New Beginnings

Hi, Welcome to my blog. Many of you already know me, but for those of you who don't my name is Mike Hickey. I am a runner from Rockland County, New York. I ran for Pearl River High School where I established myself as one of the top runners in New York State. After High School I went on to Iona College where I spent a year and a half running for the Gaels. Right now I am in a runner's limbo. I am no longer on the team at Iona due to some disciplinary actions that I received, so I am starting back into my training and looking for a school to attend/run for.

In High School I began running freshman year, but didn't really get into the sport until my sophmore year. That year I was able to be counted among the top runners in the state and that motivated me to train hard, and distinguish myself in cross country and on the track. Most things remained the same, I was basically a solid performer but nobody special, until my senior year. Senior year I was able to place 3rd at the state meet, which was dissapointing, but looking back losing to two national champions in Chris Stogsdill and Alex Dier is nothing to be ashamed of I guess. On the track I ran a pr of 4:18 indoors before getting the flu and basically ending my season, then in the spring i ran a pr of 8:35 in the 3k at penn relays before running a series of dissapointing races before nationals where i placed 7th in the 5k and running 15:11.

After High School I went on to attend Iona College. Iona is a school that is not very far from where I live, yet it is one of the best xc programs in the country. They have been in the top 10 at nationals for the past 8 years I believe and it was an honor to be able to go there. Thinking back on this, I realize that I never really appreciatted what I had at Iona, and instead of working hard my first year in order to take advantage of the amazing training situation I was in I instead decided to party and have a good time. My second year I came back determined to train, and I ran a series of good races. Running 26:16 at van cortland park, and 25:03 at the Princeton Invitational. However eventually I fell back into my old crowd and wound up partying again and for this I wasn't allowed to return to the team for next semester.

Now that I am on my own, without a program to run for, I begin to realize the potential that I have within myself to run some competitive times. I have never gotten in what most people would consider consistent training for more than 2 months at a time before I get either discouraged, distracted, bored, or sick. I have never had a full winter or training, and my summer training usually starts in early-mid august for the xc season. So basically the main purpose of this blog is to document the trials and tribulations that I go through this winter and spring as I prepare to train on my own and hope to run some races that I can truly be proud of. Thank you for reading, and next week I'll come back and post my training and whats happened during the course of the week.