Every once in a while, I get the question: Why did you start running? Because I started more than 30 years ago, the answer has always been a vague, foggy recollection to me. There's the story of a kid on the cross country team in high school, who during gym class one day recruited me to join the team because "you are skinny and look like you can run." Or how, as a 12-year-old kid, my neighborhood friends and I would "play marathon" after watching the Montreal Olympics on TV.
But the reality of the matter is, I can pinpoint this one article by Kenny Moore in a long-faded Sports Illustrated as motivating me to start in the sport. For those who don't know Kenny Moore, he was a very talented runner at Oregon during the halcyon days of Pre, a two-time Olympic marathoner who finished fourth at the Munich Olympics. He has had a long and storied writing career as well -- many may know him for writing the definitive biography of his coach Bill Bowerman. Growing up, I knew him as an awesome writer for SI. Whenever SI would arrive at our house, I immediately scanned to see if any of his articles were in there. This article -- warning, it's LONG -- details a three-week stage race in Hawaii, the Great Hawaiian Footrace, that he won back in 1979. It is wonderfully written and spurred me to take my first running steps as a high schooler on Jan. 1, 1980.
Please take the time to read it, with the money sentences coming at the very end: "The larger conclusion was that all racing was arbitrary, the chance elements of distance, of terrain, or temperature, combining to choose a winner. What was left, what was important, was how the long struggle moved us, how it toughened us and stretched and then mingled all these disparate souls."
it all began for me with a speech from my high school coach. I never met him yet, I was in 8th grade and went to an extra cirricular event, where all the coaches and leaders of extra cirriculars got up and spoke to incoming frosh. He was an English teacher who weaved vivid imagery of running through woods and over streams, and how it builds the character of an individual. All things I love about XC. Been hooked ever since that spring in 1988.
ReplyDelete-Lurch
Very interesting to see a reference to the GHF that is somewhat current. I was one of the high school kids mentioned in Kenny's story. The GHF was easily the highlight of my running life (at least thus far).
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, what led me to distance running initially was an inability to high jump. I wanted to be a high jumper on the 8th grade track team, but lacked the talent. No one wanted to run the 2 mile, however, so I took the only opportunity offered.