August 31, 1979 (Friday)

From running log:
Cross country practice, ran 7 miles at 7:30 pace on the road. Very hot, 93F. Heat really bothered me. USTFF race tomorrow in Verona. Medals to 15th place, ribbons to 30th. Back in the whirlpool.

30 years later:
The USTFF was the United States Track and Field Federation. It has gone through a few name changes since the late 70s, in efforts to improve it's image. A bit silly, really. They were called TAC (The Athletics Congress) for awhile, which made sense to no one, except maybe the Brits, who refer to track and field as "athletics". These days, the organization is called USATF (United States Track and Field). Whatever it's name, it's mission is to support track and field (and running in general) in the USA, from grass-roots through national championships and international competitive athletes. It does none of this very well, and the new CEO Doug Logan has struggled to find a way to address the organization's poor image and very-frustrated local base of officials and coaches. They've got a long way to go, good luck to them.

The USTFF meet in Wisconsin was the early-season preview of things to come. Running well in this meet set the stage for the rest of the year. I had three things going against me: (1) Despite running over the summer more than I ever had before, I'd done that with no actual plan or guidance, while the others followed proscribed schedules, (2) it was hot hot hot, and I never run well in the heat, (3) look at the workout we did on this day, 7 hot miles on steaming asphalt in the hills of Baraboo, when we should have been doing some light jogging in the cool, shaded woods. Put those three ingredients together, and in retrospect I would predict a sub-par performance.

On the other hand, the season was young and we were not yet in shape. Training through this race makes sense, we were really just getting used to racing. Trouble is, without strong and confident coaching, we had no idea that could even be an approach. A race was a race, you ran all out and you were elated to do well or miffed to do poorly, period. I had my heart set on running a fast early season time and getting my hands on one of those medals!