Last Saturday, our dear friend and longtime Poughkeepsie
Journal colleague Sean T. McMann got married in Poughkeepsie. Our whole family
was involved, and it was a great weekend of loving fun. Afterwards, Sean and
his new bride jetted off for their honeymoon to Disney World in Florida – they are
all about the land of Mickey Mouse. I, on the other hand, am not. But alas, as
happens every four years, I (and we) will be all about Disney next week, as our MAAC
Cross Country Championships are being held down there.
What is it about me and Disney? It has little to do with the
running. Well, yes and no. A little insight into my personality: As Sean can
very well attest, I am very rarely in a good mood. But (and Sean may not agree
with this), I am even more rarely in a bad mood. Basically, I just skim along
day-to-day in a neutral sort of fog, usually not too high and not too low. And
then, you enter Disney World, where everyone is Happy -- with a capital H.
Most of it is genuine, some of it may be contrived, all of it makes me feel a
little queasy. Stop smiling so much
already!
OK, enough about me and my feelings. Who cares, really? Our
athletes really look forward to this trip, and with good reason! They are,
after all, still kids at heart, and what better place to be an overgrown kid
than at Disney World?
There’s one other issue with the Disney trip, and that is
trying to determine our official travel party. This has been the cause of some
angst through the years, this year included. Ultimately, it is a good problem
to have. We have a lot of hard-working runners. But we have a limited number of
spots, for a variety of reasons. As a result, it makes for some challenging
choices. Eight years ago, I was forced to make a difficult choice – to this
day, it is debatable whether my decision was correct or incorrect. This much is
true: That decision hurt feelings, causing fissures in relationships that
lasted not weeks but years. Fortunately, the chasms that were formed by the
hard feelings have been healed, and the bonds with those involved are now
stronger than ever.
This year, it was looking like a repeat performance in the
difficult decision department. The final choices came down to athletes who were
the best of friends. I racked my brain, tried all sorts of formulas, but the
numbers kept coming back to these two guys. Ugh. Fortunately for all involved,
another athlete selflessly surrendered his spot on the trip -- out of honestly
and genuine kindness. He has had some struggles of late with his running, but
his place numbers throughout this season were still sufficient to earn the
trip. But, being the saintly and classy individual that he is, he realized that
the arc of his training and racing might not have yielded a positive
performance down there (side note: I have faith that he can run fast, both in
the near and far future!). And so, unwittingly, he helped solve a seemingly
unsolvable dilemma by his unselfish act of true kindness. It is a move that I
won’t soon forget, and my loyalty to this runner will run deep for a long, long time.
So yeah. Don’t expect me to put on my smiley face and my
Mickey Mouse ears next week. Do expect me, and our athletes, to do what we always
aim to do when we attend meets: Represent our school and our program to the best
of our ability. Smiles notwithstanding.
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