Track and Feel

Let me tell you how good it feels to be back in the Track and Field environment. Think of your least favorite job….got it? Now, imagine the coldest day of your life….ok? Imagine every dream you have ever had of falling…you know those ones that jerk you awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat? Alright, put them all together with being stung by a swarm of bees in the middle of an episode of American’s Next Top Idiot Who Isn’t Smarter than a 5th Grader but Thinks That By Singing on America Idol They Will Get Them On Real World/Road Rules Physical Challenge (good ol’ Double Dare). Now think of the exact opposite of all of that and you have what it feels to be back inside the oval.

Track is so familiar to me that it almost feels like yesterday I was fighting back the butterflies while warming up for my next race. Its like a second skin or a warm comforter, or being back in the house you grew up in and knowing every little creek made in the floorboards so you can make it from your room to the back door without making a sound. Yet this time it is different…almost better. I am coaching and not competing. Trust me, I miss the competing, but not everything that comes along with it. I see the anxiety of the faces of my runners and I am thankful for just being a coach – much less stress. Being out and around the track again just reminds me why I am going through all this other crap. This, and teaching, is what I believe I am meant to do, it is what I know best, and what will benefit me, and the future generation of runners mutually, the most. After spending afternoons outside in the sun and nature with mostly good natured and eager youth revolved around sport/running, I have no idea how I can spend my mornings answer phones in a windowless, florescent light aura cubical maze, vertigo inducing environment that drains any life or happiness you might have had prior to 8:00am. It will all be over soon enough and I can make this education/coaching thing a permanent gig.