Hello Everyone,

I was just thinking about what to write my next blog on and realized that I may be of most help to runners who are thinking of changing events or continuing to run after college or even high school. I myself was the type of athlete in high school track and field who covered many different events, many in the field and also spent a good deal of my running in college to figure out that I was probably most meant for; longer sprints/middle distance. Unfortunately there are many athletes who go through college and get stuck in an event or a series of events which they are not meant for, and give up their dreams of reaching their true potential. I want to therefore use this blog as a way to reflect on my striving to reach my full potential in the sport of track and field and the journey to that goal. 

I think without really writing a book, it would be best to reflect my collegiate experience and talk about what happened through my training at the end of it. Upon coming in to college my coaches were swayed by the fact that as a long jumper, I could run a 47 second split in the 4x4 and I spent my entire career in college as a longer sprinter, which I had great success in. Unfortunately during my time in college I never wanted to push it past the quarter and sprints because I was afraid of leaving my training group and my teammates in the sprint group who I had bonded with very strongly over my first few years. I think my coaches and I knew the whole time that I would be best suited for the 800. My last race in my collegiate career was a 4x4 at the NCAA Eat Regional, and I knew upon finishing that I didn't feel satisfied with my running. I felt like I still had a different gear to hit and that I was not going to hit it in sprints. I really felt that I needed to do what I could to continue running and change my approach to track. I took a year off and completed my master's and in that time I began training for the 800. 

I was very lucky to get a chance to see if I can reach my true potential now in Eugene with Team XO, but I know there are many runners out there who might give up on their dreams because they were pigeon holed into an event in college or figured that college was the end of it. I guess my advice to those runners is that if you feel like you have another gear, like I did, give yourself that chance to see what you can do. If it means taking a year or two after college and delaying a career, there really is no harm in that. Afterall regretting giving it up and never knowing how good you could have been is the one constant I hear all the time from trainers, coaches and many athletes who I have trained with over the years.

This year I am considered more or less of a project. I am lucky enough to follow in the footsteps and gain a lot of great insight from runners like Adam Steele and Matt Scherer who have begun the switch over to middle distance. I am also benefitting from the same coaching system that they do too. Seeing them go 1:49 and 1:47 respectively last year was a great boost to what I think I can do. Although they have much better PR's than I do in the 400, we are very similar in our pursuits in the conversion from sprint to distance. 

Moving out here to Eugene was probably one of the best decisions I ever could have made in terms of continuing running and there is not a day that goes by that I regret making the decision that I did. Granted with my degrees I could be going out and making a good deal of money right now and paying off loans, but this is a once in a lifetime chance that I could not pass up. It is almost like living a second life in track, living in a completely different climate and section of the United States and also working on a completely different training system. Compared to the 15 miles a week I was running over the course of 5-6 days a week in college, I have only missed three days of running since September 10th and am hitting between 45-55 miles a week here. 

I will speak more in future blogs to my time off and mentally restoring my confidence from my four years in college but for the first time in a long time, I feel very motivated and refreshed by my training. I hope you continue to stay tuned! Thanks for reading!