MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

March 7, 2022

By Michael Newman [email protected]

I chose the picture for this morning for many reasons. It is an overhead shot of York High School at the time that I attended between 1976 to 1980. I thought this would be appropriate for the subject that I chose to write about this morning.

The past week has been a “homecoming” week for me. I get to go back to two places that will always be in my heart. Two trips to Naperville and North Central College for two meets including tonight for the DGS Mustang Relays. Sandwiched in between is a short drive to York for their Boys Invitational last Friday night.

It is the ghosts that accompany me on those three visits that makes me feel good, bad, or somewhere in between.

The speech that Joe Newton would give the senior class on the last day of the cross country season is memorable and will always stick with me. “Your influence and the way that you ran while running for the LONG GREEN LINE will carry on for future generations of York runners. Your ghosts will always be in the front of the school where we warm up encouraging teams and runners.”

It was moving. He would cry. I still cry thinking about it. We only had four men in my senior class (three were all-state). We had to choose the spot where we would “haunt” future runners.

The spot I would choose was this monument at the south end of our quarter-mile warm up triangle. On summer days, it would be a dust bowl. When it rained, try not to get pushed into. You would persevere to get around that point. Maybe that is why I chose that spot. You persevere to get through so many things to achieve what you want to achieve. It applies when you run. It applies to you in life.

That spot is no longer there since York has gone through a reconstruction where the school does not have that same triangle in front of the school. I think that spot I chose is in the middle of the drive coming into the school. Maybe that explains why I am so sore with my ghost always being run over by cars.

I found out about myself and my perseverance at North Central College during those four plus years at the school. I switched majors twice going from accounting to computer science and until I got the idea to try to accomplish a double major in my final two years in English and Political Science. A decision that haunts me, it was tough to make having to miss a year of running, but a ghost in the end that I embrace with some great memories. The smile from Al Carius in our morning run. The Mr. Temperature Song and the Robin Red Breast song in those runs where I can still hear the echoes. Ken Popejoy and his stories of his experiences along with the way he motivated us. The moments after a race with both of them and the memories that I carry. I carry those ghosts with pride and a grin.

It is such a small campus but rich in memories as I drive through it after a meet at North Central College. I like visiting the River Walk in downtown Naperville. Both good and bad memories haunt me in those areas. Runs with my teammates through the area. Lonely walks at night to contemplate life.

It is the memories of your teammates during that time that make those ghostly visits a good one. They shaped your existence during your time in a place. It certainly happened with me at NCC.

I see my ghost running past our track. At the same time, I see myself sitting on the hill by the track thinking what I could have done better in that race. I like to walk around campus after a meet that I covered is over. No one is on the main campus late at night. Just the memories and the ghosts that accompanying me on that journey.

Do you let your ghosts of races or coaching at a meet haunt you?

I was filming a race last Thursday. Two runners afterwards were down from their performance and leaning against the platform I was filming on. “Keep your head up! This is March, not May. Your coach will get you ready for that time.” They walked away with a smile.

A coach talked to his athletes after a fumbled baton in a relay. He kept telling them this is a learning experience. Move on. My thought was this was Naperville, not Charleston. There are plenty more races to challenge them.

A coach after a cross country race was talking to one of his runners who thought that they did not have a great meet. “Did you ever run a bad race, Mike” I was asked. “Yes, of course,” was my reply. “ I learned to bounce back.”

Embrace the ghost. Don’t let those memories drag you down for the rest of your life. Use it for a purpose to lift yourself to another level.

I walk on these two campuses with a smile thinking of those moments (good and bad) that has made me who I am.

I also smile about the teammates and classmates that I have encountered. Maybe that is the best ghost to embrace. Some I cannot embrace because they are no longer with us. Some because for reasons I will not describe.

I think coming from cultures at York and North Central College where family and that bond is more important than winning (yes at both schools) is something that is always with me. It is a ghost that drives me every day. There is love from each of the teams that I was on that makes life worthwhile.

So, if you are on a team, embrace those moments while you are together. After you graduate and move on in life, make that effort to embrace your old teammates when you see them. Not really old. In your heart, you are always teammates.

Don’t let that ghost haunt you when you don’t choose that one more embrace, that one more chat.

Life is good. Embrace the ghost and make yourself better. Don’t let it haunt you.

I’m looking forward to a snow covered walk this afternoon and then again tonight at some of my old haunts.