Palin Interview

A couple fun articles I found on RW this morning. First one details a runner I ran against in high school, Zac Freudenburg, finishing 2nd in the USA Mountain Running Championships this week. I raced with Zac a few times this year, and he won every race but the St. Patrick's Day 5 miler where he got outkicked at the end and finished runner up. Zac is an amazing runner, and qualified for the U.S. Olympics Marathon Trials in 2007 when I ran NYC so got to see him run then. Exciting times for an amazing runner! Also in this article details the U.S. Men's Marathon Championship will be held in conjunction with the NYC Marathon this year. Great news, but will probably pull a lot of the elite men over to NYC this fall so a little bummed out for selfish reasons :)

Next article details my former employer, Governor Sarah Palin, in an article talking about her passions about running. Pretty interesting stuff, and this is my favorite question/answer from this interview:

Q: Is running nonpartisan?
A: Oh, thank God, it's nonpartisan. It doesn't matter your background, your demographics, your race, your political affiliation, it's such a uniting, healthy, fun, awesome activity. It cracks me up going to some running event and seeing some dude who campaigned so hard against me, or a lady who's been blogging some mean comments about me. But we're all there together and we're smiling and we're having a good time because we're going to do something healthy and active. We need more of that. That's what sports are able to do. It's a wonderful kind of diversion from the divisiveness that is politics or that is life. And my parents, they've got so many friends from so many different political bents because of all their years participating in races and organizing races. I was lucky enough to have been brought up in that atmosphere where I see the value in that.

Running this week has gone ok - went to the Cardinals game on Monday night, which was completed ridiculously fast due to the Cardinals getting absolutely smoked by reigning Cy Young Award Winner Tim Lincecum (10-0, game took 2 hours and 6 minutes!). Got home early, squeezed in a quick 2. Legs were a bit tired from the Sunday late run, so went pretty easy. Last night, Crystal and I hit up our last track work before the Macklind Mile. Weather was absolutely gorgeous - 70's, cool and a bit breezy. I think we are being rewarded for crappy June weather with an absolutely amazing holiday week weather - I will run every night in this! Stole this workout from my running team leader - 3X(400,300,200) with 200 meter jog after 400, 100 meter jog after 300, and 3-5 minute breaks in between sets. Did long warmup (had just woken up from a nap), and away we went. First set felt ok - definitely groggy and tight, and went out faster than I would have liked. Got into a better groove on the 2nd set, was on the outside lane so worked a little harder. On the final turn coming in, ran into a couple girls hogging the inside lane, and avoided what would have been a nasty collision. I have said this before and will say this again - if you are using a track, be sure to use proper track etiquette and give up the faster lanes if there are people faster than you running! Last set, picked it up just a little, stride/turnover felt great. Missed the last 200 split by a couple seconds, but didn't put in 100% effort either - just wanted to feel acclimated to running low 5 minute pace. Legs had that leadened feeling, but probably from residuals from Sunday's hard run. Quick cooldown, went to Pat and Crystal's afterwards for some post-workout beers and ping pong. Total mileage: 4.5 - splits were (don't have my watch onhand, but pretty sure these are accurate): 79, 59, 38, 78, 58, 37, 75, 58, 38.

Tonight, easy mileage and corework, going to get legs back to good condition in prep for this weekend! A couple photos below from the golf tournament last weekend: