Finding inspiration...

Finding inspiration in one place...

Then moving onto a new place...
So what does this mean for you. Find a runner or two that is slightly faster than you. Aspire to be as good as they are. Once you reach that goal move onto some new and faster runners. Where will this take you... you have no idea, but it's worth it.

A little history to support what I am talking about. Back in about 1996/97 there were two runners by the name of Joe Borg and Steve Crane who ran for Taylor Truman. They were in the same grade as I was and stormed onto the local running scene our sophomore year. I was well behind them in most races that year in cross country, but told myself if they can do it so can I. Word on the street was that they were training hard and fast. So I set out to work to beat them. Day after day I trained to beat Steve and Joe... because they were running/training FAST I knew I had to train FAST to be able to beat them. Here are the details of that training that really got underway in August of that year. (girls can add 1:00/mile to training paces. example 5:45 = 6:45)
1996 Training

Before I knew it I was able to surpass Joe and Steve and I had to move onto a few faster runners to keep improving. Runners from around the state and country began to provide inspiration to train FASTER and SMARTER. At one point I became a Rockford Sandwich. Details of the following years can be found here...
http://www.nicholasstanko.com/traininglogs.html

This all supports the reason for being on a team and being part of a community (the running community). Everyone provides inspiration for someone else. Find inspiration on your team... if you can't find someone on your team, then find someone you are familiar with. When you get faster than them, find someone new and continue on until you feel you are done... which will hopefully be many years from now.

Run FAST, Run OFTEN, and Run HAPPY!