OUTSIDE IN

runguru July 9, 2013

While I’ve enjoyed my little stint of being Outside looking In I have to admit that I am getting a little restless. Things are slowly lining out here on our little slice, still a lot of work yet but most of the major stuff now behind. I’m getting a little more free time to consider, consider, and consider again.

The landscape has changed dramatically in just a few short months.

Analogies abound between the Bar None and the Nebraska running community. Both possess palettes with a potential that stimulate me.

From this months Track Coach: “Jim Crakes has mentioned that the current generation of youth have been raised as ‘praise junkies’. They are in constant need of being told they are wonderful and they did a ‘good job’ even if they only worked hard with a mediocre result. Their emotional needs seem to go beyond encouragement to emotional hand holding. This is a limiting factor in their development and their willingness to be pushed for excellence in performance.”

In my own words: Soft, pampered, disrespectful, catered to, self entitled, self serving, whiny little brats. I’ve got a short list of individuals that I’ve served that these adjectives describe to a tee. They’re the ones that will be pissed when they read this. Good. Generational? You bet.

Thanks to Craig Christians for providing a possible to yesterday’s list of Masters Road Mile record holders. He sent a link with the 2003 Lincoln Mile results, wasn’t sure if the race was USATF Certified (therefore record eligible) but thought it might have been run on the same course. At age 42 Craig finished 2nd overall (4:37) to one of the original Team Nebraska members, Jim McLaughlin (he joined in 2003 with Mike Morgan, Nick Rector and Paul Wilson). If anyone can confirm that it was certified please let us know. Craig also ran a 4:36 at the Bellevue Breeze Mile on the Bellevue track (after adding 9.344 meters to bring it up to an official Mile) the same year.

Two of the Best right here! Matt Pohren and Luka Thor both got and still get what it is I’ve tried to do, have done, and still burn with. They only want Hard Work and the best competition out of running. Both my boys made it out on Sunday, meant the world to me.

This is the backstretch of the Bar None Loop. My country neighbors had to be a little gape jawed watching Luka tear it up.

While my garden grows fine this summer, next year a much larger plot will accommodate a more lofty vision. I’ve eschewed technology and opted for Real Labour to get it going. Turning the entire thing by hand so that I may be intimate with my soil. Crazy? Maybe, but I’m the least harmless nut job you know. Six hours just for the border, I’m looking at 2-3 weeks of digging and digging, and digging the change in landscape.