Friday Focus: Craig Lutz

Friday Focus: Craig Lutz

Jan 29, 2015 by Giovanni Reyes
Friday Focus: Craig Lutz


Describe your most embarrassing moment as an athlete. 

It was a cold December day as I recall. The year was 2010. The Vancouver Winter Olympics had happened. Lebron went to Miami. The FIFA World Cup victors were the Spanish. Haiti saw through a devastating earthquake, the iPhone 4 was released to the public, and BP filled the Gulf with oil. However, another story came to birth in 2010 that many saw past. Though It didn't make headlines within the calendar year as other stories shadowed it such as “Lukas Verzbicas going for double!” and other running related material. It did eventually come to fruition down the road after a watchful eye happened upon an awkward buck standing a top an award stand in the recap videos of NXN my senior year. 

The story goes like this: 

There I was shifting awkwardly in front of a crowd that surpassed about two hundred spectators. I was a bit salty about my performance in the race that day and hadn't grabbed any sort of winter gear while being ushered over to the award stand. Mistake number one. The group included Lukas Verzbicas, King Ches, and then myself. We were all mud covered and cold but at least in high spirits because now that the race was done, we could think about the NXN dance that was still to come that evening. The handshakes had occurred between the three of us and now a murmur of small talk was taking place as we waited upon our headless goddesses to be given. I was first to be talked about, order went third to first, so as my name was called I stepped up to the front of the stage and accepted my trophy. However, before the exchange was made I had looked down and noticed that a certain someone wasn’t exactly situated appropriately in my baby blue racing shorts. Instead of ignoring the situation or at least effectively taking care of the protuberance in one easy movement, I began bringing attention to my problems by just simply grabbing “it” (second mistake) and trying to situate myself all the while explaining to Toni Reavis and the world that “it was Hard”. I couldn't get off of that stage fast enough and eventually had to settle with simply placing my hands over the issue. Third Mistake. At this point you can assume that everyone has their eyes on my business and now by placing my hands there, the focal point wasn't on anything being discussed about my race but simply my baby blue shorts. Fortunately, my trophy was finally handed to me and I scampered off stage as fast as I could to accept the fact that I had just become a Reddit post. 

Eventually people seemed to accept the fact that it was an unfortunate product of cold related weather and a “strong cross breeze”. And I say this because after it hit Reddit, people were dissecting my manhood with any sort of theory they could conjure up about my state of mind or obvious love for running. 

You started off your indoor season in late December with a huge PR. Take us through your training and what you did to prepare after NCAAs.

Fortunately, since it was only a few weeks after cross country had finished, there wasn’t much more to do. In fact, my coach and I decided to error on the side of not overdoing the training since it was December and we technically passed peak a month before. He told me to just keep the base work high as if we were getting ready for the upcoming indoor and outdoor seasons and then we threw in three key workouts that I would say sealed the deal.

However, the biggest part of preparing for the Indiana 5k was how my cross country season finished. I was embarrassed with the outcome and felt foolish that something like a “selfie” could ultimately ruin everything I worked for from August to November. Whether people knew what happened or even felt sympathy, it did not matter. I wanted to race again and give the year of 2014 some meaning to my running career. I stepped on the line in December with vengeance on my mind and I was happy with the result.

What is your most bizarre pet peeve?

I would put eating with your mouth open but I feel as though that isn’t bizarre enough. Though what I do find bizarre is that smacking your food exists and is seemingly more prevalent than when I was kid. I just stare at people who do it and wonder how they made it this far without someone confronting them. Then I realize Im staring at someone masticating and find that I’m actually the disgusting faction.

However, I’ll go with a random one of mine. “Crossing streets on a run and trying to time it perfectly with a car but not getting the message across to the driver of said vehicle so they end up stopping and waiting for you when the original idea was for them to be able to make their way across the street in unison with yourself so that you don't have to stop and awkwardly and wave and then they wave and then you wave and then go and they go and stop….”

What super hero would you trade lives with and why?

I am going to have to disagree with Chris Derrick on this one. While I respect the Green Lantern choice, that is a super hero who simply relies on the strength of a ring and not so much his own free will (Green Lantern Corps). Batman, on the other hand and Derrick’s childhood favorite, is a character who uses his own strength and skill for fighting crime, utilizes technology that Morgan Freeman designed, has a net worth, according to a research study at Lehigh University, at about 11.6 billion (higher than the worth of Iron Man), and is portrayed as a sexy bachelor by Christian Bale in recent years. Or maybe it’s the money but I hear that helps.

Now yes, obviously there would be a burden that comes with losing your parents at such a young age and, even more unfortunate, having to witness it. But I feel as though Bruce Wayne really embraced an inner strength to get to the position he “enjoys”. I respect that sort of drive and Wayne could have certainly allowed that to dictate his whole life but he eventually learns to incorporate his fear and rises to the top as the “Prince of Gotham”. Yeah, he still has rough moments (and who doesn’t need therapy these days), but that’s when my inner runner would take over and I would do what any man does; focus on work and training and choose to ignore my problems.

Describe your childhood dream.

Sim City describes my childhood dream. I don't really know what my ambition was but I guess you can narrow it down to a city planner/ civil engineer or an all powerful God. I rather enjoyed the ability to try and make an efficient city with a distinguished downtown district, rich uptown neighborhood, a suburban lifestyle, slums, and the industrial core but the power to create natural disaster was sort of entertaining too as any young boy would attest.

It would be nice to say that Running was always my dream since I started participating in local fun runs and USATF junior olympic meets at a young age. However, when you show up at a national meet and see that everyone hit puberty before you, the excitement is extinguished as you continually get mopped up in races. But don't worry, now I only get my ass kicked half the time.

Describe your fondest race memory.

One time in high school I stood on a starting line for 30 seconds after the gun went off. I then went on to win the race by almost 30 seconds. I received a lot of profanity that day in the final 400 meters of the race and I thought it was funny that while all of these parents were telling me where to go (hell) and raising their middle fingers in celebration of my victory, I was the bad guy who was just using a different race strategy on his own home course while getting ready to take on the likes of the best runners in the country later on in the season. Oops.

Describe your worst habit.

Drinking an abundance of Coke. When I say abundance, I mean that during my freshman and sophomore years of college, two liters a day isn’t an exaggeration. Fortunately it’s gotten a lot better since then but the habit/addiction of wanting to drink it at every meal is still around.

Describe the kind of kid you were in high school.

Imagine the starting quarterback. Tall. Broad shouldered. Popular. Socially comfortable. Coordinated. Tall. Shaving. Dressed well. Fluent in three languages.

I was the opposite. Until senior year of high school. That’s when I started shaving.

If you had a day off from your everyday responsibilities, describe how you would spend it.

As is tradition, I would sit down and list out a bunch of things that seemed exciting and worthwhile. I would brew a pot of coffee and contemplate the order of events to accomplish my “day of no responsibilities”. I would then choose an outfit to wear. Something stylish that says “Im an adult and have responsibilities but not on this particular day”. It would be an outfit that would be versatile for any sort of activity. Mostly made up of a combination including white, blue, and gray. My shoes of choice you're asking? White vans because they go with anything and provide zero support. I would pack my backpack with the necessary things; GoPro, wallet, a book to seem educated, my phone, phone charger, a towel, sunscreen to seem responsible, and maybe a snack. Oh wait, better check the weather. Now I packed a rain jacket because it says “10% chance of rain”. Now I’m updating twitter to tell the world the cool things I'm going to do all day!…. and then I check every faucet of information in every corner of the internet, finding myself on the wikipedia page for some sort of event that happened in the 15th… no 16th century. Wait! Someone sent me a message over Facebook… Oh this guy? Better close out without clicking on the pop up so they think I didn't see it. It’s 10 pm now. I get into bed and go to sleep as I prepare to go back to my responsibilities of being a second semester senior the next day.

Tell us about your favorite memory with one of your current or past training partners.

WATCH OUT: This story has Kyle Merber in it.

At the end of the first semester in 2012, right before finals week, Kyle Merber, Blake Williams, and I decided to embark on a weekend road trip. If my memory is correct, the subject came up on a Thursday and by 5 o’clock on Friday we were on the road heading toward the Land of Enchantment! Or New Mexico as everyone calls it. We traveled through the night, only stopping for gas, a Denny’s meal in Abilene, Texas and to sleep in the back of a truck stop parking lot just West of the state border. By “sleep” I mean laying straight in a leaned back car chair, occasionally turning the car on to warm up the vehicle as we forgot blankets in our rush out the door. Morning eventually came and we set off toward Santa Fe stopping for a brief moment to capture some sunrise pictures for Instagram use later in the day. Once into Santa Fe, we stopped to eat at a local hole in the wall and walked around their “Business District”. We quickly figured out that Santa Fe was simply a tourist trap and refused to buy any of the Native American figurines that sit upon tables all over the city. While an experience that we can all say exists in our lives, the group was eager to move on to our next stop.

On the drive out of Santa Fe, we chose a scenic route that connected the state capital with Albuquerque. This was a solid choice of navigation because the route took us through Madrid, New Mexico! (For any of you movie buffs out there who enjoy cheesy family videos, Madrid is the pinnacle point of the movie Wild Hogs.) Once into the city, we got a run in around the University of New Mexico area, met up with one of Merber’s friends, and then prepared to go to a “shindig” that was being put on by the UNM distance team.

…….

At about 2am (now Sunday morning) the three of us piled into the car and began the final leg of our journey. The goal was to make it to White Sands National Park by sunrise in order to capture more #nature pictures for another day of Instagram use. As I recall, I didn't help much through a significant portion of the driving that morning as I had promised and really left it up to Blake and Kyle to get us to our first stop of a long Sunday of driving.The only thing I remember from that morning shift of travel before we reached the national park was being awoken at a checkpoint along the highway in which my first sight was a border patrol officer wielding a large rifle across his chest* and thinking “where are we?” Fortunately, especially for Blake (Canadian), we didn't fit the description of whatever the point of this exchange was for and we continued on into the brightening sky. The three of us spent some time jumping off of sand dunes, angling the sun and our bodies for perfect candid shots, and decided that the Land of Enchantment wasn’t so bad after all. After a couple hours of playtime, it was back into the car to make it to our final destination; Carlsbad Caverns. I’ll sum up this portion of the trip: We lost a little respect for the Land of Enchantment once again with this second tourist trap we fell into and broken expectations for how cool the cave system sounded when reading about it on the internet. We were over it pretty quickly and thus began the return trip back through West Texas. The only thing to note about this portion of the weekend is that while we were on a small, abandoned highway in God knows where Texas, is that we made a stop along a ranch so that Merber could snag some pics of horses.

We made it back to Austin by 11 pm on Sunday night. After looking at our total mileage and the time we were gone, we found out that if we had just kept a constant state of movement for the entirety of the route, we would have been moving at 33mph in order to cover the total loop from Friday evening to sunday night. I’d say it was a successful weekend aside from the lack of (healthy) sleep, food, and annoyance that builds in a small space with guys. However, if you gauge the accomplishment by the addition of new followers on social media faucets, then you would find that the trip was truly worth while. Except I failed most of my finals the following week.

Describe the perfect post-race meal in detail.

I have a pretty bad diet before and after races and during if I could manage it, so Im not sure if I have a perfect meal. Im also very indecisive with my meal plans so really my perfect post-race meal is that someone else chooses with confidence.

What "Most Likely To" superlative would you be most honored to receive and why?

In high school, despite my answer to the earlier question “Describe high school self”, I was given the “Most Athletic” award. This was a huge day in my short life because I won it over a football player and I felt like I was sticking it to the man.

Describe your favorite workout?

Throw me some repeat miles on a grass loop with a hill and I will love you. Put me into a 10 mile tempo and I wont talk to you for the rest of the day.

Who is your childhood hero and why?

My Dad was my and still is my hero. He has always stressed for me to do what makes me happy, helped steer me in the direction of success, and continually built a foundation underneath me to be able to make strong decisions for my future. My dad was an athlete in college and understood what the process looked like. Throughout high school he worked hard to make sure I would be prepared. At the time it stressed me out and I felt as though it was unfair to make me go to bed at a reasonable hour or steering me away from people who didn't have my best interests at heart but looking back at it now, I couldn't have asked for a better character when it came to raising me. What I feel was the most important part of his and I’s relationship was that when I chose running as my main interest and developed dreams through the sport, he embraced it and became a coach for youth development in distance running. It meant a lot to see that, as a parent, he cared so much about my own success that he wanted to enjoy the sport himself. While he was my coach for a short couple of years in middle school, he did well at allowing me to move on to my high school and then college coach all while cheering from the sidelines. You see a lot of times when parents take an interest in their kid’s lives to such a great extent, that they try to shape it completely with their own power and will but he has allowed me to fail. I know it hurts him to observe it but the greatest comfort is understanding that he is always on my side through whatever challenge I face; coaxing me on to find it within myself to be the best individual I can be.

Describe your guilty pleasure.

Social media

If you could give one piece of advice to any runner, what would it be and why?

You can ruin yourself by worrying about what others think of you. Stay off of the running boards and surround yourself with a group of close friends who only build you up and don’t have an interest in tearing you down. You obviously cannot shield yourself from all negative impact but for when it occurs, having a tight circle of support around you makes you indestructible. It’s unfortunate that there are people out there who make it a goal to become complete asses but their words do not define you. It is how you think of yourself that will dictate your own success.

On top of that, and something I preach to my team, SLEEP! Take a nap, snooze in class, go to bed at a decent hour. Sleep is nature’s ice bath. At least that is what I tell myself because I haven't taken one in a while but what I do practice is sleeping whenever I can.

Dinner with 3 (living or dead) who and why?

While I could pick two famous people or hot girls or someone who died, I’d have to go with a nice candlelit dinner with my boys Paul Zeman and Will Crocker. Let me tell you why. I’m an awkward fellow. If I randomly had to sit down with two figures I had never met before, It’s going to take me a while to warm up. There would be a lot of awkward silence, a lot of uncomfortable glances across the table, and a lot of me texting Paul anyways to tell him about the situation. If it were a meeting amongst people in a less formal or intimate scenario where maybe something was going on in the background, then sure, I would make small talk with the best, but a dinner with brand new faces? That’s a nightmare for my socially awkward presence.

Describe your pre-race ritual.

Listening to Today’s Hip Hop and Pop station on pandora, hoping that a mixture of Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift save me from the anxiety I get before every race.

What does racing/training look like for you in the next 6 months?

I’m a 10k guy (despite my wishes to be a cool miler) and thus my training is pretty limited to 10k guy stuff. So long tempos, long repeats, long runs, and racing the mile for speed development. As of right now, I'm just watching the country closely and hoping to retain my 5k spot for indoor nationals all the while building a base for outdoors and enjoying my final months as a college student with the backing of Texas.

Oh yeah, and I’m trying to PR in stuff. If anyone has noticed, my times kind of suck.