The 2010 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships begin in 21 days and nearly 1,300 athletes have entered to date. If you have not entered yet is not too late.
The late entry deadline is just two days away (Saturday, July 3 at 5:59 p.m. ET). This is the last opportunity to enter the championships.
The championships are being held in Sacramento, Calif. on the campus of Sacramento State University, site of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials and the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships.
No matter your answer, you are a storyteller. We all are.
We tell stories through our actions, by the things that we do, and don’t do.
For example, people who exercise and use greater self-control with their food choices, are going to appear healthier than those that do not. It’s simply a fact of life.
It’s like two gardeners. One spends a fair amount of time, each day, weeding, pruning, fertilizing and pest controlling. The other does not. Do I even need to ask, “Which garden will bear more fruit?”
Lane 8 is a metaphor for life. It appears Lane 8’s story may be picking back up where it left off last August, in Finland.
The Master’s Track & Field National Indoor Championships conclude today at the Reggie Lewis Center, in Boston. About 850 Master’s athletes, aged 30 – 90+ have been running, jumping and throwing their way to better health.
It takes passion, inspiration and motivation to continue to remain active and healthy, well into our midlife and senior years. How do they do it?
Well, for starters, they’ve got soul:
Maybe your impossible goal is plain and simple. Once you get healthier, stay there for the rest of your life.
Hayward Field, Oregon 2009World Championships, Finland 2009
What is Lane 8?
Lane 8 is the worst lane in Track & Field. Fast runners are put in the middle lanes and slower runners are assigned the outer lanes. The slowest competitor is always assigned Lane 8.
And in the 400 meters, which I compete in, you stay in your lane the entire race. The way the starting lines are staggered, makes it look like Lane 8 is way out in front, when in fact, it’s the exact same distance as the others.
So many consider lane 8 the worst lane because you cannot see any of the other competitors, until they pass you.
My goal is to be in Lane 8, the worst lane. And I also don’t care if I come in last. Seriously.
Our son (9) says, “Dad, you want the worst lane and you don’t care if you come in last?”
(Pause for effect, and read each of the next three sentences with decent pauses in between)
“That’s right, son, Lane 8. In the finals. At the World Championships.”
I continued the answer for our son, “You can come in last and still be the eighth best in the entire world.”
I then shared the moral of the story with our son:
“You can go through life and set the bar low, reach it, but then live with the regret of wondering what you could have done if you tried harder. Or, you can set the bar ridiculously high, fail, and yet live with peace because you know in your heart you did your very best.”
