Category Archives: college

50 Years of Running: Yin and Yang

Posted on October 26, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

With several weeks of running in the tank, it was time for the team Intrasquad meet. Everyone knew it was coming because the course was marked out by the loyal campus groundskeeper. There was just one problem. He was a … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: The Big Sendoff

Posted on October 21, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

With the summer job completed, and college bearing down on our collection of friends, there was only one thing left to do before starting the next important stage of our lives. Hold a The Big Sendoff Party. Our clan was … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Sweet summer sweat

Posted on October 20, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

Following high school graduation, the pressure to find a summer job and earn “money for college” entered the picture for the first time. I stumbled around the first few weeks looking for who-knows-what kind of job, then got offered a … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Don’t be a dick about being a jock.

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

Heading into a senior season in high school cross country, I can’t say that there were a list of concrete goals at work. Knowing that the Sectional Wall awaited me at the end of the season, I had little confidence … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Another Turn of the Page

Posted on October 11, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

After a largely uneventful junior year spring track season, in which my mile and two-mile times barely improved year-over-year, I stumbled into the summer season not quite knowing what to do with my time. We had no organized summer run … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Where Respect Is Due

Posted on September 29, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

Midway through the 1973 season, I’d run well enough, and our team was doing so well, that we began to gain the attention of some local sportswriters. The newspapers that covered our team included the St. Charles Chronicle, the hometown … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Predecessors

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

In writing this biography about 50 years of running experience, I come to points where the story seems to broaden because it occurs to me that the circumstance into which I entered was different than I imagined or understood. That … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Summer running, or not

Posted on September 3, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

Coming out of spring track into the summer of 1972, I was excited to get back to playing baseball. The Elburn Babe Ruth team had a fantastically fun team the year before. We traveled to small towns like Hampshire, Huntley … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Hilltop Encounters

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

Perhaps a couple weeks into that first cross country season in 1971 at Kaneland High School, our team piled into a yellow school bus and traveled east for ten miles to a park known as Johnson’s Mound Forest Preserve. That … Continue reading →

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My longtime friend the red-tailed hawk

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

Heading into my senior year at Luther College, my fitness was good and I’d used the summer to clean up my act. I cut off the long, thick hair that shrouded my face. Dumped the thick glasses and got a … Continue reading →

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