#fittish

It's back-to-school time and junior high players everywhere are contemplating how best to make their mark on the athletic world. Here's the thing—running until your sternum glows and your legs bend in unusual places lacks appeal to the youngster. Football has cheerleaders. Basketball has a crowd. Gymnastics has awesome equipment and dance has sparkles. Soccer has the opportunity for drama and expressive hair, and hockey always gets the big lockers. And cross country? They get loneliness.

Good read on why some top runners started running in the first place. For me, I remember two distinct things that pushed me towards running.

When I was playing soccer for Northeast, a club team in Massachusetts, in junior high our coach had us run a mile (four laps around the field, so not really a mile) and despite starting out at a conversational pace I finished by lapping everyone on the team except for one guy. That gave me the idea that I might actually be able to run a little.