Friday, September 25, 2009

Going The Distance ... Craig Aguilar



Craig came to cross country on the last day of summer or on the first day of his freshman year, I can't exactly remember which one. Either way, he got a later start on the sport than his fellow teammates did that year.

Sometimes a slow start can lead to disillusionment, disappointment and in my experience coaching over the years, that leads to disappearance. Most kids who come out late don't last. Not sure exactly why it's that way, but it is.

So in that way, Craig is different. Not only has he gone the full distance, he's done it with class and style. Those two characteristics are Craig's strong suit. Gracious and kind to the core, he has painted his years here in vibrant colors of integrity, hard work, a positive attitude and a generosity of spirit that has made us better.

He's adopted a fun nickname, a morphing of his first and last names, "Craiguilar." I like that. It's cool.

All coaches ever really want from their athletes is that the leave having imprinted the people around them with the marks of quality and integrity. Craig has certainly done that, and King Cross Country is better as a result.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Going the Distance - Brad Sheets

Brad has become pretty much everything you'd want from a high school runner. I say "has become" because he didn't start as the complete package. Let's just say running probably wasn't exactly his thing when he started four years ago.

I remember Brad doing a lot of walking in workouts, and it seemed he was a long way from actually becoming anything that remotely resembled a runner. But time marches on, and as it did, Brad began to jog, then to run, and now he can race.

Along the way he's graced us with a positive attitude, a photogenic smile, constant chatter (those who've run any distance with him know this well) and now as a senior, the training level, experience and ability to make for himself a season that is altogether different from where he started.

For those who like to think that change can't come, that what we are is what we will be, that teenagers can't achieve, Brad Sheets is living proof that none of those assertions are altogether true. He's a living and breathing example of someone who appeared to be completely out of his element as a 9th grader but is now the living and breathing embodiment of the team and the sport.

That is quite a transformation. That's what Brad has done in his years here. It's quite a story.

I wrote more about Brad last year, to read that, click here.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Dodge Ball

Remember dodge ball? I don't mean the movie, I mean the game. We played it a lot when I was a kid, back when the earth's crust was cooling and school administrators weren't worried that the little Johnnys at recess might end up getting a boo-boo when a big red ball connected with their faces.

It was a fun game.

A lot of folks like to live life like it is a dodge ball game. We line up against the wall of time and spend our time trying to avoid the hurling red balls of suffering and adversity. The point of this game is to "stay alive" and do everything possible to keep from being hit.

While I'm no masochist eagerly seeking ways to hurt, when it comes to distance running and racing, pain is part of the process. A coach who many years kind of showed me the ropes of coaching once said it well. "The other sports tell their athletes to go out and 'play', while runners spend their time 'working' out. The point of cross country is to suffer."

Those words have kind of an ominous sound to them when you're trying to recruit 14 year olds who've associated running with punishment from a very early age. You can hear them thinking, "Oooh, that sounds like fun."

But the successful runners are those who find the joy that comes from suffering. Not joy IN the suffering, but the joy that comes FROM it.

Here are a few things that we get from that "good hurt" that comes from any hard effort.
1) strength and speed. There is no other way to develop these two main characteristics of great racers.
2) Mental toughness. When you're a mile from the finish line and everything seems to be on fire, your brain cries for mercy. You're a tougher individual when you can tell it to "shut up and keep going."
3) The ecstasy that comes from finishing is multiplied by the experience of pain.
4) Perspective. We begin to realize what we can handle ... and its usually more than we thought.

As we begin racing this season, make it a goal to not dodge the discomfort that will come over those three miles. Instead, embrace it, accept it and realize that the only way to the finish line is through a time of adversity and pain.

I promise you, when you come out successfully on the other side, you will NOT be disppointed.