How It All Started: Lessons From the Sixth Grade

“When you cross the finish line, no matter how slow or fast, it will change your life forever.” – Dick Beardsley  

Since the age of 13, running has been a part of my life.  Actually, it’s been much more than that.  It’s been a major part of my identity.  Of all the things I’ve started and never finished in life, the one thing that has remained a constant is my love of and commitment to running.  It’s something of which I’m intensely proud and emotional.  Ask me about my life achievements thus far, and it’s guaranteed that I’ll mention a running related accomplishment and it’s doubtful I can speak of it without tearing up.  I think often of the decisions I made and those individuals who played an influential role in my life at an early age that led me to where I am today.  I am so thankful that I learned at age 13 what a gift this sport could be.

I went to a small school in southeastern Minnesota that, at the time, was called Elgin-Millville and my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Oven, was the head track and field coach.  A sports and running enthusiast, he spent a fair amount of time instructing his young pupils on the virtues of sports- the life lessons it could teach you and the discipline it could instill in you.  I can still picture the Carl Lewis poster that was draped across his desk at the front of the classroom.  It was a constant reminder of what we could work towards, aspire to be, and what we could achieve.  What would I pursue?  What would I be good at?  Mr. Oven reminded us on a regular basis that only a certain number of kids would get off the bench and get playing time on the basketball court or football field.  There were limited sports to select from at our school, due to the size, thereby further narrowing our choices.  However, Mr. Oven said if we pursued running, everyone would get to participate.  No one would be turned down or cut from the team.  An all inclusive sport?!  Sounds fantastic, but I was in the sixth grade.  I didn’t spend too much time pondering this decision.  There were way too many other important things for a teenage girl to consider, and the seventh grade seemed far off.  I figured I had plenty of time to determine what sports I wanted to pursue.

But then, sprinkled throughout the sixth grade year were various running activities with required participation.  We had cross country day in the fall and track and field day in the spring, not to mention other running related gym events.  I began to notice that I not only enjoyed these events, I was moderately successful at them.  While some of my classmates reacted with repulsiveness, I wanted to know when we could do them again.  Lacking natural speed, I embraced the distance events.  Yes, to a sixth grader, the 600 and 1600 were distance events!  I had struggled enough in gym class with soccer and football and even dodgeball to know that I liked running! Just running!  The seed had been planted…