D3 Glory Days Podcast

After winning the 2022 National Championship, Johns Hopkins became the winningest women’s program in D3 history. Adding to two of those titles were Alex Ross and Sara Stephenson. Alex and Sara led Hopkins to their 8th title by finishing 5th and 9th respectively to become the best duo in the country.

They shared how they became comfortable about the elements by letting the team share what made them nervous instead of pushing those feelings aside. They brought the perspective how a team is able to consistently be great despite losing teammates to graduation.

An important factor for success in a highly competitive program is to not become toxic in their behavior or compare to others. Alex and Sara share how Hopkins keeps things positive within the program to ensure everyone feels like they are apart of the program.

From the conversation, it’s clear Hopkins has a positive team culture built on support and trust from your teammates. They said it best that they have the people to step up when it counts but they don’t know. A big reason to never doubt Johns Hopkins.

BPN Ambassador

We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement company that gets you ready for next competition. Whether it’s protein or electrolytes, their supplements are geared to help you compete at your best. I’ve been taking their electrolytes to refuel after a run and can it increase my recovery. If you’re interested in trying them out, head over to their website and try today.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

D3 Glory Days Venmo.

We launched a Patreon!

Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

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When Joe Backus felt a nagging in his hip, he sought a second opinion to make sure it wasn’t serious. A few days later he learned he had a femoral stress fracture, a hip impingement and a torn labrum. Joe elected to get surgery in January of 2022 which began his long road to recovery.

Joe wasn’t allowed to run until June. Before then, he was slowly building up on the bike but kept it within reason as to not injure his hip again. When he was cleared to run, he started at two minutes and was able to add two minutes every other day. Even with the slow build, Joe kept the faith because people believe in him.

By the time he got back to campus, he was up to 30 minutes of running and getting close to 30 miles a week. On September 16th, 2022 - nine months post surgery, Joe put back on the John Carroll singlet and raced. The race wasn’t pretty (29:07, 200th) but being back out there was everything to Joe. He knew his hard work was paying off.

From there, Joe just kept getting better. By the time conference rolled around, he broke into JCU’s top seven as their seventh man and finishing 17th in the OAC. This result earned a spot on the starting line at Regionals where he finished seventh overall and JCU’s second man. The momentum was building and capped it off with a 31st place finish to become an All-American.

Injuries happen in running but it’s how you handle that dictates what you can accomplish. Joe showed that sticking to the plan and harnessing the powers of other’s beliefs, you can go far.

Quotes

On the belief from others:

“What kept me going was the people who believed in me. When I got the surgery, I lost a lot of belief in myself and then people kept telling me, 'I believe in you. You're going to do this. I can't wait to see you run again.'”

BPN Ambassador

We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement company that gets you ready for next competition. Whether it’s protein or electrolytes, their supplements are geared to help you compete at your best. I’ve been taking their electrolytes to refuel after a run and can it increase my recovery. If you’re interested in trying them out, head over to their website and try today.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

D3 Glory Days Venmo.

We launched a Patreon!

Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Merch

Fresh off their repeat wins, Alex Phillip and Kassie Parker come back to D3 Glory Days to share insights about their win, what’s happened since the last time we spoke, and what they’re looking forward to in their last season in Division 3.

They both shared the pressures of having a target on their back and how they were able to handle that leading up to the race.

For Alex, he was able to move past the doubt of if past races were flukes and have confidence in his ability.

After a loss at Outdoors, Kassie worked even harder over the summer to get herself prepared for the season.

They're both eyeing records in the track season so make sure you follow along to see what they can do.

BPN Ambassador

We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement company that gets you ready for next competition. Whether it’s protein or electrolytes, their supplements are geared to help you compete at your best. I’ve been taking their electrolytes to refuel after a run and can it increase my recovery. If you’re interested in trying them out, head over to their website and try today.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

D3 Glory Days Venmo.

We launched a Patreon!

Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Merch

Our National meet preview episode covers off the big storylines of this weekend. We go over the regional results, what surprised us this season and gave our national meet predictions. Let us know who you think will take home the trophy!

Photo credit for the episode art is by George Madison.

Nationals Merch

Get your exclusive D3 Glory Days Nationals merch here: 

BPN Ambassador

We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement company that gets you ready for next competition. Whether it’s protein or electrolytes, their supplements are geared to help you compete at your best. I’ve been taking their electrolytes to refuel after a run and can it increase my recovery. If you’re interested in trying them out, head over to their website and try today.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

D3 Glory Days Venmo.

We launched a Patreon!

Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Merch

We’re back with another contenders episode. Our guests today not only have individual aspirations, but will be battling for their teams as well. Each team they represent is in the top 10 and will be vying for a team trophy on Saturday. We’re joined by:

Aubrie Fisher - Wartburg - 3:31

Matt Lecky - RPI - 18:18

Kathleen McCarey - SUNY Geneseo - 34:07

Lucas Florsheim - Pomona-Pitzer - 50:59

Natalie Bitetti - CMS - 1:09:47

Elias Lindgren - Williams - 1:26:22

Nationals Merch

Get your exclusive D3 Glory Days Nationals merch here: https://www.bonfire.com/d3-cross-country-nationals/

BPN Ambassador

We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement company that gets you ready for next competition. Whether it’s protein or electrolytes, their supplements are geared to help you compete at your best. I’ve been taking their electrolytes to refuel after a run and can it increase my recovery. If you’re interested in trying them out, head over to their website and try today.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

D3 Glory Days Venmo.

We launched a Patreon!

Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Merch

We turn to the current state of D3 XC and review everything that's happened so far this season. We break down the big interregional meets and give predictions for the end of the year. This goes with our rankings that will be released today.

BPN Ambassador

We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement company that gets you ready for next competition. Whether it’s protein or electrolytes, their supplements are geared to help you compete at your best. I’ve been taking their electrolytes to refuel after a run and can it increase my recovery. If you’re interested in trying them out, head over to their website and try today.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

D3 Glory Days Venmo.

We launched a Patreon!

Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Merch

From a young age, Cris Gutierrez fell in love with the sport of running. The gym class mile was something he was always excited for and after a rough go in the team sports, a friend convinced him to join the XC team. As he went through high school, he kept improving hims times and became obsessed with the sport. He found a community on DyeStat to talk running with regardless that his PRs were 4:52 and 10:40,

He received a letter from La Verne to run there which blew his mind. As a first generation college student, he wasn’t too sure about the college process let alone running at the school.

His team had lofty goals of making it to the National meet and eventually did his junior year. However, Cris was out hurt and was unable to run at the national meet. While that was defeating, he came back ready to fight his senior year. In his words though, Cris wasn’t the best teammate that year as he was trying to finish school early.

Cris went on to grad school to continue running. Once his college days were over, he went into the real world unsure how running would go. He was never able to stay healthy for more than 3 months and was just moving to a new city. Despite that challenge, Cris immersed himself in the Columbus, OH running community. Running with various groups on different days and he began stacking healthy seasons together.

Most recently, Cris was able to run 2:23 at Chicago. Almost a 5 minute PR and something almost didn’t happen. A week earlier, he was in the ER with a health scare. He goes into more detail on the show.

Cris is also creating him own communities through his podcast, Beers and Miles. As well as his running group, Ope Athletic Club. Be sure to check it out.

BPN Ambassador

We’re excited to be Ambassadors for Bare Performance Nutrition. A supplement company that gets you ready for next competition. Whether it’s protein or electrolytes, their supplements are geared to help you compete at your best. I’ve been taking their electrolytes to refuel after a run and can it increase my recovery. If you’re interested in trying them out, head over to their website and try today.

How to Support D3 Glory Days:

D3 Glory Days Venmo.

We launched a Patreon!

Subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Merch

Fresh off a fantastic debut marathon in Chicago, Jessie Cardin joins us to discuss her 2:33 marathon! Debut marathons typically go one of two ways: a glow up or a blow up and Cardin definitely had a a glow up. Hitting the OTQ in her first try, Cardin is starting to get excited about this new distance and push her potential.

Cardin joined Hansons Brooks this summer to go all in on running and to stop teaching full-time. While the transition has been tough to not teach, she has taken full advantage of her time. She’ll have her eyes set on Boston 2023 has her next marathon.

Before she tackled the 26.2 distance, Cardin was a 3x All-American at Westfield State. With her sister a graduate of the school, it was always a place Cardin felt comfortable. An early conversation with her coach reassuring her that she wouldn’t be under sister’s shadow brought her comfort. Cardin had a breakout Sophomore year where she finished 20th in XC.

Cardin left Westfield State wanting more from running. She joined various groups and continued to take time off her PRs. COVID-19 allowed her to try the longer distances and after running 72 minutes in the half, she thought would take a stab at the marathon.

Cardin displays wisdom of a seasoned marathoner and we’re excited to she what she does next. Make sure you follow her on Instagram to keep up her journey.

100 Episodes

Thank you for listening to over 100 episodes, it’s truly been a blast. If you enjoyed any episode please consider making a $1 donation in light of the special occasion!  D3 Glory Days Venmo.

Rate or Review D3 Glory Days!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or leave a rating on Spotify!

Follow D3 Glory Days

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Patreon

We launched a Patreon! As we said, we will never go behind a paywall - so any support is greatly appreciated.

We enjoy bringing you this content and we realized we could do so much more with a little bit of backing. We want to ensure D3 gets the coverage it deserves and keeping this website paywall free! If you have enjoyed this podcast and the articles we have put, please consider becoming a Patron of D3 Glory Days. In full disclosure, the money will go directly into the show: equipment, subscriptions we need, and most importantly, money to our writers. If you are able, we would appreciate your support.

After a strong start to their season, we wanted to hear from Annika Urban and Ethan Gregg on what’s been going well for them. Annika is a senior at Emory and Ethan is a senior at UW-Lacrosse

Annika is coming off an impressive performance at the Paul Short Run where she won the Brown race by over 20s. She’s been on a tear lately with running and equates that to her having fun with it. She’s a had a phenomenal career progression as she’s gone from 266th at XC Nationals to 12th. She’s hoping to improve upon her 12th place finish last year.

Similar to Annika, Ethan is coming off a big win at the Pre National Meet. He took down a loaded field and was his second straight win. The week prior, Gregg took down a strong field at the Roy Griak meet to earn his first collegiate victory. He is running with confidence and is ready to mix things up in November.

100 Episodes

This is our 100th episode! Thank you for listening to 1 or 100 episodes, truly been a blast. If you enjoyed any episode please consider making a $1 donation in light of the special occasion!  D3 Glory Days Venmo.

Rate or Review D3 Glory Days!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or leave a rating on Spotify!

Follow D3 Glory Days

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Patreon

We launched a Patreon! As we said, we will never go behind a paywall - so any support is greatly appreciated.

We enjoy bringing you this content and we realized we could do so much more with a little bit of backing. We want to ensure D3 gets the coverage it deserves and keeping this website paywall free! If you have enjoyed this podcast and the articles we have put, please consider becoming a Patron of D3 Glory Days. In full disclosure, the money will go directly into the show: equipment, subscriptions we need, and most importantly, money to our writers. If you are able, we would appreciate your support.

For the 100th episode, we had to go out and bring you all a legend. Please welcome Bill Rodgers to D3 Glory Days. The 4x Boston and NYC Marathon winner, Olympian and Wesleyan graduate walked us through his career.

From the early days, Rodgers enjoyed running with his friend and brother as it was a fun activity to do with a group. As he progressed through his high school days, he saw his potential to get better. The idea of going to a big state school was overwhelming and he went 15 miles down the road to Wesleyan College. His teammate and mentor Amby Burfoot played a big role in Bill’s motivation to move to the marathon after college. Amby won the Boston Marathon in 1968 while he was a student at Wesleyan.

Rodgers took time away from running after college as the Vietnam War made things feel insignificant. After living on the Boston Marathon course and seeing the race, Bill got the spark he needed to get back to training.

In 1973, he ran his first Boston Marathon but dropped out at mile 20 and walked home. By 1975, Rodgers figured out it out and won the Boston Marathon in  2:09:55 - which was an American Record at the time. Rodgers would go on to win Boston and New York 4 times each, competed in the 1976 Olympic games and competed in 60 marathons.

Rodgers also played a vital role in brining professionalism to the sport of running. He worked with other athletes to fight for the pay they deserved.

Learn more about Bill or buy his book on his website.

100 Episodes

This is our 100th episode! Thank you for listening to 1 or 100 episodes, truly been a blast. If you enjoyed any episode please consider making a $1 donation in light of the special occasion!  D3 Glory Days Venmo.

Rate or Review D3 Glory Days!

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or leave a rating on Spotify!

Follow D3 Glory Days

If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.

D3 Glory Days Patreon

We launched a Patreon! As we said, we will never go behind a paywall - so any support is greatly appreciated.

We enjoy bringing you this content and we realized we could do so much more with a little bit of backing. We want to ensure D3 gets the coverage it deserves and keeping this website paywall free! If you have enjoyed this podcast and the articles we have put, please consider becoming a Patron of D3 Glory Days. In full disclosure, the money will go directly into the show: equipment, subscriptions we need, and most importantly, money to our writers. If you are able, we would appreciate your support.