Thought for the week: "Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome." by Arthur Ashe

As a team and as individuals, we seek to achieve the highest level of success available to us. Although our team may ultimately aspire toward national level success, that kind of outcome isn’t always attainable in any given year. The same thing is true on an individual level as well. Not everyone can win, not everyone can run a “fast time”, and even if we could all win one day – fame is fleeting anyway. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with setting goals like “State Champion” or “Varsity letter-winner”, but we should always remember that the input into your race will always have greater value than the output. We may have had a successful day at Tiger Run, and make no mistake – that was definitely a “Wow” day – but don’t forget how we came about that success and realize that this is what matters most.

Tiger Run is always our first evidence as to whether your hard summer work has paid off. The evidence can be a bit cloudy, but it at least tells us something. Here’s what we know for sure. A large number of you are in incredibly good shape and way ahead of where you were at this time last year. The weather has helped, but good weather or bad – many of you deserve major credit for not being afraid to challenge your limits over the past month or so. Some of you may be tired, but you’re still running well. Remember, one thing we’re developing right now is the ability to push your limits. When you work hard like we are, your limit may not always seem very high, but whether that limit is low or high, you’re still expected to find it and push it. Every race and many practices are all opportunities to do this, opportunities you can use to improve. Not doing so is a lost opportunity, a chance to develop something in yourself that you will never get back and no runner on our team, from slowest to fastest, can afford to miss out on any opportunity to improve. Remember that the next time you’re on the starting line.

Our JV and Varsity team victories gave us our most successful Tiger Run performance ever. En route, we had a large number of girls really step up. In the JV race, nothing speaks louder than the 1-2 finish of Ashley El Rady and Ellen Marko. They were patient, helped one another out, and pressed at exactly the right spots. If we ever produce a how-to video for our new runners, that video would include lots of footage from their race. I was also happy with how Taylor Dadds held on after going through several rough weeks in practice. Meredith Craven, Abby Pike, Michelle Pike and Katie Tuell became examples of what our team is all about. You work hard, you get better and all of these girls did so on Saturday. Meredith ran a personal best by about 50 seconds, Abby improved by 3 minutes, Michelle lowered her best by 1 minute, and Katie ran almost 30 seconds faster. Several other JV girls ran well, from Nicole Passanisi to Morgan Lewis to Maura McKiernan, as did newer girls like Melanie Strothman, Olivia Reibel, and Laura Hellman.

In the Varsity race, Sara Davis was her usual awesome come-from-behind self and Allison Riedling showed she’s probably one of the toughest girls in school history. Amy Stamon demonstrated that she’s for real and is ready to turn some heads. Those three girls were our leaders and as they pulled their team to victory. Kayla Franck also deserves a lot of credit for her perseverance in overcoming 2 years of physical problems to run one of her fastest times ever. Melanie Brumleve and Taylor Armstrong both ran well and showed us that they’re ready to finish their careers on a very high note. And lastly, I was happy with the races of Olivia Harlow, Lauren Neichter, Tamara Slovacek, and several other girls.

Looking back at this Tiger Run, let’s celebrate our success, but let’s not forget what led to that success. Hard work creates its own good fortune, but whether we achieve continued success like this or not, we should never forget that it’s the striving which matters most and typically not the achieving

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