Last day of school and so there is much rejoicing occurring in the GZ’stead.
We have all heard of Bannister. Have you heard of Diane Charles (nee Leather)?
Alexa Efaimson runs a 1600 in 4:33 and its ho-hum news – partly because of Cain, partly because the 1600 is an idiot distance instead of the mile or the 1500. And oh yeah, Cranny and Baxter. By the way, my understanding is Alexa just finished her junior year. Sick. This form is beautiful though.
I met Alexa’s “rival” Elise almost 18 years ago. Her dad Bob would run, pushing her in the baby jogger at BRR Sunday Fun Runs. There is a story about a baby jogger 800 too, but I can assure you no kids were harmed in that race (even though I ran hard enough to puke afterwards).
Anyway, there always seems to be a bit of a question around young kids and when they compete at that sort of level and burnout or worse. My observation is the conversation is even a bit louder when discussing this bout young women, given the what appears to be the greater chance of eating related disorders that can go along with it in running. It is a complicated topic. I am no expert. I can’t say if a kid is being pushed or pushing themselves too hard or if they are going to burn out. And the topic of burnout is not just one about running: it can be any sport or art or academic endeavor.
So while this topic is complex, and I think becomes one very much about the individual human and their environment mix, I generally feel I am willing to let a kid push themselves to the well a bit, understanding that could mean they might burnout at some point in the future. That is not an endorsement for taking on an outright health risk, but instead saying for any of us to be excellent at anything, it usually means the risk of pushing our comfort boundaries. You might burnout. I’d rather see a kid explore the appropriate limits of that and learn from it, versus the alternative: never risk it, never feel the reward of it, and not learn from it at all.
There are a lot gray words in there: complex, individual, environment, some point, usually, might, appropriate. In other words, it depends a lot on the people in the game. I probably sound like a dimwit on the topic. I am. To some extent, I am trying to sort out the amount I chase my own results and to what level of sacrifice – not to even go into where I am navigating that with my kids. Or other people’s kids.
Another thing I have been musing on related but tangential to this is how much to motivate people with success versus failure. This mostly comes up in my head when I consider my kids, but it has bearing to the others I deal with as well. See, I could say to Bob, “is that the best you got?” and he’d be very motivated to then kick my ass on the next repeat. But that could be crushing to a kid. It might be better to say to that kid, “holy crap that was pretty awesome. You are working hard. Keep it up.” Saying “is that the best you got?” might lead that kid to say, “yeah, it is and if it is not good enough I guess I better go somewhere else.”
Another Green today, and the front route on the up. It is probably my least favorite route up because I find to be the least runable with its sections at greater than 40% grade. I prefer the middle route – which stretches out the 2500 plus feet of vertical over the greatest distance (like 3.1 from Gregory versus 2.1), and hence shallowing out the grades. I think go up the two routes in about the same time. I guess that represents a weakness though, and so I am going to eat the front side for a bit. I sort of feel I am relearning how to climb, and how to manage my effort on this route. A bit quicker than the other day (42 flat up from Gregory) and came down to Chaut in about 35 again. 6.5 miles for Green number 3 of the year. Sadly but I guess moving the right direction, this puts me at my largest vertical week of the year.
