After 5th grade, over the summer heading into 6th grade, my son Lucan would be attending middle school, and one of the sports offerings was Cross Country running. I told Lucan that he had to participate in this sport. He was less than enthusiastic and he let out a deep sigh, as if entering into middle school with lockers and big kids wasn’t going to be hard enough. He didn’t want his dad putting more weight on him than he was already feeling.
“You can’t make me do that!” he said.
I normally wouldn’t, but I knew that cross country kids were the best kids and he’d been burned out by travel soccer. The only prerequisite was that he could run 2 miles without stopping. It didn’t matter how slow, he just had to be able to run without stopping. We went to the track, and I instructed Lucan to run 8 laps. It was a hot day, and although Lucan ran the entire distance without stopping, it was somewhat challenging and he was unsure if he wanted to do this. Lucan’s face was beet red, and I wasn’t even sure that this authoritarian fatherly move was the right thing. I remember barking at him as he completed lap after lap, calling out things he couldn’t hear or didn’t want to, and thinking the whole time that I was taking a risk. This could go the other way. He could reject the push and rebel and I’d lose something between us that I couldn’t get back.
To Lucan’s credit, he trusted me, as he has always trusted me (and I didn’t want to lose that trust). Lucan put forth the effort.
So began Lucan’s participation with running.
Lucan’s 6th grade cross country season was so great and memorable that he decided that he loved it. The very first meet of his sixth grade season was a large invitational with over 600 middle school runners, most of them 7th and 8th graders, and as a 6th grader, Lucan finished in the top 20 and won a medal. He was hooked.
Cross country led to track and Lucan excelled in track, too. He wasn’t just good, he wanted to be good. Each “good” fueled the desire for “great.” That’s where he started, and last night he ran his last middle school running competition, and it was one of the most memorable.
At the West Michigan Track and Field Championship last night Lucan placed 1st in the two mile. Trailing the first seven laps, he made his move in the last lap to win with a personal best time of 10:25. I was there on the back straightaway calling out his 400 m split times, reminding him that he mustn’t leave anything on the track. We’ve had many discussions about winning and losing, and we’ve determined that losing is leaving the track having not given all that he was capable of giving, and what is “hard” is digging all the way to the bottom of that effort. He finished the season with times in the 800 m, 1600 m and 3200 m that were among the top 10 best times in the entire state.
It’s interesting because this all started at the track on a hot day in June three years ago. Lucan had some ability, but he worked hard, and he learned that you must practice, practice, practice because if you don’t, someone somewhere else is and when he runs against them, he will lose and that’s a terrible feeling, a terrible way to lose. I am so grateful and proud of my son for these three years he’s given to running, and for trusting me on that hot day at the track.