Take a minute here, a minute there, wait one here, put another there. Matt Pohren and I just spent 90 minutes on a conference call with Bill Roe, Andy Martin, and Devon Martin finalizing the 2012 USATF Club National Championships schedule for July 6-7. Whew!
This has been an amazing, if agonizing, experience for me. I’ve never put on a track meet before but am serving as the director for the biggest event of the year for our USATF Elite Development Clubs. If I had any hair I’d be losing it. I’ve learned a heck of a lot on the fly, counted on a handful of good and knowledgeable people, said a few prayers, and will howl at the moon when this thing is finally completed.
It has been a dream of mine for the last 10 years to bring the attention of the United States to Nebraska by hosting a National Championships. I thought it would be a LDR Road Championships first, then hoped to resurrect the Marathon Road Relay, but finally found the right event and then venue. I tried to land Club Nats in Lincoln originally, but found the gem of Burke Stadium right in my own backyard. Since submitting the successful bid at the Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach in December of 2010 I’ve lost hundreds of hours of sleep worrying over details known and unknown. It is odd that with the event now just weeks away I’m beginning to sleep like a baby.
Another phone call with the national office tomorrow and I’ll be ready to head out of town for my Adventure in Duluth. The marathon training I’ve done has been the anchor in an otherwise stormy sea of anticipation and worry about the upcoming Big Show. Hope you are all planning on coming out one or both days to enjoy!
I walked into Radio Shack yesterday and some cat was still wearing his Warrior Dash helmet. I asked him how it went and he said he was a “Real Warrior” now. When asked his time he replied he averaged just over 23:00/mile. Further queries revealed it was his first race ever and that he didn’t plan on doing another, he’d accomplished a bucket list item and was now proud to be considered, again, a “Real Warrior”. He asked me if I ran it and I told him no then excitedly told him I’ve trained up over 1600 miles for this coming weekend’s Grandma’s Marathon. His reply, an echo of the last several months, “Dude, I haven’t driven that far this year!” I wanted to congratulate him but rather sighed and walked away, lamenting today’s “we’re all winners culture”, more resolute than ever to accomplish something far more difficult and grand and beyond the scope of imagination of this newly crowned Warrior.
I drove away dreaming Big Dreams, bigger than National Championships, bigger than marathons, dreaming my life on the hot edge of singular pursuits and remarkable achievements, fearing neither success nor failure, eagerly anticipating the challenges of Real Living, wherever they may lay, knowing only then can I consider my life truly and well lived. I’m driving that far.
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