Track and Field Blogs - Molly Huddle

My current attitude is when in doubt, the roads will always be there. The local turkey trot leads into the Emerald Nuts run on New Years Eve which is a fond memory during the spring marathon in Boston followed by the familiar summer mirage of hot waves of asphalt rippling in the distance at Falmouth because there is always a time for the roads. I like to run a few races in late summer and early fall, that’s my ‘season’, but whenever the track is not treating me right I like to know I can escape to the pavement to… more »

I’ve been thinking a lot about fear the last few days. Surprisingly, it was sparked by an article I read in one of the pile of mostly trashy magazines I brought on the odyssey of a plane ride home from Eugene last week. As entertaining as they are, normally I don’t come away from reading Us Weekly or Star with a realization any deeper than “man Paula Abdul is ALWAYS on that embarrassing outfits page in the back”- but this was an Oprah approved article so it was pretty insightful. The article was about how sometimes people use a fear… more »

Aside from conveniently being the name of the Saucony casual product line, I have been thinking about how running culture is an actual phenomenon. I was thinking about this as I was embarking on my quest for abs in the gym the other day. I noticed a group of dudes who showed up pretty regularly and lifted pretty hard. One of them was there every day, mostly training high school kids, but he must have been a body builder of some kind himself. Between the time he obviously spent lifting and the time he spent training the kids, he must… more »

Looking out the window of Tia Loco’s ‘palace’ we are surrounded by looming brown mountains (called Sandias, which means ‘watermelon’, because they sometimes look red-ish at sunset) casting sharp shadows in the powerful sun, dry brown grass and pueblo style houses. A ball of tumbleweed blows across the street, and a dust storm is seen far on the horizon. It is a very different sight from the narrow streets and ocean-side atmosphere of Rhode Island. We are in Albuquerque, New Mexico doing 3 and a-half weeks of altitude training at about 5,200 feet. I’ve been to higher places before, but… more »

I’ve done a lot of analyzing and looking backwards in the last few journal entries. I’ve looked back into the season’s mistakes to glean from them morsels of wisdom and lessons which I can apply not only in sport but also in life. (In fact, I’m writing this article backwards, from the last sentence up. It just sort of worked out that way (I didn’t do it on purpose). Anyway, for a change I’ll be looking refreshingly into the future with this entry. Actually, one more look back at this week: I wanted to mention that I was glad to… more »

Well it’s feeling more and more like fall around here, and though now my cross country season consists of about two races in the winter, I can’t help but think back on the days when the turning leaves made my stomach turn in nervousness and excitement for what was in my opinion the biggest and most important season of the year. I remember all those long, grueling workouts on hills, grass and muddy fields. I remember looking down a lineup of over 200 girls thinking I was trying to beat all of them. But never was I more nervous than… more »

Despite my attempt to make my own silver lining out of the season, the goal of turning things around in Europe has not gone as planned. When I left Belgium last year after a surprisingly good post-college season sprit of pr-ing, I had big plans for this year. I thought that when I stepped off the plane here in the next year, I’d have accomplished so much more than I have, and would have had the opportunity to do more Golden League or Grand Prix races (which are really cool experiences and make you feel like a flashy track star… more »

I just arrived at the home base of Leuven, Belgium on Sunday, and it feels like just yesterday that I was living the simple life in the sparse dorms, eating waffles and busing to Flanders Cup meets every week. I came from running a 3000m in Cork, Ireland, and despite the relatively short distance between central Belgium and Southern Ireland, it took about 12 hours and a plane, train, bus and a good walk to get here. The race in Cork was my first race after traveling from the States, so I knew it might feel rough from adjusting to… more »

6/17/08: The long awaited first day of the Olympic Trials is only 10 days away and as I notice every commercial, Today show segment and magazine article about the Olympic Games, I get a nervous/excited knot in my gut. I can't decide whether I'd feel better if I could push the clock hands forward or wind them back. I can't wait to get on the track and make it happen, yet I sometimes find myself thinking I want time for one more 5 mile tempo, a few more 70's around the oval, or even one extra session of pumping iron… more »