Growing up, I was carted around with my mother to watch my brothers plays sports. In the fall it was soccer during the week, and football on Saturdays. The winter was wrestling. Week nights were individual matches and every Saturday was a tournament. Keith played football and Chad, soccer, both wrestled. It seemed like one of the two was in the paper at least once a week from Sept. to Jan.,(I'm sure there were a couple weeks they weren't... I'd like to see you try to remember everything from 21 years ago when you were seven). You'd walk in their rooms and all you'd see were medals, plaques, and tournament brackets, covering the walls.
At five-ish I was signed up for soccer, I remember not really being in to it. I was excited to play a sport, but soccer just wasn't my thing. Maybe it was because I couldn't run, look up and keep the ball with me... maybe. Next came baseball, I want to say I played from 3rd grade to 6th. Three of those four were spent behind the plate. I didn't do too bad, sure I had a lot of pass balls, but that mask was off before you could blink and I was chasing it! I think my entire "career" in baseball I hit the ball ... 5 times... max! (OK, maybe a couple more than five... maybe 10).
So 7th grade came and now I could play football and I could wrestle. I was never good in school, hated doing homework. I never had a problem finding something better to do. That caused its own problems though. For two years I failed off the football team and because of that couldn't wrestle. So freshman year of high school I didn't play football, and was able to keep my grades high enough so I could wrestle. Not playing football didn't bother me too much. Not being able to wrestle was a lot worse. There was a feeling wrestling was expected. So to have to tell people I couldn't because of grades was always a problem. I was never really able to succeed though, my three years of wrestling was the ebbing of the program. Because of that I was never able to challenge myself in practice, (I had to practice with our 103lb. and i was 140lb. not a big challenge to treat him like a ragdoll) and that made it very hard to succeed. Out of three years I won 4 or 5... total. Nowhere near as good as I had hoped to be.
As the youngest of a family of all boys you always feel you have to meet or exceed what your older brothers have done. I continued to fail in that department. It wasn't until I started running that I felt I had moved up to their level. I was competing and finishing with respectable times. Maybe I'm not in the newspaper, but I have plenty of pictures, race bibs and finish times!
Running was never a thought as a kid. You follow the path that you know, the path the people before you have gone down, even if your not that successful. That following continued for me into adulthood, when I followed my brother in his 5k. The only difference is this time, I found something I could succeed in. Running is an individual sport, you never have to compete with anyone but yourself unless you want to. This was my way to compete with my brothers, something to bring me to their level. I was finally able to find my sport. It only took me 28 years to find it!
Maybe running isn't your gig. Maybe sports in general aren't your style. Keep looking, look in places would wouldn't think to look. Go outside your comfort zone, and Find Yours.
