Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon #RunMSP

  1        2        3        4       5        6         7       8         9       10     11     12      13  
5:48,    5:48,  5:38 , 5:35,  5:41, 5:38,    5:44,  5:45,    5:55,  5:46,  5:53,  5:56,  6:00,

    14   15    16      17    18     19    20     21    22     23    24    25      26    26.2
 6:06, 5:57, 6:08, 6:08, 6:11, 6:14, 6:16, 6:29, 6:46, 6:46, 6:28, 6:32, 6:21, 1:20   Time = 2:38.57

Have you ever walked into a play that you thought was going to be a comedy and been surprised to find out that it is actually a tragedy? Well, that is what I discovered when I got to about 16 miles into the Twin Cities Marathon. I made the rookie mistake of letting someone else dictate my race – I was reading lines from a tragedy in the middle of my own comedy.

When I set off from the starting line I had one goal in mind, the win. The start went out fast which surprised me and instead of sticking to my own pace I began to rationalize. My mind turned over as quickly as my legs – “I’m as fit as these girls, if I want to win I have to run with them.” “I know this pace is faster than I wanted to average, but they are probably trying to gain some cushion time right now where the course is a little easier”. “I feel good, this pace doesn’t feel crazy, I’m going to do fine”.

I was in the top three, stalking the leaders. As the leaders continued to push the pace, I eventually decided that I could let them go a little bit, keep them in sight but allow them to play themselves out and I would pick them up later. But that didn’t happen, the early damage was done and the rest of the race was a lonely fight to the finish line.

People have asked “When did you feel it?” And my response is, there was never one moment where I said to myself “oh crap”, just a slow deterioration of my pace and with it the accumulation of a few more women in front of me. I was able to hold on to finish in the top 10 and get an Olympic Trials A qualifying time, but that was about it. Mostly I felt foolish….I said to myself over and over again before the race, “I’m going to run my own race” and yet I didn’t execute that plan. I didn’t trust in myself enough.

Lance Elliot (who did trust his own abilities and ran a brilliant race), who I spent a lot of time training with in the past months ended up passing me just before mile 24, just in time for the “smile cam” to snap a picture of us in the mere seconds that we were on the course side by side that day. And instead of smiling as the huge sign next to the camera suggested, I just wanted to give that sign a swift kick. If only I could have picked my legs up more than the few inches needed to clear the pavement for my next step forward.

Oh, and the cherry on top of the cake. I was the only lucky woman that weekend to get drug tested on both Saturday and Sunday! I got to spend a lot of quality time exposing myself to the nice people from USADA. I say this in half jest, because it’s great to have USADA there helping to ensure that the sport that I love is clean. But at the same time, no matter how many times you do it, it is never a comfortable thing to have to drop your shorts with a pair of foreign eyes watching on.

Well now it is over and it’s back to the grindstone for 6 weeks, until the US Championships on Nov 17th in Alexandria, VA. This will be a 12K race which will serve as the “culminating event of USATF’s USA Running Circuit and USATF’s flagship road race, featuring $100,000 in prize money, the race offers an opportunity for everyone to test their limits and enjoy a scenic run through historic Alexandria” (USATF.org).  I am currently in 6th place on the leader board, with the 12k counting as triple points towards the road racing circuit. Can I catch the women in front of me and jump into one of the top three spots? Stay tuned. Make sure to watch the race on Sunday Nov. 17th, or even better yet come out and run!

"Meghan Peyton Preps for Twin Cities" -- Running Times Interview

Meghan Peyton Preps for Twin Cities

After winning the U.S. 20K championships in September, the hometown favorite makes her second attempt at the marathon distance.

By

Sarah Barker

Published

October 1, 2013

Meghan Peyton, 27, is in the crazy-making taper before Sunday’s Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. The kind of crazy-making in which she does five miles a day. In two workouts. Adding to the stress level, Peyton finds herself on a short list of favorites in a hometown event, the U.S. marathon championships, over a distance she has never completed.

When she was still Meghan Armstrong, she won three consecutive Oregon state high school titles at 1500m and 3,000m, molding her self-image as a mid-distance runner. Once set, the mid-d persona is very durable. But after the NCAA 1500m final eluded her several times, she was more receptive when, in her senior track season at University of Iowa, coach Layne Anderson suggested the 10,000. Her first go at the distance was at Stanford, which turned out much better than she expected and she ran 33:28. She did the 5K-10K double at the 2008 Big Ten championships, winning the 10K, and finished out her college career with sixth place at the 10,000 meters at nationals.

Upon graduation in 2008, she and soon-to-be husband, Cole Peyton, hit the road, checking out training groups and seeing the country, eventually parking the car in Minneapolis with Team USA Minnesota. With the group, she plays the role of the level-headed, quiet, jack-of-all-trades, running roads, track and cross country. Peyton has a 1500m PB of 4:17.4, a half-marathon best of 1:13:43 and a posting at every distance in between. In September, she won the U.S. 20K championships in New Haven, Conn., in 1:09:57. The only event missing from her resume is the marathon, which she will fill in shortly.

When not running alongside Minnesota’s lakes and rivers, she is the Cross Country Fellow at Augsburg College (which is like assistant coach), a client services coordinator at Banfield Pet Hospital and proud Saucony athlete ambassador. She spoke to Running Times before her marathon debut.

Running Times: Your first attempt at the marathon was January 2012, the Olympic trials. Why the big jump in distance?

Meghan Peyton: Dennis (Barker, coach of Team USA Minnesota) kept asking me when I was going to get over my obsession with the mile, and I kept saying, “Every race begins with a mile.” Which is to say, never. But he was persistent in mentioning the marathon, working it into conversations. It was intimidating but I’d done a number of halfs and they had gone OK.

RT: How did the Olympic trials marathon go?

MP: I felt really good for the first 15 miles. I had a blister, but that was in the back of my mind. The pack I was in kept surging and slowing down, from 5:30s to 5:50s, and since this was the trials, I was focused on racing rather than hitting splits. So every time they surged, I went with them. At the 19-mile aid station, I took a Roctane gel, which I had not experimented with before and almost immediately my head felt like a balloon floating up above my body. What does that have, three times the caffeine of one cup of coffee? Plus my blood sugar was low at that point. At 22, the Roctane wore off and I started to crash. Just before 24 miles, you had to do a 180-degree turn around a pylon, my blister hurt and my hip flexors—I thought I’d trip over the chip mat. I could not lift my legs. People started to pass me. My spirit was broken. I looked over and saw the aid station at 24 miles. I know, 24 miles! But at that point, two more miles was an eternity. Even having slowed down, I was on pace for a 2:36, top-twenty finish. I stepped off the course and burst into tears. Lot of excuses but it came down to me giving up on myself. It’s the only race I’ve ever dropped out of, and I swore it would never happen again. Cole, everyone had gone on to the finish line. He said later, if he’d been there, he wouldn’t have let me quit.

RT: Then what?

MP: I was so disappointed in myself, I took four days off and started training again. Hard. I did five or six 10Ks in the spring, focusing on the 10K at the trials. I took some time off at the end of the summer, then ran the 5K championships in Providence, 30 seconds slower than the previous year. Then the 20K championships, three minutes slower than 2011. People tried to convince me it was in my head but after that, I knew it wasn’t in my head. I couldn’t move. I went to the doctor and as I was telling her what I’d been doing, she just shook her head. “Have you heard of overtraining?” she asked me. I had low iron and B12, which was a first for me. I eat meat, leafy greens. I’m not a picky eater. Anyway, she gave me a B12 shot and told me to double my iron supplement, and I felt better, not 100%, but better the rest of 2012.

RT: How did the Twin Cities Marathon come about?

MP: I was looking for redemption at the marathon. It’s a U.S. championship, it’s where I live. It was an obvious choice.

RT: What’s different about your training?

MP: Higher mileage and races every weekend as workouts. The low iron thing is behind me, so higher mileage hasn’t been a problem. No one else in the group is running the marathon, so instead of doing these long hard workouts by myself, we planned a lot of races, all 15K or longer. I can practice eating and drinking protocol, run harder than I would by myself and get used to surging. Or not when other people do. I lined up U.S. championships and then filled in with other races so I was racing every weekend.

RT: Tell me about your peak training.

MP: The week leading up to Bobby Crim (Aug. 24), I hit 132 miles. My previous highest mileage week was 107. I frontloaded the week so my legs wouldn’t betoo trashed, so Sunday was 21 miles, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were 18 in the morning and seven in the afternoon. Thursday was 15. My teammate, Heather Kampf, came to Flint with me because there was a road mile on Friday night. The race director said I should enter the mile, too, because the field was weak and prize money went five deep. I ran the mile, got fifth and $250, and the six miles total I’d planned for Friday. Saturday I ran the 10 mile (in 56:41) with a 3-mile warmup and cool down.

RT: During the week, just mileage?

MP: Yes, two-a-days. On Wednesdays, I usually did something fast, like 6 x 800 or 12 x 400.

RT: Some were surprised by your win at the 20K Championship. Were you?

MP: I was, not because I didn’t think I had the talent, but because I didn’t expect it that day. I’d done around 95 miles that week, it was absolutely thick with humidity. My previous best finish at that race was seventh and last year I was 18th, so no, I didn’t have a lot of confidence. At first, I was elated to be in the lead pack and then, when I was by myself in the lead, I was confused but thought, “Just keep pushing. I think you can win this but you’d better get away from them now.” The last two or three miles is this long straight road and I didn’t want to turn around to see who was back there, but I thought, “They’re going to hunt you down.” I was running scared. I’d worked so hard and didn’t want to lose it at the end, so I ran as hard as I could. I was sort of stunned when I crossed the line.

RT: While Competitor Group has cancelled their elite athlete program, I understand other smaller organizations are stepping up. Tell me about that.

MP: (laughs) Well, yes, to the tune of $93. My first weekend race/workout back at the beginning of August was the Grand View Firehouse 15K in a small town in northern Wisconsin. As we were warming up, the announcer was challenging all the women, wondering if any of us had the guts to chase the 21-year-old course record. It looked attainable, but I was told the course was very hilly. After battling with last year’s (male) winner and hometown favorite, and running the last couple miles on a state highway that was open to traffic, I heard the announcer saying, “Meghan, you are my hero!” I won overall and broke the course record by almost six minutes. I cooled down running the course in reverse, cheering those still finishing, and nearly every woman asked, “Did you get it?” At the award ceremony, they presented me with a plaque and $93 they had collected from spectators in a Bud Light pitcher. Of all the awards I’ve earned, this was one of the very best. I felt like I had inspired someone, the announcer anyway, and elite athletes do have value to the running community. I was really touched by the gesture.

RT: What’s the plan for Twin Cities Marathon?

MP: I’ll focus on hitting splits for the first 15 or so. I’m aiming for low 2:30s. I’d like to place high in the (U.S.) championship. Going for the W would be awesome

$93 and a Bud Light Pitcher

Yes, the first Sunday in August was a $93.00 and a bud light pitcher kind of weekend. You’re probably wondering what in the world I could mean by that. Let me explain…

But first let’s back up to Friday, August 1st.

That Friday I found myself bustling around my house in a tired trance, trying to get everything ready for a weekend out of town with friends -- Travis and Becky McCathie.  A trip to their cabin up in Hayward, Wisconsin –home of the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame which contains a 200-foot fiberglass musky, the world's largest fiberglass structure. Pretty cool huh?  ;-)

I was looking forward to relaxing on the Namekagon River and letting my legs rest up from several weeks of very high mileage, before participating in the Grand View Firehouse 15K on Sunday. I would use the race as a training run in prep for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, which will also play host to the 2013 USA Women’s Marathon Championship.

After an atypical pre-race Saturday full of fun around town at the putt-putt golf course, boating and riding the hotdog (aka tubing) on one of the many lakes, 6:15am Sunday rolled around a little too quickly. I reluctantly pulled myself out of the warm bed, with the peaceful sounds of the river babbling outside the widow and began my prerace routine….practice make perfect when it comes time for the major championship races. So I first got up, made some coffee, prepped my fluid bottle, and had a light breakfast. And then I proudly pulled on my Saucony racing kit, packed up my Type A racing flats and started sipping on my water bottle before we left the cabin to go get registered for the race.

Warm-Up: After getting my bib, it was time to get warmed up.  A pretty standard routine, which I am sure many people do, of about 20 minutes of jogging, stretching, drills and strides. The one unusual occurrence being that the race announcer was goading all of the women in the race about how old the course record was – it being from 1992 – and pondering aloud if anyone in the field had the guts to chase the 21 year old mark. I had looked at the time the day before and knew that it was certainly attainable, but was also forewarned that the course was very hilly. So I wasn’t sure how much of a factor that would be.

Race: At just before 8am the field lined up along a single chalk line on a narrow road just past the fire station in the town of a population of 483. The top of the hour brought the race to a start. I was with the leader from the start and about a half mile in he was asking me “So what’s your goal?” I quickly replied. “53 minutes, but I don’t know how hilly this course is.” The next thing I knew, he was putting in a strong surge. And I found myself unromantically thinking “Dude, I am going to bury you!”  I guess my racing instincts kicked in a bit. My competitor was obviously the previous year’s winner and a local favorite, because even the course photographer was cheering for him by name.  Over the next mile and a half we climbed up a gradual hill, and I caught back up to him and took the lead. But he battled with me for the next several miles, staying right on my heels. Finally somewhere at about the 6 mile mark, I was able to shake him loose a bit. But I knew that I had to keep pressing, not only for my workout, but to win the race. Because this guy was a good downhill runner – and the last two miles were all just that – I was having daydreams of striding my way down the hills assured of victory and getting passed by this runner in the last minutes of the race. So I tried to continue to build on my lead before the last two mile segment. The middle miles of the race were a little technical because they were on gravel roads, so I was swerving on the road a bit more than usual looking for the best footing. At about the 6.5 mile mark I passed my fan club, getting a final burst of energy before the home stretch. At mile 7 I made a sharp left turn down a state highway that was still open to traffic! I resisted the temptation to look behind me and see where my competitor was. Meanwhile I began debating if I was still allowed to take the tangents going down this road, seeing that it was an active highway. I decided that yes, I had the right of way. I think at times I get a false sense of security from all those endorphins in my veins. Thankfully, it proved a non-issue.

The Finish and Awards: At 53 minutes and 40 seconds after the gun went off I crossed the finish line in first place. Much to the surprise of the community an announcer – I broke the previous course record by nearly 6 minutes. As I sprinted down the final straight away, spectators were cheering loudly and the announcer was telling me convincingly that “Meghan, you are my hero!” I ended up beating racer #2 by a narrow 19 seconds. I was very happy with the race effort and after catching my breath went off to do my cool down. I ran the course in reverse cheering for those that were still finishing. As I ran by them, nearly every woman asked “Did you get it?” and I was obliged to tell them that yes, I did.

Once I returned to the finish area, I really got a shock! I hear the announcer once again saying my name…as I listened to what he was prattling on about a huge smile came to my face. He was telling the crowed over the loud speaker that he had put out a bud light pitcher in order to collect a preem for my performance. He encouraged everyone to contribute and that it would be given to me at the awards ceremony! I was deeply touched by this gesture. Later at the awards ceremony I was presented with a beautiful wooden plaque and $93 in a bud light pitcher used as a collection plate. I can honestly say that of the many awards I have earned during my running career, this was one of the very best. It is so rare that I see true confirmation that I have inspired someone to take their own fitness into their hands, but on this day I had no doubt. And it felt great!

Inspiration Strayed

Inspiration is often found in the most unlikely of places. When I picked up Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail at the insistence of a dear friend, I thought it would be an intriguing tale of high adventure, and nothing more. A gutsy story of how she survived her solo trek along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), making her way from the Mojave Desert in California, up to the Bridge of the Gods on the border between Oregon and Washington – a journey of over 1,100miles, by foot.  But, I was wrong. I was inspired by her gut-wrenching story – equally moved to laughter, as I was to tears.

The world is a small place, and I am constantly reminded of this each time I meet a new person and find that we often have shared experiences. Cheryl Strayed, despite having never met her in my life, feels like someone with whom I share a common history. As she describes her early life in Minnesota, her trek along the PCT, and finding her eventual home in Portland, Oregon; I can’t help but mentally take off my bright green Saucony Mirage 3’s and don her rugged hiking boots. I have many memories of these places, having lived in both. I amalgamate these memories with hers into what feels like a shared experience. I find myself feeling cocky right along with her when she first starts out on her journey down the PCT – “What was hiking but walking, after all? I can walk! […]I walk all the time” (Strayed, p. 50) and, I run hundreds of miles a month; this journey along the trail would be easy! But then I feel myself fray right along with her, as she encounters both the physical elements of the PCT as well as the haunting memories from her past.

Although Cheryl and I also have a lot of experiences that we don’t have in common, like her use of heroin or growing up in a broken family, there are many things that we have shared.  I myself have climbed Broken Top Mountain, with a gaggle of my best high school friends (Thanks Colleen Godfrey, Lindsay Hallvik, and Mallory Freed for the still cherished memories), and explored the vibrant cities of Minneapolis and Portland. I have skied the mountain slopes of Mt. Bachelor (thank you Heidi Peyton and my lovely husband Cole), run along mountain trails in Southern California (Dennis Barker, or more adoringly D-Dawg, thank you), gazed at the magnificent beauty of Mt. Hood from the windows of Timberline Lodge and felt totally lost in a world that feels too big to comprehend.

 I used to think that as I grew older that life would slow down and I would be able to finally grasp this world that feels too big with my two bare hands. But, actually the opposite is true – each year goes by faster and the world has shrunk. Though creating relationships is not my strong suit due to my introverted harrier nature, I have learned to cherish the ones I have. In this world that continues to shrink, that is where I discover more – I continue to learn. When people meet me, I think I am often perceived as standoffish (Thanks DAD!) – but truly I am introspective. I am listening to what you have to say, because it is how I continue to learn. For example, whenever I am visiting my chiropractor Travis McCathie at Northwestern Health Sciences University, I ask him 101 questions because his mad scientist way of thinking is intriguing to me, and his teacher’s patience allows me to do so. I listen, absorb, and take my Saucony clad body out on a run to mull it over.

As my world continues to whiz by and shrink, each of my relationships new and well seasoned allow me to remember to keep learning and testing myself. It is easy to become complacent, settling for “good enough”, but that is not who I want to be. I want to continue to learn and be alive, strap a pair of Saucony Type A’s to my feet and step to the line to race without fear – testing the limits of my human spirit, forming relationships with people that will let me just sit and listen and ask the occasional question because that is where I find inspiration. Which charmingly, is also the beauty of running – it is a time where I can be introspective with the world around me, listen to what it and my body are telling me. Cheryl Strayed’s novel is one written without holding back and has filled me with inspiration anew. Keep pushing and learning because “It [is] my life – like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me” (p. 311).

New Bucket List Item: Hike either the PCT or Appalachian Trail

Is "Green" a Mirage?

There are only a few things that I am truly passionate about. One of them is obvious, and typically the subject of this blog, running. The second is "green" technology. I personally try to live as "green" as I possibly can. A few examples being joining my first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) with Featherstone Farms, my shampoo and conditioner (Garnier's Pure Clean - both over 94% biodegradable) and I recycle all of my used running shoes so that they can be made into things like rubber tracks and dog beds! These are just a few of the things I have changed in my life to play my part in helping to make our world better and more sustainable now and in the future. Sure. I would love to own a home that is green to the core, with an energy efficient exterior and solar panels to not only power the electrical components of the house, but also the hot water heater. Last summer I got to tour the home of some family friends in Sisters, Oregon and honestly I was green with envy (pun totally intended). It was not only a beautiful home, but the energy company was actually paying them for the surplus energy their home created! For now I will do the little things that I can until one day this dream too is a reality. But is this good enough? Is being "less bad" the best thing for our world?  

This YouTube video is an interview by Bill Moyers of PBS and Daniel Goleman, author of the best-selling book Emotional Interlligence (which I recommend you read if you have time). It is a brief 20 minute discussion of why currently being "green" is a mirage, but it also discuss small steps we can each take to make in impact on our world and -- to paraphrase Ghandi, bumper-sticker style, "Be the change you wish to see in the world".  

National Champions!

An Interview done by Jim Ferstle of Down the Backstretch: Downthebackstrech.blogspot.com

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2012

Meghan Peyton Talks About 2012, the USATF XC Club Championships, and 2013

Photo by Gene Niemi

Team USA Minnesota's Meghan Peyton finished off 2012 with a bang.  She led the team to the USATF Club XC team Championship, earned a trip to Scotland, and took a step toward her first goal of 2013.

Down the Backstretch:Winning a National Championships is always nice.  Did you go into USATF Club Nationals confident, hopeful, with or without expectations in regards to the team championship? 

Meghan Peyton: We went into the Championships confident that we could win. We knew that there would be some other strong teams like the Boulder team, but thought that as long as we all had solid races that we could achieve our goal of winning the national title.  

DtB:  Once you got to Lexington and saw the mud, aside from thinking: “This is real cross country,” did the conditions change any of the plans, expectations going into the race?

MP: Personally, the mud didn't change any of my own expectations. The mud was a factor for every runner out there. It being a championship race, I knew that it would take a strong race to place in the top six(she finished fourth), which is what it took to qualify for the USA team going to Scotland.

DtB:  Seems like the team members had different approaches to the race: Jamie took off with the leaders, you and Ladia sort of worked together, McKenzie was trailing behind you two(could she see where you two were or was the course too hilly and twisty for her to see runners ahead of her), and Heather took a tumble.  When did Heather go down and did any of you see or know that Heather fell during the race?  Give us something of a summary of how things unfolded.

MP: The race got out fast, the first mile being the most flat section on the course -- we went through the mile at 5:11 pace. I felt that it was a good pace, putting me near the front but I still felt in control. For the next mile and a half it was just grinding away at the hills and mud. 

There was a little pack of us behind the lead pack pushing each other. We could see the leaders the entire time. At about 2.5 miles the pack started coming back to us, Jamie (Cheever) with them. I knew we would catch up. So on the last downhill before the long climb to the finish I pushed hard so that I would catch up with Jamie. I knew she needed some support because she was in no-woman's land, which is a hard place to be when you are hurting. 

As I caught her I cheered for her telling her "You can do it, come on Jamie". We all needed to finish strong, and I think it was pretty admirable how she had put it out there on the line and, even once her early fast pace caught up to her, Jamie still finished really strong. None of us knew that Heather had fallen until we had all crossed the finish line.  

DtB:  When did you know you won the team title?  Was there a big celebration or a more retrained one?

MP: When we all finished the race we didn't know if we had won or not for about half an hour or so. We knew that Boulder would be our biggest competition, and they had taken first and second place. We didn't know where their other runners had finished, but we did know that Heather had taken an unfortunate spill in the mud, but had the strength to get up and keep running for the team. 

So we waited anxiously for about 30 minutes until they finally posted the results. When the results went up, Lance Elliott (one of our team's board members who was traveling with us and also raced) came running back to our van with the results and said: "We Won!". We were all excited, but Heather was excited most of all...jumping up and down with relief.

DtB:  Are the three of you that qualified planning on taking the trip to Scotland in January?  Did Jamie or McKenzie get spots on the US team because others in front of them aren’t going?

MP: Yes, Ladia, Jon (Peterson, fifth in the men's race), and I are going to Scotland for sure. We think that Jamie(who was seventh) will also likely make the team based on other competitors who said that they will not go, and because she also did well at this year's USA Open Cross Country Championships which took place in February.

DtB:  You’ve had a busy life this Fall with school, helping out with the Augsburg team, and your own running.  How do you juggle all those “balls in the air?”

MP: Very carefully! I don't need any of them falling to the ground. I think the only reason that I am able to juggle all of them is because I have good support groups in each area of my life, and because I'm a planner. I always try and stay ahead of the curve. I did have to start using a paper planner again this year (which I have not done since I graduated college) because my life is going in a lot of different directions.  No day is the same as the day before. A busy life keeps things interesting. 

DtB:  Was 2012 a productive year?  Did you achieve any or all of the goals you set—if you set any—at the beginning of the year?

MP: 2012 for me was a learning year. Anyone who looks at my results from the past year could probably safely assume that I unfortunately didn't achieve the goals that I had set at the beginning of it. From 2008-2011 I had steadily improved -- moving from consistently placing in the teens in races and working my way up to finishing in the top seven at most National Championships.

As with most people in this sport, I had big aspirations for 2012. However, some inexperience with the marathon, and also finding out that I had low B12 and low Iron (both essential for energy production) put those goals out of reach this year. But, I haven't given up. I still have the same big goals -- I've just had to push them out a year or two. 

DtB:  What are the plans, goals of 2013?

MP: My goals for 2013 are to, first of all, continue to improve as an athlete and person. Secondly, I want to represent our country at the World Cross Country Championships, and also want to compete at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In the Fall I plan on competing in a marathon -- maybe one that is near and dear to us all--Twin Cities in Motion's Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.  

This is where I am- This is where I'm meant to be: Keep it clean, people.

This is where I am- This is where I'm meant to be: Keep it clean, people.: Call me old school, but I think the beautiful and most exciting part of running is that it is an opportunity to see what the untainted human...