complications from my neglected muscle groups resulted: plantar's fasciitis and ankle-rolling confined me to evade trail running for another 4 years.
Some consistent summer miles later, I have a breakout cross country race, placing second on my team and racing 15:55 at a slightly-short Boyertown course. "The best athletic performance in all my 12 years of coaching" was a quote I barely caught wind of as I sheepishly arrived from Math Club 15 minutes late. Overstatement aside, I continued to have larger aspirations in running. Knowing I had no intention of running for a varsity program, I figured high school was my last chance to make my competitive mark. My teammates and I achieved second team at PAC 10s in cross country my senior year, and I placed 7th overall with something like 17:00. And I capped off my high school career in a series of incredible 2-miles (in my standards). My teammate Frankie and I hugged under the Henderson LEDs, primed to qualify for Districts. He had an early lead at our agreed-upon pace, but with a last lap that split 57 seconds, I tripped on his heels as the clock struck 9:59.99. At Districts, I cemented myself as the third fastest 2-mile in my conference with a 9:47.
After graduating high school, Solomon and I made promises to train for a marathon together, hoping to race that August. But a broken ankle from a rock climbing trip postponed that dream.
At Penn State, my old teammate Maddie brought me to my first Club Cross Country practice. In retrospect, this club has since taught me an incredible amount about having humility, a healthy mentality, and fun! Of course, I have still pounced on the chance to continue racing, and so I was excited about my "PR" performance of 27:45 in the 8k. But since Lock Haven eschews club teams from its results, I cannot verify that. That season, I shaved off time to get a 26:55 at Regionals in Princeton. I remember spending much of that semester rolling my ankle: once on Golf Course the day before our home meet; another just minutes into the cool down after Regionals; and one at Nationals likely to attract more public sympathy. Albeit, it wasn't until my second XC season that I struggled with a serious collegiate injury. Speed work strained my right quadricep, and compensation knocked out my knees faster than if I had seen Tim Seydel strut by. With a loose pattern of having unremarkable sophomore years, I was intended to break away.
Too bad junior year was essentially a rerun of freshman year, save for my Miles for Smiles record-tying 10.71 miles accumulated within an hour on the treadmill FTK. Dare I add, this record was held by a now-varsity runner: Andrew Sell, a freshman at the time. This was soon followed by an 8:55 in the 3k at the Happy Valley Invitational, a huge PR and homage to the tactical training from my track coach in high school. I blame my mediocre cross country performance on my marathon training: the Philly Marathon occurred a week after Nationals, and I achieved a 2:47:45 alongside many of my gritty teammates. Oh, and I also got a 7-second PR in the mile at 4:31. And a half-marathon record of 1:16:00. Plus, I obtained two 5K PR's in a row: once while winning the THAW 5k in 15:55 (a little short), but again on a track in 15:50 with the help of Joe Clark and Matthew Balogh. I guess junior year wasn't all that bad.
I spent the majority of the summer after junior year learning to listen to my body in Auburn, AL. I guess running from Alabamans' political views made me pretty fast, because I returned to XC with a 4th place at the 2018 Bethany Invitational, leading much of the race ironically. I doubled with an overall 7th place at Lock Haven soon after, obtaining my PR of 26:00.4. Had it not been for their state-of-the-art 200m extension, I think I would have had a good shot at the Club XC record of 25:35 there. My quadricep and knees acted up for the third year in a row, but I avoided their disastrous effects by sticking to aerobic training. I came back to place 10th at Regionals in 26:20, and 48th at Nationals in 26:45. At Miles for Smiles, I ran an unbelievable 11-mile finale in 1 hour, with Justin, Corban, Jay, Manna, Jodie, Deb, all of my teammates, and Guccc (the artist formerly known as Guccci Goggles) emphatically cheering me on. After dancing at THON for 46-hours straight, I completed the Boston Marathon in 2:57, running a 1:24 first half (you can conclude the second half for yourself). I also started swimming twice a week for much of this semester, finding cross training a great way to reduce the impact on legs and feet that were quasi-injured from THON.
After graduating undergraduate, I continued training, with the intention of getting higher mileage over the summer in a very controlled manner, as well as listening to my body. I got up to 72 miles a week that summer before tapering for my bike tour, with most of my running happening on local trails: the Perkiomen Trail; Valley Forge's Mt Misery Trail, Mt Joy Trail, Joseph Plumb Martin Trail, & more; Schuylkill River Trail; Upper Schuylkill River Trails; Schuylkill Canal Towpath; Audubon Loop Trail; Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary; Evansburg State Park; Skippack Trail; Spring Mt; French Creek State Park; Hunsberger Woods; Wissahickon Valley Park & Forbidden Drive; and many more venues. I also had fun destination runs, ranging from Pittsburgh, PA, Rothrock State Forest in PA, all around Boulder, CO, Ithaca, NY, Bays Mountain in Tennessee, Nashville, TN, Cedar Ridge Preserve in Texas, Austin, TX, Duke Farms in New Jersey, and the Presidential Traverse in New Hampshire. And I *won* the casual Perkiomen Valley XC Reunion Run. I know... a lot!
I was really happy with this summer of training, because I hit new mileage highs while running without any expectations for speed or intensity. Running on trails allowed me to reduce the impact on my legs while forcing restrictions on my speed. Plus, you get the added bonus of all of the nature surrounding you!
This led into my first semester as a graduate student back at Penn State, where I would return to running cross country in NIRCA with Club XC. I competed at Lock Haven University, Penn State's Nittany Lion Invitational, NIRCA Regionals at Utica Dristrict Park in Maryland, and NIRCA Nationals at Pole Green Park in Virginia. At Regionals, I dropped 30 seconds off of my previous best with a 25:32.00, placing 6th overall in the Mid-Atlantic. My team placed first in the region as well with only 35 points! Riding our winning high, we trained hard for three more weeks until Nationals: where we faced competition from a lot of great teams across the country. Somehow we pulled out our first ever national championship with 93 points! I placed 19th overall with a time of 25:51.50, but the course was long by ~150-200 meters. Hence, I now say my 8k PR is 25:20 and you won't change my mind. A mere four days later, I raced a local two-mile with some friends, and stretched my already aching, tapered muscles continuously for the three more days leading up to the Philadelphia Marathon weekend. On that Saturday, I raced the half-marathon alongside 40 of my teammates. I had terrible luck with bathrooms, so I took an emergency stop for at least one minute around mile 6. Still, I finished in 1:14:24, 46th overall, and just 20 seconds off of my real PR. If we allow my fragile ego to subtract that lost minute in the porta potty, I may again fudge my PR to, say, "1:13:30." Regardless, I am really proud of this season because cross country was my main goal, while the half-marathon was just a sweet treat afterwards! Oh, I suppose I should add that I repeated the unthinkable: helping pace my sendy marathon friends the next day through their 26.2 miles. More specifically, I ran alongside my friends Jiggy and Megan for a lot of the race, ending my day with about 20 miles accrued. Time for a break? Yep. This season was successful because I committed myself to 60 mile weeks, biweekly lifting with my friend Ian, and habitual long runs between 15 and 19 miles every Sunday. This was exactly what I needed to feel like I succeeded in cross country at least once in my life!
I have the long term goal of running a 50-miler. I sincerely hope that I can continue to run for a long, long time, and you can find me crying if anything gets in the way of that. I ultimately value sustainable actions, so if I can't imagine myself training this way for the rest of my foreseeable life, I adjust accordingly. Everywhere I go, I like to lace up and explore. It creates a more intimate connection between me and the terrain, and lets me do what many adventurous hikers like to do, just faster. You won't catch me plotting out-and-backs anytime soon, because I subscribe to the Sam Lapp "net" theory. I am obsessed with Jonathan O'Keeffe's Multiple Ride Mapper that produces beautiful heat maps from all of my runs like this. Overall, I support anyone who wants to incorporate a healthy amount of running into their lives. So long as your expectations don't take precedence over your health, I fully support your endeavors.
