Losing fitness after 16 miles
At some point, any high school runner comes across the ancient texts of one David Goggins. Choosing to follow his words can either make or break a runner. The best way to apply the words of the man obsessed with challenging your body in any condition possible(and I mean any), is when you are racing. Whenever I hear a Goggins monologue about taking souls and a calloused mind I think “great I can’t wait to take souls on my shakeout”. I don’t think there’s anyone who’s crazy enough to use the creed of Goggins every day, during every run, right?
Evan(right) talking to Jackson Sobleman of Joel Barlow
In the small downtown of Bethel Connecticut, you’ll see the pride and joy of Yvonne Grimes weaving in and out of traffic on foot. This rising high school junior goes by the name of Evan Bureau and he is the man who baffles his strava followers with his ever-expanding collection of runs under six-minute mile pace. Most high school runners would kill to run the pace that Ev does on his “easy” runs on race day. Like me, you’re probably wondering why the hell this kid isn’t like the rest of us and doesn’t slow the fuck down some days. He does, sometimes. Whenever he feels some sort of pity for the rest of us mere mortal runners, he’ll join in for a group run. A couple of weekends ago I did a long run with Evan. We ended up doing 16 miles at around 7 flat, a decent long run for my standards. The next day I ran into Ev during his run at the high school, I asked what his run was and he stated how he did some easy miles and then was gonna do some quick miles to finish up. My teammate and good friend who was running with me that day, Jack, asked him why he was finishing up his run with a 5:20 mile, his response will stick with me forever. In the most serious and sincere way possible Evan responded, “I don’t wanna lose speed from the 16 miler yesterday.”
Evan at the state open for the 3200, photo courtesy of Ron Knapp/MySportsResults
I guess we all get into running for different reasons. Definitely, for some, it comes down to the most basic reason of getting in shape. I don’t know exactly what made Evan made the shift from hockey to running, but I think the Goggins mottos have rung true for Evan every day since he made that transition. The idea that a day without challenging yourself is not a day worth living sounds good on paper. But holy shit, every day? Watch out for Evan this season on the cross country course this fall, or if you’re just driving through Bethel because the odds are, he’s going faster than you.
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