Tag Archives: cross country running

50 Years of Running: The Sectional Wall

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

As the cross country season rolled to a close in November1973, our squad ran in a tough sectional in the Chicago suburbs and didn’t advance downstate. That would have been a stretch for a program that was just beginning to … Continue reading →

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Summer running, or not

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

After freshman year in high school cross country, I was set to begin training the summer before sophomore year when a big fat catcher from another baseball team dove on top of me when the third base coach sent me … Continue reading →

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A walk through the old running grounds

Posted on November 19, 2019 by Christopher Cudworth

Yesterday was a wonderfully dank November day here in Illinois. I needed to pick up a prescription at the Meijer store in Geneva and drove up to the corner of Route 38 and Randall Road. Our dog Lucy came along … Continue reading →

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Realistic and unrealistic goals

Posted on December 26, 2018 by Christopher Cudworth

On the day after Christmas, I think back to a request for a gift that my father granted me far back in time. It was 1971 or so, and my best friend in the little town of Elburn, Illinois was … Continue reading →

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Life tectonics in a sweet season

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Christopher Cudworth

This is the fifth 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. To follow the chronological narrative … Continue reading →

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One Sweet Season: Volume One

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Christopher Cudworth

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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Summer lovin’ 1972

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Christopher Cudworth

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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A watershed moment at the football locker room door

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Christopher Cudworth

This morning’s Chicago Tribune had a long story about the dropping levels of enrollment in youth football leagues. We say “enrollment” as if kids were signing up for dance class. Football is a type of dance, you might say. Yet … Continue reading →

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When the autumn light leads to inner light

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Christopher Cudworth

The last few days have been so pristine and beautiful here in Illinois it almost takes your breath away. The skies have been clear. Hardly any breeze. That led me to take a run in the forest preserve where the … Continue reading →

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The Biggest Loser

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Christopher Cudworth

  Through the third week of the high school cross country season during my senior year in high school, I had not lost in a series of dual meets and triangulars. Then came the first invitational of the season, a … Continue reading →

Posted in cross country, running, Uncategorized | Tagged | 8 Comments