September 18, 1979 (Tuesday)

From running log:
Cross country practice. 1 mile warmup, 3.6 workout, 0.5 cooldown. Cool, windy, 66F. Grass ladder intervals behind BHS. 75-80 second 440s, 4:50 - 4:57 1500s. Tough workout. Didn't help that I'm feeling a little sick, and weak, and stiff. Gotta get well to beat Connors, team must beat Dells.

30 years later:
Such was the fever of my obsession with running faster than Terry Connors that I would write a motivation phrase day-after-day in my training log. If you are out there reading this some day, perhaps you will forgive my intensity, and perhaps you will do so in part because you were obesessing in much the same way about beating me. I guess that's why they call it a rivalry.

There is an inherent conflict when it comes to a rivalry, of course. On the one hand, the narrowness of vision and the intensity of motivation create the groundwork for success. You focus on your opponent, obsess about coming out on top, and this keeps you pushing and going in your preparation. When you want to quit, or you want to skip a workout, you think about how your opponent isn't quitting, isn't skipping workouts ... so you get out there and get after it. On the other hand, your focus on a particular opponent creates such a small window of success ... what if you fail to best that competition, but conquer all others? Does that make you a failure? Also, what if you spend so much time preparing for one opponent on the assumption that he is your prime competition, that you allow a slew of others to go running right past you? It's a fine line.

I think I walked that line fairly successfully within the conference, because I didn't only focus on one other runner. I had a dog-eared page of notes on all of the other runners on all of the teams in the conference (over the years, I've lost that sheet of paper. I wish I could find it, it might be quite funny to read). I tried to track all of their performances over the past couple of seasons, by scouring local papers and creating a sort of matrix of our opponents. Remember, there was no internet in 1979, so for me this involved hours in the library, leafing through recent papers or even scanning microfiche.

If I had a failing in 1979 it was perhaps in setting my goals too narrowly. For me, for all of us, it was all about winning the conference meet. That was the physical, mental, and motivational peak. But what would have happened if I'd been looking at the state qualifying races more intensely? What if I had run the conference meet more like a preparation race for something bigger? The fact is, we'll never know.

But you will know how the rest of the season unfolded, if you stay tuned and keep reading.