I’ll first quote my old Houston homey and Olympic Marathoner Sean Wade who posited yesterday: “Celebrated national running day by taking a zero for the day ’cause I run every other day of the year.”
Sean led the first 7 miles of the 1996 Olympic Marathon. Exterior hard as steel, heart of gold. His Kenyan Way training group in Houston has grown into the hundreds.
And second quote from my even older buddy Andre Lejeune: “Representing my former college teammate and running mentor’s Team Nebraska on National Running Day…”
Andre competes for the New York Central Park Track Club. We were mates at Lamar University (Pecker Tech) in 1987-88. He’ll be getting his Nebraska Run Guru Elite singlet soon!
High water mark for Wednesday Night Track Work? I think maybe so. One of the benefits of a more intimate group is the individualized attention the athletes are receiving. To wit: I’ve been training Kyle Clouston (the most anonymous Team Nebraska runner?) for his assault on a sub 5:00 mile at next month’s Lincoln Mile. After last weekend’s 9:35 3K I knew he was ready. Mentioned before but worth a repeat, Kyle is ultimately training up for the 100 Mile National Road Championships. I informed him his workout was a 1 Mile time trial. Good warm up and then switch into racing flats, BAM! 4:59 and a new lifetime personal best. Solo effort, I’m anxious to see what he does with some Real Competition! We discussed one of Kyle’s role models, an individual that has demonstrated great range and talent- Jason Zakaras.
And just as impressive was Jennifer Greer. She’s mainly a trail aficionado with the Dizzy Goat 6 hour run her next up. She has kicked things up a notch by focusing on some speed to go with her distance acumen. Jennifer was running ~10:00 miles when she started showing up early this spring. The result of the last many weeks? To quote her, “When your track coach tells you that he’s got something special, “Just for you!” – you’d better believe you’re going to be working your butt off. New 3-mile PR tonight: 7:59 pace.”
Linda’s Kids Fit Program, sponsored by Gretna Family Health, also had a great turnout, the perfect weather just the thing for the little kiddos.
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