Running instills values for a lifetime
Six a.m. Dark-o-clock!
My 6-year-old son Robert and 8-year-old daughter Samantha are wearing their running shoes.
We head out to put in a few miles before school starts.
That’s part of our daily routine.
We run different routes that take us near and far.
One morning, we saw a long-haired counter-culture type, who wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his semi-conscious girlfriend lying or sitting on some steps downtown.
As we passed the pair, he gave me a military salute and said, “Go marines!”
I wasn’t offended by the man’s mockery of marines’ sense of discipline, but I made a point at the next stoplight to explain to my children about how choices like his have consequences.
Getting out of bed and running each morning is not an easy thing for anyone to do, especially when it is raining or cold.
Running is hard. No doubt about that.
But this simple action instills values and makes a person strong.
Recently, I attended a cross country meet at Albert Gallatin High School.
Led by Coach Joe Everhart, the Colonials have fielded a growing team this year. The first Colonial across the finish line was Brandan Bogus, who finished the 5K course with a time of 19:50 minutes. As Bogus finished the race, he was more concerned about his race against the clock than his first-place finish.
Famed runner Steve Prefontaine (look him up) was much the same way. As much as Prefontaine wanted to win, he was more concerned about doing his best and beating the clock.
Soon after Bogus’ teammate Brian McKnight crossed the line to secure second place, I got to see a quarter mile sprint on the track between two runners at the end of this long race. Temperatures were in the upper 80s, and the humidity was not forgiving.
Instead of bowing out and accepting a fourth-place finish, Colonials’ Kody Valentine sprinted alongside his opponent before he beat him by two seconds to capture third place.
Colonials’ Skyler Bogus captured first place for the girls’ team a few seconds ahead of her teammate Elizabeth Trump, who gave it her all to cross the finish line.
Giving it all you’ve got at the end of a race is hard, very hard. That takes character, fortitude and good coaching.
As to coaching, I remember interviewing Everhart a few years back about running. Back in the day, Everhart was a formidable runner who could run a four-minute mile. At 62 years old, he’s still going pretty strong. Everhart finished second in his age group with a time of about 25 minutes at the Rain Day Race 5K in July at Waynesburg.
So I asked Everhart, when running tired, because no one ever will always run with fresh legs, what do you do? His advice to me was to keep running.
That’s true not only with running, but with life.
Miles Layton can be reached at jmlayton@heraldstandard.com.