Consider the picture above.  Class A 3200m Relay.  Nobody every said that sports, or life for that matter, is fair.  The person who is supposed to win, or is picked to win, or has put the work in to win, doesn’t always cross that line before the rest of the field. This is the result of competition.  If you run the fastest time of your life, but get second, is that still a win?  Does it even matter?

I have had the privilege to coach the young man seen above. His name is Mohamed Hamdan.  Likely one of the best runners I will ever get to work with.  He got outkicked in that relay, a rare thing to happen to him.  That relay team entered the meet with the fastest time in the state.  They ran one second faster, and got second.  Weird being upset about second place. Not “my team” mind you, a team I get to coach (I didn’t put a singlet on a race).  By all accounts we should have been ecstatic with the result.  But we had higher expectations, and the disappointment was palpable even though I had not run a step that day.

In the second picture you see Mo finishing the mile.  In 4:13.57.  The 4th fastest time ever run by a high school runner in this state.  He won.  It was his 3rd straight mile win.  Sometimes it goes your way.

It is an unfortunate feature of this world, this “unfairness”.  Most of you have experienced this emotion.  You put the training in, you made the sacrifices, you went for it.  Then it didn’t work out.  Bad weather, sickness, just simply a bad race.  It sucks.

But the better feature of this world, is when hard work pays.  Many of you have experienced this emotion as well.  You put the training in, you made the sacrifices, you went for it.  Then it worked out.  You set a PR, you ran a great race.  One of the greatest feelings in athletics.

Unless you truly race (by this I mean that you have an objective, measurable goal that you have specifically trained to achieve) it is likely you have never experienced these emotions.  Obviously there is a whole separate set of challenges that go with running to complete a distance, and the ensuing passions that go along with it.  But there is nothing quite like putting your mind, body, and soul into something and having it work out.  Or maybe not.  But you just don’t know until the gun goes off. A thought that is at the same time so thrilling and terrifying that my palms sweat and my heartrate goes up just thinking about it.  Racing is one of the most pure experiences a person can choose to partake in because frankly, it comes back to you.

Run enough races or watch any finish line at any level of running, and maybe you get some sense of this.  But to truly understand what draws many, many people to this lifestyle you need to do one thing.  You need to go get it. Or at least try to.  Odds are really, really good you will fail.  But then again. . .