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Some highlights of my track career:

 

I was introduced to the sport of track and field on the SLUH track team, under the coaching of Mr. Bill May and Mr. Tom McCarthy. Jim Linhares, who has coached the SLUH XC team for many years, took over the program, and in 2006 they won the Missouri State meet, led by two incredible sprinters, Paul Chaney (who clocks in at 10.51 / 21.04) and Stephen Simmons (10.67 / 38.17 in 300 IH). Wow! I think my old 110 HH record time (14.0 hand) still stands, but hopefully it will go down soon as well.

 

I had a fun high school career, and capped it off with a 2nd in state in the 110m Hurdles. I was second-team all Metro, and first team all Area, despite choking in the 300m hurdles at state two years in a row. My senior year, I was a mess after my 300m hurdles race. I had the fastest qualifying time going in, 38.9 coming out of sectionals, but then stuttered to the final hurdle in state prelims and didn't even make it to finals. We had to drive back for high school graduation that afternoon, a graduation which I hadn't expected to go to because of the 300m IH finals. My parents had to put up with a pretty pissed-off son!

 

 

In college, I ran on the University of Chicago Track and Field team. We competed at the NCAA Div. III level, and in the University Athletic Association conference. I competed for the Maroons from 1996-2001, using a year of red-shirt eligibility to compete in a "senior-plus" Spring 2001 season. My best season was 1999, when I competed in NCAA Div. III Nationals in Berea, Ohio. I ran 14.85 for the 110 hurdles and 53.16 for the 400m hurdles. The next two years I got hit with the injury bug, and never quite got back to where I was in 1999.

 

At Chicago, I was blessed to train with a 3-time All-American female hurdler named Amy Buhl. Amy destroyed virtually all competition that she faced. We also had another track star on our team, Rhaina Echols. Rhaina won so many NCAA titles, I can't even keep them straight -- taking home championships in multiple years in XC, 3k, and 5k. We used to hang out at their apartment, and they would have the hardware out on the mantle. It was impressive!

 

My first year at Chicago, my coach was Mike Orechia, who is now out at the University of Puget-Sound. Coach Orechia was the coach who recruited me, and the coach who helped me transition when I came in from Harvard. I have always been grateful for all that he did for me. He was a hurdler himself in college, and really knew his stuff. My head coach for the remainder of my years was 3-time Olympian, and U.S. distance running legend, Jim Spivey. Coach Spivey coached at Vanderbilt University, and now works for Asics. I frequently use one of Spivey's mottos to guide both my training and my life: "consistent training over time."

 

The coach who really taught me the hurdles, however, was our assistant coach Rafeal "Ray" Williams. Ray is not only a hurdles guru, but an incredibly generous person who has more energy than anyone I have ever met. He can light up a room in seconds, and he always leaves with a contact or two. He taught me what I know about hurdles, and he taught me a lot about how to go about living life. Ray is currently coaching at Grand Valley State University, where many of his athletes are set to make All-American status.

 

 

When I moved to Boston for graduate school, I thought at first that I wouldn't keep competing in track. I had just spent a year training, only to be hit with an injury, and I wasn't in the mood to do that again. I also thought I'd have a lot more time without track on the schedule. Within two months, I realized that I wasn't ready to give it up. I found that without training, I was a little out-of-sorts. I missed the training, and the competition. Plus, I wasn't ready to give up so easily on my dream of running faster.

 

I joined the Athletics East (AE) track club, and competed for them in the 2001-02 season. I competed again for AE for the first half of the 2002-03 season, and I had my first opportunity to compete in the Penn Relays. It was after my 400m Hurdles race at Penns, when I was sitting with my father in the stands, that I saw the Greater Boston Track Club (GBTC) running 4x100m and 4x400m relays.

 

I had gotten to know some of the GBTC folks by face, since we competed at similar meets all season. During the Indoor 2003 season, a sprinter/mid-distance GBTC athlete named Josh Seeherman saw me at a BU Indoor meet and suggested that I join GBTC so that they could run a Shuttle Hurdles relay team. With that thought already in my head, watching the relays run at Penn convinced me that I should be on a club where I could train with a pack of sprinters. I contacted GBTC Sprints Coach Dave Callum, and competed with them for the first time at 2003 USATF Club Nationals. At the 2005 Penn Relays, I ran with Matt Collins, Mat Lemaire, and Dan Conti, and we won the 440m Shuttle Hurdle Relay!

 

 

I like learning more about the hurdles, and these are links that I have found interesting hurdle-wise:

 

Selected sections from: _Identifying And Training Elite Hurdlers In The United States_, by Kathleen Raske Sparrey. She draws in part on the work of the fellow whose programs I have been following for years, Brent McFarlane (from Canada). http://www.coachr.org/shrthrd.htm

 

The M-F Athletic hurdling notes:

http://www.everythingtrackandfield.com...

 

"Basic Hurdle Technique" by Coach R. Lewis
http://www.advantageathletics.com/sprints/hurdle_technique.html

and more from him:
 http://www.anycities.com/user/rical2/ath/athletics.htm

 

"Coach, I like the 400, I LOVE the 400 hurdles"
- Kerron Clement, a 19-year-old University of Florida sophomore, set a new world indoor 400-meter record of 44.57 seconds at the 2005 Indoor NCAA Championships, breaking the former world best of 44.63 by Michael Johnson. Runners World talked to him and to Mike Holloway, his coach. Here's what his coach said:

"You have to remember, his primary event is the 400 hurdles. The two events complement each other. During the recruiting process for him to come to school here, he told me his goal was to be the best 400 hurdler ever. Obviously, he's going to run some 400s, but he wants to concentrate on the 400 hurdles.... Kerron and I have a plan. We're going to stick to that plan. I spoke to him after he ran 45.29 at the conference meet (the open 400 at the Southeastern Conference Championships). I asked him what his feelings were in regards to the 400, how much he wanted to do outdoors. His response was as it always is: 'coach, I like the 400, I love the 400 hurdles'.... What everybody's missing here is that the 400 hurdles is Kerron's craft. It's what he does."

Full interview at:
http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/daily_news/0,5039,0-0-0-0----03-23-2005,00.html 

 

"I train while you sleep."
- TaNisha Mills - 400m Hurdler, check out her web site (with bio and some training notes) at:
 http://www.tanishamills.com/

 

The St. Thomas Men's Workout Schedule:
 http://www.stthomas.edu/track/menstrack/Training/Main.htm

 

If you want to read about more hurdle workouts, a very clear description of some possible ones (and we'll pick some of these up soon) can be found at:
http://www.coacheseducation.com/hurdles/tonie_campbell_mar_01_2.htm

And there are a few other articles from that site at:
 http://www.coacheseducation.com/hurdles.htm

 

Allen Johnson (on falling in Athens): "I was shocked when I hit the ground. Now, I have accepted it and moved on. ... I will train harder this winter and my motivation in training will for sure be more thorough so I will be ready to take on those guys at next year's World Championships." [See: http://uscsports.collegesports.com/sports/w-track/spec-rel/091704aac.html

 

Jim Bush (on coaching the hurdles): "Getting into a rhythmic pattern as soon as possible is the key to fast hurdles times. It makes no difference whether it is the highs or intermediates, the runner has to develop a rhythm that is as fast as he can control."

If you're interested in learning more hurdles, read his full set of comments at:
 http://www.ustrackcoaches.org/Web/Coaches%20Review/Featuredarticles/on-line_clinic.htm

 

On training groups by Colin Jackson, Great Britain, World Record Holder:
"My training group is a No.1 priority because the people you train with are going to be the people you spend most of your time with. Each one has got to bring a quality to the group. In all the groups I have worked with, no one athlete has been totally dominant in all aspects of training. Each one had individual strengths ... When you are a bit tired, there are always people around to pick you up. It is important for the group to bond particularly well. From 16-21 I was working with some of the top people in the country, and we were all good at something without any ego problems. There was a day when I was the champion, and a day when I was a loser."

There are more great articles on hurdling technique and training from UK coaches at:
 http://www.ukhurdlesclub.net/13site/coaching_articles.asp

 

"If the competition is there, I step up."
-- Danielle Carruthers
-- 1st in the 60m HH at the Boston Indoor Games this past weekend
(See: http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=16574)

"I didn?t choose the hurdles; hurdles chose me"
-- Melissa Morrison-Howard (the "smallest hurdler in the world")
-- 2nd in the 60m HH at the Boston Indoor Games this past weekend
(See: http://www.salisburypost.com/2000nov/112100a.htm)

 

Performance Progression

 

 

Year
 Marks
1993
 110 HH (36"): 14.5
300 IH: 42.
Long Jump: 19' 9"
Triple Jump: 40' 2"
1994
 110 HH (39"): 15.2
300 IH: 40.8
Long Jump: 20' 4"
Triple Jump: 41' 3"
1995
 110 HH (39"): 14.6
300 IH: 39.5
1996
 110 HH (39"): 14.0
300 IH: 38.9
1997
 110 HH (42"): 15.5
400 IH: 55.33
1998
 110 HH (42"): 15.18
400 IH: 54.24
1999
 110 HH (42"): 14.85
400 IH: 53.16
2000
 110 HH (42"): Back Injury, no high hurdles
400 IH: 55.25
2001
 110 HH (42"): No high hurdles
400 IH: Hamstring injury
2002
 110 HH (42"): 15.2
400 IH: 55.24
2003
 110 HH (42"): 15.07
400 IH: 55.24
400 (outdoor): 49.9 hand
4x400m: 3:12.81 (with GBTC at USATF Club Nationals)
2004
 110 HH (42"): 15.07
400 IH: 55.09
2005
 110 HH (42"): 14.7 hand
400 IH: 53.93
400 (outdoor): 49.79
2006
 110 HH (42"): 15.38
400 IH: 54.76
800: 2:04.60