If there is one element of this sport which should attract participation and recruits, it is simply - you will not be disappointed. You won't be sent packing after learning, despite your best efforts, you have been cut from the team. You've made it. Nor will you be disappointed when, having made the team, you are relegated to a position on the bench. You're a starter in every meet. Consequently, you won't look back as a Junior or Senior and wonder why you wasted your time in a sport in which practice constitutes your "playing" time. You'll never ask yourself, "Am I really an athlete?" You're the best! And you won't be disappointed because at the high school level you have accomplished as much as you ever will in your sport. You can do this, well, until you are old and gray!
Running, and distance running in particular, is for many a lifelong endeavor. As a boy I played football, baseball and basketball like many of that era. Cross Country (other than one year as a Sophomore) and Track were options I failed to choose. Nearly 50 Class Reunions later I see the error of my ways. Sure, I played my sports of choice beyond high school. Short stints in the Boston Park League and Eastern Football League. Several years in the now defunct Massachusetts Independent Baseball League. Pick-up basketball games with high-school and college friends. Fun? Sure. Rewarding? Not even close. At 28 I decided to take up running and didn't stop for nearly 40 years. I can not recall a bad mile (and by my computation there were no fewer than 80,000 of them.) Running (mine and yours), in retrospect, has provided me with the most thrilling and memorable moments of my life. OK, my wedding day and the births of my children hold the edge. But I can state with absolute certainty that my life would have been enhanced had I decided to take up running 13 years sooner than I did. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about "what might have been," but occasionally I wish I had taken advantage of the opportunity you now have. Specifically, to run competitively at the high school level and to put all my energy into a sport at the point in my life when it really may have made its greatest impact. I am exceedingly grateful that I found out what I was missing when I was 28. And while I've enjoyed the many years of "catching up" I can't help but think I might have had 100,000 miles in me.
In 13 days YOUR journey begins. Carpe diem!
Thursday 8/24: 8:00AM on the Track
Friday 8/25: 8:00AM on the Track
Saturday 8/26: 8:00AM Burridge Pond, Hanson
Monday 8/28: 2:30PM on the Track
Tuesday 8/29: 2:30PM on the Track
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