Running Down A Dream

SchoolTube - 112 Education Foundation Fun(d) Run

2011-09-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

SchoolTube - 112 Education Foundation Fun(d) Run

Results

A Chapter's End

2011-06-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

By: Lucas Nudelman

    Last year I hadn’t thought of losing the class of 2010 until very late in the season. I didn’t consider the fact that these people, who I spent hours with everyday, would soon be out of my life. I held these men in such high esteem and soon they would be spread far and wide as they went off to college. I made an error that I decided never to make again; I didn’t savor those last few weeks with these people I so adored.
    So the conference meet rolled around; this would be the last meet for a lot of the seniors. As I watched guys like captain Jake Hoffman and fellow senior Ethan Zallik do their cool down laps, I realized this was the end of an era. Reality sunk in that all the good times, from finishing tough workouts to going out to dinner after a meet, would soon just be fond memories. I saw a few guys jump in to take one last slow stroll around the oval with our elder teammates, and one of my biggest regrets is not jumping in as well.
    In retrospect I see things more clearly. The graduation of that class was very difficult, but life on the team goes on. After all, the team will always be the team. As the sign in the cage reads; “tradition never graduates”. That is exemplified in everyday life on the team. From routes named after alumni who no one on the current team is even familiar with, to things as big as the Twenty-Four Hour Run. The team is ever-evolving yet its always going to be the same. Although the aesthetics may be different from year to year, the core values will hardly change.
    This years seniors managed to surprise me. I thought that it would never be as hard to lose a group as it was my freshman year, yet this year has been as difficult if not more so. This year, when the season was winding down, I viewed every running experience as that last slow stroll around the oval. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake two years in a row. I wasn’t going to be so naïve as to not realize what I was losing. Through everything though, at the end of this season, I felt again that the team wouldn’t recover, and it would never be as great as it was, without my graduated friends.
    I’ll feel this emptiness I suppose until a new class resuscitates the team, breaths new life into my disheartened lungs, and relieves my melancholy; until a new class gets passed down the traditions from the class so tethered to my persona as an athlete. Soon, unknowingly, a new group of guys will validate everything last years seniors strived for; by exhibiting positive habits that they so ardently endeavored to instill. Their mark will be forever etched into the team.

Opportunities

2011-04-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

By: Lucas Nudelman 

Editor: Jordan Atkins

As we approach the last open meet of the 2011 season, the opportunities for those not already with a line-up spot are coming to a close. Of course there is the off chance that someone may earn a spot via a time trial, but for the most part, spots will be cemented after the meets on Tuesday (Glenbrook South Open and The New Trier Frosh/Soph Invite). Some of us will have the opportunity to compete in all of the meets here to come; some will compete in one, and some in none at all. Some should be content with this because the reason they aren't going to be competing is that their physical ability does not come in proportion with their love for the sport, and their bodies will not let them meet the standard needed to make the line-up. Others, however, will have been physically able but weren't willing to put in the hard work and effort. They will look back in retrospect at the mistakes they made, the chances squandered, and they will only be able to wish for them back.

Over the weekend, Ari Feldman was given the chance to earn a mile spot, as he was given a vacated position in the Twilight Invitational. He got the chance through the misfortune of another one of our athletes who made some poor choices that ended his season prematurely. An opportunity was then stripped from one and given to another. Some might say, “So what? He’s a junior, there will always be next year.’’ This is correct, there will be a next year for him, and he will probably learn from his mistakes and make better decisions, but his junior season is over for good. Lately some team members have seemed future focused: not today; tomorrow. I’m fearful that if this grows to become a team mantra, we will never reach our full potential. In the past few months I've found myself thinking about what the next two seasons will look like, but now I'm more hesitant to ponder my possible future success. I'm learning that if I don't focus in on the here and now, I will never reach these aspirations. I'm reminded of a quote that Coach Buti has brought up more than a couple times in the past two years, "Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it"-author unknown.  People who make excuses for not preparing properly for their events or the meet will never succeed. These people think there’s always going to be a tomorrow for them, but when tomorrow comes, the mental preparedness won’t be there. No matter what they are able to do physically, the mental toughness needed to achieve greatness will not be there. When the clock strikes midnight, the opportunities will all be gone. They will never get another chance to compete as a Highland Park Giant.

Ari (Rothschild) will get his accolades, and if all goes well he will win the 3200 at conference and then on to the State Finals, and the same with Berk in the pole vault. These guys didn’t get to where they are today; breaking records and making state by saying, “This meet doesn’t really matter, there will be another one later that I can prove myself in.” They got to where they are today by everyday giving it all they had, by preparing well mentally and physically. When the sand in the hourglass runs out, they’ll be satisfied with how their careers went. They will look back at their success in joy, no opportunities wasted, no regrets.

A Dripping Time Trial

2011-04-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

By: Lucas Nudelman

Waking up to rain splashing on the roof of my house, as it had been doing since the previous night, I knew that the meet would probably be canceled and we would just be holding an intra-squad race. I took a look outside at the dreary weather, and then stood amongst the scattered articles of running gear in my room, and I wondered if it was all worth it. I snapped out of my trance, scrambled to gather all the gear I needed, and rushed out the door to catch the ride waiting in my driveway. I arrived slightly late to practice, but it went unnoticed because the team meeting hadn’t started yet as people were still strolling in. The meeting began and Coach shared the daily announcements with us. We procrastinated a bit before driving over to the track at Wolters Field.

We began our warm-up as a team and in a few minutes the group had spread further and further apart, I decided I was only going to go one and a half miles for the warm-up. Most guys either did one or two miles, but for some reason one and a half seemed just right for me. I started the three quarter mile trek back to the track, my shoes were becoming increasingly soggy from the puddles and the rain that was producing them. I wasn’t looking forward to the race, it was raining, cold, and I wasn’t feeling ready in the least bit. My legs felt like no one had told them it was time to run, and they were still at home sleeping in my bed. My stomach was at unease, I hadn’t eaten anything this morning and the grumbling turned into a feeling that was border lining on sickness. I began dreading even more having to push my body through a half mile race. A cold breeze began circulating around me, and I was grateful for my sweat suit, and dreading when I would have to strip out of it.

I arrived back at the track to be informed that I would be in the slow heat of the eight hundred meter race, this isn’t to say that I wouldn’t have competition though. I did my stride-outs, stretched and laced up my spikes. I wanted to get this race over with and be able to take refuge inside the heated building once more. Following the conclusion of the hundred meter races, we began lining up for our race. We shed our warm-up gear and this only intensified the frigidness and wetness I was feeling. Coach didn’t have a starting gun so it was on a ready-set-go system. On the word ‘ready’ I cleared my mind of all the sounds going on around me, from the splashes of raindrops on the track to the sound of my teammates adjusting their racing uniforms. On ‘set’ I stepped up to the line and on ‘go’ I bolted off. The first lap had passed by, and I heard footsteps that I assumed could only be Jordan’s at my heels. The rain seemed to pick up just a bit, and the thin singlet and short-shorts I was wearing served as no protection from the cold breeze that penetrated my uniform to chill my soaked body. Two hundred meters were left, and my legs began to give out under me, It became clear that I wouldn’t be able to sustain any sort of decent pace for very much longer. I gave it all I had, as my legs began tightening up, and my stride began to constrict from the impact they had endured in the last two minutes or so. I stumbled across the finish line, too consumed by respiratory distress to feel any sort of joy from actually finishing the race. We were all huffing and puffing and struggling to stay standing as gravity accompanied with exhaustion pulled us downwards toward the earth. I walked to Jordan, amidst the competition of it, I grasp him with my arms, engaging him in a hug. We stood there for maybe ten seconds, ten seconds that seemed far longer. I supported him as he did the same for me. An embrace that was only sound-tracked by each of our heavy breathing. On a Saturday morning when most other high school students were still sleeping, we were two exhausted boys sharing a wet hug in the freezing rain, and there was no place I would have rather been.