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We pulled out of the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute last November as the second best Cross Country team in the NCAA. It was the highest a team from Florida State had ever finished and it was an apt end to a tumultuous 4years of racing on that course that perhaps encapsulated the inconsistency of my college career.

That race served perhaps as the precursor to what was a big breakthrough track season and with it being my final college XC race, I figured I would never see the town of Terre Haute again. I thought little of it, we were more focused on getting to Tally for the post-nats xc party at Dirty 841 Dent!

I returned to Terre Haute this weekend however, for the NXN Midwest Regional. As the Nike Elite Athlete, I had a blast engaging with some really enthusiastic and motivated high school runners and it was really cool witnessing for the first time the excitement Nike has created within the HS running community with the introduction of the NXN Championships. Between team battles and great displays of individual talent, it was a great weekends running.

On Saturday having flown Portland-Minneapolis-Indy for most of the day, I found myself with a spare few minutes before the banquet in which to fit an easy 5miler. I went to the course and ran the 8k loop I had covered so many times as a Seminole and a Wolverine. It was a balmy 60 degrees and the darkening red sky provided the perfect backdrop against which I could reflect on perhaps where I was and where I am now.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the opportunities Nike and the Oregon Project have provided me since the summer. I often tell people I enjoy racing more than the process of running. It’s true, I do relish the thrill of competition more than the often mundane and repetitive nature of consistent running. Perversely, it is that very consistency that allows one to race optimally. But when clipping along as red slowly turned to black and dusk crept in, I felt an almost eerie sense of peace and contentness with the present endeavor. I felt in the Twilight Zone, removed from the typical goal-oriented focus of practice and instead fixated on the joys of having competition and sport be your job. Terre Haute served in itself as a microcosm of my NCAA career, an arena of extreme contrasts in performance, where one can always seem to measure their most recent effort there against those before, both from oneself and from competitors. I found it fitting that yesterday the scene served as the catalyst for a recognition that now, finally, I’ve found peace with my sport. It took finding peace first in other aspects of my life. It’s been a process. But I’ve finally arrived, and I’m ready to work.

Just a little reflection. The ramblings of a runner that often ignores the power his sport has in evoking thoughts, feelings and images. This weekend, I have to secede, and say I was captured, if for a moment, by the run. And it was nothing short of fantastic.

-Len