Motivation

It’s amazing how seeing other people run well, particularly those you know, will motivate you, and I’ve gotten plenty of motivation over the past couple weeks. It all started last weekend with Andy Sayers making his marathon debut in Richmond in 2:42:31. It was fun to watch Andy make major breakthroughs in his training over the past few months and great to see it all pay off for him on race day. As I’ve told him, he’s got some much faster racing in him at all distances, and this experience will go a long way in helping with that.

The day after Richmond, David Angell joined the sub-32 10k club with a 31:59 at the Veteran’s Day 10k in Washington D.C. Dave has found a nice groove with his training and has figured out what works for him. As most everyone knows, he and I go back to his freshman year at Roanoke, and talking with him about his training has helped me make some much needed decisions with my own training that I’ll be putting to use soon.

This weekend I made the planned trip to Roanoke to watch the Star City Half Marathon where George Probst won once again, easily outdistancing the competition by more than three minutes. George and I have been training together and racing each other since the late ‘90’s, so it’s always good to see him do well. A 1:06 half marathoner at one time, his career has certainly been hampered by achilles problems (double surgery), but he’s as tough as they come and has continued to train and cross-train through it all to remain a dominant force on the local road race scene. Hopefully he and I will be able to get some runs in together over the winter and mix it up in a few races sometime soon.

In addition to George running well, Andrew Parkins got a new PR as I predicted, running a nice even race in the process. The women’s winner, Shauna Mugavero, who is also a friend of mine, got a new PR as well, in spite of not being able to run much the week of the race. I guess the forced taper was good for her, which goes to show once again that sometimes rest is the best training we can do.

When I got home from the race, I learned that local Lynchburg College runner Ricky Flynn had won the DIII National Cross-Country Championship by a whopping 23 seconds, the second largest margin of victory in meet history. As a former runner for conference rival Roanoke, I’m pretty much hard-wired to dislike anything associated with Lynchburg College, but I’ll admit that I was rooting for Flynn and glad to see him win. It’s good to see someone from the ODAC and the South Region do so well.

The next day, John Crews, from nearby Lexington, VA, got the win in the Philadelphia Marathon in a new PR of 2:17:15, which will secure his spot in the Olympic Trials. All I can say about that is WOW! From all I’ve heard about him going back to his days at Rockbridge High School, Crews is a good, hard-working guy, so it’s great to see him run so well. His first three marathons have been 2:22, 2:19, and 2:17, and all of them have been wins. He’s just 25, so it’ll be interesting to see how he does over the next few years.

Finally, the DI XC Championships just wrapped up, with two Roanoke area runners doing quite well for themselves. Catherine White, who went to Northside High and transferred from Arkansas to Virginia this year, took fourth in the women’s race. Zac Edwards, who also went to the same high school at the same time, finished 79th in the men’s race. Also, Patterson Wilhem, who is from the Lynchburg area and runs for William and Mary now, was 34th in the men’s race. I’m pretty sure that makes him an All-American.

In any event, congrats to all these runners on some fine racing and thanks for the motivation. Between all those great performances and the new plan I have developed, I’m looking forward to going to work now more than ever! I’m actually having to hold myself back, but I’m going to be smart and do just that. Patience builds consistency and consistency builds success!