It’s a fresh -3C before the sun is fully exposed as I get dropped off on Northern Arizona University (NAU) campus, using Walkup Stadium as my landmark, but really having no idea where I am. “Cardinal fields” being my only direction from Faubs the night before.
This is how a typical day starts for me on the road. A few quick exchanges with an athlete the day before, me being overly cautious of their time, forever grateful for their time and aware of my unnecessary cognitive load to their day…thus never asking enough questions.
You get used to uncertainty. You get used to a lot of uncertainty.
I don’t know if it’s the work that prepares me for life, or life that has prepared me for this work, but to be honest, I struggle to distinguish between the two most of the time. This is the life I choose, and the one I work endlessly to make possible. It’s incredibly difficult most of the time, full of uncertainty and uncomfortable, but that is the reward.
It is a pleasure to spend time out there with athletes whether a race course, or a glistening dewy grass field in the rising sunlight of a late January morning, and I can’t thank you enough. So thank you Scott Fauble and the rest of the Northern Arizona Elite (NAZ Elite) athletes, coach Ben Rosario, and as I come down the hill from Walkup seeing a familiar frame squatting in the field with a 70-200mm pinned to his right eye, Stephen Kersh who will also be snapping some snaps.
This workout just turned into a major media event. Enjoy the photos folks.
