Maybe it was hearing Patrick talk about his streak of consecutive days running (which he chose to end just shy of one year), or maybe it was hearing Terry talk about his recent 100-mile week (“sometimes you need to change things up”), but I got to thinking about how in the mind of a runner — a mind left on its own for mile after mile, day after day, season after season — peculiar projects, stunts, and escapades begin to ferment like strange brews in the basement. Continue reading
“Once there was a shop owner who wanted a sign to put up in front of his shop to bring him good luck and many customers. He went to a Zen monk, and asked the monk to write a sign using Chinese characters for that purpose. The monk agreed to do it, but said it would take him at least a day. He told the shop owner to return the next evening, and the sign should be ready. The shop owner agreed to that.” Continue reading
“I was a never empty pitcher pouring out happiness.” – Neal Holtschulte, 2005 NCAA Div III Cross Country Champion
Today, we compete for our league championship, and a week from Saturday we will compete for a New England Championship. It’s always a challenge to think of suitable words, images, or mental cues to prepare the team for these meets.
Fortunately, others have found and shared words that have proven to be helpful to me and to the runners I coach over the years. One of my favorite sources of such words is the piece that Neal Holtschulte (Williams, ’06) wrote after winning the 2005 NCAA Div III Cross Country Championships. The essay is an account of the race from the inside out, as well as a chronicle of the thoughts, decisions, and hopes that flowed through Holtschulte’s mind as his legs traversed the muddy course that day.
It makes for great reading leading up to the biggest races of the year:
A week and a half ago I ran alone in the late afternoon, nine miles along the Reformatory Branch trail from Concord Center to Bedford Depot and back.
A couple of days later I ran with the team, covering about the same distance while mostly following the Battle Road Trail from Lexington through Lincoln and finally back to Concord.
Two runs through yellow woods, superficially the same, but in two different worlds.
I don’t think I would have survived as a high school coach if I hadn’t, at some level, mastered the art of forgetting about previous seasons and starting over every September. That’s not to say there’s no continuity year-to-year, but every new season brings an influx of novice runners who haven’t had exposure to any of the things that experienced runners take for granted — progressive increases in mileage, warming up and cooling down, running strides or hills or intervals, or anything, really. Continue reading
“Catharsis (from Greek κάθαρσις katharsis meaning ‘purification’ or ‘cleansing’) is the purification and purgation of emotions—especially pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration.” – Wikipedia Continue reading
Hi all — sorry for not posting these last three weeks. All is well, I’ve just been extremely busy with work, coaching, hosting a large meet, and trying to hold down the home front while Ann is in Washington supporting Joni and Dennis as they welcome new additions to the family. I’ll begin posting again soon, targeting Monday, Oct 17.
– Jon
Running is a lot of things, but is it fun?
In the first weeks of the cross-country season, when summer heat lingers, and no one has actually raced yet, our team organizes a 5K “fun run” for ourselves and for anyone else at the school who wants to join in. Our guests usually include one or two other teams from the school (boys and girls JV soccer joined us this year), about a dozen adults from the faculty and staff, and a few students who aren’t on any team, but have their own reasons for participating. It’s a good way to remind ourselves what meet day feels like, and a chance to practice the whole warmup routine. Continue reading
“It’s the first race that I’ve ever really had where I crossed the finish line and thought there wasn’t even another second that I could have made up at any point in that race… If you can say that honestly to yourself I don’t think you can be disappointed in any result. The second I saw the video I didn’t think it was anything worth disqualifying him [the Japanese walker] over. And so we had the option to appeal the Japanese decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and I just told our team that I didn’t want to pursue that, that I was happy with the decision that had been made by the initial appeal.”
“When I think about winning an Olympic medal there’s that of jubilation or joy… it’s the coming together of everything we’ve worked for. It’s the pinnacle of our sport, and when I saw that [his name in third place] up there. it was just kind of mixed emotion, kind of empty feeling, kind of like ‘what’s going on here?’ ‘Dude, is this right?’… And I think that initial gut reaction told me a lot later on about — am I going to be able to live with this decision…”
“I’m no worse off in fourth place… I’m really proud of fourth place. Anyone who lives their life for the medal and based on the medal, they’re not going to be happy when they get it, and I think they’ll never be happy. You know, I’m much happier pushing myself, doing sport for myself, and trying to get the most I can out of myself. And yesterday I think I definitely did that, and so I can really proud of that.” – Evan Dunfee, 4th place finisher in the 50K walk at the Rio Olympics Continue reading
[The beginning of cross country practices and the post-Labor Day surge at work has made it difficult for me to think clearly, let alone sit down and write. So with apologies for the re-posting, here’s something from the archives: a consideration of whether high school runners should “train through” dual meets with (often) much weaker opponents. Originally published September 24th, 2009] Continue reading
the runner eclectic 