Welcome to The Eclectic Runner!

Greetings!  My name is Brian Goff, and I will be your host here at The Eclectic Runner!  This blog will be about my experiences in and thoughts about life, all from my unique perspective on the world: that of a life-long runner.

The Skinny Whimp

My journey as a runner began for me in 7^th grade, when I signed up for spring track.  I was tired of being “the skinny, whimpy nerd,” and I saw athletics as a way to prove myself.  As for my choice of sports… well, I didn’t like soccer or baseball, and football seemed like a good way to commit suicide (“skinny whimp,” remember?).  The one thing I COULD do, though, was run.  So that’s what I did.

Long story short, I thought I was a sprinter and jumper that first season.  I was wrong.

In 8^th grade, with much skepticism, I let my coach convince me to join up with the distance crew.  I hated it from the start… but by the end of that season, I had broken 6 minutes in the mile (a feat which I had previously thought impossible for me) and I was irrevocably hooked.

Cross Country at Franklin Park

High school for me was ALL about running.  I’m certain some academics happened in there, and a few other cool activities, but all of that was secondary to the yearly rhythm of: cross country in the fall; cold, cold miles and stairs in the auditorium over the winter; track in the spring; and the lax days of summer, packing in the miles for cross country.  To this day, it is as close to Running Heaven as I’ve ever experienced.

Now, I was never the star of the team, or even really in the lead pack.  I never advanced beyond our District meet, the State meet was a spectator event for me, and the only races I ever won were a couple 800’s at JV meets my senior year.  I was the perennial middle-of-the-pack-er, always riding the line between JV and Varsity.  Frustrating, I admit, but it never really got me down; it just made me go out and work harder.  By graduation (Class of ’96, baby!), I had run 17:35 for 3 miles cross country, 4:52 for 1,600m, 2:06 for 800m, 10:59 for 3,200m, earned 3 Varsity Letters, and was named Captain of the cross country team.

The Running Shrine, Spring of '96

Now, I know those numbers aren’t much to brag about – indeed, even at 34 years old I’m looking to one day better those – but I am still very proud of those accomplishments.  The main reason is this: I earned them the hard way.  While others around me were running those times in their sleep and talking about qualifying for State, I was working hard just to make Varsity.  While they were joking about how “easy” it was to meet the Letter standards, I was working hard to hit the standards of classes two years younger than me.  While they were taking for granted the gifts that had been given to them, I was working my butt off because I loved what I was doing.

Me and a roommate: drowned rats after
a run in a summer downpour.

Oh, the Hair...

After graduation, my running career really took a down-turn.  My training in high school (to be ranted about at a later date) really didn’t prepare me for the college scene.  Mileage increased dramatically, and I had never really grasped the type of offseason training that was really required to be successful.  Also, I had to make the adjustment from the 1,200’ elevation of Yakima, Washington, to the 5,700’ of Golden, Colorado, which for some reason took me nearly a year to really become acclimated.  Anything over 5k – or even just 2 miles – is a LONG race for me, so the 8k of cross country was fairly frustrating, as were the 8-mile “easy” days (in high school, a “long” run was 6 miles).  Indoor track was really just “winter training” as far as I was concerned, and then we were into my real passion on the track: steeplechase!  (I had been introduced to the event at a summer track camp a few years earlier, and spent the rest of my high school career just itching to get to college so I could run the thing for real!)  But even that proved a mediocre endeavor, and I finished that first season with a PR of only 11:31.  Discouraged, my running momentum essentially collapsed, and I became a simple recreational runner, putting in a few miles here or a fun run there… good times, but nothing like what I had been, and nothing like what I really desired to be doing.

My post-college career was even more lack-luster.  My first job after graduation required a lot of long hours on the road, and that usually derailed any training program I tried to start in short order, usually with an injury precipitated from too-much-too-quick.   After 3 years there, I went back to school, and with that move I started training again.  My first goal – to run a half-marathon and actually ENJOY it, as opposed to the runs from Hell that I suffered through in my past – I actually succeeded at. When I tried to set my sights higher, though, and go for the full marathon distance?  Injury.  And after that, life just got weird for awhile.  For the next 2 years, running became a fun memory of the past and a fanciful dream of “some sweet day.”  The desire was still there, but the passion was essentially gone.  Running had become – dare I say it? – a mere interest.

In 2006, I decided to really get back into it, and for about the next year saw some great advances in my fitness.  Early successes spurred me on to really start training again, and that next summer I ran a 5:14 mile and 2:16 800m.  I even completed a steeplechase, though the time was nothing to brag about.  I was diving into a cross country season (20:09 5k, 34:35 8k) when injury struck again, and I forced myself to take a good long rest before attempting to regain any sort of form.

Finishing the Rocky Mountain Shootout 8k, Boulder, CO, Fall of 2007

But see, this time, it was all part of the plan.  The passion was back!

It’s several years later now, and I really haven’t regained anything like the form I had back in ’07.  I’ve been taking it slow, training when I can and as life has allowed.  The slow build-up has been really good and I’m gaining all sorts of benefits that I wouldn’t have had if I had just jumped back in and started pushing the mileage again.  It IS frustrating at times, as I don’t just desire to be running; I desire to run FAST.  But fast running must be supported by lots of slow running, so that’s what I’m doing… 30-40 minutes easy and some strides, 3-4 days per week.  It doesn’t sound like much, but soon enough I’ll be clippin’ off those gut wrenching intervals and hard tempo runs, and looking for the next track meet or cross country race in which to test myself.

I have many goals that I’ve been working toward for some time now.  The ones that are most important to me are:

• 16:29 for 5k cross country (or 3 miles at Franklin Park in Yakima… kind of an old nemesis of mine)
• 9:18 for 3,000m steeplechase
• 4:29 for 1 mile
• 1:59 for 800m
• 2:59:59 for the marathon

I also have a dream to design and build a cross country running facility, host meets open to the public (not just high school and college kids), and do what I can to re-establish the sport in our culture.

Finally, I desire to experience running in as many different settings as I can.  As I journey to new locations and participate in local races, this blog will serve as a travel log, recording the entire experience.

So, that’s my running life in a nutshell.  I invite you to join me on this journey, and I pray that what I share will add value to your life in some way.  Welcome, to The Eclectic Runner!

Next time, on The Eclectic Runner: What’s with the whole “eclectic” thing?