07.23.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:09 am by Diana
I must admit, I have been hesitant to post given all the thought-provoking and insightful posts of late. I haven’t had any deep thoughts about running lately. Perhaps this is due to the fact that what started out as a great trajectory of summer training was interrupted by a wedding and then a nasty cold. The recent heat wave certainly didn’t help my motivation to get back at it!
But, on to my thoughts about my new-found love for “strength” training. I started consistenly doing yoga this summer. I have always loved yoga, but it can get pricey and can be intimidating (have you ever seen someone do the Bird of Paradise pose?!). But, I can’t lie — the real precipitant was actually my wedding — who wants to have bad posture in a strapless dress? The strength and flexibility gained beyond that was just going to be icing on the cake.
I’ve discovered that although my legs are strong and my hips relatively open, there are back and shoulder muscles I didn’t know existed. I also realized I have a flexible lower back, which makes it all the more important to have a strong core (I need to find a way to make crunchies fun…). After yoga, I consistently wake up the morning after feeling like pulled taffy, which is much less comfortable to me than being really sore from a hard workout. But, overall I end up feeling stronger, more flexible, more centered.
I’m loving yoga as my “strength” training — and since I hate going to the gym, this is a step in the right direction! Hopefully my finances will allow me to continue my newfound love (second, of course, to running).
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07.14.08
Posted in Jeuland's Musings at 10:15 am by Marc
Greetings all, from Addis Ababa! What a relief it is to be back here again and out of the polluted air of Cairo. It is hard to run at altitude, but I think it’s even harder to run in the chaotic Egyptian metropolis. I was dragging myself out of bed at 5 am just to be able to breathe on the streets of Cairo, wondering what it was about running that I had ever liked. There are no soft surfaces in Cairo, the cars move along recklessly, and there is almost no greenery. And what greenery exists is all in private clubs or gardens. The largest of these has an annual membership fee of US$1000. Can you imagine living in a city where you had to pay that kind of money just to go into a park?
Since arriving here on Saturday, my mindset has completely changed. Running here is natural and part of the rhythm of life. Again, I go for a run first thing in the morning (though here it’s more like 6:15), and set off into the hills behind where I will stay for the week. The climbing is steep at times, but it is also possible to zig and zag one’s way up the slopes. During my first run, a slender, agile Ethiopian young man joined me and we began a pleasant conversation. Gudisa claims he’s 16 (though he looks older); he has PRs at altitude of 15:01 in the 5k and 31 and change in the 10k.
About 10 minutes into our run together, he started using one of those lines I often hear: “I have an American friend. Do you know….” This always annoys me because it’s expected that I would know every American who ever comes to Addis. But then he said the name; turns out he was a cross country runner at Swarthmore, my alma mater. We did not overlap at school, but he started the year after I graduated, and so I met him in alumni races and knew of him because I keep track of Swarthmore running. I almost tripped when he said that. It’s a funny coincidence.
In any case, he has joined me each morning since for my runs; we head off together up into the hills or to nearby forested areas. He tells me stories about people who have gotten eaten by hyenas in these hills and takes me to breathtaking views. We see loads of other runners also enjoying the morning air. It’s nice to not have to pay attention to where I am going, since he knows the area very well I can just focus on trying to keep up. He darts up the slopes, and has this incredible second gear that he likes to end the runs with. I am either way too old, or way too slow.
But there is also a sad side to this story. Gudisa is an orphan; his parents died in a car crash three years ago, leaving him and three sisters behind. Two of the sisters were adopted by an NGO and the third has been sponsored to go to Italy with an adoptive family, but Gudisa lives in a two-person rented apartment. His school fees are paid by the NGO and he dreams of better opportunities, mostly hoping that running will give him a future. He washes dishes in the hotel I am staying in in exchange for dinners twice a week. I think he does well in running competitions against other school kids and has won medals, but there are many 15 minute 5k guys her, even at the high school level.
Here’s a picture of Gudisa.
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07.09.08
Posted in Jeuland's Musings at 6:47 am by Marc
Greetings from Cairo everyone! I am looking forward to being back in Carrboro soon (July 18) after a short visit to Addis Ababa , but in the meantime, I thought this recent article from the New York Times was very interesting. Here’s my favorite quote from it:
“These athletes have hearts that make cardiologists gasp in awe, hearts that are among the biggest ever seen in healthy people. They are enormous, elongated, torpedo-shaped hearts, twice the mass of a normal heart, that draw blood in like a suction pump and push it out like a piston.”
I am a sorry I missed the Olympic Trials fun, but I did check the results periodically online. Looks like there were some interesting races and some expected and unexpected outcomes.
The air quality here in Cairo is lousy, especially at this time of year, so I have been finding it difficult to run. I will be looking to get back into it in a real way soon.
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07.03.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:50 pm by Victor
One of the hardest things to do in any sport is to earn the right to represent your country in the Olympics. Over the past couple of days I’ve been glued to the races on TV. Watching my former Tar Heel teammate’s punching their tickets to Beijing! Watching athletes dreams come true after years and years of training. Incredibly talented and determined humans like my very own coach. It is an incredible feeling to watch. Better than any Superbowl, NBA finals, or Euro 2008. This means more to me. My dream is to one day be amongst those fighting for a spot. A dream that all of us on CAC share with each other.
I can’t explain how jealous I am of those watching in person from the stands at Hayward Field! It’s been two days of rest for the athletes and spectators. Now I’m 10 min away from watching some more sweet races from Eugene!
GO USA!
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07.02.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:02 pm by Joan
While digging in the garden, I happened upon the perfect visualization/metaphor for when you know your racing season has come to an end. I was using a sharp, pointed shovel to really turn the earth and on one fierce downward thrust, I unintentionally chopped off the tail of a blue skink (lizard). The tail-less lizard skittered off, while - to my utter surprise and disgust (?) - the lizard’s tail squirmed a flopped around of its own volition for quite some time. Now, what does this have to do with the season’s end? As I was watching this grisly scene, I thought of Asher at his high school nationals race and of Brent tacking on his marathon at the end of track season. Both runners were like the tail still going after the season had been cut off. Asher managed to eek out an 800m and a 400m PR at the local all-comers meets, well after his regular high school season had finished up, but hanging onto intensity for a mile against the best freshmen in the nation was a too-tall order. And Brent, bravely jacking his mileage up for 5 weeks after his 10,000m PR at Penn Relays way back in April, must have known it was a long-shot to race a fast marathon. He went for it though, as did Asher, and THAT is what each of these athletes should take away from this season. Yeah, they flopped around in the end - like the skink’s tail - but they were still going, still striving, still fighting for their dreams.
Now, here’s my question … will that tail ever grow back?
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