Not Winning Does Not Always Mean Choking
At the time of me writing this it has been just 24 hours since the NCAA Cross Country Championships and the locally run (for me, at least) high school level slug-fest- Nike South Regional, which I attended yesterday. It ‘s no secret that even though I’m old and arguably past my prime as a runner, I love me some cross country. The energy at these events is hard to match for both competitors and spectators alike. Don’t believe me-if you like running at all- just go wander around one sometime and you’ll know what I mean. It’s a beautiful thing watching people do hard things. Now it’s time to put my ‘armchair pacer’ to work and unpack some thoughts that I had while watching yesterday’s NXR’s and periodically checking in on the results for NCAA’s. First, running-especially cross country is really, really, hard. The training it takes to prepare for Championship meets takes a certain mindset and a lot of commitment. You have to believe in what you’re doing-the training, the prep, t