Crazy Kansas

 The legal driving age in Kansas is 14, which is one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard. The insanity of it all was hammered home to me when I met Isaiah’s (the roommate) little sister, who’s 13 years old and 4 foot 6. In less than a year she’ll be able to drive a car. I wouldn’t trust most 14-year olds with a bike, let alone a motor vehicle. But there we go – that’s America, or ‘Murica as the natives pronounce it.

Pictures still surfacing from the McPherson Meet. 

Speaking of crazy Americans, Coach really showed his true colours last week. We had a week off from racing, after three weeks on, and so we were able to enjoy an extra – hard training regime instead. The volume for me was quite high – around a hundred kilometres – but it was the intensity that caused the problems. A thirteen-mile run on Monday was followed by a rather large amount of 400s – twelve to be precise. We also finished that session with a ‘gut buster’ mile which, I can confirm, busted my gut. Tuesday and Thursday are also served with a side of Early Morning Run, which is at about 6.30am. These are not fun to get up for, but I usually enjoy them once I’m out there. The Kansas mornings are very beautiful, and right now seems to the primetime for experiencing them. The sunrise starts at around 6.45, which means that we’re heading back in from our run as things start to get light. There’s almost always heavy mist along the roads which looks amazing in the sunlight. It’s also noticeably colder – and it looks like the cold is here to stay this time. This morning (Tuesday) was reportedly 3 degrees (Celsius). I had to break out the buff and gloves.

Some more photos from the Bethel Home Meet

The afternoons are still reliably warm, though I don’t think that will continue for much longer. Last Wednesday long run was pretty hot, about 32 degrees, and Thursday was set to be even hotter. We postponed practice until 8pm in the evening, when it would be a bit cooler. Coach had quite a session planned for us: 5x1 mile reps, and below our 8k race pace. We got three minutes recovery between each one, with the aim of going faster each rep. We started out with 5.17, and I worked my way down towards 5.05. Thankfully our gut buster was only limited to 400 meters this time. It was pretty nasty, but I was happy that I did it – I didn’t think I had it in me before the session started! Saturday was tough as well – we went into Wichita to run on a trail. We only ran eight miles, but we had two 2 miles efforts thrown in. They felt harder than I thought they would, since we were only running at 6-minute pace this time, but I guess I was suffering from the hangover of Thursdays session.

Me and Isaiah went on a bit of an adventure yesterday – into Wichita. We went to Kansas State University for a Catholic pupils evening, which apparently happens there every week. Isaiah knew some guys from his high school who were at KSU, so we didn’t feel left out. It was pretty fun, but the best part of the whole thing was seeing the University Campus. I can’t really describe to you how big it was – you’d have to see it for yourself. KSU is a public university, with about 30,000 students. Its track hosts the Kansas High School State Meet, which is the biggest in the whole country. The stadium is comparable to Alexander Stadium in Birmingham – and there’s an indoor track as well (of course). This stadium is only one of three on campus – the others being for baseball and basketball. The baseball stadium is probably the largest, and this is what KSU is best known for. The Campus is so large that it has its own bus service – it runs for miles. It’s very daunting, and I was glad when I returned to Bethel – the small private university definitely suits me better!

The KSU Athletics Stadium