Thoughts on the book I just read

This is not really a book review, but just thoughts I had after reading a book about running.


“An Honorable Run,” by Matt McCue, is a nice little story about a coach who influenced a young man to succeed, not only in running, but in life in general. And even if at first I didn’t quite relate to his story personally, by the end I loved Coach Brown as much as everybody else. And I certainly got the message: you don’t have to win to succeed. And other great sayings that can help get you through like, “do the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

I finished reading the book the other day and I’ve had it in the back of my mind, thinking about what I would like to say about it. I would like Jim to read it too, so we can talk about it, because I’m sure he can relate much more to McCue’s experience of competing in high school and college and having a great coach. When I look back on my high school experience, this is something that I find was definitely lacking. I didn’t really have any great role models or mentors. I had to figure out a lot of shit on my own.

Makes me think of Paul Simon: “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all…my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none, I can read the writing on the wall.” The only running advice I ever got in high school was wrong. I remember the little red-headed dyke who was our field hockey coach (but can’t for the life of me remember her name) specifically telling us to run “heel to toe” and I repeated the mantra to myself as I ran, trying to force my body to run in a weirdly unnatural way. Since then I have taught myself how to run with good form (with the help of lots of good books and articles).

And I didn’t have a whole lot of natural athletic talent, that I know of. In fact, I always thought that my body was not built to run, that I didn’t have the right frame for it or something. So it was funny to me the other day at my appointment with the Physical Therapist when she analyzed my running form and said she couldn’t find anything wrong with it, that I had great running form and it looked like I had one of those rare bodies that was made for running. Ha! I always thought I was too short and stout and busty.

Anyway, yeah, this is about the book. But it’s also about me and how I relate to it, so bear with me. So I walked out of a store yesterday and I saw this guy sitting on the sidewalk with a sign asking for money. And I thought, how does someone end up there, on the sidewalk. It’s all about the choices we make. Life is a series of choices and sometimes you can look back and clearly see how some have taken you down drastically different roads than you otherwise might have gone on. Other times the choices are not that clear. And it all starts with one choice: choosing your parents wisely.

This is a joke, of course. Because it’s not only the choices that we make, but the options that we are given and what we do with those options. McCue had a great coach. He also obviously had a really supportive family, and grew up in a nice community. The guy had opportunities. Plus he made good choices. That guy all bundled up on the sidewalk next to his pack, who knows what opportunities or choices he had?