August 13, 1979 (Monday)

From running log:
Ran 5.5 miles at 7:00 pace, partly on trails in the woods. Right knee still hurting. Always run too hard with Coolidge. Weather has been cool lately, makes legs tight. Anxious for CC season to begin.

30 years later:
Ah, yes, I remember my runs with Todd Coolidge, who had graduated from BHS the previous year. He was an intense guy, and ultra-competitive 100% of the time. During my freshman year in college, I roomed with Todd, and he was keen to make a competitive game out of everything: who could get dressed faster, who could eat faster, who could get down the stairs faster, etc. He loved to say, "Ha! Beat ya!" several times per day. Running with Todd would be a unique experience, until you got used to it. You see, he would always run a few inches ahead of you. No matter what the pace, no matter what the purpose of the workout, he was sort of next to you but always just a little bit ahead, and looking at you out of the corner of his eye, tracking your position. If you tried to pull up alongside him, he would accelerate almost imperceptibly so that he was once again just few inches in front of you. Left unchecked, this intricate little dance could go on forever, so that the two of you were basically accelerating little-by-little throughout the run until you were just flying at the end. It was hard to hold back on this, not only because it was simply more common and comfortable to run right next to a workout partner, but also because Todd would emphasize each tiny victory along the way ("Ha! I beat ya to that tree! Ha! I beat ya to that crosswalk!"). If you let it get to you, it could be really annoying. But if you could just let it happen, you could use Todd's competitive nature to help make a workout very intense and hard. There is a time and place for that, of course.

I once tried to finish a race in a tie with Todd. It was a small race, we were clearly in the lead, we had run together the entire way, and we were even holding hands as we crossed the line. Only moments later, he said to me, "We tied, but actually I crossed the line ahead of you, so technically I really won that race." I learned my lesson there, never agreed to a tie with him again. We had a friendly rivalry though, it never felt spiteful. It just felt like adolescent male competitiveness run rampant. Literally.