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Good morning! It’s rare these days that I kick things off with commentary on current events but every once in a while I like to throw a curveball.

Yesterday, Northern Arizona University announced that Mike Smith, director of cross country and track and field, and arguably one of the top middle and long distance coaches in the world, would be stepping down at the conclusion of the 2024-25 academic year to pursue a professional coaching opportunity (reportedly with Nike). I had no inside intel on this development before it was made public, but, for a number of reasons, it didn’t come as a surprise to me. Here’s why:

1. Nike is no doubt behind the eight ball these days when it comes to sponsoring professional training groups in the United States. I’m not even sure if Union Athletics, formerly the Oregon Project, is even a thing anymore, and the Bowerman Track Club professional group isn’t what it was in years past. Other brands, however, have invested heavily in these groups in recent years, to much success, excitement, and fanfare: HOKA Northern Arizona Elite, New Balance Boston, On Athletics Club, Brooks Beasts, Puma, Under Armour’s Mission groups, and a couple more I’m not thinking of right now. And with L.A. 2028 just a few short years away, Nike needed to make a major move here.

2. I say this with no disrespect to any other coach or team in the U.S., but Smith, whose full-time job has been coaching NAU since 2016, already had the most talented group of post-collegiate athletes in the country, and Nike is reportedly grandfathering in his non-Nike athletes to be a part of this new setup. In short: They can build off what is already a solid foundation, instead of starting completely from scratch, which I think is a huge advantage for everyone involved.

3. Smith was in a position of power, already having a great gig at NAU and with his small stable of pros, so I imagine he had some negotiating leverage in this situation to make it fit his own needs and vision. Hopefully he asked for—and will receive—a lot of money, resources, decision-making authority, and job security with this new arrangement.

4. Collegiate athletics as we knew it is in the midst of a major tide shift with NIL deals and other forms of compensation being thrown at athletes, and, as David Epstein recently wrote about, and podcast post Pablo Torre found out, the future of Olympic sports such as athletics at the collegiate level isn’t looking great. Not to mention, collegiate coaching, between recruiting, administration, travel, the actual coaching, and everything else involved, is a never-ending grind—not that professional coaching isn’t, but it’s not nearly as consuming—and my hunch is that played a role in Smith’s decision.

5. Smith hands over the reins at NAU to his right-hand man Jarred Cornfield, who has been at the school since 2015, and he gets to base his new group in Flagstaff, a town he loves deeply and a community he is heavily involved in. It also happens to be one of the best places in the world to call home if you’re an endurance athlete. I doubt Nike will build Smith’s group his own high-performance facility, but I don’t think he’ll have any problems getting his athletes on a track or treadmill when necessary.

6. It’s kind of a no-brainer/no lose situation from the outside looking in. Smith, with what I imagine will be a boatload of resources at his disposal, has an opportunity to coach and develop a handful of the best athletes in the world for at least the next few years. If it doesn’t work out, for whatever reason, I doubt he’ll have a hard time finding a new gig at the collegiate or professional level.

I have a few questions too, like, what happens to the other U.S.-based Nike pro groups? Will any more new ones emerge between now and 2028? How big will Smith’s crew be? Does he have budget for an assistant coach(es)/staff/other personnel? How long is his contract? Will the group get any marketing and communications support from Nike? How awkward will it eventually get for the non-Nike athletes in the group? I’m sure these questions and more will get answered in due time—Smith is staying on at NAU until July 2025—but make no mistake about it: this development is sure to shake up the professional distance running landscape in the lead-up to the L.A. Olympics, and likely beyond.

Quick Splits

— Jakob Ingebrigsten’s post-Olympics revenge tour (h/t Peter Gilmore for that idea) continued over the weekend at the Diamond League meeting in Silesia as the reigning Olympic 5000m champion, who finished out of the medals in the 1500m in Paris, annihilated Daniel Komen’s 3000m world-record with a 7:17.55 clocking. (A few days before he took down Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker in Lausanne, beating him by two seconds in the 1500.) In Silesia, the 23-year-old finished three seconds under Komen’s mark, which hadn’t been touched for nearly 28 years. (To be fair, the flat 3000m, especially outdoors, isn’t run all that often.) Still, it was 85 degrees at race time and the record would require 7-½ sub–59 second laps, a tall task that requires incredible precision, no matter how you try to slice it. Ingebrigsten, as one of the commentators calling the race noted, likes to take big cuts at the end. “Komen’s last lap was fifty-nine zero-nine,” he explained, “and Jakob Ingebrigsten doesn’t run 59-second last laps.” (He closed in 55.45.)

— This 8-year old Oliver Burkeman piece about why complex questions can have simple answers touches briefly on finance, diet, and happiness, but the main premise of his argument can also be applied to how to train for running: “We’re drawn to complex strategies because they enhance the illusion of control: we feel we’re grappling with important stuff, exerting agency,” he writes. “Plus, we like the idea of detailed, personalised solutions when, actually, just doing the same as everyone else might be best.” I see this in running all the time, especially at the amateur level. A lot of coaches and athletes overcomplicate their approach to training, chasing and crunching all sorts of numbers as if they’re programming some kind of robot. And while I’ve got no problem with personalized training—we all have different backgrounds, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, etc.—you will get yourself 90 to 95 percent of the way to where you want to go by taking the following 10 words of advice to heart: Run a lot, mostly easy. Go hard occasionally, recover appropriately.

— This newsletter started as, and remains, a creative itch that I need to scratch. It’s a form of self-expression and every week I give myself permission to write about whatever the hell strikes my fancy. I do so with the hope that you, my loyal readers, will take something away from it that helps you in some aspect of your life. And even though I’ve put out 459 of these at this point, every week I still feel a little foolish for thinking that I have something insightful, inspiring, or interesting to share. But, as actor Ethan Hawke explains in this short talk on creativity, over the years I’ve had to get comfortable with learning to “play the fool.” “So, if you want to help your community, if you want to help your family, if you want to help your friends, you have to express yourself. And to express yourself, you have to know yourself. It's actually super easy,” he explains. “You just have to follow your love. There is no path. There's no path till you walk it, and you have to be willing to play the fool. So don't read the book that you should read, read the book you want to read. Don't listen to the music that you used to like. Take some time to listen to some new music. Take some time to talk to somebody that you don't normally talk to. I guarantee, if you do that, you will feel foolish. That's the point. Play the fool.”

— I’d never heard of Jordan Caiola until a few days ago but this acoustic cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” is pretty damn good. If you’re a fan of The Boss, or just appreciate someone putting their spin on a classic tune, take five minutes out of your day and give it a listen. As another listener wrote in the comments, “It's like Bruce on chamomile tea!” (John Legend does a great version too.)

— From the archives (Issue 42, 8 years ago this week): When I lace up my running shoes and shove my ass out the door, it represents a choice that I’ve made that day. I’ve elected to move my body in a meaningful way even if it’s not the most pleasant experience once I get out there. I could just as easily plop my ass on the couch and eat all the ice cream in the freezer—and sometimes I do— but when I hit the ground running it cultivates a unique sense of accomplishment, freedom and enjoyment. Running is my most regular ritual, and there’s always some element of risk involved. It helps bring me closer to the earth and also keeps me grounded emotionally. Running allows me to uncover things inside myself and also unites me with other likeminded souls. On some days, it can exhaust me to dangerous levels and on others it will energize me like nothing else. But most of all, running forces me to live in the present moment, helps me make sense of my experience as a human being and allows me to better appreciate the world around me. As John L. Parker wrote in Once A Runner, “Running to him was real; the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free.” Parker’s words are consistent with my own experience and I thought of them recently when I read this Maria Popova piece on Diana Ackerman’s Deep Play, which was sent to me by my friend Galen Burrell. “In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time’s continuum, ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world’s ordinary miracles,” writes Ackerman. “When it happens we experience a sense of revelation and gratitude. Nothing need be thought or said. There is a way of beholding that is a form of prayer.” Sound familiar? This is running for me. It’s my form of deep play and I feel fortunate to experience it.

— A big thank you to my partners at Tracksmith for supporting my work in August (and throughout 2024). Ninety-nine percent of the time when I’m running (heck, even when I’m not), I’ve got a hat on my head. It’s become something of a signature look, though style is far from my forte. I just like having my head covered, and, when I’m running, a hat helps keep the sun and sweat out of my eyes. My running hats are all pretty lightweight and breathable, minimally designed, and, more often than not, there’s some kind of story behind the one I’m wearing, e,g., a race I ran, a cause I support, or a brand I feel connected to. So, imagine my excitement when Tracksmith released the Wottle Cord Hat a couple weeks ago. It pays homage to Dave Wottle, who wore a similar hat when he won gold in the 800 meters at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. (Learn more about Wottle and the inspiration behind the hat here.) I got right after it was released and wore it right away. Like Wottle said about wearing his iconic hat en route to 800m gold, “I didn’t even know I had it on.” (If you buy the Wottle Cord Hat or anything else on tracksmith.com, use the code MarioGIVE at checkout for free shipping on your next order and 5% of your purchase will go to support the Friendly House in Worcester, Massachusetts, an organization that is near and dear to me.)

Workout of the Week: The Tired Tempo Run

A spin on the "Tempo Plus" and "Hills and a Steady Chill" workouts I’ve shared here previously, this session starts with a set of shorter, quicker intervals and finishes with a tempo run at a steadier effort. It's a great way for marathoners to keep a little turnover in the mix while also practicing some race-pace running on not-so-fresh legs. Here are the details.

The bottom line.

"Confidence is a calculation of the odds of success. Courage is a calculation that the cost of not trying is higher than the cost of failing."

—Ed Batista, executive coach and friend of the shakeout, in this short post on confidence and courage

That's it for Issue 459. Enjoying the shakeout? Please do me a solid and forward this email to someone else who might also appreciate it. (And if you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time and want to receive it for yourself first thing every Tuesday morning, you can subscribe right here.)

Thanks for reading,

Mario

P.S. A couple weeks from now, on September 14/15, the Headlands 27K, which is part of Salomon’s Golden Trail World Series, will take place in my backyard of Marin County, California. Race director Jeff Stern is making a push for equal participation in both races. The men’s race is capped and the women’s race has a few spots left. If you’re looking for a challenge and want to take part in a world-class event on spectacular trails, use the code WOMENRULE for 15% off registration in the women’s race.

​Support the morning shakeout directly on Patreon and help keep my work sustainable for years to come.

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