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October 6, 2006
The Complications of Inspiration
Often times in life, inspiration arrives to us quite simply. One particular thing, like an orange sunrise glowing on a loved one's face, a young puppy licking your hand with its rough tongue, or a little kid giggling uncontrolably, will incite moments of inspiration without any effort on our part. Occasionally, inspiration arrives to us amid a complex and developing network of details that is long-awaited and long-planned.
Throughout the summer and fall, my cross country team has been training hard, learning how to race, and developing confidence in their physical abilities. Here and there, I have seen glimmers of advancement among my team members: a 4 second PR, nailing a hill workout, or beating a team that we had previously lost to. All of these glimmers are simple inspirations for both my team and I.
However, today I was inspired on another, much more complex level. I witnessed everything come together for most of my runners in ways that they as individuals and we as a team have not yet experienced. I saw PRs ranging from 17 to 64 seconds; I saw fire lighting up my runners' eyes; I saw the relaxed, fluid gaits of my fit athletes; I saw my runners launching into new gears that they didn't yet have just last week. My small school performed strongly amid Montana's toughest high school-level competition.
I believe that it takes hard, dedicated training and careful, planned coaching for my team to reach the level that they rose to today. Our team is successfully negotiating the complex and developing network of details will hopefully allow us to succeed on both individual and team levels at state in a few weeks. As such, today has delivered our team a complicated form of inspiration.
Enough with that cheesy crap; let me make myself perfectly clear in high school speak. My cross country team killed it today. Their fitness is raging. They are becoming rockin' determined racers. They were lit up, on fire.
Posted by Meghan at October 6, 2006 4:01 AM
Comments
Your writing is so effective, it is quite hard to decide which description style fits better with the cheesy crap definition... maybe neither... as well as for becoming great runners, they may have to thank you for enriching their language skills...
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at October 6, 2006 5:55 AM
SWEET! YEAH! Your post just made me want to cheer out loud for your team!
Beautifully written, once again. You are a gifted writer, and must be a great coach from the sound of things!
Once again, I'm inspired!
Posted by: anne at October 10, 2006 8:51 AM