Mary Decker Slaney’s Birthday and Bringing ‘it’ to the Track

So today I think I need to start with a little tribute to one of the most amazing female runners…it’s Mary Decker Slaney’s birthday today and I was reminded of this by a FB friend who posted this AMAZINGLY inspiring 3000 meter race from the 1983 World Championships.

mary decker and ruth wysocki

Toonicized 1984 US Olympic Trials 1500m

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Now, I’m a bit too young to have been lucky enough to really watch her races when she was the she-fire on the track, but growing up my mom made it clear that Mary was one of ‘those’ people. The people that to us distance runners, are true idols. Who, to the common mainstream public, may be their Kim K’s, Justin B’s, Harrison Fords…you get the picture. I’m also lame because I’m grappling for the ‘right’ kind of celeb to parallel to our distance running idols but am coming up short.

I’d like to think of Mary as more than a few notches above a Kardashian, so maybe a Jennifer Anniston or Reese Witherspoon, you know, more like an American Sweetheart type of thing.

I did this cartoon version of a picture that was taken by my photographer friend, Bill Leung, when he was there to witness the duel between Mary and Ruth Wysoki at the 1984 1500 meter US Olympic Trials. (A duel where Ruth actually made quite the upset for the win!) So in the real picture the photographer on the side wasn’t in it, that’s my little Bill tribute…hehe.

Anyways, Mary was one of those child phenoms that never burned out before hitting the pro circuit. She raced with guts, of course people are always quick to say ‘this and that’ about people, there are no shortage of negative commenters around, but there are no shortage of fans either. Regardless, I don’t think anyone, after watching races like these can argue with the fact that she is an inspiring and amazing athlete.

I did have the very fine pleasure of meeting and dining with Mary and her husband, and it’s so funny how runners have that duel persona. You can be gritty and fierce as heck on the track, but then cross the finish line and in ‘real life’ be the nicest person around. I’d say it’s more of a stark contrast with girls especially…though, don’t get me wrong because girls can be plenty catty if you catch the wrong set of ‘mean girls.’ Haha.

it's GO time

It's GO time...

My point was, even if it’s your best friend in a race, fire the gun and in competitive situations it’s every man for himself. Some people can argue with me there, “You shouldn’t try to beat your friends,” “Be nice,” and things like that. And if you are going into a race planning on just doing it for fun, then that’s fine, and in that instance it’s not necessarily a ‘race’ between you two.

But when you’re putting it all on the line, and in cases where you really are fighting for the win, the place, I don’t think it’s mean or rude to separate life on the track from that off the track. In fact I think you’re only doing a disservice to the sport and your competitors if you don’t give it you all. (There are always exceptions, if you’re there to pace a training partner to their PR or something like that, I’m not a total heartless jerk…lol.)

I’ve been perfectly happy warming up with my friend (it eases my nerves to have them there actually…I know some people are the opposite and don’t like to talk), knowing full well they too want the very same place as I do in the race, and really I’d have been really pi**ed if they played the ‘nice’ card and ‘gave’ me a win. It works both ways, if you beat someone you want to beat them at their best, not some charity case. So when the gun is fired, it’s ‘go’ time.

However, once the line is crossed, that is when the true signs of sportsmanship should be shown. That’s when the ‘nice’ runner emerges and you congratulate people if you did wind up the winner, and you put on a brave face if you weren’t. You hold it together if you had a horrible race and if you’re going to cry or throw a fit try to put a lid on the worst of it until you get somewhere by yourself. Because we all have those days, those disappointments, and in fact that’s where it can be a real blessing to have a friend/training partner that was in the race who you can cool-down with and talk to about it…because they’ll get it.

And here wraps up another long tangent filled post…I started out by wanting to wish a Happy Birthday to one of my running idols. I’d take that meeting with Mary and her husband (Actually that guy is hilarious!! He’s a stellar field event athlete in his own right and can actually rip a phone book in half too…so funny to see them next to each other with Mary being so slight!) over any ‘normal people’ celeb any day.

1) Who is one of your running idols?

2) Who is one of your any kind of idol?

I admire and respect a few people but not necessarily famous ones.

3) Race day, I know people race for many different reasons and so depending on the reason I think the ‘rules’ or protocols are different. When you toe the line do you take your friendships with you, or is it understood that it’s every man/woman for themselves but once you cross the line you’ll happily cool-down with a competitor?

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Kiss My June-bug Good-bye and Drawing in the Morn

Dang, I can’t believe we’ve already wrapped ourselves around to another Friday! I have some crazy sleep issues, so I was up super early and cranked out a few miles on the good old tready. A bit over 8.5 to be more precise and while I was captain sluggy sweat I did my core and abs.

I always feel better working out in the morning. I’m the girl who likes to roll out of bed, into the shoes, and get things moving. Well, that is after I dally around for about 20 mins on the computer to give my nice little intestines some time to work things through if you know what I mean. Gotta have a little time before, nothing worst than pinching those buns for dear life while on your run.

Okay, nice TMI to start your morning. So after that I was in a sort of drawing mood; I usually like to have some kind of image or inspiration in mind when I set out to sketch, but I was thinking and Google imaging around and nothing really leaped out at me. Still, I was heck-bent on doing something. I had looked at random pictures for too long hoping to come up with an idea to then not come up with something; sort of like going past the point of no return. Or sitting through a movie and even though it’s bad you make yourself sit through it because you’ve already wasted over an hour and you might as well just finish it off.

Actually, I’ve never gotten up and left a movie theater…probably more because I’m way cheap and if I’m paying that much I’m going to see the whole dang thing. But I know some people who walk out regularly, I guess their time is worth more than the ticket price. Do you do that, leave a movie if it sucks? How sucky does it have to get for you to pull out?

The same goes for workouts I guess too. Days when you’re really not feeling it or maybe don’t even want to start…we all get ’em. Usually to get my butt moving I tell myself I’ll just start and if 5 minutes rolls by and I want to stop, okay. I know it’s a lie going in but eh, it gets the ball rolling and once 5 minutes passes I either feel fine or tell myself just to do 5 minutes more, etc. until I end up doing what I had intended. All about those lies…baby!

Well, nice little tangents I’m going on today. Well, since I don’t walk out of movies and I wanted to draw something I did. Not sold on how much I like any of it, but we all have those quasi-star movies and thus quasi-star showings of ourselves.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist and sometimes that can bite me in the butt. If I don’t like how something is turning out I can spend way too much time on details, certain details that is a good thing but on other really minor things, sometimes I just have to tell myself to stop. If I don’t I’ll never finish anything.

But distinguishing which details are minor enough to foggeddabout can be tough. Also, I don’t like showing things that are sucky, but I’ll go out on a limb and try to let that go too. We all have a spectrum of stuff we do…the things we really love and are proud of, the ones we hate, and then tons of stuff that in the middle. So be it. Live and let be.

So I’ll show what I came up with, also out of laziness on my part because I’m out of things to write. Bwahaha. Be warned because I HATE doing faces and really suck at them. I’m working on that, but it’s a weakness I’m trying to get better at. The eyes always look kinda freaky-weaky.

Here’s the sketches I was doodling away on. I sometimes like the loose sketch lines better than the finished ones because sometimes the harsh lines look too neat/clean/naked to me.


Trying to go for a little ‘Game Face’ thing on the side. Oh, you like my classy binder paper?


Supposed to be a runner tired after a race/interval but it turned out that like kid in The Ring.

Here’s the end result of one of the sketches. Hate her face, but watevs.

The other finished one of the running silhouette.



And that’s all for me today!! If you haven’t read up the latest Fairy Tale that is sure to be turned into the next Disney feature film, do take a gander…it’s got running, fro-yo and dare I say a pretty kick@$$ cast! 🙂

1) We kicked June to the curb, what’s on tap for your July?

Actually something pretty big for me but I’m gonna wait and share later. Sorry, I’m lame like that.

2) Bad movies, bad meals, bad dates? Do you walk out, not finish, climb out the bathroom window or do you force it through to the end? Also, if you have a really awesome bad date (or anything I guess) anecdote do share!

2) Do you have trouble distinguishing which details are too minor to sweat from the ones that really matter?

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