"In This Great Future You Can't Forget Your Past"

When I look back on my collegiate running career at Michigan the word that comes to mind is tumultuous.  My first 3 years were injury riddled and marked by more failure than success.  Thankfully, as the Michigan program transitioned to coach Alex Gibby, I went through my own transformation.  With coach Gibby's help I returned to relevancy during my final 2 years of college.  With a final push in a Michigan singlet I resurrected my career and capped it off with a Big 10 title, an NCAA runner-up finish, and an Olympic Trials steeplechase final effort. Thanks to these performances it was an easy choice to continue running. 

Now it was time to decided where to continue running.  I could move back to my first love, New Jersey, but staying focused there is like being a kid in a candy store. So I took coach Gibby up on his offer for me to train under him in Ann Arbor.  This was not an easy choice seeing as I had never really felt at home at Michigan.  That being said, coach Gibby and I were really clicking and so I stayed and had a pretty good year on the professional circuit doing road and cross country races. During track I battled through injury to salvage an 8th place at USA's in the 3k steeple. In the end it was clear to me I had to find a happier home with more support and structure.

I decided to give a call to coach Robert Gary and coach Chris Neal to see if they were interested in having me be a part of Furman Elite.  After coming on a visit and hearing about all the great aspects of being a part of the group I was sold.  Now here I am living along side some supreme talent from across the country, and globe.  Furman Elite feels like the home I have been looking for all these years.  Being a post-collegiate runner is hard, but having people around me that are in the same situation has so many advantages.  I am confident we will all succeed here and that I will be happy for the long term.  I have great teammates, an insightful and motivated coach, as well as the support to live and train without a "real job."

I wouldn't have gotten this far without so many people believing what I am doing is meaningful.  And now I have Furman Elite to thank for this next phase in my career, one that will be lengen...wait for it....dary!

-Craig

I've got a good feeling about this.

As a collegian, nothing quite lived up to the feeling of my first ACC title. Crossing that finish line first not only validated all the hard work I'd put in- it raised the bar for the rest of my career. It made me truly believe that I was one of the best. It felt amazing. To make it even better, I won that race on my home track in front of our awesome fans at Virginia Tech's Rector Fieldhouse. My friends and teammates lined the outside of the track urging me on. My mom, though she nearly fainted, got to see my special moment up close. 

Two months later at the Virginia Tech Sports Banquet, a highlight video closed the ceremony. Included was a clip showing the last 50 meters of my ACC Mile title and my celebration with my coach afterward. I sat in a room with my fellow student-athletes, coaches, and faculty members watching the biggest win of my career on a giant projector screen. To say I was elated would be a strong understatement. It was truly an incredible moment I will cherish for the rest of my life. 

That moment, along with several other facets of collegiate athletics, made my decision to pursue professional track and field difficult. The thought of possibly never experiencing such jubilation made me view post-collegiate competition with less excitement than I had hoped. 

This past weekend, Furman President Dr. Carl Kohrt hosted Furman Elite, the Furman men's and women's cross country teams, and several contributors to the programs for dinner and a short presentation. At the conclusion of this wonderful evening, a video chronicling Furman Elite's journey to the U.S. Championships this summer played on the projector. As I watched my teammates have their hard work and accomplishments displayed for the audience, my thoughts drifted back to my time at Tech. I began to wonder if perhaps my doubt in post-collegiate athletics was misplaced- maybe that same excitement can be recreated, even one-upped. Perhaps this special environment here at Furman can produce that cohesiveness that filled college running with such wonder. And with that, I leaned back in my chair and smiled, content with where I was and ecstatic about the things to come. 

In the end, I know that this is insignificant. We're aiming for big things down here at Furman Elite. Certainly much bigger things than seeing ourselves on a big screen. But that night showed me that I'm in a truly special place. One where my accomplishments won't go unnoticed. Where I can step on the starting line and know I have a whole community urging me on. Where my efforts will be multiplied by my teammates to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts. And that's all pretty damn good. 

-Michael

Newbie Post #1

Furman Elite:

Furman Elite is back in action! After a summer of travel, adventure, and racing, the current 10-person roster is back in Greenville and gearing up for a jam-packed 2014 season. With six returners and 4 newbies, Furman Elite 2.0 is already hitting the trails and ready to roll!

The original Elite-- Nicole Bush, Heidi Gregson, Jeff See, Corey Leslie, Jack Bolas, and Lee Gilmer-- are joined by steeplechasers Wilkerson Given, Craig Forys, Stephanie Garcia, and 1500m stud Michael Hammond. Over the next few weeks, the new faces will introduce themselves to you (be prepared-- this blog is going to blow up with content!), but for now, a brief overview.

Wilkerson Given is a Furman University grad and known to the Elite as the blonde-haired, blue-eyed heart breaker. He's a strong, silent type, but under the Elite training, he's destined for steeplechase greatness. 

Craig Forys is a Michigan grad, a Georgia football fan, and owner of the cutest dimples you'll ever see. His quest for steeple success is going to thrive under Furman coach Robert Gary and alongside training partner Corey Leslie! 

Stephanie Garcia, 2011 University of Virginia grad and New Balance athlete comes to Furman ready to re-embrace the elite lifestyle. After a stint in Tennessee and in the Midwest, this wanna-be Southern belle is already thriving on South Carolina soil. The female triumvirate in Furman Elite is poised to take the world by storm!

And last, but certainly not least (although he's a Virginia Tech grad), Michael Hammond is already beloved in the Greenville commenty (he works at Fleet Feet-- swing by and say hello!). He comes to Furman with arguably the most potential of the new crop o'athletes, a sweetheart smile, and a championship attitude. 

The infusion of new blood into Furman Elite is exhilarating and exciting… from a newbie's perspective, at least. The prospect of creating one of the most dominant training groups in the country-- all thanks, of course, to the generosity of the University and its supporters and the prowess of Robert Gary-- is over-the-top thrilling and the prospect to send multiple members of the group to represent the USA in world championships and major competitions is surreal. We're all ready to put in the work, the hours, the passion, and the dedication to make Furman Elite the most successful group of post-collegiate athletes in the world… time to get to work! 

love,

stephanie marie

Mama Kitty in Des Moines

This blog post is taking form somewhere between Des Moines and Atlanta. Once we land we will have one more short flight to Greenville then its off to the Vinings to run into the arms (paws?) of my kitties. Leaving them at home this week was tough, but my mama kitty duties were needed elsewhere…

It’s been a very tiring and emotional week, and not just for the Americans who competed at USAs, but for me as well! This is not because Aussies are soft as Coach Gary may like to suggest from time to time, but rather because being a ‘helper’ aka ‘slave’ for four wound-up, anxiety driven runners during competition week is tough. Despite being on a down week and only putting together 40 something miles, my time was exhausted with the role as videographer and making sure Jack was handed his water bottle on demand.

Now that I’ve mentioned Jack, I also want to mention a quote from him at USAs that really stuck with me. We were sitting in the stands waiting for Nicole to start her final and he said, “The last couple of years after leaving Wisconsin, I really missed the feeling of being genuinely invested in the races of my teammates. It feels good to be able to have that feeling again with Furman Elite.” Nine minutes and 44 seconds later we were up on our feet together and so proud to have one of our athletes become a US National Champion!

This is what happens when you join Furman Elite. Just when you think it was an individual sport you were pursuing, you realize that you are so emotionally involved in the races of your teammates that no matter what the results – good or bad – you are affected. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a “crier” (although my boyfriend might disagree), however watching the races by Furman Elite brought me to tears on more than just one occasion. Luckily for me no one noticed in the stands as it was 1000 degrees out and I was dripping in sweat from head to toe.

Although the week in Des Moines had some extreme highs and some extreme lows, I have come to realize the amount of support that exists between everyone in this group. Despite the heartbreak and disappointment that comes along with this sport, there is also so much tenacity that exists in its athletes.

I am very proud of Nicole ‘badass over achieving bag lady’ Bush, Jeff ‘boyfy with short femurs’ See, Jack ‘panera lovin’ princess’ Bolas, and Cory ‘looks damn fine in Nike blue’ Leslie. All are incredibly talented and dedicated athletes, and I can’t wait to see their hard work pay off as they race around Europe.

Much better things to come.

Meow.

You Don't Know... Bolas

Part III: Final Prep

Femezy seems to have already dropped a solid preview of USA Champs for everyone, which, in all honesty, should have been my responsibility as the meet kicks off this week. Who would've thought this blogging would become a means for tension within our group--people stealing ideas, calling one another names (not super pumped about the one currently trying to be coined for me), comparing individual blog views. Seeing as how our audience is aware of the looming races, those that are essentially the pinnacle of our season, I will indulge you in some of the prep that has taken place over the last couple weeks leading into USAs.

We finished up our final ‘complete’ (involving 3 workouts and a long run) week of training two weeks ago before heading to Indianapolis for a couple of tune-up races. Indy gave us a chance to further prep for USAs, working on race tactics and dropping down in distance to find some closiing speed. At this point in the season, the mentality might be one of achieving near-perfection. By that, I mean you want every workout, every core session, and every race to feel money, to be spot-on. The physical strength continues to progress, but it’s just as important to gain some confidence in the days leading up to USAs, feed off the positive energy you get from a great workout, race, etc. Thus, our preparation heading into the US Champs may be a bit more disciplined and exact. Certainly, due to my “nervous nellie”-like personality, I overthink this whole process, these last few weeks before USAs. Needless to say, I’m all about stressing recovery and fully take to heart the idea of tapering--cutting back on overall workload, while, as Coach Gary enforces, making sure all of the little things are maintained and performed even crisper, with more diligence. The warm-up and cooldown drills, the physical therapy, the core work, those ancillary activities that supplement our actual miles all season. So even while tapering, we maintain our routine, a structured system meant to squeeze out every little half-second of potential.

I have found that running, racing in particular, is all about momentum. We train to build physical fitness and we race to then test that fitness, usually against others.. But just as important is the drive to build momentum from one session to the next, from one race to another. Progress, success, whether you measure it with a killer track workout or race victory, feeds that mental well that we continuously draw from each time we toe the line. There are hiccups along the way, workouts where you don’t hit the times, a race that didn’t go as planned. But that’s in the job description. The best athletes (and hopefully this includes the members of Furman Elite) find a way to bounce back from a let-down and work to generate momentum once again. I’ve always felt the only cure for a bad race, or bad workout, is simply another race. So, at this point in the season, now two days out from the 1st round of the 1500m, I crave that momentum we’ve worked all season to build. The physical work has been done. It’s in the bank. The final piece lies in the mental preparation, the confidence in the training, the momentum we’ve established.

Femezy Round 2

Wow, it seems the name game has really vaulted to new heights since my latest post. I'll update you with a few that I've deemed worthy momentarily. But first, an update on the season as we approach the US Champs.

We're 10 days out from the first day of the meet of the year and everyone is getting their ducks in a row. The spring has brought us several great performances, none of which were mine personally but nevertheless, they were great. Heidi, being Australian, will unfortunately miss out on the opportunity to compete at our nation's biggest race, so I'll get her "progress" out of the way so we can then focus on the Red White and Blue.

Heidi came to Furman looking for a change and a chance to really hone her focus on training, and it's shown. She's set 3 PRs and an Australian national record in 4 of her 5 races this spring. She will be focusing her efforts toward this Wednesdays' meet in Indianapolis to cap off a great block of races and then its a long summer of kitty-cuddling before she re-emerges in August for the Falmouth Mile.

So anyway, back to us, or US (elbow nudge). We have 4 athletes qualified for the US Championships that take place next week in Des Moines, Iowa. We have two steeplechasers, Nicole and Cory, and two in the 1500m, myself and the Jack.

Nicole's progress since January has been equivalent to that of the butterfly. It started out slow, like ridiculously slow and lethargic in the worst way. But as the weather warmed and the sun shined the Bag Lady emerged as a deadly and poisonous threat in the women's steeplechase (butterflies are venomous right?). Nicole is one of only a handful of women who've shown the capacity to dip under 9:40, look for her to be in the mix with 6 other women for the top 3 on Saturday the 22nd at 4:20 pm.

Jack's been here before, a 7th place finisher in 2010, Jack knows the ropes of championship races and has, in this writer's opinion, never been one to count out. One thing I've learned from training with Jack is that in his preparations he's very particular. His anxiety is soothed by efficient planning so Jack likes things his way. We will make every effort to accommodate "Princess Jacqueline" (That's from Heidi) so that we can assure a strong performance next week. The men's 1500m is a strong field as usual, but Jack's been progressing nicely, he'll be in the mix. Round 1 is Thursday at 5 pm with the final on Saturday at 5:50 pm.

Cory heads in to the Championships with the number 2 time in the country. Showing huge improvements last year, Cory worked his way into the final at the Olympic Trials, finishing 9th. Having graduated from The Ohio State University last spring, Leslie is no longer bound by the rigorous curriculum of a state-school communications major. This has translated to an estimated 100,000 hours of extra nap time, which in turn has translated to a new level of fitness. Cory's shown no sign of slowing down and has been crushing his latest workouts. His final will be on Sunday the 23rd at 3:55 pm where he'll be one of only 3 men with the A-standard.

And as for me.... Game of Thrones season finale is about to start so you'll have to tune in to NBC Sports at 5:40 pm on Saturday the 22nd to see what happens. Editor's Note: Can you believe what happened in the last GoT episode??? OMG.

And now, back to the nicknames given to me over the last couple of weeks:
The Librarian - From Nicole after having moved roughly half of her 10,000 lb. book collection up 4 flights of stairs.
Sledgehammer - From Cory after burying him in mile repeats last week.
Perfect Angel Bunny-Dove - <Private>
Captain - From everyone, always.
Big Thunder - From Coach after I ripped through a filthy quarter workout.

TKO

It took me a while to write this post; it’s hard to write consecutive blogs about disappointment, but sidestepping it or ignoring it outright seemed wrongheaded, so I’ve given it some thought and revisited what I originally wrote last week. Before I do, I should mention that I can’t wait to watch Furman Elite chase some standards at Indy tomorrow before taking on the nation’s best at the USATF Championships, and I wish that I were able to join them on their road to Des Moines and hopefully to Moscow.  It’s been a privilege to train with such motivated and accomplished athletes.Here's my account of June 1st and 2nd.

  

I lay in an unfamiliar bed watching the digital clock shift shapes in the early hours of the morning, the diodes blinking like an insomniac’s distress beacon presaging the depression sure to dawn beyond the coming sunrise. Though motionless, my heart thumped away, burning a potent blend of caffeine and anxiety that fueled the racing thoughts keeping me awake. Casting a grimace to the ceiling, I hoped that I might forget that the time read 3:54, the closest I’d come to seeing sub-4 all season, a season coming to an abrupt and unceremonious end.

Some performances are simply so awful that everything starts to acquire an air of unreality, the time and place on a results sheet only comprehensible through contortions of dream logic. They are the shadows at the edge of a runner’s mind, the ugliest manifestations of failure, and they covered the Vanderbilt track that late Saturday night in Nashville.  It was all I could do to limp through the line in a woeful 4:11, but it might as well have been an eternity over those four excruciating laps.  

              

            I cooled down along the downtown perimeter, peering out of my wreckage toward the bright skyline and wondering, like so many before me, what had gone so horribly wrong; Nashville is the place where dreams are made, but no one likes to talk about the legion of faltering voices and broken strings lighting out on I-40 or burning out in dive bars. As I continued my patrol, I couldn’t stop ruminating on a bar fight from a novel I read recently, William Gay’s The Long Home, where we find the young protagonist reeling from a beating at the hands of the sinister proprietor’s bouncer: 

“Mark him up a little. Mess them smooth jaws up,” Hardin said.
“Then let him get up,” Jiminiz said. “I don’t like hittin’ a man already down, and I don’t like hittin’ a man already out on his feet and don’t know when he’s whipped.”
“He’ll get up,” Hardin said contemptuously. “You couldn’t keep him down with a logchain. He ain’t got sense enough to lay down and quit.”

“You getting’ up or stayin’ down?” Jiminiz asked.
The price he paid was dear, but Nathan got up.

            I  can now say without a doubt that there were times when I shouldn’t have gotten back up this year. I took a pummeling and hid my wounds pretty well—unfortunately, overtraining is bloodless, and you’re the only one who can call the fight. I paid dearly for my pride, and now instead of blazing through the most competitive month of the post-collegiate season, I’m taking my weeks off to regroup and reassess, to learn the painful lessons that sometimes only self-inflicted wounds can teach.

But I have more than just the scars. Uninjured and in by far the best shape of my life, I made it over 250 days without missing a run, and, for good or ill, completed workouts I never thought imaginable; I can breathe easy for a few weeks, catch up on LSAT prep, reading, concerts and fishing. Sometimes it takes getting your ass kicked to find out how much something means to you. You learn the most from the fights you lose, and I intend to come back swinging in the fall.

                Sincerely,

                Lee