A Long Two Weeks

Since my attempt at starting this blog, I've hit a couple of bumps in the road. In addition to the usual chaos that accompanies the end of a school year, I've been dealing with some things that have diverted me from my intended path.

First, last Sunday I lost a very good friend of mine, Stuart Tolle. Stu and I taught at Copley together for the past 9 years. He was an excellent educator, especially at teaching the unwritten curriculum that deals with life lessons. He was also my assistant track coach for 5 years. We won five straight league titles and 3 district titles with the boys. While his track knowledge was minimal, his passion for winning, motivating and getting the most of the the athletes was undeniable. He believed that through athletics, the person learned how to deal with adversity, how to coexist with others in a unified way, and what he/she was made of inside. He loved to compete. Stu was only 47, but he had a tremendous influence on so many people. His was a life well lived.

Second, I got hit Monday with strep, although I didn't find out until Wednesday. Needless to say, I've been wiped out and left with little in the tank to give to training. I missed two days completely (can't remember the last time I took 2 straight days off) and have survived my workouts up to this point. In addition, the medication has some undesirable side-effects that have left me dehydrated. I'm trying hard to get refocused, but I'm struggling to gain confidence and motivation. I now this will pass, but I hate losing momentum.

Next, I recently found out that I'll be teaching an AP Physics course next year in addition to the AP Chemistry course I have been teaching for 13 years. AP Physics has calculus, and I haven't done calculus in 15 years. I compare it to not riding a bicycle for 15 years, and then trying to ride a unicycle. It's a use it or lose it thing. I've spent the last two weeks trying to cram in as much calc as I could with the help of our calc teacher. My brain hurts. I also get to travel to Arkansas in late July to be trained to teach the class. Yee Haw!

Finally, this weekend completed my first full year away from coaching. This was the hardest weekend for me. I have been to every state track meet since 1987...until this year. Having started my high school track team with a hs friend, track has always been special to me. I ran 4 years in hs, 4 more in college, and coached for 14 years after that. I followed results all weekend on my i-phone, hitting refresh every 5 minutes or so. I don't regret giving up the coaching - I've cherished the valuable with family. The state meet was a hard habit to break.

Over the next few days, I hope to get my Cleveland race experience/report up and start detailing my summer running. Until then, run young!