songs of experience

Since around 1986 I have been going to the track at 5:45pm on Wednesday nights either to run a work-out or coach one. In the early days, it was just Austin P. and me doing the training sessions my British coach, Harry Wilson, mailed to me every three weeks (on that super-thin air mail paper … oooh, how exciting to feel the weightlessness of that missive!). Later, some other men joined the group - all duffers, like me now, training for the local Godiva summer Track club all-comers series - and one other “fast chick,” Betsy. I don’t know who came up with the name Team Wednesday, Betsy or me, but it stuck. We have been calling the Wednesday night training crew Team Wednesday ever since. There were some lean years after I retired from “elite” racing (in 2000); I think at one point John Hinton and my husband, Dave, were the only two members. And, back then, I didn’t even go the track to time them b/c I was home with my little ones; I phoned in the work-outs, so I was there in spirit only. John and Dave were like two old priests, keeping the prayer vigil going late into the night - taking turns leading intervals and sharing the burden of keeping the candle lit.

Our Team Wedesday candle is burning brightly now! We are officially the Carrboro Athletics Club, but for the sake of tradition (and, perhaps, sentimentality), I am keeping the list-serv name TeamWednesday. Two nights ago there were 6 women and 7 men doing the following work-out:

800m steady
jog to road mile
mile at 5k pace on roads
jog back to track
800m faster that #1
jog 200m
3 X 200m steady, with 200 jog recovery
400 slow jog
800m faster than #2
4 X 100m on the grass … for a total of 5,000m.

I could tell you how thrilled I was to see times like 2:01 and 1:55 on the 2nd and 3rd 800m in the men’s group … or how pleased I was to see the back of the women’s pack hanging tough onto the front, despite the fast [and faster] pace … or how Old Man, John Hinton, ripped a 2:01 at the end of the work-out at age 45. I could tell you how the women yelled for the men and the men cheered on the women after they were finished. I could tell you how I felt like I was 25 years old again, flying back and forth across the infield between the start and the 200m mark, calling out splits. I could tell you how I didn’t want to go home, not yet, not until everyone had asked their last question … not until we were all filled with the track, with that glorious combination of pain and pleasure that hard running provides, or with each other’s company.

I could tell you all this (and I just did :)) but I mostly want to say how humbled and proud I am that God has given me the honor of keeping the candle lit for Team Wednesday/CAC for all these years - and years to come.

“This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine,
Oh, Lordy …”