When spring rolled around, my dad suggested that maybe running track would help my chances of making soccer team in the fall. Better conditioning was basically my only hope. So I went out for the track team, and that was even more fun. Ever watch high-school freshmen "compete" in the 3200m? All of the distance scrubs, sitting around in the freezing rain waiting for the end of the meet when everybody else has already gone home, just to run 7 and a half laps at an absolute crawl, and then put on a really awkward, painful sprint to the finish that was equal parts meaningless and embarrassing to watch. The duel for "at least I wasn't last." This was me. While I don't remember trying to quit soccer, I definitely remember trying to quit track.
But it worked. I didn't get cut from JV soccer in the fall. And I kept running in the spring. But after three years, the bit flipped. By senior year, the track coach made a pretty convincing argument that cross-country in the fall was a prerequisite for states in the spring. And while the soccer coach, who would have been my fourth in four years, told me that I had a spot on the varsity back line, that was no longer enough. So I walked away from soccer to focus on running, and then four years of track in college.
But after I graduated, I had a Forest Gump moment and stopped running. And later that year, a few coworkers from my first job started to play pickup soccer after work. And then we started playing pickup with the folks at Bristol-Myers down the road (which led to a surreal weekend in Brussels to essentially play in their global corporate pickup game.) And then a buddy found a bruising league for us to play in eastern PA. Then I moved to Boston, and another friend hooked me up with Busy Bee FC team for their last couple of seasons in the BSSL. Then I jumped to a BSSC team (with Live Poultry, Fresh Killed jerseys!). And then a bunch of us went to play with Medfield's NEOTHSL (OTH = Over the Hill) team. And then a friend from the Medfield team started the Brookline FC team...
(You're probably wondering where this is going, and when it's going to get there.)
One version of this narrative is the "love of the game", or something like that. But looking back, this was all about the team. Running can obviously be a pretty solitary activity sometimes, but high school and college track were some of the best team experiences of my life. I didn't choose running over soccer in high school because of states. I chose it because of my buddies on the track team. But after college, I needed my fix, and I went back to soccer to get it. Every introduction to every pickup or organized team I've played on for the past 20 years has been through a good friend. I started thinking about this when I lost count of how many former track and soccer teammates, some of whom I haven't talked to in years, have donated to my marathon fundraising. My past few months training with Team Brookline also reminded me what a difference running with a team can make.
But this past Sunday was also the first game of the 2014 spring campaign for Brookline FC. And I sat it out. Plus I'm sitting out the next two games after that. I decided not to risk the marathon with what would essentially be a guaranteed Murphy's-Law-style injury. Funny how sometimes you can hear the faintest echoes from your past*. But it kills me to not be out there on Sundays.
(*A few years ago, during my last season with Medfield, the guy who organized the team pulled on a t-shirt after the game, and I had to do a triple-take. It was an Ohio High School Athletic Association, track & field, state finals t-shirt. From my senior year. He ran in that meet too. Ok, so maybe sometimes the echoes aren't so subtle.)
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