| Recent Questions: | Joan Responds
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Dear Joan (I think that's how I'm supposed to start this. No question, therefore you can give your mind a rest for a minute. Just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed your articles, even the "No I in Team" article. Actually, that was my favorite. Also wanted to wish you luck at the Trials in the 5 and/or 10. I hope to be cheering for you during the Games. Anyway, keep running and writing. I've grown accustomed to reading your articles and I hope they continue. Best of luck!--Mike Miller
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Thanks for your column on running humbly and learning what works for you. Permit me to humbly correct your biblical allusion. Your quote of Obadiah 1:4 should end after "says the Lord." The last three commands seem to be a paraphrase of Micah 6:8: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
The phrase "turn from power to love" appears nowhere in the Bible. But searching on verses that include both "power" and "love" produces an interesting twist on the thought. Eph 3:18-19: "I pray that you may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
Excuse my pedantry. All the best at the Olympic Trials. (And my advice, given for free and not worth much more, would be to focus on one event...)-Coty Pinckney
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There seems to be a recent rash of extremely fast women's 5K's from relatively obscure countries and unknown women. For the past few years, women running 15:30 or under were rare (at least in the U.S.) but now it seems that there has been a breakthrough closer to the 15 minute threshold. What do you attribute this to?--Kris Luckin
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I met you briefly after the 1st Pennsylvania Avenue Mile in Washington, DC, a week or two before you ran the Peachtree, and my not recognizing you has been bugging me since. Don't get me wrong, I don't lose sleep, but I did leave there feeling rude after a friend told me what a dolt I'd been. Do you recall, I'd won my age group, you mentioned that I looked like Bob Kennedy, and I was wearing some old NB 850's (tell 'em they should make those again) and you told me that you'd never seen them before. We introduced ourselves, and I said "yeah, I've heard that name somewhere." Well forgive me, big time. My only excuse is that I've only been running for three years, and I don't get out much, and I did too many drugs as a youth, and...whatever.
Since then I've noticed that your running has been in high gear. Keep doin' what you are doing, and good luck in Atlanta (Georgia is good to you). Gold will look good on you and you'll get an RW cover, and then perhaps more folks like me won't not know who you are.--Robert Costanza
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I'm a 60 year old woman who has been running less than 3 years. The coaching advice I get is aimed at much younger beginning runners or at older runners who have been running for a long time. These two kinds of advice are at odds. I tend to use the advice given to the younger runners even though my times are not as fast as theirs. What is your opinion on how I should train? I run everything from the mile (PR 7:15 last spring) to the marathon (PR 4:45 last fall) and am working on getting faster.--Lois Johnson
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My name is Steve Yannotti, I am the Head Mens Track coach at McMichael H. S. in Mayodan NC. My distance coach is someone you may be familiar with Ken Dowdle from Myers Park H.S. The problem is that we have an all beginners running crew. The most any of them have done is run the mile in P.E. class. Could you give us a plan to develop the kids into competitive runners and not turn them off to running? We could really use the advice of someone like you to come up with some good workouts for high school athletes.
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Hi Joan, I've read your column a number of times and can only say, "Right On!!!" I was starting to get frustrated, thinking that my search for a pure experience wasn't possible through racing; so many elite runners are so neurotic. I also am not interested in the "I'll show them" attitude. You and I met at Freihofer's. We sat at the same table at the post-race party. I was the other whirling dervish (besides you!). What a blast that was. I've been struggling with motivation lately and have come to realize that for me, the running and racing has to be something I share with others. I love to run alone, but not all the time. I came to hate running and fantisize about retirement. I've now gone back to my old stomping grounds in Santa Rosa, CA and my old coach, who does it as a side thing. A question I have is whether you ever feel that the expectations and encouragement of the people close to you become a burden. I often feel a sense of responsibility to try and make other people happy by running well. I'm really not worried that my friends will abandon me if I don't race well, just that I have the chance to either make them happy or unhappy because of their attachment to me. Does this make sense? I've recently become involved in Zen in an attempt to understand myself and to let go of those crazy self-doubting things I tell myself. I've had some great training runs, where I really was in the moment. The difficulty has been in carrying that over to the racing. I know I love to race, but many times I sabotage myself and perform sub-par. And I know that if I retired today, this would still be an issue for me with the next endeavor I undertake. I'm curious about your comments on how becoming a teacher has made all the difference in your performances and in your attitude towards running. Could you elaborate a bit more on that? Chris
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