An interview with Brianna Freestone

Always there. Those are the two words that came to mind as I sat down to write this Pandemic Papers introduction for Brianna Freestone (Class of 2015). She wrote these words a few paragraphs down into this interview: “As anyone who’s met me knows, I’m not very outgoing …” While this is true, and while Brianna was never going to make her presence readily known by being overly vocal … she was: Always. There. I do not recall her ever being injured or sick. I’m sure there were a few practices that she missed. But I don’t remember them. Other than her semester abroad in Florence, I’m pretty confident that Brianna never missed her beloved long runs. And Brianna loved to race! Most distance runners would race ever other weekend in track; Brianna was one of the few that raced almost every weekend, to my recollection.

As she points out here, Brianna had an up-and-down career as a runner at Marist. But she brought such great value to our team by her mere presence, by always being there. She was a beloved figure on the team; she grew into a very mature student-athlete under Coach Chuck’s guidance both on and off the track. I remember distinctly those late-night distance races at BU, when our loopy runners not racing would whoop it up in the far corner of the track. While I don’t remember specifically the “tunnel” to which Brianna refers here, in my mind’s eye I could certainly see that.

Brianna moved on from Marist to Physician Assistant (PA) school and now she is a PA in her home area of the Capital District. I remember distinctly one weekend when she and Brie Vess (oh HER) returned to campus to visit, sitting with Brianna in the lobby of the old fitness center and her telling me (as excitedly as Brianna could) about her rotations in PA school. It was then and there that I knew she picked the right profession. It also gave me great insight into what a PA does, and I have since recommended that pathway to several of our current student-athletes. Side note: It certainly doesn’t hurt that Marist now has a PA program! Thanks to Brianna for her memories and for updating us on the many great things she has done in the five years since she departed Marist.

How, when and why did you start running?

My earliest introduction to running was going to track practices with my dad when I was 6 or 7 years old. He was the women’s sprint coach at a nearby high school. He never pushed me to run, but I could see his passion for it and that intrigued me. I joined a casual summer running program in Saratoga a few years later. In 7^th grade I decided to try outdoor track, as a sprinter and hurdler, with a group of friends. I was a terrible sprinter and an even worse hurdler (props to all you incredible sprinters and fielders!), but that summer the Kranicks convinced me to try distance. It didn’t take long for me to get hooked, and I never looked back.

You ran for a legendary high school program. What was that experience like? What are some of your favorite memories and highlights from your high school running career?

Running for Saratoga was definitely intense, but I felt very fortunate to be in such a successful high school program. I truly felt like I was part of something great. My coaches would tell us constantly that you get out of running exactly what you put into it, and I bought into that mentality completely. Racing was something that I struggled to master, but I loved pouring my heart and soul into training. I developed a passion for cross country. I had the opportunity to go to cross country nationals with my team my junior year, which was a very proud moment for me. But I think my favorite race memory was the Suburban Council meet leading up to that. It was a total washout on our home course at Spa State Park. We were soaked before we started, and we plowed through mud and puddles the whole way. It felt like a true, gritty cross-country race. Of course, the biggest highlights were the friendships I made. To this day my high school running partner is one of my closest friends. We’ve been banging elbows for almost 15 years now.

How and why did you choose Marist? What other schools were you considering and how did you pick Marist over the other schools you were interested in?

When I started looking at colleges, I was looking primarily at small liberal arts schools in the Northeast where I would be able to run competitively. After the first crop of schools had been filtered out, I was seriously considering four: Siena, Quinnipiac, Fairfield and Marist. I only went on one official visit, to Marist. After spending time on campus and meeting Coach Chuck and some of my future teammates (shout out to my awesome hosts- Jackie Gamboli and Katie Messina), my mind was made up. Marist felt like home.

What was your major at Marist and what was your academic experience like?

I was a Biomedical science major, so naturally I spent most of my time at Donnelly Hall. I had a great experience with the Marist science program. As anyone who’s met me knows, I’m not very outgoing, so the small classes for me were ideal. The professors were approachable, incredible people who I was excited to learn from, particularly Professor Cahill, Dr. Bettencourt and Dr. Nadeau. I can honestly say that Marist did a great job of preparing me for graduate school.

I was also able to take a break from science courses my junior year and spend a semester in Florence. To add to the prior question, the Marist abroad program was another big draw for me, so I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to take advantage of that.

When and why did you choose to go to post-graduate PA school?

I didn’t decide until my senior year that I wanted to become a Physician Assistant. Initially I was considering occupational therapy or medical school. What made me look into the PA path was a course that Marist offered called “Intro to the health professions” where various speakers come in and talk about their daily life and what you can expect if you choose their career. They had several PAs speak which piqued my interest. After that, I was able to shadow PAs in the ER at St. Francis Hospital (across the street from Marist) and at a family medicine practice near Vassar. What stood out to me about the PA profession was its variety, flexibility and team focus. It struck me as something I could truly enjoy and excel at.

Tell us about your post-graduate education. How difficult was that and how much did you enjoy that process?

The two years working toward my masters were tough. The first year was all didactic, meaning eight hours a day in a classroom with an average of three exams a week. I was constantly studying. We had a total of two weeks off since I was in an accelerated 24-month program. My professors sometimes described it as trying to drink from a fire hose, just because of the sheer volume of information you’re expected to sift through in a short amount of time.

The second year was much more enjoyable. It was clinical based, so we rotated each month to different sites, gaining hands-on experience. I spent time working in primary care, pediatrics, women’s health, psychiatry, orthopedic surgery, cardiology, general surgery, internal medicine and emergency medicine. I also spent a month at a clinic on the island of San Pedro, Belize. It was an eye-opening experience to see medicine conducted there, with limited access to many of the resources that we take for granted here in the U.S.

Back to your time at Marist: You were a strong and dedicated runner on our team. What are some of your fondest memories of being a student-athlete at Marist?

Oh man, that’s a tough question. There are way too many to mention here. Coming onto campus as part of the cross country/track team was like having an automatic family, and some of my teammates are still my closest friends today. Coach Chuck and Pete were amazing mentors, both on and off the track. As far as memories, I think I have to mention being stranded in Disney. That was a dream, of course. And I loved every MAAC meet. It was always so much fun to hype each other up and get excited about spending a weekend competing at the top of our game.

I remember one race at BU where I was running the 5K. It was pretty late at night and there was just a small group of us left at the track. But as usual, Marist was doing a great job of cheering anyway. I was on pace for an indoor PR, and on the final turn a few of my teammates made a tunnel over the track to help give me the energy to kick to the finish. It was a pretty awesome way to finish out a solid race, and it really encapsulates the positive, supportive culture of the team that made my experience at Marist so special.

Talk about your post-collegiate running and racing. What are some highlights and what are some of your future aspirations in running?

Post collegiate running, kind of like my collegiate running career, has been a bit of a roller coaster. I initially took some time off, then decided to participate in a couple of triathlons: one sprint and one Olympic distance. I had a fantastic time with that, and gained a ton of respect for the amount of time and energy that triathletes put into their sport.

During PA school I found some awesome trail systems near where I was living, and briefly joined a running club in Philadelphia that held weekly trail races through Wissahickon Park. After that I ran a few half marathons: Baltimore, Philadelphia and the Hudson Mohawk Half. Long run Sundays have always been my favorite day of the week, so I wasn’t too surprised to find that I absolutely love the half marathon. More recently, running has taken a back seat to some new adventures like hiking and backpacking, rock climbing and downhill skiing. Eventually, I plan to build back up to the half marathon distance, and maybe a full marathon.

Talk about your current job. What are you doing, where are you working?

I work at a cardiology practice in Saratoga Springs. We have six doctors, three PAs and one NP in our group. I typically spend three days at the office and two at the local hospital each week. I’m on call one weekend a month. In the office, I see about 20 patients a day for diagnosis and management of various conditions -- including cholesterol and blood pressure, heart failure, stroke, coronary artery disease and atrial fibrillation. At the hospital, I round and do consults with an attending physician, seeing a similar but more acute patient population. We have a few interventional cardiologists who perform cardiac catheterizations and pacemaker implantations.

I also work per diem in internal medicine at a hospital in Albany. I admit and round on patients there as well, but in that role, I’m helping manage all of their medical conditions instead of primarily focusing on cardiac related issues. It’s a larger teaching hospital, so it’s been a great opportunity for me to learn and branch out.

How has the pandemic affected your professional career? Has your job changed and if so, how?

Of course, at the beginning of all of this, things were scary and uncertain for everyone. Between hearing what was happening in Italy and then New York City, the medical community was preparing for the worst-case scenario. My organization sent out an email to all nurses and Pas, essentially stating that we should be prepared to be sent wherever New York State deems us to be needed. I was anticipating being moved to Albany in case of a surge. The hospital I work at designated specific floors to treatment of COVID19 patients. We started doing most office visits by telephone call or video chat. Our patient volume dropped so low that our office closed on Mondays. Fortunately, the surge we were bracing for never really occurred. We have had positive cases in this region, but between social distancing measures and patients staying out of the hospitals, we’ve had the resources to manage them.

I’ve been able to stay in my current position. I feel very fortunate to have a job in all of this. Currently, everything feels almost like “business as usual” except for our level of awareness and caution on the job. We’re aware of the possibility of a resurgence, particularly as the community reopens. We mask ourselves and our patients. We’ve restructured our office in order to allow for proper social distancing and sanitizing. Some of our staff continues to work from home. The physicians are continuing to do some office visits remotely, particularly if someone is considered high risk or they have difficulty coming into the office.

               

How has the pandemic affected your personal life? What changes have you had to make to your routine?

As I’m sure many people can relate to, I’ve been constantly adjusting my routine depending on the current situation and recommendations. It’s been tough to navigate what the safest, most ethical approach is. I have a roommate and a boyfriend, so of course I worry about what I might be bringing back to each of them. My biggest concern though is what I might bring back to my patients, most of whom are high risk. This was particularly stressful at the onset when we did not have access to appropriate PPE at work (N95s and surgical masks). That situation has now improved, but I continue to wear a set of scrubs to and from work, and change into another set to wear while I’m seeing patients. When I get home, I go straight to the shower and stick to my room as much as possible. I try to limit trips to the store. Initially, I completely stopped seeing friends and family in person. There were a lot of Zoom chats. Over the last couple of weeks, as cases in our area have stabilized and I haven’t been moved or assigned to COVID19 positive units, I’ve slowly started seeing people again. I keep my social circle small, and when we meet it’s for a walk or a backyard hangout. I feel lucky to have my immediate family close by.

In your medical and personal opinion, how do you think our society (New York, USA) has been managing the pandemic? Would you like to see us doing anything differently?

I won’t critique what’s been done so far, but I think that currently New York State is being smart by following a gradual reopening plan. As we reopen the economy, I think it’s important to remember that this virus has not disappeared. We need to continue to slow its spread and protect those who are high risk. I think we can do this by continuing to mask, wash hands and social distance as much as possible.

Again, in your opinion, where do you see this pandemic going in the short- and long-term future?

I think this is going to be with us for a while. I don’t anticipate a safe and effective vaccine to be ready until at least next year. We will likely be seeing a resurgence in the fall, along with our usual flu cases, which is going to put some strain on the hospital system. I know we all wish we could just get up and move on with our lives as they were before, but I think this is going to fundamentally change how our society operates. Like I said above, we need to keep in mind that it hasn’t disappeared just because we’re tired of it. Let’s continue to be as safe as possible!    

What are your fondest memories of your final few months of your senior year at Marist? What message can you give to our recent graduates about the loss of their final few months at Marist?

Another tough one. Some of my favorites were running the 10K at MAACs, senior formal and the athletic banquet. Senior Week was a great way to enjoy being on campus with friends one last time. For the recent graduates, I know nothing I say is going to make the fact that you lost your last few months at Marist better. But thank you for being strong for the sake of your community. And as others have mentioned, the awesome part about running is that it doesn’t have to end after college!

Anything else you’d like to add …

If anyone has physician assistant related questions, feel free to reach out at bfreestone@arcadia.edu. Thank you so much for all you do for us, Pete! Go Red Foxes!

An interview with John Keenan (JK-Trey)

John Keenan was a member of our team and our program from 2005-2009. From my now 30-year coaching perspective, that timeframe resides in a bit of a murky area: It’s long enough ago where the memories are fuzzy around the edges, but not so long as to have some vivid and positive memories of that era of those teams. So, when I think back to the four-year career of JK-Trey (as he was called, he’s John Keenan III), as a member of the Running Red Foxes, certain flashbacks come to mind:

--His bad hair (see photo here). I already know his and Rolek’s rejoinder, and they are correct when they will inevitably remind me of my horrendous and ill-timed attempt(s) at a mullet (note to current team: stop asking, it’s not happening!). But anyway: It was relatively easy to tolerate Keenan’s unwieldy mop because a. I didn’t really care and b. he usually ran really fast during that haircut phase (in fact, most of his Marist career was highlighted by strong racing).

--Our trip to Indianapolis: Words cannot describe the level of boredom and inactivity that these few days in this completely nondescript Midwestern town (if you are from Indy … sorry!) entailed. Time has not softened this memory; in fact, it has probably hardened it! It was summer and it felt like we were a few inches from the surface of the sun. So when Keenan needed some sports drink (hydration is key!), we figured we’d go to a neighborhood store (we were staying in a downtown hotel) to get one. Wrong! Downtown Indy, at least when we were there 14 years ago, completely shut down at 5 p.m. We had to drive about 20 minutes out of town to get him a damn Gatorade. Crazy. We had hours and hours of down time, including when the meet was suspended because of the very predictable thunderstorm. Fortunately, JK-Trey was a great travel partner and we talked endlessly the whole time. So, in an odd way, it’s a fond memory.

--Like so many of our former athletes, Keenan rode that seesaw between hard work and hard play like an expert surfer. He loved the grind, and he worked hard with his boys on the team back then. They continued the work ethic from their predecessors and laid the groundwork for the future. But they’ll be the first to admit that on occasion they had a little too much fun. It’s a delicate balance and the best way for athletes to learn it is to experience it. Like almost every athlete that’s ever gone through our program, I would say John made smart choices exceedingly more often than not. His analytical background in psychology allowed him to reflect on that beautifully here in his Pandemic Papers interview.

--Speaking of analytical: JK-Trey was also one of several athletes during this era who were quite into the nitty gritty of distance training. I pushed them, but they pushed me for answers as well. A very healthy give and take that continues to this day. The great thing about Keenan: We could be having these in-depth, complex discussions about a variety of topics – from VO2Max or lactate threshold training, to politics, to the choice of who the next Pope should be, and anything in between – but then it could completely go off the rails when one or both of us would make an immature comment (usually him) or stupid pun (usually me) or some combination of both! And we would both get a good laugh at it.

Right before the pandemic shutdown, Keenan was in town. I hadn’t seen John in person in years. He stopped by track practice at Vassar. For him, I’m certain it was a time warp kind of experience. That big mop of hair is long gone. But his loyalty to our program as a Forever Fox remains. This Pandemic Papers interview is on the longer side, but John veers into some really awesome areas. And being the analytical academic that he is, he’s included several links to articles that could be very helpful. Thanks, JK-Trey, for taking the time. And may sure that JK-Cuatro knows he’ll be getting a call from me in about 14-15 years, so keep him running!

You are one in a long line of former St. Anthony's runners to attend Marist. How and when did you start running and what are some of your high school running career highlights?

As a freshman in high school, I was always considered one of the fast kids on rec league soccer teams (without any of the other requisite soccer skills), so I started running. Coming from K-8 with the same 25 kids to St. Anthony’s with a class of 530+, I figured starting to run in late August before school began would help me meet a few new people and hopefully get a leg up. I enjoyed the sport and the group of friends that it gave me, but I didn’t get serious about running until my sophomore year when, after a particularly bad meet at the Armory, my coach gave me his copy of Running with the Buffaloes. There was something about that team, the adversities they went through, the success they saw because of their hard work, the camaraderie they felt for each other: I wanted that kind of experience. My junior year, I worked hard to be a consistent 8th or 9th man on a team that finished 3rd in the NYS Federation XC Championships and was 5th man for the 4x800 that finished 2nd at Millrose and 6th at Penn Relays. Since I didn’t have any of those successes on my resume, and I unfortunately came down with mononucleosis the summer before my senior year, my summer training was really hampered. Even still, I wanted to run in college so I worked really hard from late August on and was a consistent top finisher in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track (where it all started to come together).

*I dropped a 9:44 steeple and a 1:59 800 to score some big points at the CHSAA Championships.

*I finished 5th in the Eastern State Championships in the 2K steeple.

*I competed at the 2005 Nike Outdoor National Championships in North Carolina in the 2K Steeple.

It was a long time ago, but take us back to your recruiting process. How did you choose Marist and what other schools were you considering?

As you just read, I was a mediocre-at-best runner in high school and colleges weren’t exactly beating down the door to talk to me. My best times were from late in my senior year, so I didn’t have a lot to offer potential schools. I was looking at St. Joseph’s University, Marist College, and SUNY Albany as my main choices. I had a good SAT score and a good GPA, and was fortunate enough to get academic scholarships to all three, but it was my visit to Marist that sealed the deal. The campus and the Hudson River Valley were gorgeous, especially compared to Philadelphia and Albany. On my runs with the team, everything just clicked. The sense of family and camaraderie was immediate, even with a wide range of abilities and a group looking to specialize in every distance event. I earned my nickname (JKTrey) in my first run (I think by Chris Baum ‘07 and other St. Anthony’s Alum Sean Hopkins ‘05), and the way that the team described running for Pete made it obvious that this was where I was meant to be.

You were a runner at Marist just as the program was starting to take off into one of its best eras of distance-running success. What are some of your favorite memories of your time as a student-athlete at Marist?

My first race in a Marist jersey was the 2005 season-opening 5K at Sunken Meadow, my former home course, where I had never broken 18. I had, for the first real time, put intention, consistency, and a lot of energy into my summer training. It was a surreal experience, running as a D1 athlete on a course I had run dozens of times, in front of my family and high school coach, Tony Toro, who was also the race director. There was electricity in the air during our team strides and huddle, an electricity I would experience before every single meet for the remainder of my Marist career. That day, though, I surprised everyone, including myself. I finished third on the team and ran low 17s (17:10, I think). I walked onto the team and was a Top 7 runner the rest of the season.

Later in my freshman year, I was able to compete at the Junior National Outdoor Championships in the 3,000m Steeplechase as the first-ever Marist qualifier in this event. Pete and I enjoyed an incredibly boring trip to Indianapolis, where I completely bombed in 100-degree heat and high humidity. I’ll never forget the thunderstorm that closed the meet down for hours, needing to drive 20 minutes out of the city to a highway gas station to stock up on Gatorade because everything in the city closed by 5 pm, and the hours of talking with Pete.

The 2006 MAAC XC Championships race was where it all came together my sophomore year. After dealing with phantom pains of a previous stress fracture and lack of consistent summer training, this was one of the few races in my entire career that I experienced “flow.” Beforehand, I had struggled to break the 26:40 barrier. I remember coming through 5K in sub 17, setting a 5K personal best, and catching up to Justin Harris (‘07), who pushed me to go even harder. I’m glad I listened to him. I finished in 26:18, 13th overall, made the All-MAAC team, made the sub-26:30 VCP all-time list, and was part of a school record (Fastest Top 5 Team Average) that lasted quite some time.

At the first indoor meet at Boston University during my senior year, Joe McElhoney (Manhattan transfer and fellow class of ‘09) and I wanted to run fast. We convinced Pete to get us into the fast 5K heat so it could drag us to some good times. Our strategy was to run in dead last, then with 1K to go, let it all out on the track. We executed our race plan flawlessly, and with 1K to go, I distinctly remember Pete yelling at us to make our move. Joe and I took off, picking off runners lap by lap. We got faster and faster until we were just mowing down the field, finishing in 5th and 6th and running my current 5K personal best, 15:06. I called Mike Rolek (‘08) soon after to tell him about the race and his first reaction was, “You know what sounds better than 15:06? 14:59.”

Like many others who have been a part of these Pandemic Papers, my most cherished memories are times spent with my teammates, my brothers and sisters, my Red Fox Family: the hours spent at cafeteria tables, petitions to “Deb” to put General Tso’s on the menu more than once a month, actually having (a lot of) hair on my head, the tunnel under Gartland, nights spent roaming campus just talking about life, early morning runs with Rolek and CT (Matthew Szymaszek, ‘07), the Jerk Squad, van rides, pizza rolls, days spent at Woodlawn and later at 56 Sunset, the slip-n-slide at the library, and Sundays at the Hyde Park Steakhouse. Since graduating: the Annual Winter Extravaganzas, weddings, children, FaceTime calls, and cross-country visits. I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to take part in this activity, because it’s opened the vault and I’ve gotten to relive some of my favorite years.

You just recently visited the Poughkeepsie area and stopped by at one of our practices at Vassar College back in March. For younger runners, tell us what it was like to train and race at Marist back then and what differences there are between then and now.

Well for one, we only got access to the Vassar College track in my last season (2009). We had to travel a bit farther to Arlington High School, Spackenkill High School, the dirt roads at Vassar Farms, the meadows at Vanderbilt or FDR, hell, we had a residential loop that mimicked a slight 1000m incline that Pete fell in love with for about two years. While I only saw the one workout, I would guess that the biggest difference was we had to be a bit scrappier (and we were WAY more trusting as we all left our bags just in the McCann Center lobby for anyone to take, seriously!).

In spite of that, one of the best things about this program is its similarity over the years. There are still the diverse personalities, the groups splitting off to stretch/warm-up “their way,” the leaders of the workouts, and the guys who pushed too hard or not enough. While some may say that more uniformity helps the program reach another level (I was one of those voices), now I think diversity is what makes the team achieve success year after year. Pete always allowed some level of individuality to be expressed through our running and it’s probably why so many of us continue to compete at a high level for so long: we were allowed (and encouraged) to find ourselves as runners.

Talk about your academics in Marist. What did you major in and how do you feel it prepared you for your post-collegiate career?

As a Psychology major at Marist, I had some great professors, especially my last two years. Dr. Kinlaw (now the Psychology Department Chair) helped me design research studies that led me to explore various areas of psychology and ultimately find my academic passion: sport psychology. Similarly, my advisor, Dr. Gatins (now the Dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences) and I worked together through the student group, Psi Chi, and I couldn’t be more grateful. After two internships in Clinical Psychology, and realizing that I did not want to pursue that professional path, they both helped me discover and pursue the field of sport psychology. After I graduated from Marist, I moved to Tallahassee, FL and earned a M.S. in Sport Psychology at Florida State University.

Speaking of that, your post-graduate education and work experience has taken you to a lot of places with a lot of twists and turns. Tell us about that, where you've been, what you've done and what you are doing now?

Immediately after graduate school I took a job with The Princeton Review in Gainesville, FL. As the Territory Manager for North Florida, I sold test preparation to high school and college students. While I didn’t love this career path, it set the foundation for a few other moves that I would eventually make. I ended up moving back to Tallahassee to become a Student Success Coach at Florida State. I absolutely loved working with freshmen students, helping 115 of them structure their lives within the newfound independence of college. A short while later, my (now) wife, Abby, and I were recruited to work with the U.S. Army, teaching soldiers mental skills to enhance performance; we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use our graduate degrees doing applied work. At Fort Bragg in North Carolina, I had the pleasure of working with the 82nd Airborne while Abby worked within the Special Operations community. The experience was incredible: we each worked alongside 6-10 other mental performance experts in our respective offices, we were completely integrated with a number of soldier groups, and we had the opportunity to make an impact through building curriculum and teaching skills like attention, confidence, imagery, routines, mindset, and resilience - in the classroom and in the field. After almost two years, though, the job was taking its toll. We decided to move to Atlanta, GA (where Abby is from) and start our own business while living closer to family.

In Atlanta, I went back to my roots with The Princeton Review as the Georgia and Alabama Territory Manager. More importantly, Abby and I launched our business, Intrepid Performance Consulting, in May of 2015. Abby quit her full-time job the following year as the business began to expand in order to focus solely on Intrepid. I moved on to GreenSky Credit, the largest financial technology company in Georgia, who offers financing to home improvement businesses like the Home Depot. Over the last three years, I’ve held a number of roles in sales, account management, training, and management. I am now the Director of Outside Sales, where I manage a team of eight Sales Directors from coast-to-coast and am responsible for acquiring and onboarding new enterprise-sized home improvement businesses. My career is rewarding and I have an amazing work team. While my background in training mental skills comes in handy, I also continue to keep a foot in sport by working with a few clients through Intrepid, which continues to expand. We’ve focused on supporting runners, swimmers, and triathletes, from teenagers to age 60+, helping them to improve performance and fulfill their version of success through online mental skills training. In the process, Intrepid became the exclusive mental skills provider for the Atlanta Track Club Elite Team, a partnership we worked towards for a number of years.

My journey has been a crazy one, switching jobs almost every 18 months and moving around quite a bit. My life wouldn’t be the same without all of those choices and moves, and I’m so happy that Abby and I explored a number of career paths. From those experiences, we discovered what we wanted to stand for, how we wanted to work with clients, and what would ultimately make us happy and fulfilled, both individually and as a family.

You've done some great post-collegiate running and racing. What kept you motivated to train and race at such a high level for such a long time? What are some of your racing highlights? How is your current training and what are some of your running goals?

As a volunteer Graduate Assistant for the Florida State cross country and track program, I was able to train with the team twice a day and experience a very different (but still Division 1) program. After finishing grad school, though, I found it incredibly difficult to keep training. I loved being part of a team, not just for the camaraderie, but for the built-in discipline. I realized that a huge part of my consistency was always having someone counting on me to show up to practice and train hard. For the first time in my running career I didn’t have that, and I was wildly inconsistent.

After about two years of on-and-off training while working on mental skills with a lot of runners, I realized it was tough to help people be great when I still felt I had something left to accomplish. I hired a coach and asked him to train me for the marathon trials. It was a longshot, but I went all in for it. I ran 75 miles per week for about three years, most of which was in Florida, where New Year’s Day runs were 80 degrees and 90 percent humidity. I trained completely alone and learned to love mentally pushing myself to limits without having another person there to keep me honest.

I consistently finished in the Top 15 of any road race I entered, got a little help from the Bull City Track Club out of Durham, NC, and enjoyed traveling around the southeast for some great races. I finished 8th in the 2013 Atlanta Half Marathon (1:15:20) and 73rd overall (out of around 60,000) in the 2015 AJC Peachtree Road Race 10K. My body, though, kept breaking down in a lot of small ways that started to wear me down. A week off here, a few days of lost training there, and after about a year of random and nagging injuries, my mind was shot. I didn’t feel like I had a pop and started to loathe my training.

I stopped the coaching and just randomly went for runs 2-3 times a week for another few years. It took me about two years to treat and get rid of a nasty case of plantar fasciitis and enjoy running again. In 2018, for some reason I decided it was smart to throw my hat into the Chicago Marathon lottery with a buddy of mine when my wife, Abby, was many months pregnant. I got in, and then right when I started to train, we had our son, Jack (John Keenan IV, or JKCuatro). Abby was really supportive, pushing me hard when I needed it. Despite being exhausted, many weekends she’d let me sleep and then kick me out the door for my runs. I had a goal of 3:30. On race day last October, I debuted with a 3:11:24, having a near-perfect day and race. I’m still debating if I want to do another one and shoot for a sub-3, because as I know Rolek would tell me, “You know what sounds better than 3:11? 2:59.”

How are you and Abby and your young and very active son handling the pandemic? How has life changed for you and your family?

We are very fortunate. I’ve been working from home since early March, pretty much since the day I got back from Poughkeepsie. Not having a 2.5-3 hour round trip commute has given me so much more time with Abby and Jack. GreenSky is continuing to prioritize employee health and safety, with no intentions of reopening the office anytime soon. My entire team is remote anyway, so me being in the office is largely inconsequential.

With sports essentially being cancelled, new clients for Intrepid initially slowed down, but Abby has not. She’s written multiple articles, has been featured on a few podcasts, handled some public relations work for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and hosted an international webinar on virtual mental skills training, all while maintaining a handful of online clients and taking care of our son. As people have settled into new routines and are hopeful about returning to practices and competitions, we’ve started to see an uptick in interest again, and recently Abby has brought on several new clients.

Jack is a ball of energy. He decided to master walking (and is taking his first attempts at running) during this whole thing. We have an established routine, are lucky that we live next to a massive county park, and are honestly enjoying the opportunity to just be with each other. Of course, like everyone, we’re ready for this to be over and we’d love to see more people, especially our families, but our health comes first.

Where do you see this thing going for the short- and long-term future?

It’s really hard to tell. Short-term, we are doing our best to follow guidance laid out by the hardworking health professionals and scientists in the country and keep a pulse on any day-to-day changes. It helps being close friends with a few doctors as well (CT!) to get a first-hand perspective on what is going on. All we can control is trying to be patient and vigilant about social distancing practices in order to do our part in keeping ourselves and others safe.

Long-term, I see the, not one, but two pandemics (Coronavirus and systemic racism) changing the face of the country and the world. We are in the middle of history in the making, which is devastating and incredible at the same time. It’s hard not to see a facet of our society that won’t be impacted, hopefully for the better. COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement have really forced us to take a hard look at life as we know it and evaluate what matters, what we want to stand for, and how we move forward.

You have a strong background in sport psychology. What tips can you give to our current/returning student-athletes with regard to how to manage the uncertainty of this pandemic?

First and foremost, I’d say to own your emotions and know that they are normal and okay. Some days you might feel robbed of a “traditional” experience. Other days you may love the extra time you get to train. I anticipate them continuing to experience the gamut of emotions, and if that’s you, you’re not alone. If you want to dive deeper into emotions and what to do with them, check out this post Abby wrote about AAA: awareness, acceptance, and action.

Second, I’d prioritize your mentality to help manage the adversity we’re all facing:

●      Focus on healthy lifestyle choices and get serious about the little things. Hydration and nutrition are crucial as you continue your summer training (run, rehydrate, run some more). Sleep (at least 7-9 hours a night) and intentional recovery strategies make a huge difference in your training, how you feel in general, and long-term, how you’re able to get back to performing. Be intentional with your core and strength training to ensure your body is built to last for the long haul.

●      Have an accountability partner. As current Red Foxes, you’re still part of a team, even if you can’t physically be with one another yet. Challenge each other from week to week. Communicate about your training and how you’re doing. Set goals and be open about them, whether they revolve around training times, miles per week, or times you want to hit when competition opens back up.

●      Learn your “why.” For anything that you chase in life, one of the most important things you can do is reflect on your motivation for chasing it. Why do you do what you do? Why do you want what you want? When you truly find some clarity around this, especially if you can connect it to an internal love of the sport, not much else is going to stop you.

●      If-then plan. Adversity is going to continue, whether it’s related to the Coronavirus, managing stress and uncertainty surrounding the upcoming semester, or in pursuing goals next season. It boils down to this: if something bad happens, how are you going to productively respond to it?

For some additional mental tips and strategies, here are some other articles we’ve written:

●      Mindset Matters during COVID-19

●      Building Mental Strength for the Coronavirus “Marathon” (p. 29)

●      The COVID-19 Pandemic: Tips for Athletes, Coaches, Parents, and the Sport Community

Lastly, ask for help if you need it, whether that means reaching out to your team, your coaches, your Red Fox family, or a professional.

From your time as a student-athlete here to the present, what wisdom can you impart to our current team in terms of how to improve themselves as student-athletes during their remaining time here (you started addressing that to the team at the Vassar track!)?

I’ve learned the hard way that success in this sport lies in consistency: Building a mindset and physicality that can weather weeks, months, and even years of training. This means doing the little things, focusing on what really matters, and taking care of yourself. Think about your goals as a runner, student, or just as a person. Back-track from there and ask yourself, “what are the things I need to do to achieve those goals?” Then, prioritize those things and reach out for support if needed.

I also know that this period in your life is unique. When you’re able to get back to it, spend time with your friends and teammates (just maybe not until 4 am), talk with each other about everything and nothing, and create a community.  Study hard (even pro runners need a second job). Get involved in things outside of sport. Figure out who you want to be.

As I have asked most in these Pandemic Papers, what message would you impart to our graduating seniors who have missed so much over the past two months?

Nothing I can say will take away the hurt you likely experienced when you realized it was all over:  not knowing that you already put your jersey on for the last time, not celebrating after your last-ever class or final, and not having those last few weeks to reflect and enjoy everyone’s company knowing that “real life” is right around the corner.

But life is not over. You will see those people again. Many of you will race again. This pandemic stole a few weeks from you, but it didn’t steal the other 3.5+ years of memories that you made and it certainly can’t steal the decades of memories that you will make with your Red Fox Family in the years to come.

An interview with Will Schanz

From left: Doug, Schanz (note bloodied feet), Kenny and Omar

Ooooof. This was inevitable, I guess. Will Schanz. Blog. Pandemic Papers interview. Yeah. It’s a natural. Words. A lot of words. During his four years here as a proud and loyal member of the Running Red Foxes, Will Schanz (Class of 2013) wore us out. He wore us all out. With words. A lot of words. Schanz can talk. And talk. And talk. Schanz talked so much, he talked DURING his races! True story. But as is often the case, what you complain about as annoying is actually far from it. When Schanz left, we missed him. The van rides got quieter. The bus rides got quieter. Everything got quieter. And yes, we lost a lot as a result. Here’s a long-ago blog post that gives you an idea of what it was like to endure three days of a Schanz-induced haze of words on a trip to Richmond. Fond memories!

From what I can recall, Schanz did not attend Marist College with the intention of becoming a teacher in the NYC school system. But that’s what he’s doing, and we’re proud of him for that, and for the fact that he is yet another branch on the coaching tree. I’ll admit that we haven’t stayed that much in touch since his graduation, which I find surprising and a little sad. I figured my post-Schanz years would be filled with long phone calls and longer emails. But alas, as often happens, our busy lives have drifted our own ways, only to intersect with random texts or emails, often centered around his legendary high school coach at Shaker. Coach Springstead has coached thousands of runners over a decades-long career; I think he’s nearing or has surpassed 60 years holding a stopwatch and a clipboard. Whenever I see him, he always remembers me and always asks about Will Schanz. Again, out of the thousands of athletes he has mentored, Schanz always comes to the old man’s mind. Today, the same can be said for this not-as-old man. Enjoy this endless run-on sentence of a Pandemic Papers interview with the one and only Will Schanz.

Let’s go way back in time: How and why did you choose Marist? What other schools were you considering?

Marist was pretty much my top choice from the jump! I knew that I wanted a liberal arts school because I was pretty confident I would study history (wasn’t sure about the teaching part at that point), and I knew I wanted a school that would take me on as a walk-on. Chris Vanzetta and I visited Marist together our senior year and I think we both walked away feeling pretty confident we both wanted to go there. (A side note to that day -- I got pulled over and received my first speeding ticket ever as we were trying to leave the Marist campus because Route 9 right around Marist is the world’s biggest speed trap! Who would have known only a couple years later I would become one of the team’s official van drivers …) 

But in all seriousness, I got along with Pete and the team right from the start. Chris Vanzetta and I knew Nick Webster from Shaker, which made us feel more comfortable right from the start and he only had great things to say about the school since he had left Shaker. I also want to give Pat Duggan a ton of credit in convincing me to come because he was another history major and he had such glowing things to say about the school. The only other school I seriously considered was Geneseo, but that school really never held the same kind of appeal for me for whatever reason.

Talk a little bit about your high school career. How and why did you start running? You ran for a true living legend at Shaker High School. What was that like and are you still in touch with Coach Springstead and others from your high school track teammates?

**Cracks fingers** Oh, so I can talk about Shaker now? Just joking -- I’ll keep my Shaker soliloquy brief. I actually started running because the sport I was actually trying to put the most time into my 9th and 10th grade year of high school was basketball. I didn’t make the basketball team my 9th grade year, and I was determined that if I just got in ridiculously good running shape and just worked on my jump shot a lot, that things would go better my 10th grade year. So I joined XC my 10th grade year.

Running sucked at the beginning! Lord almighty, am I not a naturally talented runner (Editor’s note: Agreed!). Shaker was loaded at that point, and when I say I was at the back of the pack every day at practice that year, I mean I was at the back of the freaking pack! But I worked hard, and I started to see results. I remember by the last couple races of that season I started to see huge decreases in my times because I was starting to learn how to race. And most importantly for me, I started to just really enjoy hanging out with the XC guys. They were weirdos, just as I was. Additionally, I learned quickly that running is one of the handful of sports that for many of the practices, you can just speak while working out…

So at that point I just stuck with running. I know I can go on and on, but it’s hard for me to put in words what Springstead meant to my life. Running was really the first thing that gave my life a lot of direction and purpose, and Springstead was a legendary orchestrator of a team that I will forever be bonded to. Many of my closest friends still come from that team. And we were just good! Springstead worked us hard, but there was never a moment of questioning what he asked of us. I mean, I was on the team celebrating his 50th year coaching, so you knew he had done a few good things right along the way.

Talk a bit about your collegiate running career. What are some of your fondest memories as a student-athlete at Marist?

I suppose I’ll start with the unspectacular part of my Marist career -- the actual running part of it. I definitely grew so much as a runner under you Pete, and I will forever be grateful for your tutelage and how flexible you were as a coach. But yeah, I came on as a walk-on and left as one. I was, as you would put it, “a grinder.” The longer the distance the better for me, and I was down to hammer those miles as much as I needed to. But, it probably sums up my career best that I would usually have my best race each year at the very unassuming Vassar May invitational in which we would typically line up, at most, 5-6 runners for the 10k under the lights.

The highlight of Marist for me was the team. Particularly early on in my career, we had SUCH big characters on the team that it literally felt like there was never a dull moment. We had practices that would be intense, caf sessions that would last for hours and would be hilarious, and even late-night Jerk Squad that probably distracted us from our papers a little too long. The team was, and forever will be, my family. It’s why even at the age of 29, I still find myself living with Marist track guys. It’s hard for me to imagine my life without so many of those guys.

What was your major in Marist? Were you considering going into teaching or did your career path veer that way unexpectedly?

I majored in History-Education and minored in Psychology. If I’m remembering correctly, I actually don’t think I declared the education part until my junior year. I was always really unsure about the education part because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to devote my career to one in the classroom, or focus on writing. I have a family that has a diverse background in writing, and I have always felt a comfort with writing. But I guess, ultimately, I decided to at least start with teaching because that way I thought I could maybe coach track and teach young people a subject I really love.

What is your current teaching position, how long have you been there and how did you get involved in teaching in the NYC schools?

This is my seventh year teaching in NYC schools. I first taught at the Bronx Leadership Academy II in the South Bronx for two years. For the last five years, I have taught at the Young Women’s Leadership School of the Bronx (also in the South Bronx). They are both public NYC DOE schools. The school I currently teach at is very unique (for even the country) because it is a single-sex all girls public school. NYC gave a waiver to five of these schools back in the 1980s and it still applies today. I currently teach Global 9 Regents, Global 10 Regents, and AP World History.

OK, here we go: Distance learning and distance teaching are a challenge for students and teachers. Discuss how it’s going, what the mammoth challenges are like, what you’ve learned, what you’d like to change, all it it?

I decided to respond to these questions after my students took the AP test because my responses would have been far too cranky while I still had the pressure of AP exams lingering over my head while quarantined. I will say this at the top: I am incredibly proud of everything my school and my students have been able to accomplish in these tremendously difficult times. All of us have made the best out of an incredibly crappy situation.

But in short -- this experience sucks. Online learning is not and cannot ever be the solution for education. Students need the socialization that comes with school. Teachers need the socialization that comes with school. Humans are social creatures. We learn through our connections with one another (the good, the bad, and the ugly).

This has been particularly brutal for the community I teach in. We have had dozens of confirmed instances where a student has lost either a parent, a grandparent, or some other relative from this. The Bronx has suffered badly. This has been a traumatizing event. That is why I have been very frustrated by people’s dismissal of this as time has gone on. I have students of my own that have middle aged parents who have passed away from this. People that state outright that they aren’t worried about it are coming from a place of privilege. Communities that were ravaged, like the Bronx, is because many of these parents do not have comfy white-collar jobs that allow them to work from home. They make up the subway workers, the grocery store workers, the nurses, the policemen, the postal carriers of NYC.

So right there is challenge #1. Right off the bat, our school staff has moved from being educators to being, in a sense, makeshift social workers. We have students who we check in on frequently just to see that they and their family are doing OK. Because as we are all aware now, this is not just a health crisis at this point. This is an economic crisis as well. And so, there are just tremendous overall strains that are taking place, which is adding more stress to the situation. So as you begin to think about that, you start to consider what kind of mental state a lot of our kids are in as they are attempting to learn online, which really is the stalest possible form of learning.

Challenge #2: The logistics of online learning in a largely disadvantaged community. I am very fortunate to be teaching in a school with an incredibly responsive administration. We loaned out well over 200 laptops and iPads to students once schools shut down. And even that wasn’t enough. NYC has been fortunate enough to get a hold of other iPads that our students can borrow. But that took weeks for a lot of our students to get a hold of. So we had a good chunk of students beginning a bit behind, which further frustrates the situation. And then there is a challenge if students even have reliable WiFi (or even WiFi at all).

Challenge #3: Moving an entire curriculum that was meant to be in person and interactive to a place of online learning. During normal times, I can’t even picture a single lesson I have in which there isn’t some kind of group work going on at least once during the lesson. So to just scrap years of lessons in a matter of days and move it to a place where we learn together online has been a tremendously time consuming task for me. And unfortunately, what it means is that a lot of lessons have become much more static as they have become very teacher-focused and students have to listen to me (this probably comes as a shock to those who knew me at Marist, but I would much rather hear their voices than my own in my classroom).

Challenge #4: There are just a solid chunk of students who are just checked out. And it’s for a lot of various reasons. But they are just checked out and it is probably likely that we won’t get them fully back until we fully return to school. A quote I got from one of my favorite students was that “all this has done is taken away the best parts of school, and only left intact the worst parts of it.” That would be a correct statement.

Challenge #5: There still was an AP exam that was ridiculously challenging and I had to guide 18 extremely stressed out students to that day. I still think they did well, but the College Board certainly made it as stressful as humanly possible. If you have any interest in the world of education, just do a google search of “College Board” and you will see about 10 different ways College Board made this process one giant headache for everyone.

Challenge #6: The future isn’t exactly hopeful. Teachers can’t even plan for next year because we have no idea what’s going to happen next year! There’s a good chance we’re still doing online learning next year. And on top of that, our already underfunded school district is probably about to be more underfunded as severe budget cuts are coming for public schools.

I could expound AT LENGTH about each of these items. But what I know for certain is that online learning is no way to educate young people. Teaching has been one of the more rewarding experiences of my life and this has really felt like it has just made it not fun for anyone anymore.

(this was me receiving a Keurig machine for my classroom last year as a gift from my AP students. I figure you would appreciate that)

Where do you live in the city, how long have you been at home (out of the city) and what are your short-term plans (when do you plan to move back down to the city)?

I live in the Upper East Side. During the quarantine, I’ve been living in Albany with my parents just because it was more space. Probably going to get back to the city soon though.

Other than the obvious work-related challenges, how else has the Covid-19 pandemic affected your life?

I honestly have felt like I am actually working more during all of this (for the various reasons stated above). I haven’t spent this time with my family though in years, so that has been one silver lining I suppose out of all of this.

What do you envision for the short- and long-term future regarding the pandemic on all levels: Work, family, personal, colleges and universities, etc.?

I truly don’t know. What I think MOST people have realized is that learning online cannot substitute an education that takes place in a classroom. But what I fear is that there are leaders who side with *reformers* who believe that what we are enduring right now is the future of education. And in addition to that, there will be politicians who see this as a way to further cut spending to education.

My biggest thing right now, is that I am worried most about people (and there are many it seems at this point) who believe this was overblown. There is a thought out there that the restrictions we put in place were too draconian. I don’t think we’ll be able to return to normal until a vaccine comes through, but my fear is that if any kind of second wave comes through that it will be much tougher to get people to respond to holding too restrictions because there are people who genuinely believe this was all overblown. And it’s unfortunate because it comes from a section of people who have been exclusively sheltered in their own immediate community, and choose not to listen to communities other than their own immediate one.

What type of post-collegiate running have you done and what are you doing in terms of running (if anything?) currently?

Haha, it is a very much here-and-there kind of situation. I was actually actively coaching in my early days at my first school, and we had some really talented runners come out of there. But my focus at this school has been more of the teaching side. I’ve been helping out with the girls track team where I can, and will go on runs with them on occasion. But at the moment, running is simply an outlet and something I do to enjoy myself. My competitive days, at least at the moment, have been put on hold.

My life plan has always kind of been to really crank back up in my 30s to try out half marathons and maybe marathons, so we’ll see if that happens…

As you know, our senior class was robbed of their final season (outdoor track) as well as their final few months as college student-athletes. What message or thoughts can you send to them?

This sucks. However, as pretty much everyone else has noted in these past interviews, those bonds you all made are very real. It really is cliche, but it’s true. The memories and friendships you have made will last your entire life. Continue to stay close with them. I think we’ve all seen from this that it is our connections with our friends and family that are helping us to stay sane, and it is amazing how quickly we realize we miss seeing everyone as soon as that opportunity is taken away from us.