I woke up early this morning. It is 3 am in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and it it about five degrees. My old farmhouse, built in 1905, makes little sounds as the furnace pops back on, and the creatures begin to move in my backyard. I sip the first cup of coffee for the day. A long day of writing today.
I was having a winter allergy issue, which I normally do not do. I need a nice, long walk in freezing air tomorrow. But, I have digressed. I was looking back at our first season of RunBlogRun, some fifteen years ago.
I found this piece from June 27, 2007, and It reminded me of the amazing emotions that come to play competing in a U.S. Championships.
Christian Cantwell and Joe Kovacs, shot putters just want to have fun, photo courtesy of Sport.cz.
I found this little piece, on the Cruelty and Honesty of the U.S. Trials, from June 27, 2007). I thought I would post it for those new to the sport, and those with short memories, to see before the U.S. Indoor Championships, U.S. Outdoor Championships and 2022 season. There will be both high notes and low notes in Spokane and Eugene. This is our sport. We are not Roller Derby. We are not professional wrestling. We are global athletics.
While, there are many times that we step on our own feet, eat our young, and complain about absolutely everything, we are the most popular sport in the Olympics, and the emotion, the pure guts, the all out efforts of our athletes capture us. We, as track fans, celebrate people who run, jump and throw for no other reason than they are drawn to those events.
Global athletics celebrates life. So, live! Run, Jump and throw!
Please read: https://www.runblogrun.com/2007/06/the-cruelty-and-honesty-of-the-us-trials.html
P.S. In 2007, Christian Cantwell did not make the U.S. team. In 2008, he took silver in Beijing and in 2009, I was able to watch him, in Berlin take gold. Here’s my column on that amazing day! I miss Christian. He was a true character, but always patient with my questions. And I loved to watch that guy compete! Check out: https://www.runblogrun.com/2009/08/berlin-diary-09-day-1-mens-shot-put-final-christian-cantwell-wins-gold-2203m-by-larry-eder.html
