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Friday Spotlight: Smruttkay

Today's the day! Grab a cozy spot, and something to sip on...or like most of you, hunch over the keyboard and start pounding the coffee. Either way, prepare yourselves for a familiar face...name?...RUNNER! Let's get to it. This runner is again, no stranger to the subreddit. A frequenter of the frequenters if you will. He always seems to have the knowledge to contribute yet he's one of the most persistent question askers here too. Ladies and gentlemen.... u/smruttkay!

Let's roll...

The Runner:

First Name?

Matt

Age?

34

Where are you from?

Bentonville, AR by way of South Riding, VA by way of Pflugerville, TX by way of San Antonio, TX by way of Jacksonville, FL by way of Pompano Beach, FL by way of Coral Gables, FL by way of Altamonte Springs, FL by way of Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Occupation?

Snot wiper, Chauffeur, Cook, Mask and Cape Putter-onner, Reader, Counter, Cosmetic Band-aid Applicator, Potty Trainer, Dirty Diaper Changer, Pick shoes up off the floor 9 times a day-er, Professional Turd, Consoler, Teacher, Pull Over and Clean Barf off the Car Seat-er Stay at home Dad to 3 crazy monsters wonderful boys.

The Running Q&A's:

What are your PR’s?

I feel like such a fraud. I've never actually "raced" before. I've run 2 official events, a 10k (54:xx) and a half marathon (2:10:xx). But both were more along the lines of training runs due to some knee pain that came about during training for said half marathon. I also ran a 5k time trial of sorts one time in 23:19. And I ran a single mile one day shortly after I started running in 7:15. I'm confident I could beat those times now, but no idea by how much. Make room in the record books!

What is your distance PR?

16 miles. Hopefully soon to be eclipsed a few times over the next couple months.

What’s your highest recorded weekly mileage?

42 miles. Hopefully soon to be eclipsed a few times over the next couple months.

What’s your comfy pace?

I don't know. Again, I'm a fraud. A couple months after I started running, my knees started hurting. To that point I had worked my "normal" pace down close to 8:00. But every run being comfortably hard like that only a few months into running is what started my injury issues, I believe. So I sought some advice from you fine folks and learned that I should be running easy! Why didn't anyone tell me before? So I basically backed everything down closer to 10:00-11:00 minute miles and started trying to keep my heart rate in zone 3. It was uncomfortably slow and still hard to keep my heart rate down. Eventually I was able to get the heart rate to settle down and felt comfortable running at 10:00 minute pace. Enter the early spring 10k and half. Once the weather started getting hotter, 10:00 became 10:30 became 11:00. And I started running on trails with some elevation. Road pace kinda stuck around 10:30-11:00 and trails were closer to 11:30-12:30 for most of the summer. Now it's cooler and I can definitely tell a difference. All that to say, some days 9:00 minutes feels easy and 12:00 minutes feels hard. I have no clue what I'm doing!

How long have you been running?

I started running seriously 360 days ago (what should I do for my runnerversary?) to train for the half marathon.

Tell us why you began running?

This time it was because my brain was taking a potty break or something when I told my father in law he should come to town and run my local half marathon with me. To this day I don't know why I said that. But I did. And he agreed. And he's a 60 year old dude who runs 35-40 miles a week like it's his job. He ran Boston. I was in too deep to bail. So I started running.

I've had a couple of attempts in previous years, always ending in knee pain or fading interest. Ran cross country one year in high school. I sucked and didn't get it. Was always one of the last 2 kids on my team. Don't remember specifics but was in the 21:00 minute range (which my 34 year old self would be pretty pumped about today.

Most memorable running moment?

I have 2. Day after Christmas, at sunrise, light rain. At that point, most of my runs were in the residential neighborhoods around my gym during the mid morning. There were school busses and people going to work and new home construction crews and people mowing. Not this day, not at sunrise. It was so serene and surreal. I was all alone outside and all I could hear was my footsteps. Until the pitter patter of rain drops joined them. My first time running in the rain. It was cool, but not cold. I ended up doing a little more than 5 miles at 8:03 pace, which was the best combination of speed and distance I had ever put together at that point. I felt like superman. It was so amazing. The other is my first trail run. The whole sordid tale of cops and robbers and ghosts and monsters can be found here. Ok there's no robbers or ghosts or monsters, but there were cops involved.

Do you have a running mantra?

Ummm, no. I tell myself to "shut up and stop thinking" a lot. It usually doesn't work.

What time of day do you prefer to run?

Mid morning is ideal. I'm lucky enough to take my little boys to daycare for a few hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So I can run at 9am and not have any real time constraints. On days that doesn't work, I force myself out of bed so I can be done running before the wife and kids get up.

Any big races coming up?

20 mile trail race on December 10th..

205-mile 12-person relay on October 3rd.

What are your short-term running goals?

Getting to the start and finish lines of the 20 miler happy and healthy. Getting my wife to run. Figuring out how to manage my heart rate on the trails a little better. Getting back into a rehab/prehab routine, and nailing down a yoga/spin/lifting schedule that I've been very inconsistent about.

What are your long-term running goals?

I'd love to say "BQ" or "finish or 100 miler" or "run a sub-20 5k," but none of that stuff is really that important. I just want to stay healthy and have running be a part of my life. As routine as brushing my teeth. I'm very inspired by u/kevin402can and my father in law in this regard. If I could go out and run 60-90 minutes every single day and mix in a long run every once in a while, that seems like a big part of a pretty good life. Especially if I could manage the paces they do. I love the idea of being a ripe old man and going out for my morning jog while the other people my age are having their diapers changed and hobbling around with walkers. That sounds mean.

What’s one piece of running advice you’d give to the younger version of yourself?

About running: Start younger and don't run hard every time out.

What is something you need to work on to become a better runner?

Ugh. Everything. I'm a big experiment of 1 right now. First and foremost is figuring out how to run pain free and remain uninsured.

What is your current shoe choice?

For the road I have a pair of Nike Pegasus 32's that are on their way out. And a pair of Hoka clifton 2's I really liked at first, but they're on the way out as well. On the trails, I started with a pair of Brooks Cascadia 10's. They've been ok. But I was recently gifted a pair of Nike Wildhorse 3's and those bad boys are amazing. Apparently I need a wider toe box than the Pegasus or Clifton or Cascadia have. So I'll be in the market soon to find a pair of road shoes similar to the Wildhorse.

Trail? Road? Track? Or Treadmill?

Trail. But a good long road run every now and again is nice.

What is your ideal running weather?

50F and sunny.

Do you have any social media accounts you’d like to share?

I'm gonna go the u/sloworfast route on this and decline. If someone wants to pm me and ask, I may add a few folks. Especially if it's someone that I've had some interaction with. But I'm not really interested in adding a bunch of people to my feed. Sorry if that sounds dumb.

Just For Fun:

What’s your spirit animal?

I did a couple quizzes. I don't know. They're dumb. I got snake and owl and some other stuff. It's probably overused as a cop out, but I'd pick a dog. Mostly because I'm lazy and my dogs are lazy. But also because they can have short bursts of fun with just about anyone but are really only loyal to a select few.

What hobbies and interests do you have besides running?

I play the guitar. I also have a piano that I occasionally make sound good by mashing the keys like it's a guitar. I write songs, but I can't write words. Everything comes out like a bad 6th graders creative writing assignment. ABCB rhyming pattern, iambic pentameter. Just the dumbest stuff you can imagine. So I have probably 2-3 full CD's worth of wordless songs. I'll get the itch every once in a while to sit down and write something or try to perfect some old stuff. They don't really serve a purpose. But they were fun to work on and occasionally give me a sense of pride. Also, I like tennis birdwatching.

Do you have any hidden talents?

Not really. I think I have a really mild case of echolalia, but that's about it.

Biggest pet peeve?

The way my children act at restaurants.

Dream job! What would it be?

Oh man. So many. I just watched that Ben Gibbard thing, so "Trail Coordinator" is now on the list. Rock Star. Movie Music Composer. Assistant Head Football Coach at the University of Miami.

Favorite Quote or Poem?

I'm not really "cultured" or whatever. All you people do the Invictus thing or something profound from Walden Pond or whatever. Best I could come up with would be Weezer lyrics or Futurama quotes.

What is your favorite movie?

Tough. Again, not really "cultured" but I've always thought of That Thing You Do when I'm asked this question.

What is your biggest character flaw?

Lazy. That or overthinking. Or inability to be concise. I was able to drop 200+ plus words on the comfy pace question that most people just type a number for.

What songs have you been listening to recently?

I stopped listening to new music music after college. On my phone I have ~2000 songs from 1994ish-2005ish that I listen to on shuffle and repeat. Mostly Weezer, Third Eye Blind, Cake, Everclear, Blink-182, Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service, Our Lady Peace, Incubus, and somehow Garth Brooks. Mostly what I hear now is the Paw Patrol theme song though. Oh, and Brady Reich - support independent artists!!!

What are some of your favorite non-running subreddits?

Been hanging out in r/cfb since it's football season. I'll occasionally browse the main page or whatever. I'll hit up trail running and advanced running every once in a while too.

One Last Question:

What is the origin of your username?

Boring old initials and actual name.

Special thanks to Shoes, Kevin, Steve, Brittney, and Skragen for being awesome helpers.

I've been eagerly awaiting for someone to nominate Smruttkay for a while now. He's always one of those users who are genuinely curious about not only other users but running in general and he's not afraid to ask questions, no matter how crazy they are. Big big thanks to Matt for taking the time to share with us and let us in on his life a bit. Now, get to asking him those questions!!!

####Thanks for reading everyone!!!

#As usual please tag u/Smruttkay's username when asking him a question in this thread!

If you don't the running Gods will give you incurable shin splints for the rest of your life and you'll die a sad lonely wanna-be hobbyjogger.

If I see that you've failed to tag him after asking him a question, I'll try my best to respond to your question by tagging him myself. So be aware. Tagging his username alerts him that his attention is needed. This way, he doesn't have to sift through all of the comments one by one, which can be a rather daunting task when there is a lot of traffic to the thread. Please don't forget that all of our Friday Spotlight athletes may need time to respond to your comments and questions so give them some time to reply.

Previously Featured Spotlight Runners:

Palindrome27A-german-muffinxfkirstenPepperoniFirerennuR_liarT
Santa ClausBrwalkerncPinkpiggieFobo911Kinsibit
Jaime_mangerCraigster38DespoenaPhilpipsBrunchweasel
ChickensedanSkragenIncsterFreedomweaselJennifer1911
RedKryptoniteZebanoKevin402canPunkrock_runnerProudPatriot07
Once_a_hobby_joggerLoratliff57001BorichuDenovosibi
CausticwonderDirtybritchTheRedInTheSkyAewilliaJudyblumereference
FlocculusEl_day2YourShoesUntiedJeade-enKyle-Kranz
ItsReallyReallyTrueJangle_Bo_JinglesRichieClaresloworfastRobotPettingZoo
RunwichiSmruttkay????????????????????????????????????
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Posted Oct 14, 2016, 12:18 PM UTC

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