Fuck Stress

Every runner knows that running has the magical power to keep us from ripping people's heads off. Now science knows it too. Welcome to the party science.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/phys-ed-why-exercise-makes-you-less-anxious/

Finish Face

Before we talk about this killer piece the NY Times just put on their site, let's just take a minute to congratulate Meb Keflezighi on being the first American to win the NYC Marathon since 1982.
Big up Meb!

Ok, cool.
So with that, here's a sweet piece of inspiration for all of us.
Ladies and Gentlemen, singlets and sportsbras, I bring you Finish Face:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/20091101-marathon-finish-line/?ref=sports

Who's That Ugly Bald Chick?

If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see an ugly bald chick at the back of a pack of elite women. That's no chick. It's Chris Wiley, an old friend I recently had the pleasure of running into on a morning run. Chris and I used to sling pizza at Fellini's back in the day, and even played music together a little bit back when he lived in the green house on Kennesaw Street. I remember he had this menacing Chow mix who was always judging me, waiting for me to slip up.

Anyway, Chris is not only one of the nicest guys I know, but it turns out he's also one of the fastest.
He was way more into cycling back then, but over the years he began to see the light and leave the stuffy world of spandex-wrapped gear snobs for the purer, more nobler sport of running. These days Chris runs mostly trail races, and from what I hear on the internet, he evens win some of them.

So I was pretty stoked when I ran into him on the street a few weeks ago. I figured I'd join him for a few miles. Wrong. It took me about half a minute to realize that we were going faster than I'd ever run before, and another half a minute to start completely doubting myself. We could not have made it more than a mile before I had to bail and get back to a more humane pace.

And even though it screwed up the rest of my run (think of it like warming up with an all-out sprint), it was great to see Chris, and also great to get a little taste of what fast really feels like. I'll try to work on my fast, and maybe the next time I see Chris I'll be able to keep up with him for two miles. Until then, Supervictory salutes local ATL badass Chris Wiley.
You go girl!

-SV

South African Hardcore

No coach.
No trainer.
Just love.
And a soft 2 mile loop.
That's right, try training to win marathons on a
2...Mile...Loop.
Supervictory big-ups Hendrick Ramaala.
New York Times reports. Check out the article linked below
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/an-elite-athlete-training-without-a-coach/?hp

-SV

Running Makes It Real

There's this hill.
We won't name names, but it's a certain hill that starts right around mile 2.5 on the Supervictory ATL chapter morning route. Now this hill is, to put it diplomatically, a motherfucker. It is long, it is steep and it is merciless. And lately some of us (again, no names) have been avoiding this beast.

Maybe it's the fact that even at 7am it's already 80 degrees in this part of the country. Maybe it's the sense of entitlement that comes from just recently having gotten back to full strength after some nagging injuries. Maybe it's just plain laziness. Whatever the reason, we've been avoiding this hill.

And the more we avoid it, the larger it looms.
One of these days, we say to ourselves, we're gonna have to buck up and run the thing. One of these days, we're gonna have to go to bed an hour earlier, and put a little extra peanut butter on our pre-run bagel, and maybe even carry a bottle of water with us. But one of these days, we will have to run up this hill.

That day came today.
And guess what, it wasn't anywhere near the beatdown that we'd been dreading.
We simply took it easy, and tried not to think about it. And when the time came when we could've turned away, we didn't. We just looked at each other and nodded.

We ran the hill. And now it doesn't loom quite as large.
Running the hill took it down a notch from myth status, and made it real.
Running makes it real.

-SV

Run Positive

Yesterday.
Beautiful sunny cool morning run before firing up the Supervictory machine for another day. 3 miles in I realize I've spent the last 3 miles worrying about my flat feet, and my tweaked knee, and how long before I injure myself again, and what kind of distance dreams will die along the way.

And then...
I pretty much had to slap myself across the face and say:
Hey Idiot, you've spent the last 3 miles of this beautiful cool morning WORRYING about running instead of enjoying it. It made me question the power of mind over matter, and whether thinking injury-free can actually help keep you there.

I don't know.
But why not?
It can't hurt.

-SV

Summer of '77

Thanks to John R. for this gem depicting some old school punks limbering up for Atlanta's Peachtree Road Race on July 4th 1977. Note the go-to-hell slogan on homey's singlet. When the Supervictory apparel line is launched, rest assured that'll be the first jam we print.