#TheJourneytoCompete Interviews, Episode 1, Juli Benson, NIKE elite athlete coach

RunBlogRun presents

The Journey to Compete

Episode 1

Juli Benson, NIKE elite coach

Sponsored by NIKE

Juli Benson has seen the sport from many directions. First, as a young athlete, then, high school and college athlete,and now, as a NIKE Elite Coach and mentor for NIKE NIL athletes.

Juli Benson is an incredibly articulate champion of the life long pursuit of coaching. For Juli Benson, coaching is both avocation and vocation. When I interview her athletes, they tell me about how Juli Benson inspires them, and how she helps them achieve their dreams.

The interview went from her beginnings in the sport, her early acceptance of the desire to be a coach, and her life long love of the 400 meters.

Juli Benson moved from the 400 meters to the 800 meters in high school, and then, moved to the 1,500 meters and mile at James Madison University, after having taken second in the 800 meters at the high school state meet in Virginia. At James Madison University, Juli Benson had PBs of 2:09 for the 800 meters and 4:20 for the 1,500 meters. The 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials truly inspired her and she wrote a hand-written note to Mark Nenow (former AR at 10,000m), who was then at ASICS, and sent her ASICS product and sent her to training group. She then joined working with Frank Gagliano and Ron Helmer,  and then ran for the Reebok Enclave, a unique club at the time in U.S. running.

Juli Benson is a keen observer of the sport. It is the highest complement that I can pay to this coach, who I have enjoyed chatting with over the past three decades.

Juli works remotely with most of her athletes, who are some of the top milers in the world. Juli Benson is doing what she loves: coaching!

Currently, Juli Benson is also mentoring NIKE NIL athletes, in a program championed by Josh Rowe of NSAF as well as coaching a group of fine elite athletes at the 800m/1500m and the mile.

For #TheJourneytoCompete, a collaboration between #NIKErunning and #RunBlogRun, Juli Benson is our first coach to interview. Juli provides some great tips to coaches an young athletes.

We were so lucky to interview Juli Benson and thank NIKE for their support of this program!

And remember, Coaching Changes Lives!

Find all of our Socialing The Distance interview series here: https://bit.ly/34czL0e

Find all of our Athletics Chat episodes here: https://bit.ly/2GkVoDD

Find all of our Conversations with Larry here: https://bit.ly/30io2vY

#SocialingTheDistance #RunBlogRun #theshoeaddict

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Special thanks to Mike Deering, original member of The Shoe Addicts, who edits, clips, manages and produces the podcast for Fortius Media Group, LLC and RunBlogRun.com.

Special thanks to Juli Benson for this thought-provoking interview and NIKE Sports Marketing for their kind support. NIKE Sports Marketing and NIKE running believes that we build the sport, one athlete and one coach at a time. 

To learn more about NIKE Running, please go to www.nikerunning.com  We highly recommend the NIKE Vomero Premium and the NIKE Pegasus PLUS ! 

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America’s first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: “I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself.” Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, ” I’m no Angel.”

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