For Californians, it is bizarre that the East Coast schools had their first track meet of the outdoor season the same day that Monta Vista was going to Stanford and Quicksilver. Yet that’s what happened…last Saturday March 30, Johns Hopkins went down to the Naval Academy to face D1 competition in the Blue Jays’ first meet of the outdoor season. This was also the first time I had to show ID to get into a track meet; the track was inside the Naval Academy gates, so they needed the coach’s ID to let our bus inside! Here are links to the read details of the Hop men‘s and women’s race results. Some of my observations for the Monta Vista athletes are:
- Trying something new can be great. Emmanuel LeBlond (who graduated from Mountain View in 2022, and ran against our own Rohun Agrawal on our track in 2021; Rohun got him twice!) was warming up to try the steeplechase for the first time. Emmanuel and I were talking, and he said, it seemed like the steeple would be fun, so why not give it a try? His plan was to hang on to Conner Oiler, Hop’s top steepler, and see what happened. It turned out that Emmanuel is a natural steepler…with two laps to go, he passed Conner, took off, and ended up with a new Hop steeplechase record. His mark qualified him for the steeple at Penn Relays and, though this is still early season, puts him in the top 10 in the country for D3 steeplers. A few lessons: First, this would not have happened if Emmanuel had not put himself out there and gotten outside his comfort zone (he made nationals in the 5km indoor; it would have been easy to stick to that event). Second, when he went by Conner, I saw him tell Conner to stick with him…even in the middle of the race, Emmanuel was thinking about his teammate. Third, afterward, Conner was so excited for his teammate…Conner came into the season as Hop’s top steepler and worked hard at the event, and his reaction to Emmanuel’s great run was that now he would have someone to push him during training and help him to better times. Conner was not thinking about his ranking compared to others; he only cared about improving himself and what would be best for the team. Great examples of focus on the team and on personal improvement in every way. It was fun to see this dynamic!
- Support our team. As the meet wound down, the last event was the women’s discus. Everyone on the team, including all the track athletes, went over to support Erika, Phoebe, and the other throwers. As the distance runners finished their post-race workouts and warm down, they would pull on their sweats and stand, sit, stretch, and roll out near the discus ring and cheer. People did not just hang in the stands or on the bus; they came over to watch and support. That’s a great lesson; yes, take care of yourself and make sure you are focused on your event, but when you have time to cheer for your teammates, don’t just hang at your camp. Hop does a great job of supporting each other–so does MV–we can always be better. And field events deserve love, too! It is so great to hear ‘Go Hop!’ everywhere when people are competing.
- Look the part. EVERYONE wears Hop gear at the meet. You won’t see random meet t-shirts or some other sport shirts or even a generic shoe company. Everything said Hop track, or Hop cross, or was a university sweatshirt, jacket or t-shirt. No one feels like they are too cool to wear team gear, everyone is proud of their team and is ready to represent. Hop looks like a team!
- The dedication of the Hop distance runners to their post-race workouts is a testament to their commitment to continuous improvement. Even those who didn’t have to run more asked Coach Bobby if they could join some optional workouts, demonstrating their desire to push themselves further. This commitment to self-improvement is a valuable lesson we can all learn from.
- And speaking of workouts…being part of Hop workouts is very special. These kids are ON IT. When it is time to run, the groups pack up and are on top of the detail. The distance kids form into tight packs and encourage each other. Yesterday’s workout for the 5km/10km runners was cutdown Ks, I was working with that group. The goal was to compete at least 6 reps for the men, and 5 for the women, starting at 10km race pace and then cutting off two seconds each rep…and go as many reps as you could until you start slowing down. Two of the men were going for their 9th and yelled at the sprinters for help, and one of the 400/800 runners jumped in to pace them for the first lap of their 9th rep…so cool. This is a tight, supportive team. When everyone is out on the track working the same day, it’s something special.
Kids race! One of Coach Bobby’s girls won!
As far as my program at the University of Pennsylvania goes, I can see the goal line. We have one more session on campus later this month. After that session, I’m going to stay in Philadelphia with some of my classmates for one more week, while I finish all my finals…my goal is to have all my papers and requirements uploaded by the time the Penn Relays start, so I can watch the Hopkins athletes compete without having any due-dates hanging over me! After that, I have my thesis/capstone to complete, and that’s it–I will have a master’s in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, forty years after I earned my first master’s degree, my MBA from the University of Chicago. If I keep working hard, I’m going to have a higher GPA than I did back when I was 25 years old! I’m working hard to make you all proud of me and what I’m doing.
Monta Vista is a great team, and I love and miss you all…I can’t wait to be back, and I also want to bring back some of what I’ve learned at the University of Pennsylvania and at Johns Hopkins University to make our experience even better.
