“I work for the power company here; we work underground. [Collazo] was 37, and in a manhole vault, the cable exploded…he was down there. He survived seven months in the Loyola burn unit. Seventy percent of his body was burned, and he passed away. This kid was like a friend.”
“[Lenny] had a massive heart attack. They found him in the shower. He was a big guy. They came home, it was out of the blue, two years ago.”
“I am 36, I’ve been running for about three years, and I don’t really have a great story. I just started running because I had young children, and it was the easiest thing to do. I’m a little bit of an obsessive-compulsive person, so when I do something, I do it. … I still feel like every race I learn something new about myself and maybe what I can and what I can’t do. I’ve seen myself be able to do things that I never thought I’d be able to do.”
“I always have a cigar after every race, even if it’s a 5K. I got married when I was 47, and in three years, we had four kids. We don’t have friends that can help us this morning, so my wife is at home with the kids. I did not train at all for this. I’m 30 pounds overweight, I’m 53, I didn’t set foot on the street for the last month, I’ve had two meniscus operations, but I paid my money, so I might as well get tortured. My PR is a 3:05, and I think if I got back down to weight, even at my age, I might be able to get close to that. I did a 3:25 a couple years ago. This time I was gunning for 4:00, and I just blew up at [mile] 18, so I did 4:25.”
“It’s my first marathon. A friend of mine kind of bamboozled me into doing it. I’ve done a few halves, and I always said I’d never do a full because I didn’t want to train for it, but here we are. I had a good buddy’s wedding that I was the best man at yesterday, so it was a sober reception for me, and I had to get out of there a little early, but I ran a lot of miles for them today.”
“One of the things I’ve learned from these coaches is that you can learn so much through running that applies to your life. The skills of wanting to be excellent and wanting to work hard and be motivated are skills that you can learn in your work, in your relationships with people, in life after running. You’re building the person you want to be. Cross-country, for me, has helped shape the person that I am today.”
“My main advice [to high school runners] would be to have confidence in yourself, especially at their age, they don’t even know their potential. Not to be scared of working hard and committing yourself to the sport. Continue to enjoy it. In a race, don’t be afraid to say, ‘What can I do today? I just want to leave it all out there.’”
“As a head coach, there’s so much you need to balance, but the biggest for the athletes is that balance of being upbeat and positive but still having an intense, serious approach to the sport. I’m serious about my sport, so I want you to be, too. But cross-country is so unique, because you get so many different runners from so many different paths. … It’s important in life to have your fun, but then also, some days you have to get down and work.”
“My parents have motivated me the most, because they always said, ‘Do your best. Give your best effort, but always have fun out there.’ Before every race, they make notes of motivation, and I find them in different places. They started it this year, and I feel like I’ve done better because of them.”
“Coach Hart has definitely helped get me where I am now in running. Without her, I wouldn’t be doing cross-country now, because in eighth grade, I didn’t do it. She was my coach in seventh grade, and I didn’t like track, so I didn’t do it in eighth grade. She just made me want to try it again. All the advice she has given me and all her support has helped me do much better than I ever could have dreamed of right now.”
L: “One person that’s inspired me is my dad, because he was really good at sports in high school, and I’ve always wanted to follow up on him and be good at something. … His main thing was just do it for yourself. Running is a big mental sport; you gotta be really headstrong when you’re doing it, and he said, ‘Try not to think about it. Just go for it.’”
R: “My middle school coach, Mr. Alspaugh, was the one who got me started with cross-country and encouraged me to run all summer and all year long to do really well my eighth-grade year. He then encouraged me to help lead the team and make other kids better, too.”
“I brought my time down every mile and finished faster than I did at the previous race, only I felt like 150 times better at the end of [today’s] race than I did then.”
“How’s the sandwich?”
“Oh my gosh, dude. Honey 9-grain oat for days!”
Hooray Run 