Ryan Shay's Journal

Introductory Entry

Filled to the gills, consisting only of items necessary to keep me clothed and occupied for some unknown period of time, I drove my 1996 Saturn SL1 across the country from Northern Michigan to Mammoth Lakes, CA. Now, I’ve loaded up my car many times in the past and hit the road, but always knowing where I was going, and that I would be returning home soon. This time was different. I wasn’t taking off for another year at Notre Dame, nor was I going road trippin’ with my buddies to some sunny coastal city with pristine beaches and coconut oil tanned senioritas. No, I was headin’ up to the mountains, up to the high dessert of the Sierra Nevada’s.

Yeah, I’ve been to the mountains before…briefly. There was that time when I was sixteen and raced the USATF Junior Olympic Cross Country Nationals held in Reno Nevada. Although Reno is just 5,000ft elevation, I learned my first lesson of the physiological effects of altitude training there. Going out hard and taking the lead through 2 miles of the 5k race, I died an awful death the last mile. Crossin’ the finish line dizzy and feeling like I was gonna pass out was a crude introduction to thin air running.

Then, there was the time I drove with my parents and my brother, Nathan, up to Lake Tahoe to spend a few days after the 2000 Track and Field Olympic Trials in Sacramento. As we climbed in elevation up highway 50 toward Tahoe, I could feel the air getting thinner and the oxygen diminishing. Tahoe is higher than Reno, about 6,000ft or so, and I felt every foot of elevation during my first run. At this time, I’d just finished up my junior year at ND, and had no idea I’d be making a move after my collegiate career to live and train at high elevation, in an oxygen-deprived environment. But, there I was, two years later, arranging the play list on my iPod to include some George Strait, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Johnny Cash, and others for my country list. Now, don’t get me wrong, country isn’t the only music fillin’ the ole iPod. My iPod mix is pretty eclectic, including some Tom Petty, Third Eye Blind, Techno, Rap, Metal, and everything in between. It just depends on the mood.

Well, the mood now was one of excitement, readiness, willing to start something new, something different. It was time to leave the Midwest of which I was born, raised, and educated. Awe, yeah…good old fashion Midwest values and work ethic. It’s not that I was lookin’ to leave those values behind, rather, bring them with me and plant them in new soil with hopes that doin’ so will result in the same type of success I had up to this point.

How could I not succeed? I was joining a group with some of the best, if not the best, names of distance running. The brain behind the operation (known at the time as Team Running USA Southern California) was none other than the world-renowned coach, Joe Vigil. Throw in some Olympians like Meb Keflezighi, Nick Rogers, Deena Drossin (now Deena Kastor), Jen Rhines, and Amy Rudolph, the potential for such a training group is looking very good. Oh, not to mention two other marathon All-Stars of the time, Terrence Mahon and Peter DeLaCerda and 5K/10K specialist Matt Downin. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but I knew a few things; these athletes have had much success, they have a great coach, and that I wanted to be a part of it.

After 10 days or so of driving across the country, I found my way to the mountain resort town of Mammoth Lakes. The drive was long, but I had company in my two youngest brothers, Elliott and Stephan. We took our time drivin’ up through the U.P. across Wisconsin, through Minnesota, on to South Dakota (spending a day in Sturgis for the Sturgis Biker Rally and to see Mt. Rushmore), blazing through Wyoming, until we came to Yellowstone. After a couple days in Yellowstone we continued down Utah, across Nevada, and finally up to Mammoth Lakes. With the trip completed, I pulled up to the Team Running USA condo, known as the “Blue Roofs”. I met my roommate for, Billy Herman, unloaded my belongings, and went for a 5 mile run.

The next day I met my new training partners and team members of Running USA. Some of these athletes I had met before, others I had only heard of, seen at races, or competed against. The one I was most impressed with was not one of the Olympians or American record holders uh-uh it was coach Vigil. From day one, I was completely taken, absolutely impressed, with this man’s ability to motivate and his abundant knowledge of the science, physiology, and philosophy of the sport. Coach Vigil also possessed the tough love mentality I was looking for in a coach. Within the first week of training, frustration got the best of me. Coach Vigil’s response was, “Ryan, you must realize that you are no longer the stud of the team like you were at Notre Dame. You are going to get your ass handed to you out here, but you know what…it’s going to make you better, if you don’t let your emotions get the better of you.”

Although coach Vigil was the master fabricator and facilitator of my training program, I did have other mentors whom I turned to for advice as I prepared to take on the grueling event known as the marathon, directly out of college. Terrence Mahon and Peter DeLaCerda took on this role for me, as they were both very experienced marathoners and the elders of the group. Whenever I had questions regarding marathon training, fueling, rest, whatever, these guys did there best to give me advice. Terrence and Peter where also there to help me out in my first Marathon, the La Salle Bank Chicago Marathon, in 2002. I was to tuck in behind Terrence and Peter, and go along for the ride. Sure enough, around 5k, I got impatient, and tried to move up to the front of the pack. I got about a foot in front of Terrence and felt a tug on my Jersey and heard these words, “settle down… not yet.” I tucked back in behind Terrence…for a while that is. Being the youngest member of Team Running USA, I had much to learn, and a long way to go.

Almost four years had gone by and I’ve had my fair share of successes and disappointments during my professional career. Things were changing with Team Running USA. Many runners had come and gone. It takes a lot of sacrifice, dedication, and focus to leave friends, family, girlfriends, boyfriends, and the like, to live and train for months on end with a group of people you may or may not get along with. I have to admit that it was not difficult to get along with the athletes of Team Running USA. The chemistry on the team was like no other I’ve experienced. Everyone was always positive and supportive. The clashing of egos was never present. But, like I said, times were changing. Eventually I found myself training much on my own as members left the group. Some new people came, trained for a month or so, and then left. The only consistent members training in Mammoth after a while were Deena, Meb, and myself.

The biggest change came when coach Vigil decided to take a step back from coaching and spend more time with his wife in Tucson, AZ. Coach Vigil had dedicated so much of his life to the sport and after the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, of which Deena and Meb came home with bronze and silver medals respectively; he thought it would be best to dedicate more of himself to his family.

The future of Team Running USA was uncertain to me. Uncertain of training partners, uncertain of a coach, I returned to Mammoth in the winter of 2005 to prepare for the Boston Marathon. Now, although coach Vigil was not actively coaching during this time, he was still the master fabricator of my training program. It’s just that now, I had a different facilitator, my former mentor and Team Running USA teammate, Terrence Mahon.

This arrangement worked out pretty well, as I was use to taking advice from Terrence and trusted his judgment. However, one thing was still missing from the group…other training partners. Meb was supposed to race London that spring, which would have afforded me a marathon training partner. As it was, Meb was dealing with an injury and was unable to train. My preparations for Boston were to be done on my own, but not alone. Terrence put in a lot of time coaching me during workouts, running with me for part of my long runs, my recovery runs, and some of my secondary runs. Not to mention making sure I had my fluids, timing me during intervals, and scouting out different places to run. He did a great job, but it was just the beginning of his role with Team Running USA.

I topped of the tank to my 2005 Ford F-150 King Ranch in Flagstaff, AZ to begin the long drive to Woodside, CA, just outside of Palo Alto. All my belongings fit easily in the Super Crew Cab, a little more room than the ole Saturn. The gas mileage is far from the Saturn’s though. Ouch, seventy bucks to fill up, talk about highway robbery. This trip is feelin’ somewhat similar to my initial trip out to Mammoth Lakes to join up with TRUSA. Oh yeah, that’s the acronym used now thanks to Track and Field News. The team members have changed quite a bit. Four years ago, I joined TRUSA as the youngest member. Now, I join as one of the oldest, with many younger, faster studs to train with. I was just as excited to rejoin Team Running USA. I was looking forward to working on my speed, to get away from marathon training for the spring, and lower my 5k/10k times. Once again, the new names heading the TRUSA roster were big. They included Ian Dobson, Ryan Hall, and Gabe Jennings on the men’s side; Lauren Fleshman, Kate and Laura O’Neil, Missy Buttry, Sarah, Hall, and Alicia Craig. The coaching has also changed, as Terrence, has fully taken on the position. He’s already off to a terrific start with puttin’ together the team. It appears he’s spent quite a bit of time around Stanford’s campus to round up the new young bloods.

Personally, I’ve never spent much time in the “Bay Area.” I drove into the town of Woodside in the dark, so I couldn’t get much a feel for where I had arrived. I met up with Terrence at a gas station in town and followed him up into the foothills to the “Woodside House.” The accommodations at the “Woodside House,” consisted of everything a group of runners would need, which isn’t much. There were sleeping quarters, two bathroom, a kitchen, a T.V. room (used mainly for stretching and core exercises), and a hot tub outside which did not work, hence was converted to an ice tub. The house was built in the 1960s and not much has been updated since. It had four real bedrooms, but we managed to convert 3 other rooms into bedrooms. Since I arrived last to the house, I was stuck in a room about the size of a closest. Seriously, I couldn’t even open the door to the room without it hittin’ the bed. I didn’t care much though. Just give me a place to sleep and I’m set. Place up on the side of the foothills; tucked away among the trees, it was a very quiet, peaceful place. However, the canopy of the wooded area did not allow for the emission of much light, leaving the house dark, cold, and damp, which might be an understatement. For the two the few months I spent in the Bay Area, it seemed like it poured every single day, with temperatures in the 40s. I wasn’t about to complain though. I had spent the past two months back in Northern Michigan where the temps were in the single digits, sometimes below zero. I was just happy to be training in a mild climate and back with Team Running USA.

It did not take me long to recognize the different personalities of my new teammates. Right out of college, with either newly acquired, or more reinforced philosophies, ideologies, and values, my new teammates where not short of opinions and views on any and all topics. Most of the time conversation, or debates were kept civil. I always welcome intellectual stimulation. Aside from differences in the political, moral, and religious fronts, there were also differences in personalities and lifestyles and most of the time I can be pretty obnoxious. I like to demonstrate absurdity by being absurd. I don’t mind confrontation. In fact, I welcome it, when others avoid it. I soon found out that some of the others I was living with were not so welcoming. Equilibrium in the group was soon found and, for the most part, we all got along.

Now that I’ve been living and training with TRUSA for 5 months, I’ve come to know and respect my new teammates. We all have similar goals and want to help each other reach those goals. The chemistry of the team, with all the different personalities, has produced and environment conducive to enormous opportunities for each athlete. It is now up to each athlete to take full advantage of these opportunities in order to maximize his, or her, potential.