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Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 7Sep 15th 2016, 5:00am
Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 6Sep 8th 2016, 4:23pm
Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 5Sep 8th 2016, 4:22pm
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Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 3Sep 8th 2016, 4:20pm
Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 2Sep 8th 2016, 4:18pm
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Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 2

Published by
DyeStatIL.com   Sep 8th 2016, 4:18pm
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By Michael Newman, DyeStat Illinois Editor

 

Chapter 2: Finding Ways

The track season had ended and school was winding down. Mr. Newton called a cross country organizational meeting for those of us that were going to run over the summer. It was mostly to sort out meeting times, coordinate schedules, things like that. The year before, I came into this meeting as a sophomore with my only concern being whether I would survive the summer workout plan. This year was a little different. I had bought into running completely. It was a different attitude than I had the year before.

A meeting that was conducted by Newton is something that is hard to explain. I look back it now and can recall how special they are. Every part of the meeting was a little bit of Vince Lombardi, a little bit of Plato, and a little bit of Groucho Marx. It was a part of the growing process as a runner, and from boy into a man, in the York program. People would ask me what kind of workouts we did that made York runners special. I think it had more to do with the meetings that gave us the upper hand.

The key to the meetings back then was silence and listening to what he had to say. It was manners. It was respecting what someone was saying to you. There were a number of times where a couple of kids would not be listening and were talking. I think most people are more familiar with who Mr. Newton is now. Back then there was a little more animation when disrespect happened. There were a couple of times that Mr. Newton walked out of the meeting. I’ll get into that later. In this meeting, all eyes were to the front with an open ear.

The 1977 Deerfield team set the standard of excellence in Illinois that proved almost impossible to recapture.He gave us his expectations of the coming year. He told us that no one would be expecting us this year and that it was up to us whether we were going to meet their expectations or our expectations. The one thing that he stressed while we were sitting in the lobby of the gym is that we were going to have to work on our pack. In the previous season, Kurt Hoffman was the guy that could battle some of the top guys in the state. He ended up in sixth. There was nobody in our group that would be able to do that. It would have to come down to us staying as close together as possible while we were racing. That would have to start in the summer.

He also laid down the ground rules for running in the summer program. In the past couple of years, during the middle segment of our runs, he would allow us to run throughout the streets of Elmhurst. We would take advantage of the situation, sometimes in a positive way, sometimes negative. Some on the team used it as a chance to work on their jump shots. We were told that there had been complaints called into the school about York runners goofing off in the streets.

Every run happened in front of the school with Mr. Newton watching. We groaned silently. It was going to get awfully boring going around in circles for the next 8 weeks. The only time that we would not be doing the bulk of our work there is when we moved to do intervals on the track. He could sit and watch us do all of our mileage right in front of him.

When I look back on it now, running all of our distance in front of the York building was one of the best things to happen. I think it was one of the keys of why we became so close and also the improvement that we experienced during the season.

For me, the joys of running in front of the school would have to wait a couple of weeks. My parents had planned a family vacation that would miss the first few weeks of camp. I had to go with. My dad talked to Mr. Newton and told him of the plans. He was not that happy to say the least … but he understood. I told him that I would be running every day even though it would not be the same as running with the guys.

Sixteen days on a family car trip. It was the last vacation that we would take as a family. It was to Florida. Five of us in a station wagon with no air conditioning. There were long days of driving where I would look out the window thinking of the times I was missing in Illinois. When we would get to the hotel every afternoon my family went straight for the pool. I was heading to the roads to put in some hard runs. I could not put in the distance that I would have at home, but the runs were intense. Every thought was about the goals that I had set for myself. I wanted to run at the state meet. One day lost, I thought, would be a lifetime of regrets. It did not help that most of the runs that I took were in the late afternoon in the balmy Florida sunshine. I was wishing that the temperature would drop. I could not run late at night. My parents would not allow me to run in an area that I was not familiar with for fear I might get lost. They were probably right.

The worst run that I had on that trip was when we checked into a hotel in Marathon, Florida in the middle of the Florida Keys. I had the yearning to go on a long run. Mom and Dad said absolutely not. They were not going to let me run along the road. I had to stay in the parking lot. It had disaster written all over it. I spent half the time dodging cars and trucks that were entering the lot. I could never get a good tempo. I finally headed for the beach. There was only three-quarters of a mile that I could run on but it was better than doing a mambo with an 18-wheeler. After about 70 minutes, I called it a day. I got my aggression out the following night when I got a killer run in on the streets of West Palm Beach. My parents wanted me to stay close to the hotel. I just got on the road and went in 45 minutes in one direction and then turned and came back. It pissed my parents off. Oh, how I was wished that trip would end so I could just run with the team.

We arrived home late on a Sunday afternoon and I was already looking forward to 7:30 a.m. the next morning when I could run with my teammates. I felt that I was in good shape, but compared to what? All I had been doing was pushing myself. Now I was about to find out what condition I was actually in.

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