I'm writing about High School running experience - 10 years of running

Brutal races - going out too fast and dying, wanting to give up, break a leg etc

Rainy days - runs in torrential downpours and swims

cool kid wrote:

Brutal races - going out too fast and dying, wanting to give up, break a leg etc

Rainy days - runs in torrential downpours and swims

oh, you just brought so many memories back. Running in the bitter cold, each drop stabbing into you, a cold pelt, and redlining by mile 1 1/2, going out with the top guys and losing all power, like a moped out of electricity! Great memories some of them, but dang, those were harsh to endure. Endure! What a word to go with running. It sums up everything well I think.

High School running - 10 years of running....what high school was that!?!?

All you wrote is well and good, but I'm most curious about the ice cream farms. Where are they located? Do you think a farmer would let me have some ice cream plant root croppings? What flavors did the farms grow? I have ambitious of starting a little backyard ice cream garden myself.

There is no such thing as mental running. If I put my mind to running a 4:15 mile I can do it, even though my PR only 5:50.

You cannot even break 7 minutes boy. Get yo trollin ass out of this site boy. I am gonna go get my self some KFC

edward teach wrote:

All you wrote is well and good, but I'm most curious about the ice cream farms. Where are they located? Do you think a farmer would let me have some ice cream plant root croppings? What flavors did the farms grow? I have ambitious of starting a little backyard ice cream garden myself.

:)

enjoy

Reverie. That's the word that jumps out at me when reading this.

I think running lends itself to this style of writing pretty easily. Particularly in the second paragraph when you're naming and noticing everything that has that special early morning run quality. Only through running have I found the ability to really appreciate "the streams, the birds...the Magnolia trees."

Some of the sentences could use a little cleaning up but you can tell that there's good energy here.

I don't know how universal this feeling is but one thing I would include is the occasional feeling of some larger presence during a run. Like when you've warmed up and your legs feel good and it's like you can run with an energy that isn't your own. Or like some better version of yourself appears and is almost doing the run for you. It's the closest I have come to a "religious experience". Or, since you talk about running in groups, that feeling of everyone truly sharing the work. Not just people running beside each other but somehow connected at some point outside of each other.

Then contrast that with how utterly miserable a bad/tired run feels.

I hope you keep writing and continue to share!

This needs some editing. I get lost on the tree part. 2, 4, 6, etc.

Glory was what we were after, but then we always did settle for a fast time. In the road were the cars; on the side of the road were the carbon bikes that glided up and down the hills, and in the woods creasing our legs with the arrhythmic roots and stones that came into our sight, when it was already under us - flying by - were us.

On the off chance that this is serious...

Don't be afraid to write as simply and as directly as possible. The more complicated or sophisticated the ideas you're trying to express the more simple your prose should be. There's no harm in using Subject-Verb-Object sentences and don't lean on your "Thesaurus" link to try to improve your vocabulary. The passive voice isn't grammatically incorrect, and it has its uses, but be sure you mean it when you use it. The above it simply over-written.

What does "creasing our legs" mean? You got creases in your legs? Did you iron them?

"Arrhythmic roots"? They have a heart condition?

"when it was already under us" what does "it" refer to? I think you're lost in the woods of your own sentence.

How about this?

The cars owned the roads and the bikes ruled the roadsides, but the woods were ours. We chased glory and fast times as we flew over the trails, roots and stones beneath us on the paths we ran.

i like what you're trying to do to capture the runs, but John Parker does it better in Once a Runner and Again to Carthage.

it'd be great if you could try and capture a few things that are really deeply tied to high school running that may be less romanticized:

-the bus ride to and from the meet. the exhaustion, the relief, the stress of not having run well, having to do homework late after the meet, the huge meal your mom perhaps cooked at 11pm when you got home, the excuse note for being late to school the next morning, the feeling of hearing your accomplishment read over the school PA in homeroom etc

- the easy practice after a meet, or the somewhat difficult practice you hoped would be an easy day

- the glory of an easy practice after having run well the night before on a beautiful, hopeful warm spring day after the cold winter

- the feeling of being at a meet - routine, nerves, lonely warm-up and cool-down, the high of a great race, the exhaustion of having to run a 2nd or 3rd race

- the crisp fall mornings of cross country meets, the stress and distraction of being called by college recruiters at night during a senior year XC season high with expectations

- the state XC or track meet

- the box of medals, the awards podium at the state meet where you're supposed to be happy to have medaled but you really only hoped for 1st place

- the nerves of the first race of the day and the relaxation and hope for redemption in the second

- the attractive girl on the girls track team who you ran by in practice during a hard , important workout and yet tried to pay attention to

- the cold, best drinking fountain in school you went to after practice

- pasta parties, awards banquets,

You should write about that one big race/workout that you thought you were gonna blow but ended up doing great. We've all had those, the ones where you feel like crap but end up coming much better than you expected.

I had one of those races my freshman year of HS in track. I had just run the 4x800 at my district's championship meet and was slated to run the open 800m later. At the time my PR was 2:23 (slow, I know), and the relay had not gone well as I had split 2:24 on my leg. I really wanted to get under 2:20 and that was my season goal that year.

During the warmup, I started having the worst side cramps I have ever experienced. I could not jog 400m without stopping and clenching my stomach. I had that overall feeling of fatigue, just wanting to go home, and the last thing I wanted to do was run another race. I started talking to a teammate, a senior who could run 2:00, about this. I remember him saying something along the lines of "if you DNF because you run so hard you collapse, that is much more respectable than being the guy who jogs the race and still wins." I made up my mind that I was going to either cross the line with a PR or run myself into the ground trying.

I took off much faster than usual and listened for my teammate calling my splits every 200m. The cramps were there but not as bad as before. It was like 32, 36 or so for the first lap, on pace for a PR, but by the time I came around the first turn I was in 5th or 6th place and panting super hard. The pain was creeping in and I thought about dropping the race right there. But I remembered what my teammate had said and started pushing the pace harder. I passed three runners on the final back straight. My teammate yelled my split from 400 to 600, which was 35. I was in so much pain that I wanted to drop the race. But on the homestretch I left it all on the track and passed one more runner for a second place finish, my first medal. My time was in the low 2:19 range, so I had met my season goal too.

I remember sitting on the bus on the way home and having a completely different attitude about running than I had before. For the first time it was really fun and not just a grind. I felt I had really accomplished something that I had fought so hard for. This story imo really captures what running in high school is about.

You should write about that one big race/workout that you thought you were gonna blow but ended up doing great. We've all had those, the ones where you feel like crap but end up coming much better than you expected.

I had one of those races my freshman year of HS in track. I had just run the 4x800 at my district's championship meet and was slated to run the open 800m later. At the time my PR was 2:23 (slow, I know), and the relay had not gone well as I had split 2:24 on my leg. I really wanted to get under 2:20 and that was my season goal that year.

During the warmup, I started having the worst side cramps I have ever experienced. I could not jog 400m without stopping and clenching my stomach. I had that overall feeling of fatigue, just wanting to go home, and the last thing I wanted to do was run another race. I started talking to a teammate, a senior who could run 2:00, about this. I remember him saying something along the lines of "if you DNF because you run so hard you collapse, that is much more respectable than being the guy who jogs the race and still wins." I made up my mind that I was going to either cross the line with a PR or run myself into the ground trying.

I took off much faster than usual and listened for my teammate calling my splits every 200m. The cramps were there but not as bad as before. It was like 32, 36 or so for the first lap, on pace for a PR, but by the time I came around the first turn I was in 5th or 6th place and panting super hard. The pain was creeping in and I thought about dropping the race right there. But I remembered what my teammate had said and started pushing the pace harder. I passed three runners on the final back straight. My teammate yelled my split from 400 to 600, which was 35. I was in so much pain that I wanted to drop the race. But on the homestretch I left it all on the track and passed one more runner for a second place finish, my first medal. My time was in the low 2:19 range, so I had met my season goal too.

I remember sitting on the bus on the way home and having a completely different attitude about running than I had before. For the first time it was really fun and not just a grind. I felt I had really accomplished something that I had fought so hard for. This story imo really captures what running in high school is about.

Maybe include some of the hardships and disappointments. Most serious athletes have experienced overtraining, underperformance, and lost spots on relay teams and top 7s at one time or another. Suffering through These experiences makes the successes more enjoyable. Write about the real runner and you will have compelling piece of literature.

The Lowell High School Indoor Track Team had a 16 lap to the mile, heavily banked wooden track. The track was located in the High School Annex which was the basement of the Lowell Trade School.

This track had once been used for meets back in the 1930’s with events such as the 35 yard dash and the grueling 1,000 yard run featuring our current Coach Jack “feets” Lang a friend and teammate of writer Jack Kerouac.. By 1971 this facility wooden floor was warped from water damage and had slippery spots from leaky pipes.

It became a hazardous place and many of us were developing injuries while doing our daily dose of intervals there.

Fortuitously the place was condemned and we began doing more road runs. Pat McMahon the Irish Olympic Marathoner and second place finisher in the 1971 Boston Marathon would come by occasionally and take us on some road runs. Pat taught elementary school nearby.

We did our intervals on a side road hill where Coach Lang in his Fedora with his pipe hanging out from his mouth would drive his car alongside us and keep track of our splits over his measured distances.

We had one long gradual hill and one short steep hill.

We all improved dramatically with this new regimen. I improved the most and in my sophomore year was honored with an award from the Greek American Legion in Lowell. The John Koumentzelis Award, a big-ass trophy.

John was a great athlete and war hero.

I knew the Koumz family well as they lived in my neighborhood.

Coach Lang asked me to “look presentable” for the ceremony at the Legion Hall, “wear a tie puddin head” he said. I did not wear a tie.

Coach gave a heckuva speech, fueled by a few cold ones at the Old Worthen bar he rhapsodized about our profoundly pathetic facilities and our dedication. “I almost never see Bobby but I know he is out there running”

Charles Scoggins of the Lowell Sun reported:

“You’ve seen him running along Bridge Street in the sweltering August heat. You’ve seen him running down Andover Street beneath the billowing trees and their kaleidoscope of colorful leaves in October. You’ve seen him circling the Hunt’s Falls rotary and crossing the bridge over the Merrimack in the icy winds of January, You’ve sepn him running past the lush green carpet of North Common in May.

Running, running, forever running. Day after day, every day, all year long. Year after year after year.”

WHAT MAKES Bobby run?

Thanks for the feedback! I just got off Joyce, so my brain is wired to write longer sentences. I'm sure i've missed some beats in early drafts of this mini-project to explore my running from ages ~12-20. "The creasing of the legs is something I remembered distinctly as our old grey haired coach would run in front, and his knees always bent in such an astonishing degree. We ran uphill a lot.

The "crease" is suppose to refer to the point where the calf meets the hamstring, but maybe if you didn't get that, then I need to relook at how it's phrased. "Arrhythmic roots" - hah, I was trying to word how the woods we ran in had roots/branches stuck up so often, that you always had to watch them. Sometimes their were more in a row, and sometimes none on a certain part of the trail. I guess i'll search around for a better way to say random, "the roots sprung at us without warning" as when you run towards them, they kind of come at you, perception wise, because you're coming at them.

"when they* were already under us - flying by - were us." - I'll have to reword that a bit. This was an unedited version, so I'm glad you're pointing out the mistakes.

"- the easy practice after a meet, or the somewhat difficult practice you hoped would be an easy day"

- oh I love this, the relaxation of post-meet days.

"the feeling of being at a meet - routine, nerves, lonely warm-up and cool-down, the high of a great race, the exhaustion of having to run a 2nd or 3rd race" - There are few sports like it.Even in soccer, I was nervous, but the flow of the match wasn't dependent on you. How you did was never 100% clear as someone didn't watch you for the entire match - most likely. in running, your time is your effort, and there is no hiding.

"the attractive girl on the girls track team who you ran by in practice during a hard , important workout and yet tried to pay attention to"

Oh god, having your xc crush watch you race. That was tough always.

"- pasta parties, awards banquets,"

Men have natural tenancies, from what I've experienced, to bond over our place in society and responsibility. And before a race? The banding together is beautiful. ;) Thanks for that. So much good emotion tied up there

I love what you wrote. I think you should write everything that comes to mind first, so it is YOUR beautiful, before you start thinking about making it beautiful for everyone. Who knows? You may discover the two are the same thing.

Next month, after I return from Thailand, I plan to have another free book giveaway. Some of you have read it. My book, titled Running: A Long Distance Love Affair, is an e-book for Kindle and any PC or device with the Kindle app. See it on Amazon. We all have our own running story, I would enjoy reading yours. I have also been considering how I might gather many other runners' stories, poems, photos, etc., and publish them as a collection in another e-book. Feel free to look at my book and borrow ideas. Good luck!

write about naked boys showering together. its what were all about