From runner to coach

It was a crazy summer where I latched onto a friend and joined in some workouts in Dartmouth, N.S. My friend Kirk and I would run the five or so miles to the track, warm up with the group and then do what seemed to be an unending number of intervals before running back home. It total, we usually covered about 15-17 miles.

The group we joined on the track included a talented, young runner by the name of Rich Lehman who probably hardly noticed my older, slower self tagging along behind.

Rich

Rich is now only 29 and recently married. From Dartmouth, he started running in Grade 6 but started didn’t take it seriously until he was in Grade 10. He says he started running because he was good at it and I really enjoyed racing.

“I was also way too small to do anything else at a higher than recreational level,” is how he describes his running and “only” ran personal bests of 1:52.02 for 800m and 3:53.70 for 1500m. He also says he does not run seriously anymore but goes out a few times a week, never with a watch, and will simply run until he feels like stopping.

The competitive drive to race may no longer be there but something has kept this young man involved with the sport. When an opportunity arose to coach the cross-country and track teams at Dalhousie University, he applied.

Rich’s runners

I asked Rich about the athletes he coaches. He talked about trying to take the Dalhousie cross-country and track and field teams to another level by continually improving the program. He says the Canadian university level of competition is getting stronger. Rich says the main focus for the coming year is to improve on the little things that make a good team a great team.

When asked for a runner of note to mention Rich talked about east coast runner Celia Peters, who he calls inspirational. Although not technically part of the Dalhousie program, Rich helped make some changes to her program this year while she spent time in Halifax.

Celia ended up running her first 800m PB in four years and ran four of the ten fastest 800s of her career.

What do you get from coaching runners?

“Aside from a career where I get to spend my days at the track, dealing with exceptionally motivated individuals, I get to feel like I’m able to give back to the sport that gave me so much. As an athlete, I was extremely fortunate to work with a number of great coaches. Each of these coaches taught me so much about the sport and what it means to coach and to be part of a team. It’s humbling and more than a little exciting to be, hopefully, doing the same thing as them.”

So many runners do not go on to the Olympics or careers in running, what do you think a student-athlete gets from running at the university level?

“What I’ve noticed about the athletes on the Dal team, and in hindsight about the guys I used to run with, is just how well they manage their time. They’re very young people to be so proficient at combining academics, athletics, social life, et cetera.

You see so many adults in the working world who don’t have the ability to work, take care of themselves physically and emotionally, and also have some sort of quality of life. The kids running at the collegiate level are not only learning how to do this, they’re also doing it at a very high level. I also think that competing at this level teaches young people not only how to win and deal with success, but how to lose and deal with failure. It’s becoming more and more rare for kids to be put in a position where they might not succeed until, in my opinion, way too late in life and I think this is a very valuable lesson.”

Where do you hope to take Dalhousie University athletics and cross-country while you are there?

“I would like to get to the point where our program is a perennial contender at the CIS level. It’s certainly not going to happen overnight and I, of course, have no delusions that it’s not going to take a long time, but I really do think that Halifax is a place where a tradition of excellence can be created. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we just have to learn what we can from these programs and then try to put our east coast stamp on it.”

Many of us keep chasing our running dreams. Some of us find fulfillment in giving back to others and sharing their love of the sport. I am still a chaser but have a great deal of respect and am thankful to those who have the passion, patience and ability to help coach and guide fellow runners. Run on Rich.

See you on the roads or in the blogosphere.

Do you have a running story to tell?

runningwriter@hotmail.com

You can also catch me on Twitter @NoelPaine and on my personal blog.