Look Good. Feel Good. Race Good

The last month and a half has been a whirlwind. My wife and I spent two weeks traveling around New England at the end of July and then as soon as we got back to Georgia training camps started. That means I haven’t spent one second cleaning up anything or putting anything away since we left for Boston in mid-July. Naturally, we spent the majority of the final Sunday before football season starts cleaning the absolute fiasco that our house had become during that time. While cleaning, I came across a bunch of old racing singlets. As I was rounding them all up and trying to figure out where to put them – I wanted to display them but Amanda gave me a “you are a weirdo” look. I settled on rounding them up and a taking a series photos. It was really cool to think back on all of the different races that I’ve run in each of these jerseys. Some had great memories, some had rough ones but I ran hard in each one and had a lot of fun.

I’m missing the original Keene State championship red jersey. I know it’s somewhere in this house but I didn’t come across it the other day. Man, did I run well in those bad boys. These are the ones I did find with the photos to match.

 1 - OG Keene State w/ the old Owl logo on the back - I have some great memories in this one. Winning ECAC cross country was one of my best days in college and finishing sixth overall and sixth on the team in the conference my freshman year was pretty amazing too.

2 - v2 KSC Red – I had a meh race at my final DIII New England race in this jersey and ran so-so at Nationals but I ran a steeplechase PR a few months later. It’s a sweet looking jersey no matter what.

3 - Whirlaway – I ran with some really fast dudes on Whirlaway after college. I didn’t race a ton back then because I was working random jobs all over the place trying to figure out what I was doing with my life. That being sad, I ran awesome at Yankee Homecoming in Newburyport one summer and then ran terribly at the Ollie Road Race in Southie.

4 - Saucony Hurricane v1 – Ah, back when I was kind of sponsored and just getting into trail racing. I came across this program after working at Greater Boston Running Company and thanks to Jeff Caron, who was a Shadow Rep at the time, I got selected.

5 - Saucony Hurricanes v2 – This might be my favorite post-collegiate kit. I won the Georgia State championship at 15k on the roads down in Peachtree City. That race was so cool. All but two miles was run on the golf cart paths that cover the city. I broke away at three miles and soloed to a nice win and my first state championship of any kind. I also rolled to 53rd place finish at the Peachtree Road Race (60,000 total entrants) in a post collegiate 10k PR.

6 - Strava – I was on Strava before it was cool. I guess that makes me a Strava hipster. I still consider myself an unofficial ambassador, but this was a cool program. I met some great people and had a lot of fun racing for Strava. I also grabbed my first podium finishes at River Gorge & Tuck Fest.

7/8 - Wild Endurance – A few years ago, a former teammate, and one of my best friends, Josh Ferenc started his own club called Wild Endurance. In an effort to support him, I’ve been the Wild Endurance outpost in the south for the last couple of years. It’s less of a club and more of a ‘bunch of buddies wearing the same shirt’ but that’s always something we talked about doing back in college, so I think that’s kind of cool.

9 – XTERRA – I got selected to be an XTERRA ambassador this spring after running in the Georgia series for the last few years. I say few years but it’s been more like five or six. I can’t believe I’ve been in Georgia that long but I guess having awesome trail series to run in has made that time fly by. Not only is this a sweet looking kit, but I’m teamed up with a bunch of awesome runners of all ages across the southeast. It’s been cool to be a part of that larger family. There are some really inspiring athletes that are involved. I definitely get fired up when I see some of these folks getting after it. Also, I ran a solid half marathon and won my sixth XTERRA Georgia age group title in it. I like to pretend that I’m wearing the series leaders jersey when I’m racing XTERRA races in it, you know like it’s the yellow jersey or a world cup leaders jersey or something.

10 – Wild Endurance – This jersey is hot of the press from Josh’s home in Vermont. He handed it off while I was back home visiting and I’m looking forward to breaking it out for some races this fall.