64.6. That was my first 400m of a 16x400m workout this week. Usually, I’d be happy with a 64 second 400m to finish a workout, but here I was starting the workout that (relatively) fast. After that rep I thought,…well, now that I started in 64 I may as well keep it going. 14 reps later, all within a half a second of 64.6, and closing with a final rep of 61 seconds, I had my hands on my knees with the best track workout of my life. On a small scale, this was momentum in action. I got the first rep rolling and there was no looking back. As each rep tallied another 64 second lap on my watch, it became easier and easier even though the effort was certainly getting tougher and tougher. It’s amazing what the power of momentum can do. “Momentum” was a word was repeated at many practices and team meetings by my college coach at Penn State, Beth Alford Sullivan. Coach Sullivan was really good at getting the team to believe in ourselves and believe in everyone on the team, and to build off everyone’s successes. Once you had positive momentum going as a team, it was really hard to stop. However, momentum is much easier to keep going than it is to start. When you’re seemingly on fire and everything is going smooth, you just need to keep that figurative ball rolling downhill. But, when you’re trying to get it started, sometimes you need to look outward to build that momentum. At The Marathon Project this fall, I had a very disappointing race, but I knew where my fitness was at. However, Ian Butler, my training partner under our coach Steve Jones of our group the Boulder Harriers, had a monster breakthrough running 2:09 for the marathon and competing with great tenacity and confidence. Together, Ian and I have done thousands of miles of hard running and his success was inspirational to our entire Boulder Harriers team. All of us now starting thinking, how good can we all be? Jonesy is always very positive and encouraging and kept us thinking big going into race day and thinking even bigger after the race - regardless of outcome. Ian’s performance not only elevated his confidence, it elevated everyone to the next level in the group. After a break over the holidays, I grabbed on to that momentum Ian started and now my figurative ball is rolling downhill with a lot of positive momentum. Similarly, Boulder Harriers teammate Maor Tiyouri ran the Cheshire Elite Marathon in Great Britain at the end of April. Maor was planning to compete at The Marathon Project but was unable to, and pivoted to compete at this elite-only race. Building on Ian’s momentum, Maor ran a stellar 2:29:04 and achieved the Olympic Games Qualifying mark for Israel. This is what teammates do – they build off each other’s success, find positives and have a contagious positive mojo. I’m thankful I’ve had great coaches in college (Coach Sullivan – Penn State) and post-collegiately (Steve Jones – Boulder Harriers) who’ve fostered a team culture, built on positivity, not setting limits and sharing lots of positive mojo and momentum. Wherever you are at – whether that’s in life, athletics, academics, etc – if you’re not enjoying a time where your momentum is rolling (positively) downhill, look to teammates or colleagues or other inspirational people in your life and find some positive momentum to get a hold of. Once you get that momentum started, let it build and build and build. Share it with others. Remember, there’s no cap on the amount of success that can be earned so try to bring others along with you when your momentum is rolling!
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