So Then What Happened?

USA Team Jacket
USA Team Jacket

So the second week, I ran two mailboxes a day. Third week, three mailboxes a day.

Yes, many of you have heard this before.  Which is one of the secrets to excellent results – repetition.  Never get tired of doing the basic, common sense things.

Stories are critical to perpetuating past success and moving to even greater success. You already knew that right?

Eventually, the goals became impossible, but their pursuit was compelling.

What’s fascinating is how intense it was to rise to the level of representing the United States at the 2009 Master’s Track & Field World Championships, without anyone knowing.

Neighbors. Family. Work. Ten years. Ten years of dedicated, relentless effort.

Invisible to everyone around me. For a decade.

Now, neighbors know.  And Family knows. Yet to this day, most where I work have no idea.

And so the question today is this, “What is your impossible goal and will you persue it without any fanfare or glory, but just for the sake that it’s a noble goal?”

WMA Finals M50 400 meters

WMA Finals M50 400 meters.  Masters Track & Field World Championships, Lahti, Finland, August 7, 2009.

The top eight men in the entire world, aged 50-54, at 400 meters. Three of them are Americans – James Chinn, Ben James, and Jeff Lindsey.

USA has a long history of producing an abundance of world-class 400 meter runners. In Beijing, USA swept the Olympic 400 meter finals:

Men’s 400 meters
August 21, 2008

1. LaShawn Merritt, USA, 43.75
2. Jeremy Wariner, USA, 44.74
3. David Neville, USA, 44.80

4. Chris Brown, BAH, 44.84
5. Leslie Djhone, FRA, 45.11
6. Martyn Rooney, GBR, 45.12
7. Renny Quow, TRI, 45.22
8. Johan Wissman, SWE, 45.39

Seven of the eight Team USA M50 400 meter runners made it to the semifinals (top 24) in Lahti last week.  I was the one that did not.

And yet, I still feel like a champion.

Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂