Antonio Vega's Journal

July 15, 2008 Entry (Posted July 16, 2008)

Have you ever been blessed with holy water in the middle of a race?
Oddly . . . I have been thanks to an ardent priest on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. This year I spent the 4th of July weekend in Atlanta, Georgia, with my girlfriend, as we both prepared to run the Peachtree 10K. This marked my first major road race and it was quite the experience. The Atlanta Track Club simply puts together a first-class race and as that priest exemplified, one in which the Atlanta community gives full support.

I had an inkling the race would go well in the days leading up to it. I was having fun and just happened to strike it rich at the race expo winning $10 and a box of Uncle Ben’s Rice at a spin the wheel game. Little prize or not, this was good karma.

Race morning I awoke at about 4:30 a.m. and did a shake out run in the fitness center of the hotel. Although upon leaving the calm confines of my hotel room later, I was met with sensory overload. More than 55,000 runners lined up ready to run, six helicopters were hovering overhead to cover the race, flags were flying, music playing, and I was sweating bullets. As the humidity and temperature continued to rise and minutes to the gun clicked down, let’s just say I was beyond nervous.

Before I knew it I had passed the mile mark a touch faster than planned but kept rolling on. Then came the notable blessing around mile two; and in retrospect if there is anywhere a blessing is needed, it is about at that point in the race as the course then becomes an up hill climb. I figure a little divine intervention never hurts and as I coupled this with my strength on the hills I found myself in pretty good position. However, as I have come to learn, always expect the unexpected.

The finish was not exactly as I had envisioned it, despite taking a guided tour of the course the day before. Before I laid eyes on the finishing banner spanning the street I had gone into finishing kick mode three times over. Relaying this mishap to my coach later he matter-of-factly reminded me that this just proves that we (runners) become mentally weak at the end of races and really have the strength to keep kicking. Dennis always has those words of wisdom.

I felt the race was solid and provided good momentum to move into a higher intensity in both training and racing. Up next, I am running the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE on July 27. This will be my first attempt at any race over 10K so I am not really sure what to expect.

I plan on running the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in October so I thought it would be a good idea to run something a little bit longer. Since I actually live right on the marathon course and know it like the back of my hand, I am really excited to start training for my first marathon. Then again, as I learned in Atlanta, maybe I am better off not knowing where the finish line lies.

May 20, 2008 Entry (Posted May 21, 2008)

On top of my normal regiment of training and working a very part-time job, the well-being of my four year old nephew is also placed into my hands weekly. His name is Carson and he is an inquisitive guy. Luckily, Carson’s current interests in Superman, cookies, and afternoon naps coincide with my own. We get along pretty well and I hold the title of favorite uncle, which I have been dubbed on numerous occasions usually while scooping him a bowl of ice cream instead of the vegetables he was supposed to eat.

Last summer Carson came to watch me race a 5K. He immediately demanded to know why Uncle Antonio got to run in the street while he always has to play on the sidewalk. Let’s just say he has become quite the critic. For instance, last week he asked me out of the blue why my arms are so little. What do you do when someone who still needs help cutting up his hotdog tells you have scrawny arms; I dropped a set of 50 right there.

However, ironically I find that sometimes my actions while training seem a little too much like those of my nephew. For example, I have observed him playing with other kids and someone will take, say, the dump truck he is playing with; Carson will proceed to throw a bit of a tantrum until 30 seconds later he finds a new toy to play with. I would not go as far as to say that I throw tantrums, but sometimes a bad workout seems a whole lot worse than it really is and the next day you just have a better one.

And, much like when Carson decides to ask me “why?” twenty million times in one afternoon, I spent much of the winter asking myself “why?” as I subjected myself to hours of cross training while watching bad TV and listening to angry music. But also, like a persistent child, I kept at it and with time and patience was able to answer “why.” This brings us to date.

I finally feel like I have picked up where I left off before my knee injury on Christmas Eve day (a fall on the ice). I no longer dread workouts or feel dead tired after interval #2 of 10. I have started my track season off with a 5K in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I am looking at the race as a good starting point. It just felt good to get back on the track and lace up the spikes that I haven’t worn in almost a year. I am confident that my next race will go well. My sights are set on racing in early June, which is most likely my last chance to get a qualifying time for the Olympic Trials.

March 23, 2008 Entry (Posted March 25, 2008)

March 20 was officially the first day of spring. The weather has been nice training weather. However, the next day I woke up to a fresh new layer of snow and only to turn on the news to find out we were expecting to get about 3-6 more inches of snow. Well, that’s Minnesota for you.

Since not much is happening on the training front, there is not much to talk about (more about that later). However, from a team perspective there is a lot of news. Andrew Carlson won his first national title in the USA 15K Championships down in Florida and was a close second a week later in the USA 8K Championships in New York. Emily and Katie made the U.S. cross country team that will compete at the World Cross Country Championships at the end of March in Scotland.

The last three months have been filled with a lot of ups and downs. I have still been trying to recover from my slip and fall on the ice that took place on Christmas Eve day. I have developed a whole new level of patience throughout the last three months. I have tried several attempts to start running only to have to take some more time off due to the pain in my knee.

Thankfully, I believe I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The last two weeks I have run every day and my knee feels ten times better than it has in a long time. Hopefully next time I write it will be about how well my workouts have been going and some racing plans that I have in store next month.

January 20, 2008 Entry (Posted January 23, 2008)

Well, 2008 did not begin exactly the way I had imagined it might. My training was going well and I was excited to race my first half-marathon in January. Then life threw me a curve ball, or should I say the Minnesota winter got the better of me.

As most people who train in the Upper Midwest can contest, some days training outdoors would be easier if you had on a pair of ice skates strapped on your feet. These were my initial thoughts this past Christmas Eve morning as I walked to my car getting ready to head to practice for a quick workout before heading home to my parents’ house to celebrate Christmas.

On the warm up, if you can even call it that considering that I was less then ten seconds into my warm up, I managed to slip on some ice and dislocate my knee, specifically the patella of my knee. As I lay on the ice in a considerable amount of discomfort, I was extremely thankful that my teammate Mandi was warming up with me because there was no way I was getting up anytime soon.

From what I could tell it looked like my knee was completely dislocated and still needed to be popped back into place. However, when I arrived in the emergency room the doctor assured me that everything was in the proper place and that I must have popped my knee back in when I fell. When it was all said and done, I had spent the entire morning in the emergency room.

With the utmost optimism I thought that this little slip and fall would not hold me back from racing in the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston. However, I was forced to take a week completely off from any sort of training, so Dennis and I just did not think it would be worth trying to race if I was not at 100 percent.

So, I am finally starting to recover and hoping to be back training full time in the next week. Right now I am spending some quality time cross training; yesterday I was asked what triathlon I was training for.

December 1, 2007 Entry (Posted December 4, 2007)

There are times when I question whether training in Minnesota’s winter makes you stronger or crazier. Today was one of those days; Minnesotans awoke to the first significant snowfall of the season and I found myself on the starting line of a 5K [Editor’s note: Vega won this 5K (the Reindeer Run), earning himself a Northwest Airline ticket]. Do not get me wrong, I asked myself why I was not home in my warm bed more than once during the race, especially when icicles began forming on my eyelashes. However, like most runners who brave the cold in Minnesota each year, I know that training in what sometimes seems an icy tundra really does make you stronger both mentally and physically.  

I learned this firsthand through infamous “deep snow runs” while competing at the University of Minnesota. These runs were done on a golf course and at times the snow level exceeded my waist. A ten mile run in snow this deep left me utterly exhausted but well prepared for the most challenging of races. Perhaps a deep snow or two will strengthen my preparation for upcoming races.

My current plan is to travel to Houston, Texas, in January to race in the USA Half-Marathon Championships. This will mark the longest distance I have ever covered in a race and I am both relishing this challenge while at the same time slightly apprehensive. I also plan to race the USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego in February. And the mental preparation begins . . .

A teammate recently told me that the biggest mistake someone new to the game of professional running can make is going to a race and simply being happy just to be there. We all had this feeling the first time we qualified for a state high school meet, but with success this feeling was quickly cast away only to be replaced with the desire to run at the front of the race. My teammate said that this tenacious mindset is essential to being competitive, to approach each race with purpose, a plan, and the desire to succeed not simply to be content. I left practice that day with a renewed outlook on my first races.

I now begin and end each day with the same thought. In my bedroom, my goal 10K time is boldly displayed so I have no choice but to look at it and think about how much I want to achieve it. And, on those frigid snowy mornings, I look at those numbers and I realize that I am not (all that) crazy to head out the door on a run as my purpose is clearly articulated with my first thought of the day.

 

Introductory Entry (Posted September 24, 2007)

Originally from Oakdale, Minnesota, I attended Tartan Senior High. Foremost, I guess you could say that I am not your typical runner; as a youth, I spent most of my days playing soccer with my dad and brother. I started running after I had a soccer coach bench me for an entire game because he told me that my endurance was pathetic. After the game was over I started running to show him how good my endurance could become. I would love to race that coach today and show him whose endurance level is pathetic. That is pretty much when I discovered I had a talent for running and also how much I enjoyed it.

I ran track in high school.  As a freshman and sophomore, I primarily ran sprints. I was really bad, and I finally decided to move up in distance and it was the best choice I ever made. I started having some success in track and field and I got excited about it. After that, the cross country coaches at my school were after me to come out and run cross country. Since I was a big soccer nut I continued playing soccer in the fall and also was the high school place kicker for the football team. The first year that I decided to run cross country was my senior year of high school. Playing one sport was not good enough for me, so I continued playing soccer and football, fitting cross country in when I had time. Most of my runs were done with my dad at around 8:00 pm when I got home from all my other practices. That fall I ended up placing 4th at the Minnesota state cross country meet. That’s when I started getting recruited by a few Division I schools. At first I wasn’t planning on coming to the University of Minnesota, but in the end the chance to be coached by a two time Olympian was something that I could not pass up.

My career at the University of Minnesota had a lot of ups and down. The biggest challenge for me was trying to stay healthy. I had the mentality that if I didn’t acknowledge that I was hurt, the pain would just magical go away. (That never works) It took about a year and a half to realize two things; one, that running through every pain is not a good idea; and two, that to be good you do not necessarily have to run 100 plus miles a week. I changed my mentality instead of trying to run more than my competitors. I was simply going to work harder and smarter then everyone. Whether that be taking the extra minute to stretch or to take a day in the pool aqua jogging. Once I had this epiphany, my career started to have more ups then downs. I started to excel in workouts and that soon translated into having a break though races in which I would PR by almost 45 seconds.

I learned a lot while at the University of Minnesota. Coach Steve Plasencia was not only a great coach, but he taught me a lot about the sport of running. Once I was finally able to stay healthy enough to complete an entire season, I was able to make the traveling team. While at the U, I earned All-American honors in cross country. The season I accomplished this will always be memorable for me. After a summer plagued with injuries, I thought I would not be able to compete that fall in cross country. I was finally able to get into shape late that fall and not only become an All-American but also win the Midwest Region in front of my entire family. The following years I was able to continue to have success and under the guidance of Coach Plasencia I learned how to get the most out of my training.     

It was amazing how fast the years went by while at the University of Minnesota. One day I was a freshman, and the next I was a senior and people were asking me what I planed on doing after college. Since I really was not ready to step into the real world I figure I would go into a graduate school program. In early spring, I was accepted into graduate program at St.Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. I was excited when I heard the news. This life plan suited me until I realized that this would mean calling it quits on competitive running. That idea did not sink in until later in the summer.

 I figured last summer would be my final summer of freedom before I was forced to get a real job.  I planned to nickel and dime my way through the summer and got a job setting up tables for wedding at a banquet hall on campus. I would work about 7 hours a week and spent the rest of the time training.  I ran any road race that paid cash for the winner.  It was a lot of fun.  I earned some cash and came out with a few PRs on the road. Around the end of July, I started thinking about how great it would be to find a job that paid me to train and race. That is when it dawned on me.  I starting looking into post collegiate training groups and decided to contact a few.  I sent some emails, fully anticipating rejection.  However, I was shocked to find out that people were actually interested in having me train with their group. When I found out that I was accepted to Team Minnesota, I knew that this was the team for me. I liked Dennis’ coaching philosophy and thought it would fit my training needs.

Joining Team USA Minnesota has been a great experience. It is strange not to be in tip top shape right now and competing on the cross country course. I am looking forward to the upcoming track season.  I will compete in my first race as a professional runner coming up this October.  I will be running the Twin Cities 5k on October 6th and I think it will be a good indicator of my fitness level.

I am very thankful for this opportunity to continue to train and compete at this level. Everyday I try to make the most of it, to continue to improve as a runner, and as a person.