songs of experience

In my Woody Guthrie book, I just read about his musical group from the 40’s (with Pete Seger) called The Almanacs.

“The Almanacs found a large house at Tenth Street and Sixth Avenue [in New York City] for ninety-five dollars a month and were joined by several others: Sis Cunningham and her husband, Gordon Frierson; Arthur Stern; and Bess Lomax, Alan Lomax’s sister. To pay the rent they held Sunday afternoon gatherings called hootenannies. People paid a small amount to squeeze into the basement and play music. Lee baked bread, the Almanacs bought a couple of jugs of cheap wine, and everyone sang and argued untll their voices were hoarse and the wine and bread were long gone. Pete tried to keep order in the house, but the place was a chaotic mess, even though cooking, cleaning, and household chores were supposed to be shared equally.”

This reminds me of my days in a house full of runners called, “The Ranch.” When I graduated from college I tried a real teaching job for a spell, only to discover my heart wasn’t in it … because my heart (and mind, body & soul) wanted to run. Most serious college athletes quit when they graduate, naturally. It’s nearly impossible to make it in the sport of professional running ….even moreso now than in my day because the foreign athletes set up camp in the US and show up in swarms to gobble up all the road race prize money. There are few, if any, running “teams” like other pro sports, so a runner must scrape by with prize-money earnings from road races and meager sponsorship stipends from shoe companies, while any job they work must be flexible enough to allow for frequent travel.

When I won the Peachtree Road Race in 1995, there were still several Americans finishing in the money. Now, look at last year’s top-15 finishers in the men’s race:

1 MARTIN LEL KENYA 27:25
2 WILSON KIPROTICH KENYA 27:49
3 WILLIAM CHEBON CHEBOR KENYA 27:54
4 GILBERT OKARI KENYA 27:59
5 MICAH KOGO KENYA 28:02
6 SAMUEL RONGO KENYA 28:15
7 RIDOUANE HARROUFI VANCOUVER WA MAR 28:30
8 MARIO MACIAS ALAMOSA CO MEXICO 28:47
9 NEPHAT KINYANJUI KENYA 29:04
10 ANDREW LETHERBY BOULDER CO AUSTRAILIA 29:10
11 KARIM EL MABCHOUR MAR 29:14
12 ERNEST KIMELI KENYA 29:15
13 NICHOLAS MUREI KEN 29:18
14 JASON LEHMKUHLE MINNEAPOLIS MN 29:22
15 SIMON WANGAI KENYA 29:43

The lone American, Jason Lehmkuhle’s, 200 bucks for 14th place will hardly allow him to pay rent. So, you can imagine how important it was for me to be able to live in a house full of runners and only pay $147.00 per month for a room. We didn’t train together, oddly, becasue we were all on different schedules, but just knowing other struggling artist/runners were NOT giving up their dreams of “making it” inspired me to carry on. I worked as a waitress and ran twice a a day, in the morning on the trails in Duke Forest and on the track at night, many evenings alone or with just one of my Ranch partnters, Bernie Prabucki.

Bernie was the Pete Seger of the group. He was our folk hero, struggling to make ends meet while going to grad. school, but determined not to quit running until he ran the best race in him. I don’t know if his 13:46 for 5k (run several times) and qualifying for the 1988 Olympic trials semi-finals was “enough” for Bernie to retire with satisfaction [I should ask him sometime - he lives in Carrboro!] but I do know that living with Bernie … I was the upstairs left room; he was downstairs, right - next to the kitchen … and witnessing his sacrifice was enough for me. After my 2 years at The Ranch I realized I could endure just about anything for the sport I loved. I could survive being poor and hungry (pasta was all we could afford); I could make it without a real job or societal acceptance; I could train virtually alone and with no coach; I could live through years (and years) of banging on the door of “making it” - only to be let in, finally, after 16 years - because Bernie showed me how to wait my turn.

Bernie had this saying, translated from Polish, “Too good is no good.” which took me a long time to understand. What if I’d had the $50,000.00 a year shoe contract? What if I’d been able to train at a fully-funded facility, complete with healthcare and a travel budget? What if I were on the cover of Runner’s World magazine? That would have been no good for me. I needed to struggle and fight and endure.

GOOD things come to those who wait.
Thanks, Bernie.