And Off I Ran

I feel like it has been one of my major accomplishments this past year to get Elias to run Cross Country (XC) in middle school.  It is not a sport that gives immediate rewards which is what most kids seem to look for these days in our increasingly consumer driven society.  “Delayed gratification” has gone from an essential skill to be learned by the developing child to being a dirty word avoided at all co$t.  

One of my biggest regrets from my teen years is that I waited so long to discover this sport.  It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I got my first taste of competitive long distance running, all the more frustrating when I learned that I had a knack for it.  When we finished our season on a golf course in Bloomington, Indiana at Semi-State I couldn’t help but feel I’d squandered so many years not knowing the freedom and joy that can come with a long run.

If I rewind that single season of XC I alight upon the moment when I learned it was something I could be good at.  It was early in the season and we were at an invitational meet in Loogootee, Indiana.  There were well over a hundred runners in my race and I was feeling pre-meet jitters with some nausea and shaky legs.  When the gun fired to start the race I felt like I was spinning in a clothes dryer with the jumble of bodies and the smell of trampled grass all around.  The only remaining memory I have of that course is running a corridor of grass between the road and a chainlink fence.

When I crossed the finish line there looked to be a lot of people in front of me being funneled through the chute.  After having my place, time, and number recorded I was released back out into the wild as it were and found myself wandering aimlessly amongst the chaos of such a large meet.  I was looking for familiar faces and at some point my best friend’s dad found me in the crowd.  He had a huge grin and clapped me on the back, “Haney!  Great job!  Man, you really ran well today.”  I couldn’t quite place his enthusiasm until he explained I’d placed 23^rd and three of our four best runners were in the top ten.  It was a dominant showing for our team and I had somehow contributed to it as the number five guy.

This was a big confidence booster for me moving forward and I consistently ran as the “number five guy” for the rest of the season (for those not familiar with XC, the team score is determined by adding the times of your first five runners to cross the finish line).  It did have its downside, however.  I spent the rest of the season at meets hearing the opposing team’s coach yelling at his runners out on the course “This is him!  This is their number five!  Catch him!  He better not beat you!”  The first few times this happened I found it disconcerting but I quickly learned to take it as a challenge and get motivation from it.  You will NOT catch me!  And off I ran.


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