Firman Invite

This past weekend we competed in Boise, ID at the Bob Firman Invitational. The individual results were really mixed. I thought we had a few gals run their best races of the year, but we definitely had others who struggled. It was a long tough week of practice and I think one our recovery runs was harder than it needed to be. That can't happen with a group as young as ours. They are not strong enough yet to run too hard on a recovery day. I have addressed that issue and adjusted the training this week to allow for an extra day of rest.

The best thing about a little adversity is that it provides a chance to learn and move forward...for everyone including me. I asked a little too much of my young team and now I have to understand those limits and adjust a few things so that we can improve and prepare for our championship meet run in late October and November. Coaching this group has been a lot of fun because you see them help each other. You see them cheer for each other. You see the freshmen rely on the veterans for knowledge. We just need more time to grow and gain some experience and we'll end up where we want to be.

Our next meet is in 12 days at the University of Nevada-Reno.

MSU Invite

The trip as a whole went very good. This was our first overnight trip of the year with all of our new freshmen. I thought the handled it well and were prepared to run. Our team is currently fighting a bout of illness and a few injuries which kept us from being full strength. However, this gave some of our developing athletes a chance to step up and be counting runners for the team. I thought several of them stepped up and competed well.

It was a very fast race because the weather was ideal and the course was primarily flat and dry. We didn't finish where we hoped to in the team standings, but in our sport we all recognize that September doesn't count for a whole lot. We know our team will score much better when it counts and everyone is healthy.

On our trip home we stopped in Yellowstone National Park and explored the Gallatin River for a few minutes....wow, that water was cold, but it felt great. Nobody fell in so that was good too.

MS Dinner of Champions

This past Wednesday evening I had the privilege of attending the Multiple Sclerosis Dinner of Champions presented by the McCarthey Family. (If the McCarthey name sounds familiar it is because they provided the lead gift for our new outdoor track and field facility that is currently being built). The McCarthey Family Foundation has a long history of providing support and generous gifts to many organizations and community projects that we are extremely proud to be a part of.

This dinner was amazing in so many ways. The evening honorees included community leaders, athletes, and people currently living with M.S. who continue to move everyday and help provide the answers that will one day unlock the mystery of this disease.

I sat with our Athletic Director, Dr. Chris Hill; Football coach, Kyle Whittingham; and a few members of last years 13-0, Sugar Bowl winning, Conference Champion team. Whittingham was being honored as the Sportsperson of the Year while the Football team was named the Team of the Year. It was a pleasure to be there to help honor them and all of the evenings award winners who come from all walks of life and provide a different perspective on M.S. Their stories and courage are all very inspirational.

My thanks to the Athletics Department and Dr. Hill for inviting me as well as Phil McCarthey for all of his support to our program, the University of Utah, and our great State of Utah.

Team Pre Meet Dinner

We had a great team meal this evening after our pre meet workout at the course here in Bozeman. As usual, we had some good Italian food and shared some good stories. The trip up through Yellowstone National Park was amazing as usual. The last 90 minutes of the trip from West Yellowstone to Bozeman are right out of "Field and Stream" magazine. After a tough week of practice we get another chance to see where we are at this point of the season tomorrow against a very tough field. Wish us luck!

Newspaper Article

The Salt Lake Tribune printed a nice article about our team in this mornings edition. It focuses on two of our freshmen and their different paths to Utah. Check it out!

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_13345570

Utes Shine in Community Events

This past weekend our teams (track and cross country) participated in two community events.

The Avenues Street Fair is an annual event in the historic "Avenues" neighborhood north of campus and downtown Salt Lake City. Vendors, organizations, and other community groups set up tents and stands promoting their items or organizations during this fun weekend event. Utah Athletic teams take turns manning the both throughout the morning and afternoon promoting their programs and speaking with the people and families who stop by the booth to meet them. We split the track team (non cross country runners) in two and had each group cover an hour time slot. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed speaking with all the different people who attended and asked questions. They also handed out stickers, balloons and signed autographs for the kids.

University Health Systems also had a Health Fair on our campus. Lots of vendors and organizations participated in this event that focused on good health. Our women's cross country team covered this event for our program. Like the Avenues Street Fair, they helped promote Utah athletics and our program by speaking with attendees, signing autographs, and being enthusiastic.

These community events are great ways to reach out to the community and our fans who support us. Everyone is positive and wants to know how we are doing and what our expectations for the upcoming year are. They are also excellent networking opportunities for our upperclassmen who are looking for jobs after they graduate. In both cases we had lots of help. This meant that we could always keep a few student athletes at the both and let the others wander around the Fairs meeting and greeting people and checking out the individual tents and stands.

Overall, it was another positive experience for all of our athletes and the time commitment was very minimal (one hour) for everyone. It also served as a team bonding event for our groups outside of practice or an athletics event.

Kep's Korner

Today marked the start of a new era in our program. I officially have 15 minute segment on our campus radio station (KUTE) during the Redzone Sports Talk Show. My segment is on Wednesdays from 12:15-12:30. You listen via live streaming from the internet or download the podcast. The download is usually available by the next day.

http://www.kute.utah.edu/wb/pages/podcasts.php

This the link to the show. Tune in to find out more about our program, Utah Athletics, and my knowledge of other sports....ha ha.

Tuesday Practice

On Tuesday we did some 3 minute bouts with 2 minutes rest at current race pace. Overall, I was pleased. However, it is still early and this young team has to do a better job of closing gaps and responding to moves. We still have 10 days before our next race to continue improving.

Today we had a team meeting with the track & field team to go over our team handbook, schedule, and provide necessary information on a variety of topics that will be required if we are to have a successful season. We have a great group who were attentive and added information to fill in a few of my gaps.

Overall, I am really excited with both the cross country and track & field teams. They are genuinely great women who are excited to continue moving our program forward.

The Season is Underway

Finally...we opened the race schedule on Saturday morning at Utah State. Overall, I was pleased with the effort. With such a young team I knew we might not score as well as we would have liked. However, we will close the gap on USU and Weber as the season progresses. They both beat us at this meet a year ago, but at the Regional meet in November we peaked and ran by them. The only thing I care about in September is that we give a great effort and learn how to run smart. We took some good steps in that direction with this meet.

The only negative is that we were too conservative in the first mile. I will take the blame for that because I warned our eight newcomers about not charging out like high schoolers typically do and to be patient. They followed my instructions, but it put us too far back after the first mile and we just ran out of race as I thought most of our gals finished well. We will address this in practice the next two weeks and start doing some more race specific training before we go to Montana State.

Our top two runners, freshmen Jenny McCune (11th) and Amanda Mergaert (13th) ran within five seconds of last years winning time put up by our own Chelsea DiGrazia. So it was a fast race and the weather was ideal.

Hangin' with Darius (aka Hootie)

We've had some really amazing concerts pass through SLC this year (Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, The Fray, Def Lepard, Toby Keith, Nickelback, and just to name a few). Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley will be coming later in September.

However, last night I went to a concert at a small amphitheater in Sandy (suburb of SLC). It maybe held 1000 people. It was a perfect night to be outside under the moon and stars. And the show was spectacular. Darius Rucker has gone country. (Most people remember him as the lead singer of the POP group "Hootie & the Blowfish" back in the 90's). He played all three of his number one hit singles from his debut country album and also mixed in some of the old Hootie favorites along with covers from Toby Keith, Jamey Johnson, and closed the night with Prince's huge hit "Purple Rain". A lot of great songs, a great band, Darius in rare form and our fifth row, dead center seats didn't hurt either :)

Kenyan Wednesday

Today we did a Kenyan Run at Liberty Park in downtown SLC. It's a pretty flat park with a 1.5 mile woodchip and/or grass trail that is perfect for this workout. After of good warm up we ran four miles starting at a pace slightly faster than a steady run and decreased 20 seconds per mile. Just about everyone hit their goal paces and looked good. All three groups looked relaxed the first half and then had to work over the second half of the run which simulates a race very well, but without a race like effort. I thought it went very well overall, especially when you consider how many newcomers we have who have never done a run quite like this.

Construction and Practice

September has officially begun. It still feels a lot like July here in SLC, but Fall will officially be here before we know it. Our first week of classes and practices has gone well, but we still have a lot of work to do with so many newcomers on the team this year.

The major news for us is that the construction of our new $2.6 million outdoor track & field facility has begun. I will continue to provide new pictures as the site changes. Completion is scheduled for around Thanksgiving time. This is slightly later than we hoped for and we need everyone to pray for good weather in October and November. However, we are all excited about this project.

We've had a few athletes that have been slowed down by some nagging injuries, but they seem to be getting better with each practice. Today we had a recovery run after a tough practice yesterday. We also did a little power work on a short steep hill at the end as you can see in the pictures.

The first football game of the '09 season is Thursday night. How will the Utes respond after a perfect 13-0 season last year? We will start to find out against in-state rival Utah State.