Oxygen is for Wimps

Back in 2006 we welcomed one of the most exciting groups of freshmen we've had since the school opened. That group, now juniors, was large, enthusiastic, coachable and fairly talented. Though a few of them have quit under the pressure of work, the majority have survived and thrived and make up the nucleus of what is, in my mind, one of the best teams (guys and girls) that we've ever had. It's funny, even back then, when many of them were toiling at the frosh soph level, I just knew they were destined for great things if they would just persevere.

Here in 2008, I'm seeing what was once the future.

There are a ton of great stories emerging from this group. Many have found their talent, their knack. Some have become leaders. Others are hard working followers. They are enthusiastic about the team, about running in general, about their success. They are learning to set goals. I'll try and post occassionally here over the next month on some of those stories.

But for today, the story is Sean Lee. His nickname is Sean Lee, (you can ask him sometime what that means), but Sean's story is one that in many ways epitomizes the stories of so many of the guys in the class of '10, thereby making him as good as anyone to start with.

The brother of David, who was part of King's original team in 1999 and is now in law school at Santa Clara, Sean brings to our team an insatiable appetite for success. He's a worker beyond measure, in fact, he's trying to figure out how to take an "easy day" easy. Not an easy task for someone prone to find brick walls he can run through, or Everests to climb. If he could find a brick wall while climbing Everest, one would assume he'd found his own slice of heaven. In his backpack he carries the weight of self-imposed rigor. He drinks from the canteen of competition. His standard of success is so high it requires an oxygen tank, but like only Sean can do, he's attempting this summit on guts alone. Oxygen is for wimps.

The success he's achieved is obvious. Go back into the archives of 2006 and you'll find a runner straining to break 22:00; it wasn't until League Finals that season that he finally broke through, but still well above 20:00 for three miles

Last year his times dropped consistently in the 19:00's, with a PR of 18:12 on the fastest course we ran, Poly. Check out the first month of 2008, and you'll find him opening up at Seaside's speed course at 17:31, but more impressively was last weekend's grass and hill covered crusade at Central Park which netted him a 17:43 mark, a much faster effort than the PR in week one. His time at Mt. Carmel this year was 1:13 faster than it was a year ago. You get the picture. The Sean Lee of '09 is not the same Sean Lee of '06. This version, call it SL 3.0, makes the first release look like a dinosaur.

And Sean is not alone, for his work ethic has without doubt pulled many to keep climbing and climb more aggressively. Much of what he's done on this three-year trek has been a model that others have followed toward their own summits.

So take heart, those of you who read this while sitting in base camp. You are not what you will be if you choose to go the route of Sean Lee and many of this amazing class of 2010. Climb! Go! Head out onto the North Face of achievement. Discover for yourself, the lessons of Sean Lee, lessons found only in the rarified air of great improvement.