Karno's Jr High Track Coach...and Life

In his book Ultramarathon Man, extreme endurance runner Dean "Karno" Karnazes gives a brief summary of his growing years, featuring some people who influenced him. Prominent among them was Karno's junior high track coach Jack McTavish, an ex-servicemen and a stickler for discipline and toughness. He had a philosophy about running races, no matter how long the distance. Start out running hard, and run hard throughout the race. Pacing is for chumps. And at the end of the race, if it doesn't hurt like hell, then you didn't try hard enough. Hmmm...

In the eighth grade, we had a brief (to me, much too brief) period in our physical education class when we ran around the track. I don't even think we would had have that opportunity had it not been for substitute teacher Coach Anderson, a running fanatic and general hard-ass on the order of McTavish. I remember Anderson giving us all a short inspirational lecture, accompanied by having us all do a 600 yard run around the track (that was then a long distance run to most of us). Being completely ignorant of the concept of pacing, I shot out at the start of the race and left everyone behind. Just like McTavish. Then I gutted it out throughout the run and won it. Painfully. Like McTavish. So that dude definitely had something going there with his philosophy on running.

But I think this goes much further in application than running. I have lately been getting myself up and active early each day and pushing myself until late at night, when I am completely exhausted. No, I am not in pain doing this, but in a sense it does hurt to stretch myself this way, deliberately placing myself out of my comfort zone.

I began pushing myself more after I had been sidelined from running due to a pulled tendon in my leg. When I went back to read passages from Ultramarathon Man, I saw broader life applications to Karno's way of thinking. And starting out strong and pushing myself hard throughout the day, no matter what I am involved in, is the main lesson I've picked up.