Category Archives: cross country

A sweet season heats up

Posted on October 18, 2018 by

This is the fourth in a series of articles about the Sweet Season of 1978, my college senior year when our Luther College team placed second in the nation in NCAA Division III cross country. Volume one •  Volume two •  Volume … Continue reading →

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A taste of bittersweet early in the sweet season

Posted on October 4, 2018 by

This is the second installment of eight blogs about a cross country season forty years ago. On Thursdays, I will recount a most significant period in life, a senior year in college. That’s when hard work paid off, self-belief took hold … Continue reading →

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One Sweet Season: Volume One

Posted on September 27, 2018 by

This will be the first in an installment of eight blogs about a cross country season forty years ago. Over the next eight Thursdays, I will recount a most significant period in life,  entering a senior year in college. That’s … Continue reading →

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Wish you were here

Posted on September 5, 2018 by

This morning as I ran my typical 8:30-9:00 pace for four miles in the early September humidity, I thought back to the training I was doing 40 years ago, in 1978. That was the year our college team took second … Continue reading →

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Run right past the junkyard

Posted on August 31, 2018 by

I have a social media fetish just like millions of people around the world. I wake up in the middle of the night and think, “That was stupid what you posted yesterday. Why even engage with that stuff?” Even my … Continue reading →

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August light

Posted on July 31, 2018 by

For many people it is the light of autumn that seems romantic. As the sun courses lower in a September sky, shadows grow longer and trees take on a tinge of color. Come October, the light grows clear without the … Continue reading →

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On Wisconsin

Posted on July 30, 2018 by

There are places in this world we can claim for ourselves despite the fact that we are not legally a resident. For me, one of those is Wisconsin. I know that people who live there refer to Illinoisians as Flatlanders. … Continue reading →

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Summer lovin’ 1972

Posted on July 19, 2018 by

Those formative years of distance running remain special to me because everything was still so new. The sensations wrought from running farther than I ever imagined possible were both stimulating and daunting. Coming off a freshman year cross country season … Continue reading →

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Sexuality, gender identity and the will to endure

Posted on June 28, 2018 by

The summer before my high school senior year, I knew that getting in training miles was critical to fall success. My old pair of adidas Italias were already worn out from a full season of running, but back then no … Continue reading →

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Summer jobs

Posted on June 1, 2018 by

Between years of college there was always pressure to find good summer work and save up money for expenses come fall. As a sometimes oblivious member of the human race at that stage of life, I was not always thinking … Continue reading →

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