When I was in 5th grade I set out to break the Haude Elementary school record in the mile. Wearing Nike basketball shoes, I came up short by a few seconds,  in 6:10. My P.E. teachers felt sorry for me and offered to let me run it again. I set out to train by running a mile every day. After two days, I decided that I could set the world record in the mile and be the greatest runner ever if I ran 1 mile every day until I was 20. On day 3, I realized that I didn’t want to be great, and I stopped training. If you had asked me then what I was going to do in life, I would have told you I would be a star soccer player. As I so often am about my future, I was wrong.

My life in running has not been linear. It doesn’t have a beginning, middle, or end. Every time I thought I knew where this sport was taking me, I’ve been wrong. Depending on your age and level in the sport, you may know me best as a runner, a coach, or even a sports scientist. The truth is, at this point I’m a little of all three. But I didn’t begin that way, and I have a feeling I won’t end up that way, either.