Reason I Coach #2839: This morning was my first practice of the season with Rice Crew. They have been out doing work every morning week, but unfortunately my job took me to West TX over the first few practices. In my absence, David planned a great welcome-back week with lots of erging (and apparently cupcakes?!) to get the team back into the swing of things. To break-up the monotony a bit, he scheduled a fun cross-training run this morning which I was able to drop-in on: It was a 3-mile, team jog. David, being the dolphin that he is, herded from the front of the pod; yours truly, the orca, motivated from the back. One of the team members had let her cardio slip away on summer break and was struggling on the run. Her frequent apologies, constantly being interrupted with my no, no, youre doing fine - just keep movings, were surely a sign that she was aware of the work to be done in the coming months. Nevertheless, the game of run-walk-apologize-motivate-run continued throughout the last mile. We are about 500 meters from the finish when she starts to walk again; this time, instead of encouraging her to get back at it like before, I tell her to enjoy the next 100m and catch her breath, because we are going to finish it in without breaking. We pass the tree to signal that it is time to run it in, and the pace picks up. We can see the next rower about 30-40 meters ahead, and I whisper catch him. The pace picks up; the distance between us narrows. By this point, most of the team has finished, and David is circling back to run in with the team member we are currently chasing. The two of them pick up the pace, and the runner by my side fights to keep the distance from growing. The two ahead of us finish, and almost instantly I look over to see my rower bent over puking. Now anyone who has ever done anything athletic has puked before; weve all hit that point of exhaustion where our stomach finally caves. How we respond may vary: Come on, I dont care if you puke - hell, I dont care if you puke on me - but you are finishing this run, lets go! Without missing a beat, she wipes the vomit from her chin, stands up, and sprinted the last 50 meters in. You dont learn that in a textbook; you cant teach that in a lecture hall. Few in the population will push themselves to that point of exhaustion - even fewer push past it. Thats a lesson, whether consciously or unconsciously, that will help that young woman be a stronger person for the rest of her life. Couldnt be more proud of her or Rice Crew this morning.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 15:13:36 +0000