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Nice and Fast - Team USA Minnesota Feature - Running Times Magazine:Published by
Nice and Fast Team USA Minnesota reflects the low profile, and the toughness, of their home state  By Jim Gerweck As featured in the JanFeb 2008 issue of Running Times Magazine They call it "Minnesota Nice," the stereotypical behavior of residents of the North Star State that makes them unfailingly polite and friendly, the subject of innumerable skits on "A Prairie Home Companion." Like most stereotypes, there's a basis in reality, and if you talk to any member of Team USA Minnesota, the state's elite training group, you'd swear that said character trait is as much a prerequisite for admission as athletic ability. But while the team members might be the nicest folks you'd ever want to break bread with, don't get in their way if there's a track meet or road race title at stake. Disproving Leo Durocher's old adage of where nice guys (and gals) usually finish, Team Minnesota athletes have been placing at or near the front in big races since the group's inception seven years ago. The Land of 10,000 Lakes isn't the most likely place you'd pick for starting an elite running group. The winters are long, cold, and snowy, and it's not the easiest place to get to, but for founder Pat Goodwin, a longtime Minnesotan, those were just minor obstacles to be overcome. "After 2000, when U.S. distance running was at maybe its lowest point internationally, training groups began to spring up around the country," she recalls. "California, Michigan, North Carolina--I figured, 'Why not here?'" Goodwin, a former president of the Twin Cities Marathon board of directors and an accomplished marathoner herself, began to look into the possibility of setting up a... Read the full article at: www.runningtimes.com
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