Q: What's worse than finishing one place (4 points) shy of advancing to state in a Cross Country team race?
A: Finishing one place (2 points) shy of advancing to state.
1. Rampart 33
2. Coronado 80
3. Palmer 117
4. Douglas County 158
5. Durango 159
6. Pine Creek 161
The worst part about this kind of defeat is that every member of the team feels responsible because, in theory, each one could have made the difference. If two guys just pass one runner, it's a tie, and we win the tie-break with a better sixth-runner finish. If one guy passes two guys, etc. Each guy is thinking, "if only I had/hadn't _____________" (eaten a burrito, tied my laces tighter, slept in, taken July 4th off, dumped my girlfriend...you get the picture).
I think here's my real problem: instead of being able to celebrate that each of my 7 varsity runners ran their personal bests for the course, that this is the best regional finish in the team's history, or that one individual runner qualified for state (that makes 3 years in a row, and 5 out of 8 years of my career), I'm frustrated with the narrowness of the defeat.
With apologies to Wendell Berry: State qualifying is the stick I'm using to measure my season, and to beat it with.
Of course I'm disappointed for my seniors (and the other guys), but maybe I'm really more disappointed for myself. Sometimes, you do everything right and you still don't win. Or at least you do a lot of things right, and you still don't win. Well maybe, you do some things right and you get lucky enough to almost place 5th. But at least it's a moral victory. What I really want is a morale victory.
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3 comments:
I'm sorry brother. Heartbreaking, I know but you are still in the early part of your career and the learning curve is steep. I look forward to celebrating with you when your guys bust through that 5th place threshold.
Small consolation but this is an extremely well-written piece.
By the way, it's nice to have you back! Keep posting please.
The girls are going out tonight and I have the boy. Want to hang out at my house with MadMarsh and I?
Wow...good to see that Rampart is still dominating. For that reason, I think you should fully blame Matt for this narrow miss. Somehow, he's involved...I just know it!
Seriously though, I feel for you brother. I have full confidence that you did everything right and believe you have no reason to feel disappointed in yourself. I'm sure you and your runners put all your effort into it and just came up a wee bit short.
Might I suggest...? :
http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/UltimateGrammyBox/Disk2/dontworrybehappy.wav
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