Got home from work, ate some chow with the gang, then we all settled in to watch Without Limits (Prefontaine). Jake enjoyed the flick and found some meaning (guts) out of it; recurring theme for XC runners as JBDixon preached it everyday at this summer's camp.
This morning (Wednesday) Jake popped in from his morning jaunt and looked pretty whipped, but in good spirits. He explained how the group ran 10miles, but he broke off and did 16 (most on his own) and finished his up as the others were coming in on theirs. He said he still felt kind of bad (was semi-sick the day before), but knew there were tons of competitors putting in their workouts this morning and he had to have some 'guts' to work through the discomfort to keep up. He just might have broken through the pain/discomfort barrier recognition/understanding his coach and I have been waiting for; but will have to wait and see come moments of truth (race day). I have always been proud of him (as an individual and athlete) and he knows it, but it continues to grow and sure is fun to watch his transition from a youngster to a young man/underclassman runner to team leader. One of the XC coaches from a local town saw him on his early morning run this week and asked me if how much time he spent in the gym this year as he was looking lean and ripped (kind of cool to hear that from other coaches). The XC team spends a lot of time with core strength work (including push ups) and he has certainly benefited - the kid does look super lean and strong (as much as a 5'9" 135lbs kid can) from a runner's perspective.
Jake's got a 5k race this Saturday at Bolivar (Ian is taking on the 1 mile fun run) against a stacked field of high schoolers/teams (Kickapoo, Lebanon..). He is not in the hunt for a win, but seems to have a little bit of game face on for it. I don't expect any kind of 'wow' time from him as all has been steady base miles (same for the other kids), but am interested to watch him fight it out mentally through the suffrage.
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