Ah, the high school years. A time when we learn a lot about ourselves, make friends, lose friends and make memories that last the rest of our lives — in other words for many of us – taking a line from Bruce, “The Glory Days”.

Before a 1974 Cross-Country meet against Greenville at Nokomis High School

For me, high school was not the “Glory Days” that others had. It was a time that I do not have very many fond memories of, didn’t make any lasting friendships, and pretty much the entire time that I was there due to home life and school life…

• It was a part of my life that I just wanted to be over.

The best memories that I have now of this period are sports-related, not academic or social.

To be honest, I was a geeky, immature kid, who never really fit in any of the social groups of the time. It seemed that I was always on the outside looking in and didn’t dare to let anyone get too close to me for many reasons.

Some things haven’t changed.

Cross Country

To put it bluntly, I was your classic underachiever as a high school Cross Country runner.

Even though I ran Cross Country for 4 years, I never placed once in a varsity meet, nope never. Looking back, I can honestly say that I wasn’t the most motivated long-distance runner.

I didn’t like running long distances or the idea I needed to “embrace” the discomfort or pain, especially during a race that didn’t appeal at all to me back then.

However, we learned that I was one hell of a rabbit. 

After Coach Smith figured that out, he told me to go out as fast as I could for as long as I could (something I still do – old habits die hard). To attempt to draw the other team’s best runners out sooner than they wanted to go – after all, they didn’t know if I was any good or not. It even worked a few times and our faster runners were able to pass runners who had gone out too fast with me, in the latter stages of the race because I had messed up their pacing.

I got my Varsity Letter my Junior year for “contributions” to the team.

The Outsiders

I am the last runner on the right – beside the team manager. No geekiness in that photo on my part ;-). Looking closely, my feet were splayed even back then.

However, I did enjoy the social side of the cross-country.

Cross-country gave me a sport where I found there were others like me, some of us were a little different and more than a little socially awkward. Not all the other runners were like that or like me. However, there were enough of us on the Cross Country team who didn’t fit the popular student mold during my 4 years of running, that I actually fit in someplace – well most of the time.

Just Endured it

Cross Country was not a sport I enjoyed, it was a sport that I endured. Truthfully, I couldn’t wait for the season to get over and for basketball or the spring for the track season to start. After all, in my dreams, I was going to be a professional basketball player and be drafted by the Celtics. Or even win a gold medal in the 100 and 220-yard dashes at the Olympics – I guess that is why they call them dreams.

First Running Injury

I stepped in a chuckhole during practice my senior year about a 1/4 way through my last Cross Country season and hurt my left Achilles tendon (for the first time).

Enough so that after a week of limping around, we didn’t go to the doctor unless it was absolutely necessary. After me whining enough, my mom took me to see Dr. Burke (who hated runners and running), who told me I was done for the season.

In many ways, I was relieved when Dr. Burke told me that.

It meant that I had the perfect excuse and didn’t have to endure running those damned long distances anymore. I had already decided that I wasn’t going to be the 13th man on a 12-man basketball team again that year or even run track in the spring. I was done with high school jocks and their superior attitudes and my “failures” to be as good as they were.

Furthermore, I “knew” then it was more important to me to find a job after school, instead of always having a sports practice that I had to go to (stupid me). I quit all my college prep classes, entered the co-operative learning program, went to work part-time during school hours as part of my on-the-job training, and found my first real girlfriend.

Actually, the girlfriend (it didn’t last long) and a car my senior year meant I needed money more than sports. After all, I had decided that I was going into the Coast Guard as soon as they would let me the next summer, so I was ready and already out the door in my mind.

Track

I have to write a bit about Spring Track, it was where I did pretty well and why I think Mr. Smith put up with me on the Cross Country team.

In the 100 and 220 yard dashes as they were called back then, let’s just say what I lacked in distance running, I made up for as a sprinter in the spring.

Looking back with what I know now, I think I was a natural fit at the 440 or 880. However, we had an excellent runner at those distances (I held my own against other runners in practice and if I was within 10 yards on that last corner, they were mine). We were weaker in the dashes, and Mr. Smith told me I was going to do the 100 and 220 – I had learned not to argue with him.

I placed in numerous meets in those two events and the relays, but I had a big problem with getting disqualified for lane violations. If I didn’t focus on staying in my lane, I would drift over the line and end up in the lane next to me on my right (leg length issue). It got so bad that Mr. Smith worked with me by putting up lane ribbons in practice, but we both would get frustrated by the number of DQ’s I would get during a track season.

In my junior year, I finished 3rd in the 100 and 4th in the 220-yard dashes at the League meet and was expected to run in the Regionals a week later – I never did. I played sick that day.

Why?

Due to the expectations that I placed on myself and that others had. I would get too worked up over a stupid race, get sick, feel like shit, not want to be there, etc., and missed meets that year because of it. This race anxiety issue would come back to haunt me badly 10 years later, but it actually started my Junior year in high school.

Glory and Disappointment

My senior year, I didn’t run track and was working at a part-time job in the school’s work-study program. Money for gas and trying to impress girls (not that I was ever very successful) was a lot more important than running. Plus, I had committed to going in the Coast Guard midway through the year and had an enlistment date of June 23rd.

So, I wasn’t worried too much about school or sports and was more concerned about how soon I could get to hell out of there.

Mr. Smith stopped me one day in the school hallway and asked if I would run in the Penquis League track meet.

I had been avoiding him because I had gotten word through the grapevine that he was looking for me, to ask that question. I tried to put him off with the “I have to work routine.” In the end, and only because it was him, I said okay. I told him not to expect too much from me since I hadn’t done any running since I hurt my Achilles back in the fall.

I went to enough practices to be eligible and got my boss to give me time off from work on a Saturday (our busiest day) to run in the league meet.

A big part of my job at the Agway Feed Store was unloading 100-pound grain bags from train cars, even though I only weighed 125 pounds (ca. 57 kg). Needless to say, I didn’t have a lot of body fat and could put a grain bag on my shoulder. Then carry it out to a customer’s vehicle without too much trouble (now, doing that stuff would just about kill me).

So, I was in pretty damn good shape.

Penquis League Meet

Somehow, with minimal training, I brought home blue ribbons in the 100 and 220-yard dashes and almost a third blue ribbon in the 4×220 relay. The runner had a 20 yard lead on the anchor leg (I dropped the baton on the pass) and just nipped me at the end. I surprised myself and numerous other people that day and is one of the few real “Glory Days” that I had in high school.

Coach Smith was accused of bringing in a “ringer” just for the league championship meet by the Dexter coach, but when they checked it out, I was legal, I had signed up and gone to enough practices to qualify.

Not What I Wanted

Based on my performance and times at the league meet, Coach Smith told me that I was going to run in the Regional Track at Orono, the next Saturday and that saying no was not an option. I begged off, saying I couldn’t get two Saturdays in a row off from work. Mr. Smith called my boss, Monday morning, who gave me hell that afternoon, telling me he had spoken with Mr. Smith and that this was the chance of a lifetime.

Evidently, Mr. Smith had told him that I actually had a chance to win in both events. I have no idea if it was true or not, (later when I checked the results of the Regionals, my league meet times were very, very competitive with the winning times at the Regional meet). 

My boss told me to go run in the race and even talked to my Father, who worked at the Plant adjoining the store.

Unfortunately, that was the one thing I really didn’t want to do, especially, getting my Dad involved. The closer to that Saturday got, the worse I got. I got a terrible attitude around the house, school, and work. I was just miserable to be around, and I skipped school that Friday, something that I rarely did, even though my parents really didn’t care if I did or not.

I ended up not going to the Regional meet and Coach Smith was so pissed at me, he didn’t talk to me again, until after I got back from boot camp.

I will always wonder how I would have done at that meet – a rare opportunity missed.

The reality is that

High school was not my “glory days”.

In case you can’t tell, even after all these years, I still have not forgotten how much I disliked my high school years.

Running was an important part of my life in high school, and it helped me to fit in when I didn’t really fit anywhere else. Often I think that it still does. I am not great at the social side of things, although I can get by enough to survive, I just am not as adept in social situations as a lot of people are.

While I started my running way back then, it is strange now that I look back on it:

• thinking about what could have been, if I had had more self-confidence.

• that as much as I hated, yes hated running longer distances in high school – it is the one sport from high school that I still do and have grown to love.

• how much something that starts in high school can continue to affect us for a long time after we leave that period in our lives behind.

Was high school your “glory days” or was it something you endured and couldn’t wait for school to end to?