Wendy Mastripolito

So there comes a day when, as a distance runner, you say... I need speed. I can't recall remembering much about my high school outdoor track, although I am most certain I do remember my high school “coach” screaming at me at the end of the 2 miler that if I had enough energy to sprint the last 200 yards that I didn’t utilize my energy correctly.. thus is born what I still continue to do today.. my ending sprint . It's fairly epic.. and it's probably terribly inefficient, but heck i n 95% of the races I do, of any length, I end up sprinting the last 100 or 200 yards.. and very rarely do I get out paced from that point on. Inefficient?  Probably... In high school, I was an immature, unwilling runner. I only joined cross country because they canned my ass off the field hockey team. Never mind that I scored a goal in try outs and that I was an exceptional runner as the left wing but my motor coordination needed work.. X gets the spot.. off to join the cross country team...

Trust only what you know.. You know in those horror movies where you scream at the stupid person (usually a woman), “ DO NOT LOOK DOWN THE OLD ABANDONED WELL!!!!”... Well, it was something like that… I had scheduled a swim analysis on Saturday and was anxiously waiting in the lobby of the corporate office of Endless Pools in Aston, Pa for my turn when a (I am sure had too much coffee) middle aged man with a jovial ski hat comes barreling in... “Sorry I am late”…. he is wildly exclaiming in his NOT INSIDE VOICE… pointing his arm left and right as he explains to the receptionist and everyone now watching him in the lobby his tale of woe that his car broke down, that it was actually not his normal car he had loaned out his car to one of his workers and had taken the work truck, and that thank goodness a friend lived nearby… that he made it..whew… because he lived an hour or so away.. above Marsh Creek he says.. UH OH.. my ears perked up.. So let’s go back to the point where you s...