Welcome to the official blog of 2007 Footlocker Cross Country National Champion Michael Fout! Make sure to bookmark the link http://michaelfout.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Thursday for Mike’s latest entries as he completes his senior year of high school running and begins his NCAA career at Florida State!
What a weekend this past weekend was! There were jaw-dropping performances from both the NON meet in North Carolina and the Junior Nationals in Ohio. I am sure that the news has been broken to you about those performances, but I just wanted to congratulate all of those who had the opportunity to compete in those races and especially congratulate the winners and All-Americans. A huge congratulations goes out to German Fernandez for his uncontested performance of the week in my eyes and many others’. His national record in the 2 mile run was truly incredible, and even though he is a competitor of mine and I will race him in the seasons to come, credit must be given where credit is due. Congrats man.
While last weekend was nothing short of amazing and entertaining to follow, starting tomorrow the athletes that strive to represent the United States in Beijing will toe the line (throw, jump, etc.). This is really the first time I will closely follow the trials and the Olympic Games, and I am extremely excited.
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Welcome to the official blog of 2007 Footlocker Cross Country National Champion Michael Fout! Make sure to bookmark the link http://michaelfout.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Thursday for Mike’s latest entries as he completes his senior year of high school running and begins his NCAA career at Florida State!
The road to recovery has been undeniably long. It has been a struggle to watch as the state finals here in Indiana came to a close and to sit back and see all of the jaw-dropping results that runners across the States are throwing down. But, I am extremely happy to announce that I am well on my way back to being and feeling like the runner I should be.
Sure, right now it is nothing major … run 2 days, take a day off, run 2 days and take a day off, and so on. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now. And as much as I would like to be able to go out for a 15 miler on Sunday, I know that I have to remain patient. It is nice to have my coach, Bob Braman of FSU, preaching that to me. Because of him, I feel more grounded already, and to me that is a good thing. This coming up week, since all is going well, I hope to run each day, just 30 minutes. But after being kept from the sport I love for 2 dreadful months, some is certainly better than none.
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Welcome to the official blog of 2007 Footlocker Cross Country National Champion Michael Fout! Make sure to bookmark the link http://michaelfout.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Thursday for Mike’s latest entries as he completes his senior year of high school running and begins his NCAA career at Florida State!
Talk about the excitement in the air. The post season is finally here in Indiana and in many states across the country. Collegiate regionals will even be run soon. Yeah, yeah, it kills me to watch, but I am a huge fan of the sport in general, so being that it is time for people to start rolling, I am excited. And, as time has gone on and my injuries are beginning to heal up, I have learned even more and appreciated even more than I thought possible.
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Welcome to the official blog of 2007 Footlocker Cross Country National Champion Michael Fout! Make sure to bookmark the link http://michaelfout.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Thursday for Mike’s latest entries as he completes his senior year of high school running and begins his NCAA career at Florida State!
Yesterday, May 7, I officially became a man. And by that, I mean I turned 18 years old. As you could probably guess, I do not feel any different than I did when I was 17. Another year, another two seasons of running almost complete. Along with my birthday celebrations came reflections on the past. Those reflections dealt, of course, with running. And what a year it has been.
This time last year I was a healthy body, running everyday and incredibly excited about the track season I was putting together. I was beginning to think that I could be a national caliber runner. My first goal: Winning the state championship in the 3200 meter run. As the days until the state meet quickly passed, I was beginning to feel very anxious to see if I could reach that goal. In my head, I knew I could do it. The day came, and there was no way I was going to lose. It turns out, I didn’t! I had done it. It was, however, by no means easy. I won by just over a second as a hard charging, now freshman IU runner, came on strong. But as I crossed the line, an unexplainable feeling of excitement rushed through my body. Next stop: Nike Outdoor Nationals. I ran a 9:03 3200 a few weeks prior to NON and my goal on that chilly night in North Carolina was to run sub 9 for 2 full miles. As everybody knows, the 2 mile field that night was ridiculous as far as talent goes. I knew I had a good chance and that I could just hop on the end and “go for a ride.” I wound up finishing 11th and ran 8:58 for the full deuce! I knew I had to now put together a great cross season so that people would not think my run was just some fluke. Let the work begin.
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Welcome to the official blog of 2007 Footlocker Cross Country National Champion Michael Fout! Make sure to bookmark the link http://michaelfout.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Thursday for Mike’s latest entries as he completes his senior year of high school running and begins his NCAA career at Florida State!
Someone once said, “Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.” For those who do not know, I have been dealing with injury for some time now. Up until last week, I had not run since March 22. I had, and am recovering from, a stress fracture in my right tibia. Sure, injuries are no fun, but the fact is that most of us will come across one at some point in time. I have had my fair share of injuries, and they never really get any easier to deal with, but you learn to deal with them in different ways.
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Welcome to the official blog of 2007 Footlocker Cross Country National Champion Michael Fout! Make sure to bookmark the link http://michaelfout.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Thursday for Mike’s latest entries as he completes his senior year of high school running and begins his NCAA career at Florida State!
Outdoor season has officially arrived! I am waiting for my chance to really “hammer” a 3200 or 1600 outdoors. With a lot of the guys around the country running blazing times this early, I feel that when I get my chance I can do the same. I am really looking forward to going after that state record held by Mr. Rudy Chapa. I recently had the opportunity to speak with him and he seems very excited about me going for it. It is awesome to have him cheering me on. He is an Indiana legend and I also hope to leave behind some kind of a legacy.
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It’s not often that a major world championship comes to Great Britain, seemingly a prime opportunity for the host country’s best athlete’s to shine. However, only a handful of Britain’s best have answered the call to run for Queen and country, and an athlete with an American father and a Scottish mother who works part-time at a restaurant in Flagstaff, Ariz., will be the U.K.’s top man when the gun sounds for the senior men’s 12 km race here on Sunday afternoon.
Andrew Lemoncello, a talented steeplechaser who starred at Florida State University and won the ACC indoor titles at 3000m and 5000m last year, is excited to compete in Holyrood Park. Rooming with Irishman Martin Fagan in high altitude Flagstaff where he is coached by American Greg McMillan, Lemoncello has come through a snowy winter with some solid training under his belt.
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Welcome to the official blog of 2007 Footlocker Cross Country National Champion Michael Fout! Make sure to bookmark the link http://michaelfout.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Thursday for Mike’s latest entries as he completes his senior year of high school running and begins his NCAA career at Florida State!
Distance running, I have found, is a very frustrating sport. It seems that there will always be somebody better than you are. But when you race that person, you should give it your all. Put forth every ounce of energy that you have. Fall across the finish line. Do not ever realize that somebody may be better than you, and give up.
A couple of weeks back, I was running and it was getting dark outside. The street lights came on and the porch lights near everybody’s doors did the same. The temperature began to drop as the sun went down, and no dogs could be heard barking at that hour. While approaching the street lights, I noticed that my shadow could be seen. Every time I reached the golden glow cast by the street light, my shadow was always just ahead of me. It was like it was teasing me. I could not catch the shadow no matter what happened.
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Florida State Men Ranked #1 in NCAA Indoor T&F
The Florida State men’s track & field team is ranked #1 in the USTFCCCA preseason indoor rankings. Led by Walter Dix, they won the 2006 and 2007 Outdoor NCAA titles. Washington is ranked 2nd and Tennessee is ranked 3rd. Read more at: [USTFCCCA]
LSU Women Ranked #1 in NCAA Indoor T&F
The LSU women lead the USTFCCCA preseason NCAA Div. I Rankings for indoor track & field. They are led by hurdler Jessica Ohanaja and sprinter Kelly Ann Baptiste. Arizona State
begins the season ranked 2nd and Tennessee is ranked 3rd. Read more at: [USTFCCCA]
IAAF To Begin End-Of-Year Reviews On Saturday
This Saturday marks the first day of the IAAF’s annual end-of-year reviews. The IAAF is the world’s governing body of track & field. Here are the publication dates: Combined Events (Saturday, 12/22), Throws (Monday, 12/24), Jumps (Wednesday, 12/26), Hurdles (Thursday, 12/27), Road Running / Race Walks (Friday, 12/28), Long Distance/ Steeplechase (Saturday, 12/29), Middle Distance (Sunday, 12/30), Sprints (Monday, 12/31). Read more beginning this Saturday at: [IAAF]
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From gun to tape, the women’s division of today’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships had only one leader: Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech. The junior from Kenya ran away from the field to defend her individual title in 19:30.9 (unofficial) over the 6 km course in Terre Haute, Ind.
Last year, Kipyego sprinted to the fore at the gun and never looked back. However, Kipyego was content to run most of the first mile with a lead pack this year that included three others: Colorado’s Jenny Barringer, the 2006 runner-up, Florida State’s Susan Kuijken, and Iowa’s Diana Nukuri.
Kipyego started to edge ahead on a long downhill just past the mile passing the 2 km in 6:26. Barringer, Kuijken, and Nukuri were only a second behind at the split before the field made their way up the course’s second long incline.
From that point on, Kipyego simply extended her lead over the chase pack — passing 4 km in 13:01, 11 seconds ahead of Barringer, Kuijken, and Nukuri.
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