MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

October 18, 2021

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

This week it is more miscellaneous items more than anything else. Random thoughts that flew through my head while I was at meets, while I was driving to meets, or I was sitting in front of my computer. Some of these may not be deep as they have been in the past. Oh well.

I’m over the place. Forgive me through this piece.

This past week is the busiest of the year for me. I go to three meets in a 24-hour span. I could go to more meets. I remember I need to be alive to write next week.

I look at the time from the week of conference meets to the end of November as one day where I happen to get some sleep in every once in a while. Yes, I do sleep but in my head it does not.

It is the time where I have been through this before. Last year it was a reprieve because of COVID-19. I know what has to be done. I know how to get things done in the period. I know with everything that needs to be done I know how not to freak out.

Its Mike being Mike.

I don’t do a ton of driving during the week. My office is my home. I look at results seeing how it relates to the rankings on which I am working. I have a calendar on what needs to be done in TFX. That keeps my sanity.

What also keeps my sanity is the drive to the meets. Hooking up Spotify and turning on a playlist that has over 38 hours of songs (as of this morning). For a moment, forget about running. Concentrate on the traffic that I have to navigate through. Find a song into which I can escape. The one song that popped up was “Any Road” by George Harrison. During this time of the year, it is one of those songs that I go to:

“But oh Lord we've got to fight

With the thoughts in the head with the dark and the light

No use to stop and stare

And if you don't know where you're going

Any road will take you there…”

The next song pops up. I don’t want to hear that one this morning. Let’s get to the next one. And the next one. No stop there. ABBA – “Knowing me, Knowing you”…I don’t sing the main lines in this song when I am driving. I like singing the chorus of that song. Don’t ask me why. In some way I concentrate on that part of the song, it gets me focused for the meet that I am going to.

“No Myth” by Michael Penn. Wow – 2 songs in a row.

“Some time from now you'll bow to pressure

Some things in life you cannot measure by degrees

I'm between the poles and the equator

Don't send no private investigator to find me please

'Less he speaks Chinese

And can dance like Astaire overseas

(Okay)…”

Now I have found my focus swallowed up by a song. I am not thinking about running yet here I am getting ready for a meet swallowed up in good lyrics. I am getting closer to the park and then the next song is “The Core” by Eric Clapton. Good guitar licks in the middle have me smiling.

Stop the car. Get my ladder out. Get to business.

I always listen to the coaches meeting when I can. Today, it is interrupted by re-writing a conference by-law to host this meet on a Saturday instead of a Friday. It has nothing to do what is going on. Just agendas going amuck. I walk away and head to the starting line while other coaches fidget knowing race time is getting closer and closer. Tick-tock. It’s good to be at a conference meet on Friday is my theme for the next couple of hours.

Every time I go up on my ladder at the finish of a race, someone will ask me is that safe. It is a simple step ladder that allows me to get a better view. It started when in 2015 when photographers jumped in front of me at the State Meet. The following Monday, I went to Wal-Mart and got a $15 step ladder that has been with me since. Best investment for my job that I made.

My ladder at the end of a race sometimes can be misconstrued as a place to relieve yourself after you run your race. You keep your focus on the video and try not to look down at runners who have given everything that they have in the race giving everything back to mother earth. You get to the idea.

The next morning, another race. “Hey Bulldog” by the Beatles and “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. Oh yes, it’s going to be that kind of a day. You have another meet to go to. You know when you have to be back in a car on your way to the next meet.

My focus is all over the place. I think briefly of where I have been and what I will be watching next. I think about what I  have to do. Nothing is getting accomplished here.

Turn on the music. Stop. Its Hammer Time.

I walk around a course and joy of what is happening around me in the race is embracing me. I try to find a moment where I can sit as the race is going on but still watching the race. I’ve seen people looking at heir phone while runners go past. People talking in a group ignoring or embracing these young people racing.

Fools.

I walk to my next place to video the race. I like to get lost in my thinking, get lost in the race.

“How do you remember all of those things?” Someone interrupts that train of thought. My reply: “Earplugs keep that info in my brain.”

I walk to the next spot. “Are you a race official?” No.

“Are you Bill Stone?” No. Bill is a great writer, but he is shorter than me. Bill always wears a Montreal Expos hat. I have a hat like that. I should wear it the next time. Maybe.

Stop this train of though idiot. Get back into the race.

My job wants to run that I went through in younger years. Yet, I am walking  around for 4 hours, the looking for runners to talk to for interviews.

I saw Mike Durkin at WSC-Silver. We chatted for a minute. He tells me he can’t wait to read my state meet preview. Oh yes, I need to start working on that I think to myself. In fact, I did a week before.

The next 36 hours is a blur. Get home, turn on the computer, and just start uploading results into Athletic.Net from state to state. Upload videos at the same time. It is a symphony of stats. A symphony of looking at meets I was not at to see what happens. It is a symphony of focus getting ready for next week. Next week starts the moment I start my car after the meet.

I see a result. Damn! That idiot made the same mistake uploading a meet. I told him of that before, yet he is better than the rest. You can be covered in the assorted colors of the rainbow or embrace silver and black. That is what happened here.

A moment that I dread is on Saturday night when you get to the point that you are so exhausted you have to decide to let the pillow smother you in sleep and wake up early or drive it out a little longer.

The pillow won Saturday night. I was too tired to off my phone.

I fell asleep but was awakened by the buzz of my phone. “Where is the video of today’s races?” A coach friend of mine who is part of my circle of trust. I answer but my eyes wide-open.

Damn you Redman.

Up at 5, work until whenever. Take 5 minutes to write out what I am going to do tomorrow. Hit the pillow and turn my phone off this time.

My main thought of this morning while writing this is still bout COVID-19. Chris Quick was timing the meet at Lyons tells me that Palatine won the MSL for the first time since 2012. Chris also tells me that Palatine Coach Joe Parks missed the meet due to the virus. I still am thinking this morning I hope he gets better. I went through the same thinking over a month ago a friend of the family and her husband that tested positive. He did not make it. This is not over yet. I still get scared the season will stop. I know it won’t but still I think that. I have been vaccinated but still. The safety of my home is my go-to place. Also, good tunes.

Stay safe. Think positive.

I look at my e-mails. Those need to be addressed. This piece needs to end for the day.

Scrambled eggs with jalapeno sauce and a bagel are my choice for the morning. Excellent choice for my breakfast since my head is all over the place.

Three weeks to state. Yahoo!

First three songs of the morning: “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison. “Welcome to the Working Week” by Elvis Costello. “Good is Good” by Sheryl Crow.

I’m focused now. Let’s get this week going or continue the same day that I have been stuck on.

It’s going to be a good week/day.

See you next Monday.