Bring It On (Jason Hunt Style)
CD: Panic! at the Disco - A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
Weather: Perfect. And even if it wasn’t perfect, it would still be perfect. That was one of the rules running under Coach Simpson. No negative thoughts. Every weather was our weather.
I’ve got my vaseline (to rub under my armpits and in between my legs). I’ve got my band-aids (to tape up my nipples). I’ve got my pound of bananas (the miracle food). I’ve got my liquified carbohydrates (they are supposed to taste like “tropical fruit”. They taste more like liquid carbohydrates). The Berlin Marathon is upon us boys and girls… I can smell its mustiness from here. 9 AM start, Sunday morning, and I’ll be in line to hear the gun go off.
A weekend festival has brought running dorks like myself (c’mon, only a dork would tape up his nipples or rub vaseline all over his body) to the Hauptstadt, creating a fantastic buzz around the city. Cheerleaders will be bouncing to the rhythyms of over 42 bands scattered throughout the city, carrying us down the Ku’damm, around the Fernsehturm and through the Brandenburg Gate as we dash our way through the finish line (after 26.1 miles, the term “dash” should be regarded in a relative sense).
Thursday I was out in deep West Berlin soaking up the pre-game excitement. Upon leaving the Exhibition Hall, a giant wall confronted the participants asking them “Why Do I Run?”. Markers were left dangling next to filled in slots featuring every reason under the sun written in all the languages of Babylon. My first response to the question was: “Because it’s there”. Simple in its effectiveness, but certainly true.
Then I thought about my old High School coach, Coach Zoe Simpson. He spoke of his brother, a recovering alcoholic, who decided he was going to run his first marathon as his age reached into the upper fourties. Coach was rather surprised at such an aspiration and asked him why he decided on setting after such a feat. “A man’s gotta have some goals” was the answer.
Coach Simpson always made us list out our goals. I’m sure I still have mine tucked away somewhere in my closet from my Sneior year. They used to hang in my locker, right there next to the “Why Do I Run” ads I’d taped up (“Because if I can run a 4:01 mile, I can damn well run a 3:59”). My goals for this, my first marathon, are fairly basic.
1 ) Finish strong
2) Finish under 3 hours
3) Beat Jason Panek’s time, who will be racing a marathon in October. We have a bet in the net worth of a beer purchase at a bar in Texas when we see each other again during the Winter Holidays for the winner. I don’t like to lose. I do like to drink free beer.
4) Enjoy the journey
That’s what Coach Simpson was always telling us, especially as seniors. “Men”, he’d say, “enjoy the journey”. I’d heard it a million times but I never really grasped it. I mean, how was I supposed to enjoy anything if I wasn’t winning. It wasn’t until I was about 21 that I ever even began to understand what he was talking about. I look back though, and I gotta say, I certainly did enjoy the journey. The levels of jackassery were ridiculous. An entirely different form of english was developed in that Kingwood High School locker room. B.A.S., NRs, PC 99, Double-O C, Alpha Alpha Alpha! Aye mi Cabeza was it good…
It’s time to enjoy this journey. “No highs, no lows” — “It’s just a run through the woods (/city) in your underwear” is what Coach Simpson would tell us. I wanna have a good time Coach - “Well then, you better have a good watch”. I can already hear him at the starting line as we got ready for our race: “I want you to go out under control, then build into things as the race goes on…”
So why do I run?:
Coach, if you’re out there, consider yourself a memeber of the group above (whether you want to be associated with that group or not). I haven’t had a haircut in a while, but I’m still able to see the course. Next time I’m back in Kingwood, I’ll be sure to pay a visit to Larry down at the Barber Shop. Plus, I know that deep in your heart you were just jealous of that massive heap that once sat on my head.
PS — Can anybody tell me what integrity is?