Track’s Yellow Wood

I have officially resigned from the track team.

I will be student teaching this spring, which means that I have the work load of a full-time teacher (with no pay). Trying to do this and track at the same time would be possible, but one of the two pursuits would suffer. My impractical side wanted to try both, but reason eventually won out. I need to teach well more than I need to have another semester running with the team.

That last bit’s important; I will still be running, just not with the team. In fact, I’ll probably be running more than ever soon. No track means I don’t have to waste time training for the two-mile. I can finally get to the marathon training that’s always appealed to me.

That’s right. I’ll finally join most of my readers on the long (long, long) lonely road of marathon training. At least in a month or so. For now I’m just going to focus on getting back in shape and ramping my mileage back up.

Holiday Running

So you know that moment during the holiday season when people just, snap? When the already tenuous chord connecting the American consumer to reality severs, and people plummet into blind amok?

Apparently that moment happened the other day– at least, if drivers are a good indicator. It wasn’t even Thankgiving yet, and people were driving on the wrong side of the road, double parking on busy streets, and honking at pedestrians in walkways. I understand that in some places this is normal, but not in my hometown. At least not this early in the year.

In all this craziness, there’s an increased risk to drivers. But the risk to runners skyrockets. It’s not a hazard that many people consider– anyone running around a shopping center could tell you that.

What I mean to say is that the grill of a Nissan Murano is not my ideal resting place. So please, when you’re out driving, take into account those who travel on foot.

P.S. (sorry about the unfinished state of the earlier post. It would seem that I hit the wrong button when I tried to save my draft).

Regionals pt. II

So yesterday I realized that I had totally forgotten to share how my last xc race actually went. Here’s a review (with pictures this time!).

Here I’m about 300 meters from the finish line. I ended up finishing at 28:14, tying my PR from Paul Short. At first I was a little upset to have missed PRing by so little. But in a way, it’s appropriate. It’s like I proved that I was performing at maximum capacity in both of those races. Or slacking off in both. We’ll say the former.

Classy guy, right? Here I am in my post-race glory, smoking a cigar. I don’t often smoke cigars (and never cigarettes for obvious reasons) but it’s a tradition for the men’s team to have one after their final xc race, as a salute to the end of four wonderful years.

Being sentimental, I knew from my freshmen year that I would one day smoke a cigar on an xc course. Being a writer, I love symbols. Being nuts, I love ritual.

All in all, that cigar tasted pretty sweet.