Olivenhain Cross Country Invitational

The Olivenhain Cross Country Invitational is a USA Track & Field certified cross country race specifically designed for kids 6-13 being held in Encinitas (Olivenhain) at the Meeting House off of Rancho Santa Fe Road on Saturday, August 31st.

The organizers are putting on 8 gender-separate races from 8am-10am (youngest kids run first). They will have free PowerBar product, free New Balance goodies, free professional photos for downloading, t-shirts for the top finishers, unique olive-themed awards for overall winners, and most importantly, the full professional cross-country experience for the kids (e.g. a fully-lined, "European-style", all-dirt, multi-loop course).

They will even have 50 cowbells for Mom and Dad to borrow and ring!  Plus "The Flash" will be leading the younger racers.  How cool is that?

Make it a family day by running in the morning and stopping by The Pancake House for brunch afterwards. The event itself is just $10 per kid!

This is a great opportunity for kids to experience a true cross-country race.  Please help the organizers achieve their goal of 200 entries, so that they can provide this event on an annual basis.

For further details, check out www.RunKids.org.

San Elijo Hills Running Club

Running with the lead dog

I played rugby for two years in college.  One year at Rutgers in New Jersey, one year at Exeter University in England.  I wasn't the most dedicated player and kept getting my ear ripped open, but the drinking kept me coming back.  One of the things that I always remembered about rugby was one of the coaches made us run with a Lead Dog.

The coach, a former USA Eagle, took the slowest guy on the team and put him in the front for our warm-up runs.  No one was allowed to pass the Lead Dog.  I always wondered, why pick the slowest guy?  Why not me?  One of the faster guys?  Eventually, I realized the coach wanted the slowest guy to be Lead Dog, so the warm-up didn't turn into a race.

I've recently had the good fortune to run with a few of my son's teammates on endurance runs.  I've incorporated the use of a Lead Dog on the runs.  The purpose is to keep the team together and prevent the slower players from trying to match the faster players.  On an endurance run, especially at age 12, it's not about how fast or how far you go.  It's more about how much time did you spend running.  On the runs, I only have one rule - don't pass the Lead Dog.

Respect the dog!

San Elijo Hills Running Club

Running with Encinitas Express

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to lead a few of the players from my son's soccer team, Encinitas Express, on a training run I call the Mini-Q (Questhaven) (http://app.strava.com/segments/4757566).  It's a 3.2 mile run on dirt trails with 440' of elevation gain.

While on the run, the first thing I noticed was all the boys had good form, with their feet landing on the front or mid sole - none of them were heel strikers.  The second thing was the ease in which they ran the route. When I was 12, I'm not sure I could have run it, let alone in 34 minutes.  If you want to find the next batch of cross-country runners, raid your local soccer club.

The last and most important thing I noticed, was their attitude.  The boys were not concerned about time, pace or mileage.  Rather, their primary concern was calling out all the horse and dog poo on the trails. Throughout the run, the boys cracked jokes, talked and had fun.  For example, after I told them how runners bump one another in track races, they began to elbow and push one another in a playful manner.

Next time you go for a run, run like a kid - you'll have more fun, which is what it's all about anyway.

San Elijo Hills Running Club

Running spirit animals and speeds

Cheetah - 71 mph
Panther - 71 mph
Tiger - 60 mph
Pronghorn - 57 mph
Springbok - 50 mph
Wildebeest - 50 mph
Blackbuck - 50 mph
Lion - 50 mph
Brown Hare - 48 mph
Red Fox - 48 mph
Gazelle - 47 mph
Greyhound - 46 mph
Rhino - 45 mph
Jackrabbit - 45 mph
Horse - 45 mph
Elk - 45 mph
African Wild Dog - 44 mph
Kangaroo - 44 mph
Onager - 43 mph
Gray Fox - 42 mph
Hyena - 40 mph
Zebra - 40 mph
Coyote - 40 mph
Mongolian Wild Ass - 40 mph
Whippet - 35 mph
Rabbit - 35 mph
Jackal - 35 mph
Reindeer - 32 mph
Giraffe - 32 mph
Grizzly Bear - 30 mph
Leopard - 30 mph
Cat - 30 mph
Wart hog - 30 mph
White-tailed deer - 30 mph
Human - 27 mph
Elephant - 25 mph
Gorilla - 25 mph
Panda - 20 mph
Squirrel - 12 mph
Chicken - 9 mph
Mouse - 8 mph

Running on a treadmill next to a noisy runner

I like running on the treadmill at the health club across the street from my work.  It gives me a reason to get up and drive to work super early.  There's a certain peace to the club in the early morning.  Not that many people are there.  Everyone is sorta of quiet, as they are all waking up.

I like the treadmill, because I can concentrate on one thing, speed.  The course never changes, there are no stop lights and I have to keep pace or I'll fly off the back.  I plug in a pace and I can just concentrate on running.

Another great thing about the treadmill, is that I can hear my footsteps.  Am I quiet?  Am I loud?  I try to have whisper feet, that just glide across the belt.  The quieter my steps, the more efficient I am.

However, there is one woman who runs regularly in the morning, who I will call Ms. Clomper.  Ms. Clomper overstrides and lands on her heels with noise so loud, you can hear her running on the floor below, 100 feet away.  Luckily, I wear headphones and can drown out a bit of the clomping, but I have the continued urge to give her advice.  I desperately want to tell her to shorten her stride, just a bit.

It's a bit like a Seinfeld episode, some people are "close talkers", she's a "noisy runner."  If I tell her she's a noisy runner, will she become self-conscious and stop running?  Will she tell the health club management that I'm harassing her?  Or will it just create a bad vibe, so that every time I see her, I'll feel uncomfortable.

For now, I'll do my best to keep my mouth shut and just run.

San Elijo Hills Running Club

Running Nicknames

I was looking on the internet for a list of nicknames for runners, but was only coming up with names in drips and drabs.  To remedy that, I've created the below list, in no particular order, of nicknames for runners.  I look at this as a work in progress and will attempt to add to it, as well as take suggestions in the comments section.


Galloping Ghost

Flash

Speedy Gonzalez

Roadrunner

Rocket

Jet

Turbo

Bolt

Flying Finn

Bullet

San Elijo Hills Running Club

Running on the boards

I’m on a stop and go journey of trying to become a better person. One of the reasons I run is to keep pushing myself towards that better person off in the distance.  I lack patience, get irritable and generally want people to behave in a manner that accords with my preset notion of how people should behave.  Unfortunately, not everyone subscribes to the Book of John.  However, when I run, as the miles tick by, I find I have more patience, my mood improves and I begin not to care or be bothered by how other people act.

This week I’m lucky enough to be on vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey.  Of interest, Ocean City is a dry town, where there are no bars or liquor stores and restaurants can’t serve alcohol.  If you want a beer, you have to drive over a bridge to Circle Liquors, pick up a six pack and drink it in your house.  Since it’s a dry town, it ends up being a town full of families.

The two big attractions in Ocean City are the beach and the 2 ½ mile wooden boardwalk which abuts the beach on one side.  On the other side of the boardwalk, for about 1 ½ miles, are t-shirt shops, pizza joints, miniature golf places, ice cream stores and the like.  For this mile and a half the boardwalk has bike lanes, surrey lanes, pedestrian lanes and lanes for runners going north and south.  The lanes are clearly labeled and marked.

 

However, not everyone stays in their designated lanes and others drift from east to west without looking to the north or south.  No big deal, right?  Just run around them.  For Mr. Irritable, it can be a big deal and as I begin my run, my mind is besieged with thoughts like, "Why can't people just stay in their lanes".  I lose my patience and struggle to hold my tongue.  

After five days of running the boards, I've managed to let go.  I just run.  If someone is walking at me in the "RUNNERS" lane, I run around them.  If someone walks in front of me without looking, I avoid them.  I've shut my monkey mind off and let the experience of being surrounded by runners, walkers and cyclists wash over me.  Of course, now that I've let go, its time to go home.

San Elijo Hills Running Club