It’s been an amazing cross-country year. The tent is set up and all the awards are laid out on the grass at my feet. Luckily the rain has held off. The kids are milling around wondering what we’re about to do. They’re expecting a really hard run. Do you know why? Because most of the time they’d be right.
Most of the time we are out running in the rain, the sun, the heat or cold, it really doesn’t matter. But this practice is different. It’s a celebration. Today, their parents are there and we are going to celebrate what the runners have done over and over again.
The talk that I give to the parents stresses that what they usually get to see is the obvious wins. When we’re talking about the obvious wins, we’re talking about the fact that this year our team had wins that landed them a podium spot at just about every meet. Or that at the state meet, out of all the teams in Vermont, our boys came in fifth and our girls came in 13th. This is quite impressive when you consider it’s our small school out of the entire state! We even swept the meet in Northfield this year. When I say sweep I mean that both the boys and the girls actually won the meet straight out, and Northfield has the hardest course that our division has to offer.
Now those wins are all fine and well. They should be celebrated. Parents and runners alike should be proud. But then there’s the not-so-obvious wins. What Chuck Noll used to say was that his players achieved the most under the lights, in the dark of practice, away from the competition. The biggest wins come during practice. Consistent practice.
I asked the parents to think about their work. Think of a time they had a bad day; maybe they didn’t get along with their boss, or possibly didn’t play well with others, or just had too much work to do. How would it feel to have to go from right that day at work to do speed work on Monday? Maybe the day was rough at work and now you\’re faced with a Wednesday practice where you’re gonna’ have to run 6, 7, maybe even 8 miles with over 1000 feet of elevation? Or maybe, just maybe it’s Friday and you’re looking forward to that weekend because you don’t have a race to do. But, then you realize, wait a second! It’s King and Queen of the Hill day…and what that means is that you’re going to have to run around the hill that is feared by most cross country teams in the state as many times as you can in 35 minutes. Think about it, because that is what the cross country runners faced every week.
These less obvious wins are the kind that build our physical, mental and emotional resiliency. It’s doing what needs to be done, what you committed to do, to improve your craft, yourself, your skills, whatever challenge you’ve set for yourself, no matter what else is going on. Only through these wins do we get to allow others to applaud us in the light of day when we succeed at that race, job promotion, or just being an everyday effective parent.
I finish the celebration by thanking all the parents and friends of these runners for all of their support, especially their support that is not obvious: keeping the team supplied with Jolly Ranchers every week, so I can give them to their gritty kids. Showing up on rainy days to race and practice with their kids, and consistently going to every race to applaud and support their runners. It is those things that you do consistently and out of the spotlight that speak so much louder than what you say. Those consistent things teach our kids, and anyone around us, how important those less obvious “wins” are, even if they’re only seen in the darkness under the lights.
If you would like help lessening your fear and anxiety, reaching your goals, breaking habits, or creating new ones, I’d love to work with you. We can meet virtually or in person at my office in Waterbury, Vermont. Just click the button or the link below for a free consultation and let’s talk.
