Tag Archives: Decorah Iowa

50 Years of Running: Getting past the crap and the flies

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Christopher Cudworth

The year was half over, and running races in March, April, May, and June was fun, but the brain and body needed a rest. By late July of 1984, I was ready for a break from racing, but there were … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Life tectonics

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Christopher Cudworth

By the winter of 1981, I’d completed much of the fictional book Admissions that I’d written on the train while commuting to Chicago. One of the main characters in the book was a professor that invented a concept called Life … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: Snake Eyes

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

During four years of college in Decorah, Iowa, I got to know the landscape pretty well. It helped to be enrolled in a field biology class, where we explored native prairies, caught frogs in cold freshwater springs, did duck surveys … Continue reading →

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50 Years of Running: The Achilles Heel

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Christopher Cudworth

On October 2nd of 1978, our cross country team ran a hill workout in Palisades Park, a bluff reserve on the southeast side of downtown Decorah. That weekend, we were scheduled to race at the St. Olaf Invitational. My former … 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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Life is a long letter being written one day at a time

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

The letter was written seven weeks into my senior year in college, the season in which our cross country team would go on to place second in the NCAA Division III championships. Continue reading →

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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

There is still some Wonder Left

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Christopher Cudworth

One of the most difficult tasks in life is sustaining a sense of wonder about the world and daily experiences. So much of our existence is taken up by routine and obligations that finding a thrill can be tough as … Continue reading →

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Finding unity in a sweet season

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Christopher Cudworth

This is the sixth 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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No better place than Decorah, Iowa

Posted on September 4, 2017 by Christopher Cudworth

As a freshman at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, the new environment around our college campus was a mystery. Those first few weeks looping around town in training for cross-country amounted to one unveiling after another. There were gravel roads … Continue reading →

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