This post will be a little different! And very long.
Luke Schlegel is a former member of the prestigious Ursinus cross country team, and although we didn’t actually go to school together, we still see each other often at team functions. He started his own blog two years ago which I read regularly. He’s done a few interview-style posts lately and noticed how those get more readers / engagement than any other posts. I noticed that too with the Gourlay interview which was a hit.
So Luke came to me with the idea of a sort of co-interview, where we both ask and answer questions from one another. Below is the result. Ordinarily I’d post his answers first but for chronological reasons I’m posting my answers first, then his. I think most will enjoy this.
Luke’s Questions / Sam’s Answers
1) I don’t know you too well, but I’ve always had a slight admiration from a distance. I find you rather humble and friendly. How would you describe yourself?
Being humble is a great quality so I always want people to think I’m humble, which is sort of a contradiction. Everyone likes talking about themselves (which is why I’m excited for this interview), it’s just a matter of recognizing when the other person is losing interest and moving on. Tell me after these 15 questions if you still think I’m humble.
Anyway, I’d say I have a pretty laid back attitude towards life and try to recognize what’s in my control and what’s not. I consider myself a good person (so humble) and always try to do the ‘right’ thing, whatever that may be, while recognizing the unbelievably privileged situation that I was born into. I don’t like half-assing things so I usually commit to my hobbies like running, bowling, gambling, drinking, etc. Overall though I think I’m a pretty normal person.
2) What originally got you into blogging? What sparked the change from a solo blog to sub-authoring one with your brother?
My brother Tom started his blog while I was in high school and for whatever reason that made me want to get one. In the very first post I wrote I attribute it to playing too much solitaire and guitar hero.
We combined blogs because there was a lot of overlap in our readership and it just seemed to make sense, it was something different that we thought might spark our creative energies but honestly it’s stayed pretty much the same.
I’ve never had a ‘goal’ for my blogs, I’m aware they’re never going to take off or make me famous (if anything I’ll delete them entirely if I become famous), but I just enjoy doing it as a personal outlet and something to refer back to.
3) When I was younger at Ursinus I always used to hear funny, crazy stories about things you would do when you were there. Care to share one?
I’ve always wondered what stories from my time at UC would carry on to the younger group, as I always heard stories of the kids who were there before me and thought of them as UC royalty. Anyway, here are two quick ones that conveniently have photos to go along.
The first is St. Pedro’s Day my senior year. I don’t remember all the details but we were all really drunk really early and somehow I ended up doing push ups on a table in Wismer with ‘Mr. Wismer’ sitting in a chair next to me while the entire cafeteria counted me to 50 (I had my knees on the table). Eventually campus safety made me get off and everyone started booing him. Hard to say if this one hurt or helped the rep.
The other is my graduation night. Again, the details are fuzzy, but I ended up naked with my short shorts on my head standing on the fountain alone with a mega phone giving some speech before everyone began sliding down. What a world. The fountains are gone now which makes me sad. A great UC tradition that the current crop of students will never get to experience.
4) I wish we could have run on the team at the same time. What are some of your favorite memories from the XC and track teams? Most memorable race?
This will sound cliche, but more than anything, the people stick with me the most. Sure there are funny stories and thousands of miles together, but the friends I made, a lot of which are still really close friends today, made the whole experience.
Some specifics of the team would be the hypothetical arguments and bets we used to make to pass the time on runs or during workouts. Stupid things like how fast could you run a mile blacked out or talking strategy about the 6-12-18-24 before any of us attempted it could take up the whole run.
As for races, two races come to mind.
Indoor conferences my sophomore year – Jatin and I both ran 15:55 earlier in the season and were hoping for big PRs. We worked well together throughout and I ran 15:37 and he ran 15:43. Those were good for 12th & 13th in the conference. That was the first time in my college career that I felt like we belonged with the Haverford and Dickinson guys.
The next was a meaningless cross country race my junior year. I was running 80-90 MPW (even a few 100s in there!) which is way more than I ever had before. The course was super muddy and everyone went out slow. After two miles I just went and was on my way to winning until the last mile when I missed a turn, tried to turn around, fell, then got back on course. The second place guy was close behind but I ended up winning fortunately. That day I just felt like all the miles I’d been running were finally paying off.
5) I know you had a bad back injury during your time at UC. What was the injury and what was it like recovering to come back?
Stress fracture in my L5 vertebrae. I took 6 months off starting December of my junior year and it basically ended my competitive collegiate career. That was a real bummer because I thought I was in the best shape of my life after all those miles and was ready to run some really fast times.
Once I got back I switched to mid-D workouts since the high mileage was assumed to have caused the injury but I suck at mid-D. I remember leading off the 4×800 at indoor conferences my senior year hoping to run 2:00 and ended with a 2:09 handing off in last place. It was the first time I ever felt genuinely embarrassed after a race. Bad races are one thing, but that was a public shaming. The 800 sucks, my least favorite race by far (sorry Drew).
Injuries suck. You feel like you’re missing out on all the team bonding and everyone’s getting into good shape while you’re constantly rehabbing. And once you’re back, until you start running the times you used to, you worry that you’ll never get back to that level of fitness. Getting to the line healthy should always be everyone’s top priority.
6) You seem like a future marathoner to me. That might be a bold statement, but you seem like a gritty runner who likes to put in the miles. Do you see this in the future? What do you think are your best race distances?
I think I’ll be good at the marathon when I make the switch, but I’m refusing to accept that my lifetime 5k PR (15:27) comes from my sophomore year of college. Once I beat that or give up, then I’ll move up to the marathon. Runners graduate from college then seem to immediately jump to the half or full which I don’t get. There’s plenty of time for that later.
I usually said the 5k was my best race, but in my old age I’ve found some speed surprisingly which resulted in a 4:30 mile PR last summer. Given how that race was run, it’s probably the best race I’ve ever run, so who the hell knows.
But yes, seeing guys like Jamie and Jatin run fast marathons makes me want to get there.
7) When you owned your solo blog, what were a couple of your favorite posts that you wrote?
The anti-diamond post (sorry the old blog looks terrible now) where I said I’m never buying a diamond engagement ring got the most interaction and was something I firmly believed in. It also took me hours to write that.
These next ones are all similar – the Multiverse, the Fermi Paradox, and the Great Filter. I put a lot of time into each one and, at least to me, the content is really interesting.
The posts I chose as my favorite have nothing to do with me or my life, however 90% of the posts I wrote are about me or my life. I should fix that.
8) You have a couple of cats, right? What are their names and what are they like?
Melon is blind and kind of a dick. I can’t blame him though since, you know, he doesn’t have any eyes. It’s crazy how well he gets around.
(pic of melon to please the fans)
Covy AKA Robert Covington (whoops) is the epitome of the perfect cat. Well groomed, loves to be pet, wouldn’t hurt a fly. His only problem is he keeps missing the litter box when he poops. Like 1 in every 10 poops ends up right next to the litter box instead of in it.
9) What are your favorite sports to watch? To play in?
To watch:
- NBA
- Track
- NFL
- Golf
- Tennis
- Bowling (yes I’m serious)
- Everything else
To play:
- Running
- Bowling
- Ping Pong
- Basketball
- Golf
- Everything else
10) Ideal date night?
Some activity that we’ve both never tried before, then go home, cook a meal while drinking wine, eat the meal while watching something on Netflix, finish whatever we’re watching, bang (just being honest).
11) Existential-like question, sorry. How do you see life? How do approach it?
I’m not religious, I don’t believe in god, and I don’t really think things happen for a reason. I fully believe that in 100 years no one will know the name Sam Stortz outside of a select few. I can acknowledge the meaningless nature of my life while still finding meaning and value of my own.
As I said in the first question, I try to recognize what I can control and what I can’t, and approach as many decisions as possible using logic instead of emotion. Making emotional decisions gets you in trouble.
And I try to do things now that I think are productive in some way. Just trying to become a better person, whatever that means. I’m not great at it. Like, I can’t read a book to save my life. But I replaced video games with chess, for example.
And the last year or so I’ve felt like I should be ‘giving back’ more than I do. Again, I’m not exactly sure what I mean, but I’ve been really lucky in my life and it’s really easy to keep doing what I’m doing without giving any second thought, but I feel some moral obligation to spread the wealth, though I’ve been pretty bad about following through on that.
I’ve also loosened up in my views on the world as I’ve gotten older. I was much more stubborn in college about certain things but I feel like I’ve matured a lot since then (I can see the readers’ eyes rolling behind their screens). I try to be more open minded now and willing to experience new things. Younger Sam intentionally avoided learning new things or trying new experiences, even priding myself on it. Like I never tried ketchup until I was 22. How fucking dumb is that. I love ketchup now, but I went out of my way to NOT try it because I thought it made me cool or different or something. And I wore shorts in the winter. I was THAT kid. So dumb. But that’s who I wanted to be at the time.
Life’s too short to hold grudges or count every dollar. The little things today won’t matter in a few years.
I liked answering this question.
12) What are some of your hobbies outside of running?
From ages 4-21 the only answer was video games. I was a loser gamer all throughout grade school and a bit in college but have pretty much stopped entirely now.
Like I said, these days I play chess, play guitar (real guitar), and obviously follow the Sixers / most sports closely.
I’m also in a bowling league that meets every Monday. Don’t let anyone tell you bowling is lame. My brother and I have $1,000 bet for whoever bowls a 300 first. He has a 290 to his name and I have a 289. Things like that, constant improvement, and gambling, keep life interesting.
13) Where do you see yourself in five years? Do you have any long-term goals you are excited about and/or committed to?
I started working with my two brothers at our family business (since 1853!) six months ago. I’m still learning but the future seems bright. Working at a family business like ours is great because our success (or failure) is dependent on us. So hopefully, in five years, our business is thriving and we can all live pretty.
Aside from work, honestly I don’t have much to offer here. People always say travel or start a family or something; I’ve always been kind of a go-with-the-flow and things-will-work-out type of person, so wherever I am in five years will be where I want to be. If I have a wife and kids, that’s great, and if it’s still just me, Melon, and Cov, that’s great too.
But hopefully I have a new 5k PR.
14) Strengths you see in my blog? Areas for improvement?
You’re a very thoughtful writer and you can tell your posts / thoughts are genuine, which matches your personality so it makes sense. Personally I like your more philosophical posts, but that’s because I feel like I’m a noob on a lot of the topics you talk about and you’re sending some knowledge my way.
It’s hard for me to offer improvement tips since my blog sucks, but the one thing I’ll say is getting to your point as fast as possible. You’re much better at this than you were when you started, but (and I’m guilty of this too) it’s easy to get lost in stuff that the reader doesn’t care about. A real tip I’ll give related to this is to write your post, every thought, from A-Z, without much regard for structure / organization, then cut it down and re-organize from there. I felt I saw the irrelevant stuff much more clearly when I had everything out in front of me.
15) Planning on winning the alumni mile again this year?
I’ll give you one nugget of info here. I did a track workout for the first time in over six months the other day. 3 x 1600 with a minute rest then 4 x 200. Since it had been so long I figured I’d run ‘easy’ and not even look at the watch, but I thought 5:50 sounded like a reasonable number for the first repeat.
I kid you not my first repeat was a 6:10. How many kids at Ursinus right now would run a mile repeat in 6:10? Probably none.
The streak will end eventually, but I think I’m actually in good shape despite that 6:10, so yeah, I’ll probably win.
Sam’s Questions / Luke’s Answers
1) You mentioned hearing crazy stories about the team before you arrived. What was your impression of the team from before your time? Do any stories stand out specifically?
I remember texting Drew the summer heading into my freshmen year and asking him if he thought I could run competitively on the team. I had barely run at all in high school as I focused on tennis; I was actually planning on playing tennis at Ursinus as I had talked to the coach a few times. Drew had run 1:57 (I believe) his freshmen year in the 800m, so I based a lot off of that and thought I would be one of the slower guys on the team. I mentally prepared myself over the summer for this to be the case. However, I remember the first workout at Hunsberger where I finished in the top 5 of each interval rep, to my pleasant surprise. I continued to run in the top 5 the entire XC season.
One story that I remember standing out was your 6-12-18-24 challenge completion time. I don’t remember what you finished in, but it sounded highly impressive based off what the challenge entails. I found the feat to be pretty incredible, especially as a naïve little freshman.
2) What was the team culture like when you left? I think Blickle has done a good job of making the team more competitive and serious, and there’s less emphasis on drinking, but I could be wrong.
I ran under Blickle during his first three years as head coach of the team and I’ve been continuously impressed. I think he grew a lot during those first years, and when I graduated I knew the team was heading in a great direction. He’s very professional, funny, knowledgeable, and a great recruiter. He also works well with Crystal, who does a great job of sharing her own wisdom and connecting with everyone on the team.
The team culture seems to be a rather positive one that emphasizes competition and improvement. James McDaid has obviously shown incredible improvement, most recently getting 2nd team All-Conference in XC. We are still friends and from what I can tell he is leading by example. Haase, Yoquinto, Andre and more could all show up big at conferences and other meets as well. Other guys such as Delia and Voyack (throwback to Iuliucci as well) have also shown massive improvement from sticking to the program and putting in a lot of hard work. In regards to the drinking, I think the team does it less and less by choice the better they get. From top to bottom, the team mostly seems to be improving and doing well. In three to five years, I’d predict UC gets second place at track conferences (Hopkins is too good) and top 3 in XC.
3) Any running plans or goals for the short term / long term?
I’m kind of in the middle of two ends at the moment with running. On one end I’m trying to run purely for the sake of enjoying movement and the exercise, and on the other end I still want to compete in races. I recently ran 1:27 in the Philly half-marathon off 20-25 miles a week, so I know I still have some speed in me, I just need more mileage.
A short-term goal is to run in the low 60 minute range (61-64 min.) at the Broad Street 10 miler this May. Another goal that I’ve consistently had for a long time now is to stay healthy so I can continue running. Long-term, I want to run low 1:20s in a half-marathon and sub 3 hours in a full marathon at some point. Oh, I also want to crack 17 min. in the 5k if I can ever get back to that level. I only ever ran one 5k in college (17:10) and I know I could have run a good amount faster if I had more cracks at it.
4) What have you gotten out of your blog so far vs. what you expected when you started?
I did not have many expectations when I started my blog, but I probably expected to post much more frequently than I do and that I would have twice as many as visitors each day than I actually do. However, my blog has offered me the chance to share some of my own thoughts on different topics and learn more in general. I’d like to post more, but sometimes I over-think what others might think, a reaction that I recognize as silly. I enjoy getting to write and look forward to doing so more in the future.
The most successful posts in regards to views have by far been the interviews with friends, so I’m excited that we’re interviewing each other.
5) I don’t know Veronica very well at all, so I’m going to put you on the spot, describe her for me. Why is she your better half?
I’m definitely a very lucky guy; I don’t give a crap if that sounds cliché. Anyone who knows Veronica well will attest to how kind, humble, and caring she is. When you talk to Veronica one-on-one, her ability to actively listen to you without any sense of judgment coming from her is quite remarkable. She is also very family-oriented and quite funny once you get to know her well.
Thinking of the male equivalent time-wise to what she has run in both XC and track, I would probably be a dick if I was that good. Veronica is so humble and will not bring up running unless you ask her. I met her over six years ago at a cross country camp that I wasn’t even planning on going to, and I’m incredibly thankful that happened.
We are in a unique position having dated since high school, as that is rather rare today. Seeing Veronica’s growth and maturation over time has been a pleasure, and I’m so happy we are best friends and teammates in our relationship. She definitely helps to make me a better person and she is always there for me. I think having a deep, trusting, intimate relationship is a treasure.
6) The next two questions are two that you asked me, but I want to see how your answers compare. First, How do you see life? How do approach it?
I think you know I could write a really long answer here and ramble on and on, but I’ll try to not do that. I see life as quite miraculous when I think of how vast the cosmos are. I do think there is a divine being out there, but I don’t think we are capable of understanding whomever/whatever they may be, despite humans’ best efforts to create narratives. I am really interested in Buddhism as I find what the Buddha accomplished to be amazing. Not in a divine sense, but as a human being. As we are in flesh and blood today. He learned everything about his mind through his own work. He literally sat under a tree until he reached enlightenment. To me, this is someone who took life on. I see life as a large journey. The journey can go many different ways, and some people don’t have as many choices as others, but we all have some.
I approach life as someone who wants to continually grow as a human being. I see older adults, such as my Grandma, who are full of inner peace. We spend all of our time in our heads, really anything we experience happens in our mind, so I find it important to pursue peace within myself, so this peace can ripple onto others. I try to live an ethical life in that I intentionally try to avoid harming others or myself, not just in the physical sense but also in how I speak with others.
I’m starting to ramble, sorry. Basically, I try to live by certain values, such as maintaining physical/mental health, doing what I can to help reduce suffering in others by acting for the better good, continuously working on myself, causing no harm, being a family man, and a couple more. I also like to have fun and try to be fairly positive.
I also like to think about happiness versus suffering, as a lot of life comes down to that. So many of us experience unnecessary suffering and I’d like to help others recognize that and minimize it. It’s something I’m working on myself.
7) Where do you see yourself in five years? Do you have any long-term goals you are excited about and/or committed to?
None of us know the future, but I will say that I’m hoping for, excited about, and intentionally working towards some big moves with Veronica. Definitely within a five year time-frame 😉
I’m also hoping to be a competent and growing school counselor, a coach of some sort, a caring son, a helpful brother, a loyal and fun friend, and more.
8) I’ve talked to you about mindfulness and meditation before, and you’ve blogged a lot about it, but how have those two things impacted your life?
I think some context about what got me interested in meditation/mindfulness would be helpful, so I would recommend looking up my post titled “Waking Up.” I go into detail there about my experiences with anxiety during the start of my senior year of college. I still deal with anxiety today in different ways, but am much better prepared to cope with the symptoms.
Mindfulness is something I think about every day and a formal meditation practice is something I try to do every day. Combined, both have impacted my life drastically and continue to do so daily. Both mindfulness and meditation relate to clarity. Being able to observe my crazy mind and not believe every thought that goes through it or react to every emotion that arises can be very helpful. I am not as consistent as I would like to be with my meditation practice, but I try to get in a few minutes a day at least.
If I could only recommend one thing to anybody, exploring mindfulness and meditation may be my suggestion. Lack of clarity in observing one’s mind is the reason we have wars, abuse, strong hatred, and more unnecessary harm. Just think if everyone took the time to look at themselves honestly what could happen. If our society took on the value of not harming others unnecessarily we would be headed in a positive direction.
9) The topics of mindfulness and meditation have been of real interest to me lately, but I’m a total noob. What advice would you give to someone who’s new to those ideas but wanting to learn more / start doing them?
Oooo great question. I would say dive in to material related to the topic that interests you. There is so much out there so you kind of have to search for something that resonates with you. Once you find it, you’ll probably know.
Rather than give a bunch of book titles, I’ll offer some names of authors and guys who host podcasts. You can also find these people on YouTube for sure.
Sam Harris, Dan Harris, Joseph Goldstein, Pema Chodron, and Ajahn Brahm.
10) What would you say to a guy like Markelle Fultz who’s clearly struggling mentally to some extent?
He’s a very curious case, isn’t he? I’m not familiar with any other professional athlete who has experienced anything similar to what he’s going through. Assuming his struggles are not all physical and there’s a big mental component at play, I’d probably tell him to consider meeting with a therapist. He might not like that, but that may be my best advice.
Other than that, I would send him a link to a podcast episode with David Goggins. If you are reading this and you have never heard of him, please just look him up. He is totally worth checking out.
11) You don’t actually like Lebron, do you?
No… I love him.
Lol, I just have a lot of respect for him. GOAT argument aside, he’s so professional, he’s a great family guy, and he elevates the level of everyone he plays with. The team he took to the finals last year? Look where they are now. He won a couple games in the 2015 finals with Dellavoda as his second best option. DELLAVODA!? Finals eight straight years. Enough said.
12) You’re one of two people I know who are not only dumb enough to attempt 100 free throws multiple times, but you also have a better PR than me at it (my brother is the other person). I think we should set up a formal competition. 100 free throws each, four sets of 25, winner take all. Could be a good warm-up before the Alumni Mile? Thoughts? What could we wager?
I’m very much game for a challenge like that. Not sure if any court will be open before the alumni mile, but even some other time could be fun. Once I find a rhythm, good luck. I don’t think I’m as good as you are at setting up wagers though, so I’ll leave that up to you.
I’m very much game for a challenge like that. Not sure if any court will be open before the alumni mile, but even some other time could be fun. Once I find a rhythm, good luck. I don’t think I’m as good as you are at setting up wagers though, so I’ll leave that up to you.
(I haven’t come up with a wager idea yet but this will be a post unto itself if it happens).
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