Friday, December 03, 2010

Finishing Hard--Cross Country Style

My cross country coach used to tell us a key to doing well in races was "finishing hard."  I remind my students of that in the closing weeks of each semester, encouraging them to do their best work, to put the polish on assignments and keep steady pressure on to shine.  It makes a difference.
I was reminded of that by a story this morning in The New York Times, heralding a young woman, Holland Reynolds, who crawled across the finish line after collapsing five yards from the tape.  She wasn't in first, but her team needed her to finish in order to win the championship.  She did.  See the race and the finish here.

2 comments:

James Ouyang said...

Well, the bigger story here is that this is the eighth and possibly last state title for coach Jim Tracy, given his diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) this past June. He is now the most successful cross country high school coach in the state of California.

Holland Reynold's courage and determination to finish the race not just for herself, but for her team and her ailing long-time coach speak volumes and is an epitome of the type of young men and women that have run over the decades under Jim Tracy's instruction.

Hopefully, we can be just as supportive of Jim off the course in his battle against ALS. He will need significant financial support in the coming days. If you want to contribute or just learn more, please visit http://coachjimtracy.com/

John Nelson said...

Good luck to Jim Tracy as he faces his battle with ALS.