Three Big Things: Week Two

The outdoor high school track and field season blasted off this weekend with teams from Lee County traveling all over South Florida to participate in meets.  The Covid restrictions limits the number of teams at any given competition which makes finding meets a real problem for coaches.

1.  The finding a meet issue sent Lee County's best middle distance runner to Miami to compete in the Louis Bing Invitational.  Canterbury's Jessica Edwards faced some stiff competition from one of the nation's up and coming 800 runners Cha'iel Johnson, a sophomore and daughter of football great Chad Johnson.  Edwards had to run a semi-final on Friday which she won under control at just under 2:17.

Johnson and Edwards lined up with a strong wind facing them in the backstretch.  Johnson shot to the lead and Edwards closed easily into the face of the wind, catching Johnson as they headed into the homestretch of the first lap.  They went through in about 64 seconds with Edwards grabbing the lead before heading down the back stretch..

Johnson wasn't ready to give up and made a second move into the face of the wind retaking the wind but she lacked to strength to hold off a hard charging Edwards who pulled away in the last 50 meters running 2:12.99.  It was a big win and a big scalp for Edwards.

2.  Kolton Pickard looks like he's ready for all comers in Lee County.  The Estero junior clocked a 4:04.45 in the 1,500 at the Ida Baker Invitational.  Pickard won by about 15 seconds over Lehigh's Evan Meyer.  His time when converted to the 1,600 puts him a good ten seconds ahead of Fort Myers senior Liam Holston who managed to run a 4:31 at IMG on Saturday.

3.  SFCA senior Ethan Tank rolled to an easy win at Ida Baker in the 3,000.  Tank committed this week to Flagler University.  Tank's time of 9:19.41 under windy conditions is worth a sub 10 minute clocking over the 3,200.  Hopefully we will have an opportunity at some point during the season to see Tank, Pickard, Holston, Meyer, Dunbar's Oglar Bartolon and Fort Myers Paul Kolson show down in a 3,200 meter.  It would make for some hot racing.

Three Big Things: Week One

Track and field is back in Southwest Florida.  Covid restrictions is limiting the number of teams at area meets.  Last year I tried to give blog followers five takeaways from each week but given the numbers we're going to keep it short and sweet.  So as we head into the 2021 season I will break down Three Big Things in an effort to stay on top of the Lee County distance scene.

Thing 1:  I can't wait to see Fort Myers senior Amy Meng tangle with Canterbury senior Jessica Edwards over 3,200 meters.  It's a dream race that may never happen given the way the schedule lines up this season.  Meng opened with an un-pressed 11:48.46 to win the Dunbar opener while Edwards was occupying herself with the shorter distances running a screaming 56.38 in the 400.  Meng also ran a leg on Fort Myers' winning 4x800 team while Edwards ran a respectable third in the 200.  Not bad for one of the nation's best over 800 meters.

Thing 2:  A new distance running force maybe emerging from Ben Pignatone's Lehigh distance crew.  Freshman Gianna Del Pizzo scored double victories in the 800 and 1,600 running 2:32.93 and 5:45.31.  Del Pizzo won both races by sizeable margins.

Thing 3:  It appears Fort Myers senior Liam Holston is on the comeback.  Holston enjoyed a ho-hum cross country season.  He showed a sparkling kick at Dunbar to win the 1,600 4:34.49.  This sets the table for some epic battles with Estero's Kolton Pickard and Lehigh's Evan Meyer who finished second to Holston on Saturday.

My Marathon Journeys: Olympiad Marathon 1994

The 1992 Drake Relays Marathon marked the beginning of a long, downhill slide that I still don't understand to this day.  It's perplexing as I look back on my training logs through 1992.  I ran 11 races through the end of October. 

I had short stints of lackluster training but it was consistent enough that by the end of October I was well over 2,000 miles on the year and ran a decent 17:21 5K despite suffering from nagging calf issues through much of the late summer.  A ten mile run on in mid-November with former Kansas State distance runner Phil Byrne in Des Moines was my last run of the year.  I didn't run again until March 1, 1993.  

That period marked the end of any hope I had of ever being a reasonably decent runner.  I look at the three and a half months of blank pages of my training log and know that my life a complete mess. Little did I know that a year late life would be a complete shit show, but I digress.

I went down a personal rabbit hole that I couldn't pull myself out of.  I had been named acting general manager of the television station where I was working in Topeka, Kansas as news director.  I was hoping that I would get the bump to GM.  Looking back I wasn't ready.

When the owner made the new hire, a fine gentleman by the name of Gary Sotir, I just withdrew into myself.  I can't say enough good things about Gary.  It wasn't until I had left the station in August of 1994 that I realized what a great guy he was.  Gary just wanted to get to know me and understand me and I think it only added to my personal confusion.  I was too immature and too messed up to see that he had my best interests at heart.

1994 was marked by the great flood of the Missouri and Mississippi Valley.  The Topeka area fell victim to the storms that ravaged the Midwest.  I did some of my finest work as a journalist.  But during it all I began planning my exit from KSNT and landed a job at WPSD as news director in Paducah, Kentucky.

The change of scenery didn't help.  I hardly ran but I did bring a fresh injection of energy into a stale news operation that needed some leadership that had experience from outside the market.  I ran my sole race of the year in October, a 10K, in a wheezy 44:07.  

Sometime shortly after that race one of my best friends, Steve Riley, a legendary Masters runner in Kansas asked me to go to the 1994 Boston Marathon with him.  I hadn't run anything longer than seven miles at that point and I didn't have a qualifier.  Steve was persistent, bless him and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

I had two months to prepare for the Olympiad Marathon in St. Louis on February 27th.  Suddenly in late November I actually started doing some long runs.  I got less than a half dozen long runs under my belt during this period and suffered through a nasty bought of the flu in early January.

I was 12 pounds heavier than my last marathon when I toed the line in St. Louis on a 13 degree day.  It was brutally cold, but fortunately there was very little wind.  My October 10K converted to a 3:22 marathon.  I had to break 3:15 to qualify for Boston.  Despite everything, I knew I could do it.

Steve promised to stay with me for the first half even though he was in shape to run under 2:50.  Unbeknownst to me this was one of the hilliest courses in the United States.  It was the course that was run at the 1904 Olympics.  The first half went along easily enough as we passed the half in 1:33:50.  

Steve took off because he wanted to break 3 hours (which he did) and I was on my own.  I went through 15 miles in 6:42 and then a series of major hills began to take their told.  I held on for dear life clicking off my last four miles at about 8:20 pace squeezing out a 3:13:33 and slipping under the BQ that I needed.

I drove back to Paducah self satisfied.  The next morning I woke up sick as a dog.  I walked into the newsroom looking like death, my sinuses completely plugged up.  My boss sent me across the street to his doctor, who fortunately was a fellow runner.  He had a good laugh and gave me a shot that blew out my sinuses.  I went home and spent the rest of the day in bed and was back at work the following day.

My first Boston Marathon was seven weeks away.

My Marathon Journeys: The Drake Relays 1992

Running took a back seat after the 1990 St. George Marathon.  First, I cleaned up on my act.  I decided it was time to be an adult.  Parts of my life that I didn't like I had excised.  People trying to help me felt working on myself and not focusing on running as an escape needed to be part of the plan.

I was in a good place by the spring of 1991.  I was enjoying my job and some six months after St. George I was doing some light training.  Then an opportunity came along that made me do some soul searching.

A personal goal of mine was to be the director of a television news operation by the time I was 35 years old.  That opportunity came along unexpectedly in June and much to my surprise, my boss who had lured me back to Kansas City just two years before, was supportive of my quest.

I took a job in Topeka, Kansas... just an hour down the road and started to shape up a small staff of 20 or so people working for a boss who threw nickels around like manhole covers.  I loved what I was doing because everyday brought with it a different challenge, whether it was people, equipment or shaping the kind of journalism we would practice.

My running began to take slowly take shape.  My very first boss in television news talked me into running the Lake Atwood 10 mile in late July and I skipped along at a leisurely 6:40 pace.  It didn't hurt that it was 45 degrees in August, unheard of summer weather in Western Kansas.  The race told me the wheels were still there.

Training came along slowly in the fall and starting in 1992 I tackled the difficult January classic, Topeka to Auburn Half Marathon in just a shade under 1:31.  Now the time was not great, but the race is nothing but non-stop hills after four miles, a real grind.   It planted a seed that running a spring marathon might be possible.  I was averaging 50 to 60 miles a week on a steady basis.

I followed that up with a 38:10 10K in Manhattan on St. Patrick's Day and by early April I ran a difficult 20K in 1:20.  A final 10K the third week in 36:58 let me know I was in shape to run a sub-three hour marathon.

The target race was Drake Relays Marathon on Saturday April 23rd.  I had no idea what the topography of the course offered.  If I had I probably would have waited to run Grandma's in June.  The course was a real bear.

Saturday morning was a cold one with temperatures just below freezing as snowflakes greeted us in Drake Stadium.  As we headed off the track and out on the roads I felt easy at a couple of ticks over 6:30 pace through five miles.  Then two major hills hit and it dawned on me that this section would be two loops and not a lot of fun.

I hit the half feeling strong in 1:26:10 and clipped those tough hills and settled back into 6:30 pace.  After 18 miles in 6:19 I began to tire.  Mile 20 was in 7:03 and I knew I just had to hang on.  Fortunately the last four miles were gradual downhill and I stopped the bleeding averaging 6:45 pace over the last five miles.

I was in no man's land over the last five miles.  I could see a lone figure catching me two miles from the finish.  I was in a dilemma.  Do I dare push the pace and risk a complete blow up or just hope he'll run out of gas as I ran steady.  Slowly but surely he slid by me with a mile to go.  I just lacked the heart to fight him over the last mile.

I hit the finish in 2:53:59. I had finished 13th overall.  But the man that I let by with a mile to go took third place in my age group taking the last of the awards.  I was incredibly angry with myself.

I was 36 years old and I suffered a mental meltdown after the work that I had put in for this race.  This marked a turning point.  I was done with the marathon, or so I thought.  I was working 50 hours a week and training my ass off.

I  had poured myself into work and the night before the race a work crisis popped that I had to handle over the phone that proved to be a major mental distraction.    Trying to run a television newsroom and trying to be a semi-serious runner is a tough balance.

A large part of me wishes I had kept the self-discipline that running brought as a focal point in my life.  But I had to learn some more hard lessons over the next two years before I finally reached the place where moderation in all things became true words to live by.  And in turn, I wasn't done running marathons, just done worrying about chasing times.