September 11, 1979 (Tuesday)

From running log:
Cross country practice. 1.5 mile warmup, 2 mile workout, 0.1 cooldown (3.6 miles), included hilly fartlek. Hot, dry, 85F. We ran 8 times up Cardiac Hill. McGann ran tough, Crary didn't like it, Ben ran tough. Very hot. Hip stiff, not really sore. I've got to beat Connors, we've got to beat Dells, we gotta win on Thursday!

30 years later:
Eight times up Cardiac Hill? Ouch. I'm not surprised that Moose McGann ran tough, he just was simply tough. Of everyone on that 1979 team, including me, he was able to push himself hardest and closest to the edge. He'd finish races and nearly collapse. That toughness and willingness to destroy himself in an all-out race effort was inspiring to all.

Todd Crary wasn't a great hill runner, uphill that is. He could fly down the hills. His strategy for our race was to walk the uphill, then smoke the downhills. Doing tough uphill repeats was not his forte. He was long and lean, not powerful.

Ben was built more like Moose: a bit shorter, with more power in his legs. On the track he preferred to race the half-mile, a race that I despised because it required more leg speed than I possessed. Ben's intensity and power would serve him well on cross country courses with tough uphills, but he had to take advantage of those hills because he wasn't great downhill runner.

With just those three descriptions I am reminded of the variety of young men that made up our team, that make up most high school teams. I learned important lessons about accepting people for who they were and supporting their strengths, even though they did not match mine. Even a cross country team, which is made up exclusively of distance runners, can have an assortment of personalities, sizes, ages, and passions. The key to success lies in how you weave those threads together to create something more than the sum of its parts. On our varsity team, it went something like this:

Moose: tough competitor who would accept nothing less than everything he had to give.
Ben: sometimes flaky, but in the race he would not let you go, and look out for him on the uphills.
Todd: committed himself to the 1979 team despite having doubts, then really shined.
Douglas: devoted to and passionate about running, eager for every workout and race.
Ken: Quiet but determined, improved every single week all season long.
Chris: tall, powerful, fast-starter, wouldn't back down to all of the seniors on the team.
Tim: liked racing more than training, went from relaxed to intense on race day.

So, the mix of those seven runners created an intermingling of attitudes and influences: you didn't want to loaf off, because Moose wasn't going to ... you couldn't slow down in a race, because Ben would pass you and yell at you ... you couldn't wish you were somewhere else, or Todd would get on you for it ... you couldn't whine about running, or Douglas would bloviate on the joys of it all ... you couldn't sit at a plateau, or Ken would pass you by ... you couldn't assume that seniority guaranteed you a special status, because Chris would take over ... and you couldn't be lazy on race day because Tim would fire you up.

We complemented one another well, we kept one another on the right track, and we fed off of each other's success. We were a team.