Cig Break

Oof

2025 will go down as the most interesting year of my life, and I guarantee you it won’t be beat. The year where it truly felt like the biggest breakthroughs were coming through, conveniently also had the biggest blindspots. In a year with so much volatility, I ended my season exhausted. What I needed was a cigarette.

This doesn’t actually mean I’m craving a cigarette. However, since this is a newsletter where I talk about myself and you all read it, I’ll be transparent on a little fun fact about me. For the past three years, after every season ends, I go out on a night on the town with my friends and smoke ONE cigarette. Just one.

Now, if you knew me in high school, you would know this is kind of a big deal; I was (okay, still am) a straight arrow. I didn’t drink a sip of alcohol until college. My first joint was after college graduation (I had a half ass puff of a joint and didn’t feel anything). For a couple of my early years in Boulder my roommates indulged me with one “edible” night a year – I took a 5mg gummy and watched Monty Python until falling asleep (most of the time at 7:30pm). And finally, my first cigarette was after the 2022 Boris Hanžeković Memorial, aka Zagreb Meeting afterparty. Why smoke a cig? Cause it’s Europe and it was cool, damnit.

What started as a silly little thing to tell my friends upon my international travels became a symbolic way to connect with some of my teammates, strangers, and new friends. Every year, minus this one, the cigarette was had at the Zagreb Meeting afterparty. Zagreb’s track meet was usually one of the last big track & field meets of the year before 2025 (until World Athletics designated World Champs as the finale of the season), so everyone usually wanted to let loose at the infamous afterparty. Amidst the chaos, the priority was having my one cigarette – and whoever wanted to join me, could. This year, foregoing my European travels post-USAs, and with Zagreb being in June, an audible to relocate the ceremony to Boulder was necessary. Dragging some friends along, we had a night on the town. We ate Mexican food, drank some fruity cocktails, watched a bar fight, and smoked one cig each. Okay, I’ll admit – I smoked 4 cigs.

Cig night 2025

Waking up the next morning felt like being the kid who got caught by their parents smoking, and their punishment was to smoke the whole pack (parents still do that, right?). Full disclosure, I don’t like cigarettes; they don’t taste good and the sensation doesn’t feel remotely pleasant. Not my cup of tea. Like I said, it’s symbolic.

ANYWAYS

What I’m trying to say is that a nice long break from everything was much needed, including this newsletter. What more could one say after lousy performances? Feeling embarrassed and dejected, every thought of this newsletter or running was met by a twinge in my post tib tendon. No thought crossed my mind about divulging thoughts or feelings in that state.

Most of my newsletters up to this point that mentioned failure or shortcomings were usually written with some vote of self-confidence – it felt like there were opportunities and enough confidence to bounce back. Following USA outdoor champs, however, it didn’t feel that way. Dejection was the primary feeling for next couple months. Thoughts of getting older, getting hurt easier and being tired all the time – whether that was actually the case or not, is scary to think about. Trying not to ruminate on it, giving myself the time and space was the best way to work back into it. This gave me the proper time to focus on my post tib injury and slowly build up mileage over ten weeks – starting with three weeks of walk jogging (an absolute hack, I love walk jogging out of shape) and taking the rest of the time to get back to full mileage and workouts. It’s worked, for the most part. My post tib has its good and bad days, but I’m in good shape!

The highlight of my time off? I proposed and got married to my beautiful WIFE (that’s cool to say) in a small civil ceremony surrounded by close family and friends at San Francisco City Hall. Roxanne is a keeper, she’s awesome. More on her another time…

My Wife!

Besides talking about my little tradition, I don’t have much to talk about except to provide proof of life, so here’s some random rapid fire, potentially now outdated opinions about recent hot topics in running:

NYC Marathon Influencer Bibs

I think just about every opinion has already been said about influencer bibs starting before the elite field at the NYC Marathon. Do I think it’s a little silly? Yes, for once it would be nice to have the elites be the utmost priority and the true belles of the ball of an event. With running at an all-time high in attention and participation, you just wish the ones that dedicate their entire lives to this get their day. It’s equally silly for people to carry their phones in their hands taking videos throughout a marathon they supposedly trained for (I’m just assuming every one of these influencers has some kind of deal with Runna, but I digress). BUT, does Mastercard help fund the now immense machine and grand performance that is the NYC Marathon? Absolutely. The streets are shut down all day, the workforce is astronomical, and the experience is second to none for elites and walkers alike. That costs a lot of money – if Mastercard and others are shoveling enough dollars in to help make that happen, then hate the game, not the players.

To give influencers some grace, from what I saw (mainly the two girls running alongside the pros on the bridge), they did what they were supposed to do: they moved over to the side and stayed out the way. The pro field just ended up gravitating towards that side of the bridge as well, and it gave us a hilarious video of Abdi Nageeye having a little bit of fun. As long as the influencers stay out of the way, let them do their Tik Tok videos.

NCAA Cross Country

The state of NCAA distance running has never been more competitive, and that’s a thrill. It’s more than apparent that the distance running overall in the US, whether that’s high school, collegiate, or professional, has been elevated to new heights. It’s exciting as a runner and even more so as a fan of the sport. It’s no secret that the crop of international talent has risen and seemingly taken over – only 5 Americans placed in the top 30 at NCAA Cross Country Champs this year on the men’s side.

This international presence has sparked a lot of debate amongst the entire running community, mainly regarding two overarching topics: the first being the somewhat new “pay to play” system, where coaches are paying international agencies for access to recruit top international talent. The second being the age at which some of these athletes are entering the NCAA. I haven’t developed strong opinions about either of these topics – you can’t blame an athlete for wanting to come to the US to compete in the most competitive prep system in the world, and receive a college education in the process. It is not their fault and they should not receive negativity from it. The system (or lack thereof) is to blame at the moment if it’s truly bringing negative externalities (and no, I’m not talking about a high school runner from Oklahoma not being able to run for OK State even though their parents “pay taxes” – junior probably wasn’t gonna make that team anyways).

HOWEVER

It is absolutely imperative that coaches and universities do their due diligence in recruiting, accepting and developing young runners as both athletes and functioning humans of society. I am far from convinced that every coach in the Power 4 conferences have that as their primary goal. Even if student athletes are coming on to a university campus not being able to speak english day one, that’s fine. But if they’re leaving with a “degree” after four or five years without any educational and/ or life skills in and out of the classroom, coaches have done them a disservice. Coaches and athletic departments are responsible for facilitating this full development. That can’t be a hot take, but unfortunately I’ve witnessed the repercussions first hand.

Concluding

Well, I hope you’re happy to see my newsletter in your inbox again. The goal is to get one or two newsletters out per month now, for the sake of my brain and sanity. If there’s anything you’d like me to touch on in the future, let me know in the comments. As always, I appreciate your support and following along.

For those who care, I’ll be racing the USA Cross Country Championships tomorrow in Portland in the men’s open 10k at 12:55pm local time. Live streaming will be through the Nike Cross Nationals website. I’ll try to provide some kind of recap post race.

Thanks again, team.

Joey