Running Celebrities

So since I got some heat at practice about not updating our blog in a while, I felt obligated to put something really good up. I have two short videos that I would like to share. The first video is of last year's Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in New York City. For those of you who don't know, the Millrose Games is the longest running indoor track meet in the world (almost positive). I was lucky enough to go watch my Junior year of college. It attracts Professional athletes as well as college and high school athletes. The Millrose Games are coming up in a few weeks so that is one of the reasons why I chose this video. The second reason is because of the man who wins. His name is Bernard Lagat and is arguably one of the best middistance runners in the world. My freshman year of college, I went to Manhattan College before transferring to Marist. It was a couple weeks before the Millrose Games and we had one of the few tracks in New York City. I showed up for an early practice with some of the other guys and there he was standing at the far end of the track. We kind of looked at him in awe and then we finally asked him if he wanted to run with us and he agreed. There were only 4 of us and we went on a 6 mile run of Van Cortland Park and it's something I will never forget. He was one of the most humble and nicest persons I've met. The video is of his record breaking 7th win at the Millrose Games and it was quite a race. If you ever have the chance to check out the Millrose Games, I highly recommend it. The second video is of Shalane Flanagan. She won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in the 10,000 meters. She most recently set a course record at the Houston Half Marathon and this is a clip of the finish. I put this up here for two reasons. The first, she is definitely one of the best American Distance runners out there. The second, I had the chance to run with her at Green Mountain Running Camp. Many are familiar with Green Mountain since you have been going there. Well my last year of camp she was my group leader. And yes, I made sure I was running next to her the whole time but I was just a high schooler trying to impress. At the time, she was running at the University of North Carolina and little did I know that she would go on to achieve what she has done so far. I share this with you because running has allowed me to experience so many different opportunities. While many of you probably don't know who these people are, or maybe track is not your number 1 sport, to me this would be like playing baseball with Derek Jeter or throwing the football around with Eli Manning (I know, they didn't do so hot this year). My point is, take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to you and immerse yourself in what you are doing. You never know who you might meet or what may come of it.