This is a “Letter to My Younger Self” by Rich Kenah, a former Olympian who is the executive director of the Atlanta Track Club. This is the third such letter to appear in the AJC and on AJC.com and myAJC.com in the weeks leading to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race on the Fourth of July. Similar letters by men’s elite runner Jared Ward and women’s elite runner Neely Spence Gracey appeared earlier.
Dear Rich,
I know you are already enjoying your weekend outings with your father to New Jersey-area road races. And I realize that you aren’t winning many age-group trophies or medals yet. You know that recent race where you finished last? Don’t sweat it. Be patient; successful runners take many years to reach their goals. And as you watch the best of the best in the sport on television or in magazines, remember that they were just like you at a young age. It is going to take you more than two decades to reach your goal of representing the United States at the Olympic Games. Olympians are made, not born.
Here are a few tips that will help you through the ups and downs of the sport of running:
• Trust your coaches. You will be blessed with caring high school, college and professional coaches who recognize your gifts as a runner. They will guide your development as an athlete and as a young man every day. And when you think you’ve learned enough and know better than your coach, think again. Without your coaches, you won’t realize your dreams.
• Injuries happen. Runners get hurt when they train too hard or too much. While your coaches will monitor your training, you will deal with many aches and pains. In fact, these injuries will slow your development into a world-class athlete. Don’t panic when they happen. Learn from them. Better to arrive at your biggest competitions under-trained and healthy than over-trained and injured.
• Celebrate the wins, learn from your losses. You will lose a lot more races than you will win in your life. Some of these losses will frustrate you and even cause you to doubt yourself and your love of the sport. But these losses will help you appreciate the victories all the more. Learning from disappointments will add to the satisfaction you will feel from crossing that line first or reaching that running goal. Savor those winning moments.
• Thank your parents. Sometimes moms and dads push their children to be great athletes for all the wrong reasons. But your parents are different than most. As you become more and more focused on running, they will be there to drive you to and from practice every day, they’ll attend every race without yelling at or criticizing you, they’ll congratulate you on your success and be there for you to help you deal with disappointment. They will never push you too hard or allow you to waste your God-given talent. Make sure you thank them every day for the sacrifices they make for you each day.
Regardless of where you finish in your races in the coming seasons, never forget that running is a journey, and it will take you places you never imagined. When your fastest running days are behind you, it will be your responsibility to help others to find pleasure from the sport regardless of their relative speed. If you successfully pass on the lessons you learn from your wins and losses, then a new generation of people will learn to love the sport much like you have.
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