800m Indoor Race

I surprised myself by earning a varsity letter my first year of running track. On a whim, I had decided to go out for the sport and, without much effort, demonstrated some ability. This came as a surprise because my previous sport had been going home and spending the afternoon on the couch, watching television. I think my parents were surprised as well to see me go out for a sport instead of my usual after school routine. We were all surprised at the end of the year banquet when my name was called to receive a varsity letter. Somehow I had impressed the coaches enough to earn such an award.

Then the next season came. The first meet was indoors at a local college. I warmed up for my race and did my stretches. It was a new season and I couldn’t wait to show the other athletes in the race what my varsity letter-running legs could do. The gun went off and I ran one of the slowest times of my running career.

I couldn’t believe it. At first, I was in disbelief and found myself wandering aimlessly in the running facility. Then, I was angry and blamed the officials, the other runners and the condition of the track. There had to be a reason why my performance wasn’t what I expected. I had done so well the year before. I had done everything the same and I had been successful before, but my time was no where near where it had been previously.

My coach helped me see more clearly why my performance wasn’t up to the standard it had been.

“How much training did you do during the winter?”

I felt of twinge of guilt spread throughout my body and mind. My winter sport had been my other favorite one – laying on the couch watching television after school. It had worked for me before and I thought it would again. I told my coach as much.

“You lost the training you had at the end of the last track season. If you expect to perform like you did before it won’t happen until you get in better shape,” he said.

At first, I thought the running gods had created an unfair paradigm which created a scenario where I actually had to work hard to have the outcome I wanted. I also had no one to blame but myself. My bravado or the varsity letter on my jacket weren’t going to bring me the results I wished. It was going to be up to me to make the difference through old-fashioned hard work.

It’s hard when we don’t achieve or accomplish at the level we hoped or expected. Sometimes the circumstances are out of our control. Yet, many times when we reflect on what led up to a poor performance or results, we could have done something better.

I think this is why the Apostle Paul could write in the Book of Romans, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” As much as my race time had upset me, the lesson which resulted caused me to value a dedicated and disciplined approach to running and it paid off in the final results.

Our grades for the first semester have been posted on our school portal. Though they reflected the learning which occurred for the first half of the year, they may be valuable in additional learning as we move forward. I have had a number of conversations with parents and students concerned about grades. A grade is a letter which represented our assessment of each student’s performance in a subject area.

I encouraged parents to review their child’s semester grades and have a conversation about them. No matter the achievement level, as we reflected on last semester’s performance, there are always areas that can be improved. Also, if these conversations have led to new insights or ways to support our students, do not hesitate to let us know. We want the second semester to be just as or more successful than the last.