songs of experience

I am always searching for original ways to help my teams bond. Back when I was the distance coach at UNC, I once gave all the girls bells to wear on their shoes during their warm-up (they were ridiculously big, because - I told them - they were really tough; they had big bells). Later, when I matured as a coach :), I brought beads and hemp to a team meeting (women only; the men always made fun of this). One at a time, we went around the circle and each runner was to string a single bead onto a bracelet after speaking aloud her individual goal. One focused on a time goal, someone else on placing at Conference or Nationals, while another expressed her pure desire to run as hard as she could in every race. After we all shared our individual goals [I was still racing professionally so I, too, revealed my secret "world-class" aspirations in this circle], I passed out another bead … a Carolina Blue bead … and we decided together what our team goal would be that season. The plan was for each of us to obtain discipline and inspiration from these bracelets throughout the season. If at any time you didn’t want to do your morning run, or you were out - ahem - a little too late on a Thursday night, then the bracelet reminded you of your teammates and the promises you made to them (and to yourself). It was a pretty powerful excersise even if the men’s team made fun of it for years afterward. We did win the ACC conference that year - our team goal - with sophomores Karen Godlock and Susanna Matsen going 1-2 … so the bracelets weren’t all that silly.

I no longer coach a team that has a championship to aim for, and most of my Janes are happy to place in their age group in local road races, but we need goals just as much as we did when we were younger (and faster). We also still need to bond. So, this season we worked together to make a seejanerun quilt. Each week a different runner presented a 12 ” X 12 ” (or thereabouts, Christie!) quilt square to the group. They could sew or say anything they wanted during their presentation; the only requirement was that each of us kept in mind the theme of nature (because our goal race was a 10-mile trail run in Virginia). At the end of the season, I set up a quilter’s frame in my livingroom and we had a bonafide, old-fashioned quilting bee to put all the pieces together!! My husband teased, “That’s one big bracelet!”