songs of experience

My “elite” training group is really beginning to take shape. I already told you about Alex L’Heureux and newcomer Jason Jabaut (along with my old war horse, John Hinton) in past posts … but let me tell you a little about Devin Swann. First of all, as the former distance coach of UNC Chapel Hill, I had to overcome my own prejudice against NC State runners to agree to coach Devin. It’s silly, I know (because we’re all adults, right?) that I should hang on to sophomoric notions like, “Duke is puke and Wake is fake, but the team I hate is NC State!” I don’t know why State hated us back; our guys were never a threat in cross-country. Never. NC State won ACC’s as a team, like, a zillion times. Granted, I did have an individual champion or two and we did score more points than both Wake and State in distance at the 1997 ACC track meet [after which I "anonymously" painted our point totals on the steeple barrier under cover of darkness - Sunday night - so the team could read it when they came to practice on Monday. Of course, when our throws coach saw my graffiti, he groused, "You better paint over that before Craddock - head coach - sees it."]. I did paint over it (I wish now I hadn’t) but no one can erase our moment of glory!!

So, I had to change my attitude when Alex asked if his buddy from Raleigh could train with us. It didn’t take long. Actually, it only took one work-out for me to see Devin’s potential. The guys were doing some simple criss-crosses on the track infield and Devin had this unbeieveable lift to his stride - like what my brother used to call a “hitch-kick” in long-jumping. It’s a combination of gliding and bounding - and its fast, animal-like … thrilling. The only distance runner I remember with this kind of attacking stride was Mark Nenow.

Anyway, in an e-mail Devin wrote explaining why he pushes so hard you can see why I had to overcome my red & white jersey prejudice:

The reason I “pushed” is because I’m so desperate for that next level in running. I’m the guy charging up a long, gruelling hill–staring at the pinnacle. What’s the view from the other side of the hill going to be? How far and fast will the momentum of going down the other side take me? I don’t want to miss out on what is on the other side, but I have to be patient because I’m still going up the hill.

Laters,
Devin
#167


here is what I wrote back:
Dylan Thomas reading his most famous villanelle.