CAN YOU SMELL IT?

Can you smell it? It's that time of year again - fall! That means two things; 1) cross country season and 2) marathons.

For the second year in a row I'm the Program Director and co-coach the Eastview Athletic Association's 3rd-6th grade program. It's hard to believe our season is almost over. We have our final meet tonight and then we have a final practice on Monday. We run a time trial at our second practice and another one at our final practice, which allows us to see how much the kids (hopefully) improve during the season.

Here's a photo of the troops this year. I decided to stray from the traditional Eastview colors of black, blue and white. I figured neon green and yellow would be more fun. A huge thanks to Adam and his crew at TCRC. As I told Adam, without his support the kids would be wearing cotton t-shirts and getting dum-dum suckers for rewards.

We were at a meet last Saturday for 5th and 6th graders and one of the girls on another team wore her iPod during the 1 mile race. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I thought it was a little sad that she couldn't "unplug" for 10 minutes.

It's TCM weekend here too. I'll be out there cheering for both the 10-mile and marathon. I'm thinking about heading to the Expo just to check things out - maybe take in the elite press conference. Good luck to all the racers.

A few posts ago I mentioned that Lauren Fleshman is my new favorite runner. Apparantly the folks at Runner's World took note of my post and contacted Lauren because she'll be on the next cover. Lauren's so pumped that she'll even sign your cover if you send it to her.

One of the things I like about Lauren's journal is how she talks about the mental side of the sport and the belief she has in herself. She's even gone so far as to create a Believe I am website with apparel and what looks to be a cool training diary.

Quote of the day;

"My natural tendency is to fill my cup to the point of overflowing. I’ll just keep on pouring it in until I flood the whole damn kitchen. I’ve been that way since high school when I was taking five honors classes alongside cross country and working at In-N-Out Burger. I’d like to blame my parents for this but they are reasonable, laid back people who were always telling me to “chill the F out.” Since becoming a pro runner, I’ve had to learn to be extremely choosy about what to pour in my cup (I no longer waste my efforts on things that I’m not passionate about like I did in high school). I don’t like to be busy for the sake of being busy, but alas, for me to be “fulfilled,” I need to be “full” and “filled”." - Lauren Fleshman