Thursday, October 15, 2009

October 15, 1979 (Monday)

From running log:
Cross country practice. Ran 1 mile warmup then 3.5 mile workout, plus 6 x 100 yard sprints. Up to 62F now, feels warm after cold weather last week. I feel good, I'm running strong. We have to beat Portage. I have to beat Boehm, Klecker, Bennett, Connors.

30 years later:
We were counting down. Only three days to go before the race we'd been gunning for since before the season even started.

When I started this blog, one worry was that it would be too long. Day after day, how on earth could that be interesting? Well, for me (at least) it seems like the days have flown past over the last couple of months, and here we are on the verge of the race that would define our season and cement my identity as a runner. Back then, the season did seem long. It spanned the hot summer months, the beginning of the school year, the change of season to autumn, numerous races, plenty of homework assignments, and on and on. Now, 30 years later, a couple of months seems to go by in the blink of an eye. Has time accelerated?

You can see how single-minded I was about this cross country season. After every workout, I would diligently update my log, and frequently remind myself who I had to out-run in order to be the champion of our conference. I suppose it reads as tedious repetition now, but it was effective then.

Most of all, I wanted Baraboo to be the next school on this list of champions, and I wanted my name in the "individual" column ... ironically, as the first champion from Baraboo since 1972, when Charlie's older brother had done it:

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