Category Archives: cross country

There’s always someone faster than you, and often it’s a woman

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

Yesterday afternoon was hot. Ninety-plus degrees hot. But my planned run on the Great Western Trail promised shade for much of the way. So I parked the car and wandered over to the trailhead and stretched a bit. A mother … Continue reading →

Posted in 5K, aging, Christopher Cudworth, college, competition, cross country, healthy aging, running | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How much do you value your college experience?

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

I’m leading off today’s original thoughts on running, riding and swimming by asking readers to consider a question: How much do you value your college experience? And then I’ll follow up with a confession. Perhaps I’m one of those people … Continue reading →

Posted in aging, Christopher Cudworth, college, competition, cross country, healthy aging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A snake on the path to reality

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

Yesterday while running in the forest preserve where our cross country team first held races more than forty years ago, I started out on a section of path where the sun was beating down on the earth. Most of us … Continue reading →

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You never know what a little cheerleading can do

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

A cross country meet is not the place where one normally expects to see cheerleaders. That tradition is more closely associated with football and basketball games where crowds fill the bleachers. Yet there were cheerleaders assigned to our cross country … Continue reading →

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I’ll only know on a Field of Dreams someday

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

I was twelve years old when our family moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois. That life back in Lancaster was left behind in more than one way. I’d grown up playing all kinds of sports with my brothers. One of the … Continue reading →

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A Burning Man of a different kind

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

My son Evan Cudworth was planning on attending The Burning Man event in August again this year. But it likely won’t happen. Even that brand of social distancing––rocking out in the Black Rock Desert–– is not enough social distance to … Continue reading →

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Hair today, gone tomorrow

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

While conversing with a teammate from long-ago times at Luther College, I opened up the binder of results from our freshman year in cross country. Those mimeographed sheets are fascinating relics of a different age. But the photograph at the … Continue reading →

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Free at last and happy in the bright sunshine

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

For most of us, the early years of life were spent in classrooms looking out at the bright sunshine when spring came around. Those precious minutes of recess were never enough to satisfy anyone. Coming back inside with a fine … Continue reading →

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Questions about being an elitist asshole

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

Back when I competed for every inch of advantage in the world of running, I was a bit merciless in my regard for other competitors. In the first mile of a five-mile race I would ultimately win while setting a … Continue reading →

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From allegiance to rivalry

Posted on December 18, 2019 by Christopher Cudworth

In early 1973, right in the middle of my sophomore year in high school, our family moved 10 miles east from Elburn, Illinois to St. Charles. The rest of that school year I made a daily commute to finish the … Continue reading →

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