That awkward moment when you realize you can't run over that next barrier

Welcome to the steeplechase!

Its ~7.5 laps, you begin by running a portion of lap with no barriers then each lap after that has four land barriers and one water pit/jump/barrier. The water pit is 3.66m or 12 feet long. In total you must clear 28 land barriers and five water pits. (Source)

The steeple is my best and by far most favorite event. It involves a little more grit than the normal track events and more technique as well.

I was fortunate to have a high school coach who competed in the steeplechase at college and he was willing to teach me how to clear the barriers, especially the waterpit, with minimal effort and speed.

My first steeple was just out of high school in the summer at an all-comers meet (i would end up going to that very college where the meet was held). My coach taught me how to go over the land and water barriers just a few hours before the race and he seemed somewhat impressed with how quickly i caught on. After finishing the race in a respectable time the coach of the college hosting the meet, Erik Anderson, would tell my current high school coach how impressive I looked over that waterpit.

All it took was that one race and I was hooked. A distance track event that wasn't just left turns and "x" amount of laps! The steeple is a different animal. If you don't time your approach right you might just end up in the water with a competitors spike driving into your back. The steeple is a no mercy kind of event. If you fall, don't expect a gun mid race calling runners backs and do expect your competitors to use you as a stepping stone if you're in the way.

I know that all sounds scary but with proper technique you won't be the one on the ground or in the water. I (**knock on wood) haven't had the misfortune of falling in a race but i've had the pleasure of witnessing it several times.

I ran the steeplechase at Spokane Community College and Southern Utah University. My PR is 9:33 for the 3k steeple (with a stress fracture on my left tibia. I just thought it was a little soreness.)

If you have an opportunity to do the steeple I highly recommend it! Especially if you're one of those high school runners who doesn't want to run in college because running is "boring". I promise that the steeple will change your mind.

The Delay - Un Runner

I'm still a full time college senior in a pure mathematics major. I've had tests every week for the past two or three weeks so I've been avoiding the blog for now.

New posts will come this weekend. I'm thinking a run review might be in store....

Running from Community College To division 1: How to prepare and what to ask academically.

I'm not talking about keeping up good grades at CC (although you need them to go to D1) but instead about the import little things that come up and catch blind sided.

Running isn't all about the sport you always have an academic goal in mind. The NCAA and individual schools seem to make it very difficult for CC to Division school to have a smooth transfer.

So here's a list of questions to ask a division 1 school registrars office and advisor for your desired major:

1. Does your institution have a means of translating my quarters into semesters? (This obviously only applies when your CC has quarters and transfer school has semesters)

• Yes? Okay, explain to me how it works. Make sure to write down what the advisor/person says or, if you have a smartphone there are apps that can record                the call to be played back later. 
• No? How will my transcripts/grades from CC be translated by your offices. And make sure to note the date and time of this conversation in case they find a way later on to translate them and end up causing you to lose credits and potentially be ineligible.

     2.  How many electives does my major have? Important because this could affect you  
          when or if you want to change majors.

     3.  What are the schools and NCAAs requirements for student athletes at your  
          institution?

So far those are the important questions I can think of and I'll update the post later if more come to mind.

As far as preparing goes start no less than than FOUR MONTHS OUT! Otherwise you WILL run into problems.

Sit down with your CC school advisor then call your transfer institution's advisor for your desired major and talk to them (call the general line, call center or ask for academic advising) about what you've done and where you want to go with your academics. Then make sure to go to the NCAA eligibility center and fill out everything in its entirety ( the website can be found here.)

If you're a potential CC to D1 transfer athlete or a coach and have questions leave them in the comments and I'll respond. Hopefully my blog can be a good resource for CC transfers as there is very little information available otherwise.

Running at the Community College Level

It's fun!

Now that I've ran at both Division 1 and Junior College levels I realize there is often a condescending tone from Division 1 athletes towards CC runners. Fortunately none of the condescending ones were on my team at SUU.

Let's get this straight, everyone has their reason for going into ANY level of competition. In my situation I chose SCC because my Dad had passed away so I wanted to stay near my family, I loved the coaches at SCC and I wanted to continue running.

The competition is definitely a step up from high school. Mainly because you get to compete at larger invitational meets as well as being able to travel farther. I was able to toe the line against schools like University of Portland, Oregon State and others.

The atmosphere of community college vs Division 1 summed up in one word is relaxed. There are restrictions and regulations you have to follow to be able to compete but ultimately you don't have the NCAA looming over your head. Every semester at my Division 1 school you were given talks about what new regulations you have to follow to remain eligible whereas at community college all you really had to do was keep your grades up.

We had a training room and athlete-only weight room available to us. There were trainers ready to tape up arches, legs and feet. While the facilities weren't as nice overall they still worked well enough.

The coaching staff I was trained by was outstanding. My freshman year Coach Anderson was the head coach and he was nothing but stellar, one of those coaches who if he told you you could run 14:20 for the 5k tomorrow you will run 14:20 for the 5k. Coach Anderson passed away just barely into indoors my freshman year so the assistant Coach McLachlan took over. He was much better than even he could have imagined.

Coach McLachlan taught me to love the sport and become a student of it instead of just a bystander. I lowered my PRs and honed my training with Coach McLachlan.

Overall Community College is still one of the best running experiences of my life and a great transitional period into Division schools.

The first of my many serious running injuries.

I was feeling on top of the world after having just finished up a pretty good freshman year (High School) in cross country and a great season in track. I managed two separate personal bests with only one day in between in the 3200m (thursday and saturday races).

I was getting my mileage to 6-8 miles per day and everything seemed great.
It was about a month until school started and maybe 1.5 until the first meet and i had already ran that morning.

I was just hanging out with my twin sister and little brother and nephew in my driveway while making circles around them on my bike. I slowly came to a stop and stepped off thr bike, thats when i felt it, a small "pop!" on the outside of my right knee. I rubbed it for a minute and didnt think anything of it so i continued on throughout my day (which mostly consisted of playing computer games).

That night my mom and i went shopping for school clothes. I was walking around Macys and my knee just started feeling worse and worse with each step until it was unbearable to walk. I told my Mom so we ended the shopping trip short and went home. My Dad recommended keeping my legs up and try running on it the next day to see if it feels any better. It didnt.

The next day i made it about half a mile compared to a week prior when i ran 10 miles. I told my coach and he said time off and see a doctor (and to get better because they needed me this season).

So the next day i saw a doctor, who was also a runner, and he ran some xrays only to break the bad news that my IT band was severely inflammed. He sympathized with me being that he himself was a runner so he didnt write me a "do not run" note but made his point clear that at least a month off was necessary along with plenty of icing. Damn.

It turn out that you have two "bands" that attach right at your knee with above the other. I inflamed the lower one which caused it to rub very coarsely on the upper one causing the pain.

After my one month no running sentence was fulfilled i tried running again.....to no avail. It hurt less but it did still hurt. Another two weeks and i was ready to go and had a pretty great sophomore xc season.

So my advice regarding an IT band injury is to just take the necessary time off and ice as often as possible. Just dont force it coming back or else you might lose even more time.

Running from Community College to Division 1

It's a pain.

At least that was my personal experience.

I intended on transferring from my  community college after two years with an associate of arts degree to Southern Utah University to obtain a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering. I don't regret my decision but it did cause nothing but problems.

After arriving in Utah three weeks before classes started and having communicated with the department of engineering advisor about setting up my class schedule which went well and everything seemed as though it'd work out in the end.

Or so i thought. At the end of my first semester i was informed by my advisor that my general education requirements wouldn't be fulfilled under an engineering major. My alternatives were majoring in communication, math, english or art. So i chose the lesser of four evils, math. Pure mathematics to be specific.

Although i knew i'd be doing a major that didn't apply towards engineering i wanted to stay running and didn't want to go 1000 miles back to hometown and my wife was doing well on the team.

So i stuck to my classes and kept running. Everything seemed fine again until Fall 2012 semester when i was informed that i was ineligible after having already competed in two meets (apparently my school was fined for it). My senior year this came to light. It wasn't because grades or progress (kind of).

The NCAA has a 40/60/80 rule that states:
"After 2 years –Min. of 40% of the degree requirements must be met (Min. of 72  
  hours earned towards an OSU degree & 108 hours or fewer remaining to meet
  OSU graduation requirements)
•After 3 years –60% (108+ hours earned, 72-hours remaining)
•After 4 years –80% (144+ hours earned, 36-hours remaining)."
(If you want more information check this link, its OSU's athletic page because SUU apparently doesnt detail the NCAA Requirements, http://tinyurl.com/9lnkl8f)

I had satisfied these requirements every year prior to my senior year so i assumed i'd be fine my senior year as well but i was wrong. My institution decided to re evaluate my community college transcripts because they came up with a "better" way to translate my CC quarters into University semesters. Their translation caused me to lose around 9 credit hours and put me as an ineligible runner due to my major having few electives.

As of this time i have yet to fight it but i will and when i do ill update this post. My plan is to talk to the registrars office to obtain a sort of grandfathered clause exception

If you have any questions or comments about transferring please leave them in the comments.

What to expect

Expectations:

Everything will be running related and the general idea will be "What does a runner do in the off time?" Expect one to four posts per week. They might be a review of a shoe i've used in the past, a race I did in the past, an injury I worked through in the past, general running tips, differences between high school community college and D1 running, my opinion about certain races or many other topics about running while unrunning. Just because i'm not running doesn't mean I won't follow it closely.