TITLE: Just Get By By Chuck Myers 07/05/06 |
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My senior year of track is over. I will never run competitively again, we just missed our only chance to go to State...and it’s all my fault.
Those words kept exploding in my head as I ran for home, head down, tears in my eyes, hoping no one saw me.
The problem wasn’t that I loved track so much. I had always said, “If you’re not chasing a ball, what’s the use in running?” I loved football and basketball; I just hadn’t been good enough to letter in those.
So my senior year came and I decided to ‘run in circles’ to get my letter. I knew I could run - I just always liked to decide when and why. Triple jump, pole vault, discus, and long jump were all ruled out (each one took specialized information). You had to be fast to run the 100’, 200’, or 400’ - but there was room on the 4 x 800’.
Throughout the season we continued to improve. We weren’t great, but we were getting better. With two freshmen, a junior that had not run the 800’ very much, and a senior that had not run track in high school - there was lots of opportunity to drop seconds. We began winning some medals, and by conference time were in a position to compete for State - if everyone ran well.
Our junior was first, and he had a lot of adrenalin flowing as he started the race - and after one lap was twenty yards ahead of EVERYONE. Unfortunately, after two laps he was dead last and twenty yards BEHIND everyone.
When I got the baton I had already made up my mind.
That’s it for this race. My track days are over. Why should I run hard when there’s no chance of competing.
My time was not terrible, it was just bad. I knew I hadn’t run my hardest when I handed the baton to the freshmen. We were still last, and we were in a very difficult position.
What happened over the next four minutes is something I will never forget. The first freshmen ran his fastest time of the year and handed off with our team in the middle of the pack.
O. K. so we don’t look so bad anymore. That doesn’t mean anything...does it?
When the final man on our team got the baton, he evidently didn’t know anything about racing at districts because he was convinced that we were still in the race. He went out and ran his best time of the year as well.
Our final position? We missed going to state by one position.
As I left the track that day I could think of only one thing. Everyone on the team had run their best --- except for me. I had already decided that the race was over. If I had done my best I know that I could have caught one person!
Would we have won? Probably not, but we probably would have gone to State.
Since that day I have had many opportunities of telling that story. I have told my story to junior and senior high age track athletes, as an assistant track coach. I have told that story to youth groups, referring to the race believers are called to run in the Christian life. I have told my story to congregations in the churches I have pastored.
My message is always the same: You never know what kind of race a fellow competitor is going to run, but you will live the rest of your life with the race YOU have run!
If there was one thing in my life that I would do over again, it would be this: I would go back and run that race as hard as I could run! Would we win State? I doubt it. Would we be competitive at State? I really don’t know. Would we make it to State? I think so.
But that’s not really the point! I would know that I had run the best race I could run - and that would be all right. We’re not called to be the best. We’re not required to win every race. We’re not supposed to beat everyone we compete against. But we are supposed to go out and do the best we can do! Then we can sleep at night, then we can live with ourselves - knowing we have done the best we can do!
It may not be the easiest lesson to have learned, but it is definitely one that has been used over and over again in my life - and hopefully the lives of others - since the day I made the mistake of only doing what needed to be done to get by.
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