Something A Coach Never Has to Say

 I like to recall that I am of the first generation of secondary school girls who were encouraged to play sports, thanks to TitleIX which passed in 1972.   I remember noticing there were no girls sports in school to all the sudden having the opportunity to try out for volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, and track.  I did three of the four.  Oddly, despite of my relative height, I never learned to play basketball but that is a different story.  I was proficient at volleyball and track.  With track, I learned the life lesson that I didn't particularly like to run but having some amount of speed, I was often used as part of a relay team.  I was most enthused about hurdles because it reminded me of the childhood pastime of  jumping across the nearby creek where we would challenge each other to leap between successively wider banks. If I recall correctly, I placed in one of the rounds of city finals.   

If you watch races, you will seldom, if ever, see an athlete slow down when it is obvious that they will not win. Their arms still pump, their feet continue to exert pressure against gravity.  I have no doubt there are downward shifts in their internal view of their race but it isn't expressed so much in their movement.  Given that we were not a particularly strong girls track team, I experienced this situation many more times than the thrill of winning.  But this is something the coach never had to say (don't slow down!  keep running!).  Athletes just know that the race has now shifted from winning to finishing in good form.  To stop trying is synonymous with not finishing.      

This story simplifies where I am right now in my life.  It is clear I will not be the winner in this race against cancer.  But I am still running and am focused on my personal best...because that is what finishing is all about.