As I washed your Champion Flashes uniform and “lucky white” for the last time today, I may have shed a tear. I remembered the meets it saw. The reasons I needed to wash it. The highs and lows. The gallons of sweat it contained over the years.
My thoughts tumbled back to all the shoes, and sweats, and practices, and meets. The Haguebands and then the headbands and “lucky white.” To the wins and the losses alike. To night runs and long runs and speed sprints. Ice baths, deep blue lotion and selfies with mom. You met an Olympian. And Nick Symmonds. Run Gum. Where’s Scooby?
I remembered your first time at Billy Goat Hill. Run Inspired (we love the Rupe’s). I remembered the kids on the track and all of those conversations with the other track moms who became friends in the stands. The small loan we needed to take out each year to buy all the meet t-shirts. 🙂
And I cried.
It’s the end of an era. The Lags Era at CHS.
Saturday marked the end of your high school academic career, and what a career it was. NHS. Top 10 in your class. Honors diploma. And everything in between. I couldn’t be more proud of you.
Although we knew Saturday would mark the end of your time as a student, we all thought your time as an athlete would extend for two more weeks, ending with running at Jessie Owens Stadium in the state competition in Columbus. But it was not to be.
Saturday suddenly and unexpectedly marked the end of your high school track career as well.
It was the last time you’d ever wear this uniform again as a champion student and we had no idea. It wasn’t because you weren’t good enough. You are.
Because of your hard work and dedication and grit and determination, you were poised at the end of indoor season to be not only District Champ but potentially the Regional Champion as well and move on to realize your dreams for State with a guaranteed spot on YSU’s track team.
And then….it all came crashing to a halt with an injury. A stress reaction of the right tibia. There was no running to be done for 6 weeks and there was nothing you could do but pray and watch everyone around you continue to train. It was devastating. Without that injury it would all have been different.
It wasn’t the season you hoped for. I mean, your senior season wasn’t even 3 weeks long. It wasn’t what I wanted for you either. The goals unrealized. The dreams unfulfilled. Injuries suck. (Yep, I said it.)
But I learned so much from you through the last 6 years of running and through this comeback process and I just wanted you to know it.
Never Go Down Without a Fight
You taught me never to quit. To say we were bummed at the stress reaction diagnosis after the MRI is an understatement. But you didn’t seem to let it phase you. You listened to the doctor say it and then you started swinging. You weren’t going down without a fight. You called it Comeback Season and you went after it with all you had.
Lesser athletes would have heard that, looked at the calendar, and quit right there. But you didn’t. You made a new plan. You biked and swam and biked and swam and rested and biked and swam your way through your mandated run break. You lifted and worked out as much as you were allowed.
You fought hard.
As soon as you were cleared, you ran as much as your leg could handle. And biked and swam some more. You trained and fought and clawed and scratched with all your might. And given even two more weeks, I know you would have been right back on top. It’s just who you are.
Thank you for teaching me to never go down without a fight.
It’s About Family
Running has never been just about track or cross country season. It’s never just been about the event. About the Win or the Loss or how far you made it. It’s never just been about the times or the medals or the stadium you ran in.
It’s always been a family to you. It’s been more about the people you got to do the journey with than the destination.
I watched you at the meets. You congratulated the winners and consoled the ones who lost. You weren’t just concerned about your own race. You were just as concerned about how everyone else did. Did they PR? Did they set a record? Did they accomplish their goals?
You went to track meets you weren’t running in just to cheer on your friends and teammates. And even to cheer on the opponents of your team because you were color blind. Not just about skin color. You were colorblind about the color of the jersey they wore.
You saw the heart and not the uniform, and that is what mattered to you because it was about your running family and not just school colors. People mattered more than anything. Don’t ever let that change.
Thank you for teaching me to enjoy the journey and the people I’m journeying with. It’s all that really matters in the end anyway.
We’ve celebrated many wins and grieved some tough losses together through these years. It was in the grieving that I think I was the most proud of you. Your character would shine through as you grieved the loss and yet seemed to be able to keep everything in perspective and gave God the glory that you even had the ability to run.
I know that ink on paper doesn’t show that your goals were met or dreams realized this year, but this I know. The legacy that you’ve left in the hearts and minds and lives of every coach, teammate, trainer, official, and opponent alike tell a different story.
You inspired more than you know and left a mark on the lives of everyone who knew you in high school running.
Saturday may have marked the end of your high school running career, but I know it’s not the end. Your cleats will touch many a college track, mark my words. It’s too much a part of who you are for it not to be. You may not be guaranteed a spot, but knowing you, you will be training hard again, trying out in the spring, and securing a spot to walk on that track team to compete again and chase the new dreams God’s about to flood your heart with.
These wins and losses and struggles and triumphs have formed and shaped you into who you are today and into what you’ll become tomorrow. And I’m proud of all of it. These places will always hold a special place in your memories and these people will forever be a part of your heart and life.
I know right now your head is filled with all the why’s and what if’s and why didn’ts and I didn’t get to’s, but soon I pray you’ll be able to look back on these years and see what we all see.
Success. Legacy. Character. And a person we’re all lucky to have as a part of our lives.
Amazing times behind. Greater days ahead. Here’s to you, Alex!
Here are just a few snapshots from all the XC and track memories from Champion High School. (These are not in order.)
#Lags704 #runalexrun #championflashes #championtrack #championXC #nextstopYSU
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Deuteronomy 29:11)