MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

October 11, 2021

By Michael Newman

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It may be a subject that I have approached before, so I apologize if this tires you out. It should not.

You may be reading this on Monday morning. I am on my way on a 98-mile drive to Sublette for the Amboy Columbus Day Invitational after a great weekend.

Did I go to any meets to make this weekend great? No. Sometimes you do not have to do something that you normally don’t do to make a period of time great.

Many of you will be starting a four week stretch of running that you have been working towards for years. It will be a stressful period. I hope it is not. I hope in years from now you reflect on this period of life in something that makes you smile whether good or bad.

This weekend was my walk down memory lane with my brothers that I attended North Central College with back in the 80’s. It starts with my friends and teammates that I went through four years of school with. We meet up at Jeffrey Martin’s house. Jeffrey was one of my roommates in college. I can tell you as a fact that we did not talk about races that we competed together with. We did not talk about national championships that we were a part of.

We shared moments that we all went through during those times in some part where we learned about life, we learned about each other, and the mistakes that we made. Some of those mistakes were fun to talk about. You won’t get any stories of those times 40 years ago from me, especially in this piece. There were stories that we forgot about that with some gentile nudges we told and fell off the backyard patio laughing uncontrollably. I wish all my brothers from those teams were there to share those moments.

Sunday is all about the golf outing which is a fund raiser for the North Central College Cross Country and Track & Field Men’s teams. It is a good chance to get together again and laugh some more. More importantly, we get to see our coach and friend Al Carius. He is our teacher, coach, friend, mentor, philosopher.

“This is not about golf, and you know that. It is not about times. It is not about places. It is not about outcome,” Al said while speaking to his former athletes Sunday afternoon. “It is about the person you become in the process and the relationships that you develop in that process which are far more important.”

I was blessed in my running life to be influenced by so many people. Joe Newton was my high school coach. Al Carius, Jim Nichols, and Ken Popejoy were influential in my life when I got to college. It was never talking about moments on a course and on the track that have changed me. It is those words that you hear from those people, digest it, and turn yourself into a different and better person.

“I love all of you. You are a blessing in my life,” Al told us. “Each and everyone of us are mirrors and reflections to other people in our life. I want to be a great person. I want to be a great friend to each and everyone of you. Run For Fun and Personal Bests is part of that foundation. Faith, family, and what you are to me, lifetime friends is that other part”

There is no special workout that will make you great. The philosophy of running is simple. Every workout, every race should be that opportunity to express that closeness to your teammates. It can happen in a race where you pass one of your teammates. “Come on Joe Teammate. Let’s go. Let’s get that runner ahead of us.” That closeness, that bond that is created during a season can be the most powerful tool to accomplish so many things not only on the course but also off it.

I was on a high school championship team in 1978. 38 years later, we all met together for the first time as a group since my senior brothers graduated after that. Within the first two minutes that we sat down; it was like we never had separated.

Again, we did not talk about the races. We talked about everything else that surrounded those 5 minutes after the gun went off. Love and the bonds that the closeness you develop with your teammates changes your life and helps you grow within those special moments.

You want to earn the accolades, the trophies and the medals that earn from that. But truthfully, those medals will stay in a container when you get older. It will be something that you can show your children.

They will ask you  how did you do that dad? What did you have to do to get all of that?

It is an exceptional story to share. I was lucky to experience those moments twice. I have so many brothers from high school that mean the world to me and am blessed that I experienced together. I got to experience that again in college where I grew even more as a human being. You can reject that love that people share with you in those moments on a team. That for some people is the uncomplicated way out.

For the people that I was associated with in those two schools, it did not matter how I ran during that time. It does not matter how they ran in a particular race.

What matters the most to me is that bond that grew through workouts, through moments and the love that came from it that will never go away. Trust me. It just won’t.

The question I have for you high school athletes that are taking their first steps to running in regional, sectional, or state in the next four weeks is “What do you want to remember the most?”

Do you want to remember what you accomplished? Do you want to remember the friendships and the bonds that developed along the way?

I got lucky twice. 40 years later, here I am remembering those little moments that make me smile for no reason.

That’s a good thing. It is a fulfilling thing when you look back when you get older, and your hair leaves you and your sight becomes a little blurry. Those bonds that made you a better person will still be with you.

Trust me on this.