You're Going To Fail...
If You Try Hard Enough.
This was an awesome weekend to be a fan of this sport. We had the NCAA championships and not one but two high school national championships. The LA Marathon was this weekend. My birthday was this weekend too! Not really relevant to this discussion but Coach Bennett the Greater (aka tammie bennett aka she who despises capital letters) did cart me around Portland so I could get a new skateboarding helmet, a few new vinyl albums, a couple of books from Powell’s, and hit a few dive bars I had never been to before. And to top it off we were back home by 8 PM! That’s some irrefutable evidence that some parts of getting older are awesome.
Forgive me… I got off track. There was a lot going on this weekend all across the running world. And you know what that means? Well, it means an awful lot of people achieved their dreams! It means so, so many people ran a PB or nailed their race plan or hit their target time or place or ran that distance they thought they might… not… be able to actually run. And it also means a whole lotta people didn’t do any of those things. Yup. It means a heckuva lot of people failed.
It means people DNF’d or DNS’d. It means people came up short. People bombed. People gave up. Screwed up. Fudged up. It means people quit. People didn’t follow the race plan and the race plan was right. It means people followed the race plan and the race plan was wrong. It means people didn’t move on to the next round. They didn’t get the time. They didn’t earn the spot. They didn’t get the win. They lost. They failed to achieve their goal. And I say cheers to them. I think they’re courageous badasses. Because they tried.
I salute every single person that found the guts to cross a starting line and run after a big-ass-kick-ass-bad-ass goal. They knew there was a chance they wouldn’t get it. Because they know there are no guarantees on the other side of that starting line. And they still crossed that line. They knew that the bigger the goal they set for themselves the greater the likelihood was that they wouldn’t achieve it. They knew that no matter how hard they worked or how many meters they ran or how many days they ran in a row or how few runs they skipped or how focused they were… there was always the possibility that it in the end… it wouldn’t work out. And still they tried.
So let’s take some time to celebrate everyone that ran their PB or finished that distance or made that team. Great achievements. No doubt about it. But let’s also take some time and celebrate everyone that tried their best and came up short. They are badasses too. Because trying your best is badass. And even though a badass may fail… a badass is never a failure.
🚨RUNNERD ALERT🚨
NCAA’s was amazing! Don’t tell me that you didn’t watch any of it. Just read this little section of the newsletter and then watch some of the races I’m linking to and then you can tell me that you did in fact watch some of if not all of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. And yes, I am biased towards great performances by Tar Heels of North Carolina. You are more than welcome to watch the entire meet and not just my curated selections. Let’s Go Heels!
GRANT FISHER IS A GOOD DUDE
I was lucky enough to get to spend a little time hanging out and then interviewing Grant Fisher two weeks ago. It’s always refreshing to spend some time with someone that’s extraordinary at what they do and also just a kind person. And Grant definitely foots the bill for both of those things. He set not one but TWO WORLD RECORDS during this last Indoor Track & Field season. He ran 12:44 for 5000m and 7:22 for 3K. This is after a summer that saw him win not one but TWO OLYMPIC MEDALS. He won the bronze in the 10,000m and 5000m at the Paris games.
I’ll give you a few little bits that Grant shared. He knows that great recovery is what allows him to do the great training he needs to do. Sleep is absolutely essential. He runs about 100 miles a week when he hits max volume. So, he knows without that sleep he’s got no chance to consistently train at the level required to be the best he can be. He also mentioned that he needs to eat enough or he gets fatigued, doesn’t recover as well, and eventually gets run down. He didn’t talk about what he was eating. That was secondary to eating enough. I loved hearing that. You can eat all the right foods but if it’s not enough food you’re not going to recover. And when you’re training at a very high level I’d rather you get enough of anything than not enough of something.
He also talked about the joy he has when he races. He loves to race. And that’s what motivated him to train. Without that love for running he would never be able to run what he needs to run so he can race the way he wants to race. It always comes back to love my people. All the good stuff comes back to having enough of it and all the bad stuff comes back to not having enough of it.
NEW COACH BENNETT’S PODCAST EPISODES
You’ve got a few new episodes waiting for you. I tried a new thing with the episode entitled Story Time: The First Gold. It’s my retelling of the 1984 Women’s Olympic Marathon at the LA Games. I was just a wee little pup. But it’s my first memory of being totally captured by a race. That marathon also gave my first sporting hero. Give it a listen. I think you’ll enjoy it.
JOANIE VIDEO BACK UP ON YOUTUBE!
It’s back! I made this video over 16 years ago. Seriously. There are readers of this newsletter younger than this video. I used to make short little videos on YouTube for the athletes I coached. I wanted them to be excited about this sport… their sport. I wanted them to see and hear and feel the magic that I saw and heard and felt. So, I made videos about great races and the runners that ran them. This one is about the 1984 Women’s Olympic Marathon. It’s the first real race I can remember watching. And it gave me one of my first heroes. Give it a watch. It’s magic.
BEST RUNNER EVER: SUMMER EDITION
The doors are open for the next Best Runner Ever! This July the band is getting back together and we hope you join us and make some music with us. And by music I mean be a part of the always extraordinary community of BRE. Coach Bennett the Greater (tammie bennett) and I will lead this month long group coaching community. Take the link below and get all the information you need. Then sign up and register and guarantee that spot for July!
Get all the details and save your spot by registering here.
Well, another issue written and more importantly another issue read that. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this latest issue. Cheers to you and one more thanks to everyone that’s a paid supporter of this newsletter or thinking about becoming a paid supporter. I truly appreciate it.
Take care of yourself and take care of each other.
Until that next starting line…
Coach Bennett
Episode 100: coach Bennett running autobiography?
In a world that only seems to care about the ones in the limelight (winners), I am glad you’re cheering on the dreamers willing to try. I am sure those winners were dreamers too when they began.