Tag Archives: favorite memories

What I Learned from My High School Coach

29 May Me and Mrs. Long at the end of cross country season my senior year.

Over the long weekend, I was fortunate to be able to meet up with my high school cross country coach, Mrs. Long, for a run. She coached Brandi, Amanda and I, and there is no doubt that she played a huge role in where I am today both in my running career and overall outlook on life. She has always inspired me, but with two young boys, many major changes in her personal life over the past year and a 3:14 marathon in April, I can’t help but be in awe of her strength and perseverance.

As I sat stretching after our 10 mile run (something I did NOT learn from the woman who was quite okay with not being able to touch her toes) , I started thinking about all the advice Mrs. Long gave me over the 4 years as my coach and 9 years as my friend.

You call that a hill?
Mrs. Long had a knack for nonchalantly leading us on the hilliest runs in town. As we grumbled about the terrain, she’d wave them away with her hand and say, “You call that a hill? That’s just a little speed bump.” On especially bad (or steep) days when we’d all be complaining at the bottom of a hill we were running repeats up and begging her to cut our workout down, she’d blatantly ignore us and cheerfully yell “Readyyy, go!” over the noise. Bottom line? Your legs aren’t really going to fall off, so just get it done.

Boys are bad.
This was one of Mrs. Long’s favorite sayings (mostly because our high school boys team was known to pull pranks like launching surprise water balloon attacks on the girls team or putting a snake in Mrs. Long’s car). There was nothing truly sexist about it; she was just being protective of her high school girls and wanted us to focus on school and running–what coach wouldn’t?! The thought has always been in the back of my mind though that if I’m going to be with someone, I better be darn sure that he’d pass Mrs. Long’s test and prove her theory wrong!

Have fun.
For the first time in school history, the cross country team made it to the regional meet as a team. It was a huge accomplishment, but I remember Mrs. Long relating it to a video game: “You know when you work really hard in Super Mario and beat a level and then you get a bonus round? That’s sort of what this is; like a super bonus round you weren’t expecting.” I think back to this when I reach and exceed a goal; it’s great to enjoy your accomplishments but don’t put them up on a pedestal because you’re going to have to work hard again to beat the next level.

Mrs. Long and I at the end of cross country season my senior year.

I love that no matter how many months pass, I can always call up Mrs. Long for a run when I’m in town and we pick up right where we left off. Even though she hasn’t coached me for over 5 years, there is no doubt that Mrs. Long will always be my coach.

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Austin fans are the BEST!

24 Feb Some of my favorite signs from the half marathon.

Running the Livestrong Austin Half Marathon last Sunday was unlike anything I expected.

First of all, the hills. Hills, hills, hills. As I said in my sister’s and my short recap of the race, those hills were HARD, but we conquered the crap out of them.

Then, the sheer amount of people racing stunned me. I’ve only ever participated in small road races of a couple hundred people or so; and the half-marathon that I ran last year was probably under 4,000 people, which was the biggest race I had ever run. The Livestrong Austin Marathon & Half Marathon had over 10,000 people running the half marathon, plus several thousand others running the full marathon at the same time. It took a full 15 minutes after the starting gun was fired before I finally crossed the starting line to begin the race.

Some of my favorite signs from the Austin half marathon.

Some of my favorite signs from the Austin half marathon.

My favorite part about the race that I wasn’t expecting, though, was how awesome the FANS were! There was barely a point during the 13.1-mile journey where there weren’t fans on the side of the road cheering all us crazy people on. And I was certainly entertained by all of the witty signs they had, even laughing out loud at a couple of them as I huffed and puffed my way by.

I think I was only ½ mile into the race, running uphill, when I saw the “in our minds, you’re all Kenyans” sign—definitely made me chuckle (and then choke as I tried to catch my breath at the top of the hill).

Several miles later, I saw the sign about Ryan Gosling supposedly 50 feet ahead. Trust me, I kept my eyes peeled, but sadly, no hunk of muscled love was in sight. All I saw was an old guy with a long, scraggly beard; pretty much the opposite of Ryan Gosling, those liars…

Later, with only a couple miles to go, I went through the Livestrong cheering area (which you couldn’t miss, with the amount of bright yellow everywhere)—these had to be the most excited people I have ever seen, out at 8 am in 45-degree weather, just ecstatically cheering and high-fiving runners non-stop. It was amazing and put a lot of pep back in my running.

As I came out of the Livestrong area, I looked to my left and saw the woman holding the “You’re running for me” sign. My breath caught, not because I was running too hard, but because for a moment it hit me that there are so many people out there who have these unfortunate and unfair illnesses, and I’m lucky to be one of the few running around the streets of Austin for 13 miles on a random, sunny Sunday morning. I hope that every breath, grimace, bead of sweat and ounce of effort I spent on those roads, goes towards something good for all those who are really suffering in a completely different way.

I was soon smiling again as I ran along towards the end of the race. “Worst parade ever” of thousands of runners struggling up yet another hill? I bet it wasn’t the most entertaining, but I’ll also bet it was the most inspiring parade anyone’s ever seen!

Special thanks to Pam LeBlanc at the Austin American-Statesman & Fit City for letting me share their photos!

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Who’s Bart Yasso?

23 Feb My Life on the Run

I am learning more and more that I’m not as much of a planner as I once thought I was. In the weeks leading up to our Austin Half Marathon runcation, Amanda and Brandi had restaurants and attractions lined up while I couldn’t even remember where we booked our hotel room. But sometimes you realize that plans are being executed without you even knowing it. You look back on a series of events and see an invisible dotted line that connects them all together and lands you right where you were supposed to be, without ever knowing there was any plan at all.

For me, that invisible dotted line led me to hearing Bart Yasso speak at the Austin Marathon Expo.

A few months ago when I was shopping the going out of business sale at Borders, Bart Yasso’s book My Life on the Run caught my eye and I thought it would be a good resource down the line for marathon motivation. To be honest, I didnt really know who Bart Yasso was, like, at all. Sure the name was familiar and I knew he had done something important in the running community, but I’ve just never been very in touch with all the stories of the great runners and shakers of distance running.

The book has collected dust on my bookshelf since August. As I was bolting around my apartment doing my last-minute packing for my trip to Austin, I grabbed the book on a whim thinking it might be good airport material. On my four hour flight to Austin, I set a new PR that had nothing and everything to do with running: I started and finished a reading the book–all before I was even instructed to fasten my seatbelt and prepare for landing!

Brandi's photo of me in the cab... yes, that's probably what I really looked like with my nose in the book the entire flight!

The book was phenomenal. It was laid out chronologically in easy-to-read chapters that highlighted different races, events and milestones in Yasso’s life (including a very tempting and entertaining race at a nudist colony). There are plenty of great reviews online for the book so I won’t go into that but I will say that I would highly recommend the book for anyone who enjoys (or wants to enjoy) running for reasons beyond grueling training regimens and setting PRs. This book focuses on what you really gain from running when you stop thinking about it as a means to an end: the confidence, friendships, stories and life-altering moments.

When I got to the end of the book, I saw that Yasso had listed Austin as the Coolest Host City… this is the point where the dots started to connect themselves. I realized that this runner I had just read about for three straight hours was going to be at the race I was on my way to. How great would it be to actually shake hands with this inspiring man?!

He spoke several times at the confence but the only time we had a chance to hear him was during his last time slot on Saturday afternoon. We got to the expo, picked up our packets and walked around for a little while. I was constantly checking my watch for fear of missing him speak, and with ten minutes to go I convinced Brandi and Amanda to grab seats early so I was sure we wouldn’t miss him. Well, we certainly didn’t miss him… in fact, by showing up early we had plenty of time to say hello and chat with Bart himself!

P.S. He loved the shirts!

He was so friendly and easy to talk to! He shared a few anecdotes from his book and had great advice for us and everyone else in the crowd. Bart was truly inspiring to hear speak, especially when you read in his book all the things he has gone through in his life. I ran into him the next day after the race and made a point to thank him for the pre-race advice about the hilly first half of the race (who knew that Austin was so hilly?! Not me!). He immediately remembered me and my sisters’ story and congratulated me on my race.

I asked him to sign my book at the expo, and I love the quote he included: “Never limit where running can take you.”

What perfect words to live by for an adventurer like me!

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