Opinion: Running for redemption
Michael Ashford
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
As many of you who have read my column over the past few years know, I am a former cross country runner.
Ask me about cross country — or running in general— and it’s not hard to figure out that I am very passionate about the sport. To this day, running cross country is the thing I miss most about high school.
But something has been weighing on my mind for quite a while now. As crazy about running as I am, I have been quite bad about actually getting out and doing it.
My excuses are as lame as the next person’s. I’m too busy. It’s raining. It’s too cold. Or the worst: I just don’t feel like it.
But not anymore.
I recently made a promise to myself to start running again, but I’m taking it a step further. I have decided to start racing competitively for the first time since high school, with the plan being to run a 5K sometime this next spring (which specific race it happens to be has yet to be determined).
I’ll be honest, the last time I raced, it did not end well.
I was a senior at Bonner Springs High School, and we were running in Topeka at the regional meet. I had run at state each of the three previous years, and as my squad’s senior captain, I wanted to make it four in a row.
Long story short, I ran the worst race of my four-year career — an in-race tactical error on a series of hills zapped the energy out of me — and I missed out on state. I had expected to finish in the top 5 at the regional meet, and instead, I lumbered across the finish line somewhere in the 50s.
That race has always sat like a lump in my stomach. It kills me inside that I finished my high school career in such poor fashion.
So now, I want to make it right.
No, I can’t go back and earn a trip to the state cross country meet this year — I’ll go once again as a spectator — but I can prove to myself that I am better than that final race six years ago.
No more excuses. Rain, cold or just plain laziness are no longer a deterrent, but a challenge to get my butt out the door. I’ve done it before, and I know I can do it again.
Maybe in about six months, I can give you an account of my first competitive race since high school.
Hopefully, it will go well enough that I don’t take another six-year hiatus in between races again.