As I watch the Olympic track stars, I recall my brief brush with victory in an elementary school field day foot race. We gathered at the start of the cross country course at Shaw Park while the gym teacher pointed to the various trees we were to pass. As an active listener, I took careful note of the course then quickly fell into my usual spot of DFL. (For those who are not runners, DFL stands for D%mn F*cking Last).
As the race progressed, I didn't understand why all the other kids were sprinting to the wrong tree. The PE teacher clearly showed us the course, but the girls weren't running it, so I hot footed it to the tree as instructed earlier.
Apparently, the adult at one tree didn't listen as well as I had. He told the lead runner to head to the wrong tree and all the athletes followed her... except for me. I found myself in the lead when the others had to backtrack to the tree they'd skipped. Unfortunately my lack of running skill didn't hold up on a steep hill right before the finish line. The former lead runner, a true athlete, passed me and took first. But hey, I received a second place red ribbon which is more than I'd ever gotten in my turtle-like existence.
In 1972, Dave Wottle was not the only runner to win after starting out in last place!
7 comments:
Sometimes blazing your own trail pays off.
A tribute to the power of listening! Glad you were able to pick up an unexpected prize. This brought back memories as I was particularly bad at running at school!
I remember watching that race and we were jumping up and down when it got to the last few seconds. Someone would have thought that we helped him get across that finish line. That was a fun Olympics to watch.
I was a tomboy and so was always pretty competitive and good at most sports. I think it had to do with our mom letting us stay out for hours to play. And since my sisters did not really like sports, I always had to play with the boys, so I think I learned it from them. But my real joy in life was to be alone to read books. With seven kids in the family, being alone was a rare thing. This is where being an insomniac was a blessing, in that my mom would catch me up at 2 a.m. sitting alone in the hallway reading my books. They always left the hallway light on at night and if my mom did not get up, I did not get in trouble. When she would catch me I would just tell her I was sick and could not sleep. And I guess I was truly sick, but just did not know it, insomnia sucks.
I like your story about the race you ran, it was as if I was there with you, cheering you on and also wondering if the other kids ever figured out they went to the wrong tree. And I think you should have won first place.
Thanks so much for sharing such a great story and a memorable video with us for this weeks Theme Thursday. I had a lot of fun racing with you.
God bless.
What an insightful comment.
Hugs,
Shelly
http://secondhandshoesnovel.blogspot.com/
I would have been doubley screwed. I was a sucky athlete and a sucky listener. Glad you were able to place second!
Nice of you to share that moment;)
You get the medal for intelligence! Thanks for linking up for Flash Blog Friday :-)
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