Let’s see if I can get this right. With thanks to my artery laden monikered friend, plaqueman. Excellence for yourself is far different than excellence for others. I’ve taken poetic license and boiled it down to simply this, what I think he means: If you are racing for others’ approval, collegial, social, societal, then you are in the sport for the wrong reason. Key word: racing
Plaqueman, aka Tim Dooling. One of, if not the most talented, true distance runners- 5 Miles to the Marathon- in Nebraska history. We correspond occasionally. He usually railing on something I’ve written, and the rare agreement.
This sport of ours. Open and available to all. Toe the line. And you are a runner. If you’ve done good, sound training, that makes you more of a runner. If you have defined your Exquisite Threshold and dance along that wire when you race, you are a Real Runner.
There is only one winner though. Only one person per generation that defines Excellence to its Highest Degree.
Is one runner’s personal excellence any less than another’s?
That is the philosophical question of our time.
Think about this. Only one can be the Best. And a lonely best at that. The solo training, fierce, primal, ancient. Running turning into Racing. For meat. For survival. Only one may eat, perhaps with a well chosen few, eh Tim?
Think about this too. All the Rest. Including your scribe. Voices legion, louder every day. Add the din of the hobbyist, lobbyist, fundraising, charity driven, selfie taking posing, watered down hosing, kumbaya making, sidewalk taking, novelty daring, costume wearing, horn blowing, mediocrity sewing, no elite supporting, penguin cavorting. That’s a lot of ruckus being focused on sides of our sport it is hard for some of us to recognize. Tim for sure, me too, and how about you? What are your thoughts?
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