Bison Open

On January 28th, the Juggernauts and I traveled to Bucknell for the Bison Open. Anthony Coglianese ran the mile (5:44.69). It was his first race of the season, he did well, it was a minute PR from last year. He went out at a solid pace, but got stuck in no man's land for a bit, but he was able to regroup with three laps to go and get himself going again.

In the 3000, Rick Koubek (9:20.00), Matt Kisenwether (9:37.63), Ian McLaren (9:50.68), Alex Krichels (10:29.05), and Collin Love (10:54.84) ran solid races. Rick, Matt, and Ian all established new PRs. I feel we were prepared PHYSICALLY to run faster, but MENTALLY we were not. I think it was a great learning experience. I take the blame for not having them mentally prepared. Physically we are extremely fit. We just need to add the mental portion, and we will see some significant time drops. I might have had some of them in the wrong heats based on my time projections, but I truly feel we are capable of those times. We will go after those times again in two weeks. We will be ready physically and mentally.

The first time, we went to Bucknell we raced right away, but this time, we were down there early for the mile, and sat around for most of the day for the 3k. I think the down time made us a little stiff. Also, I think we expected the times to come, and we didn't go after them. Once we get back into constant attack mode, we will be heading in the right direction. We have a big week of workouts, so I think they will add an big confidence boost. Only the time will tell.

I will add the video footage of the meet later. Sorry for the delay.

Liz Costello's Big Win

Yesterday Liz Costello won the high school Invitational Mile Section at the New Balance Games at the New York Armory. She now has the one of the top times in the nation with her 4:56.09 effort yesterday. She beat one the favorites, Katie Doswell, over the last lap. Another impressive feat was that she lead for most of the race. Costello has had a phenomenal senior year. She was the PIAA AAA State Champion in XC. She was third in the Mid-East Championships. She followed up that performance with a sixth place finish at the Footlocker Northeast Regional which qualified her for the national meet where she finished 21st. It has been a great ear for her. And it looks like it will her continue. Her victory yesterday qualified her to run at the Millrose Games. Yes the same place where Quenton Cassidy won the Wannamaker Mile.

But to really look at Costello's performance, we need to look deeper into the story. We need to look at who came before her. The ones who helped pave the way for her to be a star miler in Pennsylvania. Luckily living in Trenchtown, and coaching the Juggernauts, I found out who the first PA State Champ in the mile was, Liz Kisenwether (nee Cunningham). Her son, Matt Kisenwether, runs for the Juggernauts. Coach Groves said the he, Terry (owner of Rapid Transit), and a few others would run with Liz when she was in high school. Her junior year was the first year they let women run the mile at the state meet, and she took the rest of the state by storm, winning the first ever mile state title for women. Liz would continue running, and would later earn All-America honors while at Penn State. She stills runs in local road races now, and also in collaboration with Greg Fredericks organizes local youth cross country races. I will try to get interviews with both of them for the interview series. But I just wanted to give a little perspective on how one Liz (Kisenwether, nee Cunningham) helped pave the way for another Liz (Costello) to pursue her dreams and achieve her goals in her running career.

Bob Kennedy Retires

Bob Kennedy, one of America's greatest runners, retired on Friday, January 20. Kennedy holds American records in 5,000 meters (12:58.21 in 1996) and 3,000 meters (7:30.84 in 1998). He has had a storybook career. Bob Kennedy was 3rd as junior in 1986 and won the high school XC champion as a senior in 1987 when it was still the Kinney National Championship. Then in his Freshman year of college he won the NCAA XC title. He would win again as a senior. He won four NCAA titles altogether (cross country in 1988 and 1992, 1,500 in 1990, indoor mile in 1991).

I still remember watching him take the lead in the 5k at the 1996 Olympics and cheering for him to hold on. At the Day of Distance Clinic I attended at Villanova where he was the keynote speaker, he said his race plan was to take the lead and push the pace with 4 laps to go if the pace was slow, two laps to go if the pace was fast. It was in between, and in hindsight he felt should have went at 3 laps to go, but he went at about 2.5 laps to go. Just goes to show you, how much 200 meters can affect you.

Kennedy was a fierce competitor, and helped to bridge the gap from Africans to non-Africans in the race results. He admitted the fact that he regularly trained with them, helped to give him the confidence to race with them. And once he began training with them, he understood they were just like him in the fact they trained extremely hard and wanted to win very badly.

It was always a joy to watch him compete. He has done a great deal for the sport, and I am sure he will continue to be an ambassador for it as well. He has a left a very large pair of shoes to fill, but there are many young US stars able to complete the task. So thanks for the memories Bob Kennedy.

Interview Series is (re)Born

Well the Run Like a Champion Interview Series is born. It will be run concurrently with the Nittany Spiked Shoe Club Interview Series. The goal is to give people an insider look at some of the current top athletes in track and field, and some from yesteryear. It helps people to see what people once did to get to the top, and what people are doing now. Everyone has used different training philosophies to reach the top, but their extraordinary work ethic and passion is the same. The athletes wanted to get the most out of their ability and they all did. The sport has taught them all important lessons such as work hard and your dreams will come. I hope that you enjoy the series, and it inspires you and gives you insight on how you can accomplish your goals, not just in running, but in everything you do.

Nittany Valley Running Club Indoor Mile Series

I went to the Penn State Relays this morning. As an added feature to the meet, the Nittany Valley Running Club hosts an open mile before the relay events get under way. They have a whole series for the miles, with a time prediction contest included. I believe there are four races in the series, and the one race has a 3000m as well.

There were two heats for the race, and many storylines. Ian McLaren won the first heat. He ran 4:54. Andy Mazur blazed to 5:15. His Dad, Marty, ran 6:13. The bet was that Andy had to beat his Dad by 45 seconds. They were in different heats. Marty guaranteed me that his time will continue to drop throughout the series, and hopefully will go sub-6 by the end of the series. In Heat 2, my camera battery died as the bell was rung for the last lap. So I apologize for that.

It was a great to start to the meet. Everyone was very competitive. It will be interesting to see how the series goes. Hopefully everyone's times will continue dropping.

State College Area Meet Video

Here is the video from the 3000m (26 MB) at the State College Area Indoor Meet on January 5th. There is no video of the mile as previously stated. Well there is video, but it is in pieces and all over the place.

Glory Road

I saw Glory Road tonight. Excellent movie. I highly recommend it. The movie got off to a great start, as I saw the legendary John "Ian" Hahn. It had been a long time, but it was good to catch up. It was a fitting way to start ending the week.

It has been a great week. Practice has went well. The Alex and Tom Novack rebounded on Thursday from their sluggish Tuesday session to have a great workout. The Juggernauts got some needed rest from their race last weekend, and had a great Thursday workout. Things are looking very bright for the race on the January 28th. Work went well, I got a lot of things done, but I was sick on Friday, so I will need to catch up on Monday. My contract work is going well also. So things are on the upswing, and 2006 is starting off very well.

Matt Groves has given me video of State College Area Meet. I will be posting that online. It will be of his 3000m victory, and Josh Gainer's wire-to-wire win in the mile.

Matt Kisenwether and Rick Koubek have added to their goals of qualifying for indoor nationals. They added to make Dyestat Elite in the 3000m. The cutoff is 8:55. That is within their grasp. The next meet, the Bison Open, will be very exciting.

And today is the Nittany Valley Running Club Indoor Mile Series before the Penn State Relays. Ian is running the mile. I'll have a report after the race. He should do very well.

Gulden Relays

Well yesterday I attended the Gulden Relays with the Juggernauts who are not running for the State College Indoor Team. It was a great meet.

Rick Koubek, Matt Kisenwether, Alex Krichels, and Collin Love ran the 3000m, and Ian McLaren ran the mile. The guys raced extremely well from a competitive and time standpoint. Their results are listed below.

Rick Koubek - 9:20.11
Matt Kisenwether - 9:56.14
Alex Krichels - 10:16.56
Collin Love - 10:48.01
Ian McLaren - 4:53.74

To figure out their 2 mile times, add 40 seconds to their 3k time. Anthony Conglianese filmed the meet for us. The videos for the 3000m (42 MB) and mile (19 MB) are posted on the Run Like A Champion web site.

Rick broke the State College Indoor Track Junior Record for the 3000m with his effort. Everyone raced well. Collin and Alex previously had prs of 12 minutes in the 2 mile, with yesterday's efforts and conversion, they changed their hierarchy in the black and white numerics, by establishing new prs of 11:28 and 10:56 (converted) respectively.

Last year at the State College Area Indoor meet, Rick ran 9:57.8 and Matt ran 10:00, which is roughly a year from yesterday's meet. And their prs last year were 9:45 (Matt) and 9:46 (Rick), so we are way ahead of the ball game right now.

Ian returned to the indoor track scene after a three year hiatus and ran the mile. His race was scheduled for 3:55 PM, but the meet got ahead of schedule, and he raced at about 3:35. The shortened warm up time had some affect on his race, as he did not feel properly warmed up. He ran 4:53. It is a good start, and once he gets the kinks out he will be ready to roll.

Everything is going well. We will probably go back to Bucknell on January 28th for the Bison Open. Things are started to heat up. We will move to the next phase of our training next week. It should bring further time drops. We are still going after the national qualifying standards. I will keep everyone posted on our quest. Operation Primo Gravy Train is moving onward and upward.

Orange Bowl and more

Well it has been a while since my last post. I apologize for that. But I will have another post later today. Penn State won the Orange Bowl in dramatic fashion, their first BCS Bowl victory. The game went to 3OTs. All the BCS Bowl games were great to watch. And It was good to see the Big Ten shine in two of them, with Ohio State beating Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

I was at the State College Area Indoor Meet on Thursday. Coach Groves and I had a great conversation throughout the meet. There were some solid performances. Rebecca Donaghue continues to have her girls run well. Katherine Ward walked away with the mile in 5:16, and Edel Crowe thrashed the field in the 3000m. Edel was 4th overall in the combined boys and girls race. Impressive run for Coach Donaghue's Brigade. She has a great set of frontrunners in Katherine and Edel.

Josh Gainer won the mile in 4:37 going wire to wire, Paul Kernfeld was 2nd in 4:46. Matt Groves lapped the entire field in the 3000m in his 9:48 victory run. Peter Wandell was second to Zack Epple in the 800. And the 4x8 won again. In talking with Matt Groves last night, he informed that Josh Gainer and him went 1-2 respectively at the Lebanon Valley Invitational 800 in 2:08 and 2:09. And they were victorious again in the 4x800. I believe that is their 3rd victory in three tries. Very impressive for the young lads. Hopefully in the upcoming meets they will be able to get some more competition, so they can get their National Qualifier (8:12). Good Luck to them in their efforts. The General is watching.