September 24, 1979 (Monday)

From running log:
Cross country practice. 1 warmup, 6.5 workout, 0.4 cooldown (7.9 miles) on the road wearing Saucony 1980s. Plus 10 hill repeats. Didn't run too badly given my sore back and two days off. I am very disappointed not to have run on Saturday ... very, very, very disappointed. Ben is running well, but sounds kind of sick (coughing). The team must now start looking toward conference. Still need much improvement. I need to forget about the past couple of days and look forward.

30 years later:

Ah, the miraculous healing powers of the young. I had back spasms, so I just took a couple of days off and I was basically back to normal. Nowadays, I'd be dragging my knuckles around for a week or more. Sigh.

I hated having missed the race over the previous weekend, but you can see that I was making of point of not focusing on that, but instead looking forward and keeping my eyes on the prize: a conference championship. We will all have numerous hurdles placed in our path during our lives, the best approach is to just get over them and keep on truckin'. The alternative is to waste your time lamenting how unfair your life has been, to spend your energies explaining to everyone that it's not your fault that you didn't succeed, because (gasp!) it was really hard and nothing was handed to you on a silver tray!

I don't know if runners are, by nature, the kind of people who just can't be like that ... or if being a runner simply proves to you time and time-again that it's pointless to live in the past, so you learn not to do so. Every day is a new day, every day is a new opportunity, but every day requires hard work if you want to be successful, even if you'd been successful the day before. Plain and simple. That is one of the things I love about running, and one of the gifts that running will bring to you. It will ground you in the cold, hard facts of life.

Don't get me wrong, runners whine and complain with the best of them, but it's often just gamesmanship. The culture is to play down your chances of winning or performing well, then to go out and defy expectations. Set the bar low, then decimate it (knowing all along that you would).