We Are a Group Project
Our Firecracker 5K, 10K and Mile in the little village of Sutherland on July 4th is one of my favorite pieces of Americana. A simple foot race in a small town on Independence Day. Shades of a different time, friends and neighbors testing their mettle against one another in serious yet playful competition. Add some pancakes (yes, there will be pancakes at the church), a parade, some queens and a rodeo and I’m not sure you could ask for a better way to celebrate the holiday. The Firecracker Run isn’t just about nostalgia, however. It supports a very important cause. Mentorship. TeamMates Mentoring to be exact. There is a wide body of research that documents the value of the mutually beneficial relationship between mentor and mentee in nearly every area of life. I cannot imagine my life without mentors. In many ways, the Platte River Fitness Series is a mentoring program. Seriously. If someone asked me to define it, I am as likely to describe it that way as I am a wellness program. There is a direct throughline between the origins and continuation of the PRFS and the people I was lucky enough to have as mentors.
The definition of “mentor” is “an experienced and trusted advisor”. The word “mentor” dates back to the Greeks and Homer’s Odyssey, when Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, asks a trusted friend, Mentor, to counsel and teach his son while the king goes off to fight the Trojan War. I don’t know of anyone, if they are being honest, who doesn’t need an “experienced and trusted advisor.” I could use one about every 5 minutes. I’ve even created a special category of mentor for myself. Experienced advisors that I would trust with my very life. I call them my “wise counsels.” I am lucky to have them in my life. We are communal creatures not really built to “go it alone.” We are built to be accompanied by others. Wise counsels are necessary traveling companions.
I like to think of the PRFS as a gateway to an active, flourishing life. Athletes who may not yet see themselves as athletes are welcomed through the door by mentors. We often call them our “fitness family.” Some of our athletes are formerly sedentary types, self-described non-athletes. Mentors see them and remember how intimidating that first race or two can be. They welcome them and make them feel like they belong. Some of our athletes might have played sports when they were kids, but life got busy, and they stopped making time to move. Then that busy life starts to remind them of how much they miss movement and play. Our mentors teach them the value of play and joy. As running philosopher George Sheehan extols, “Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.” Some have never stopped moving, and the regular competition and sense of comradery serve as a source of continuous inspiration and motivation. These folks, with their rich history and experience are some of the best mentors. It is the mentors among you, of which there are many, who usher the beginners, the skeptical, and the ambitious into the PRFS. And for that, I will always be grateful.
I would have been so much less, and the PRFS would have been so much less, if it existed at all, if I had not had the mentorship of others, in particular Wayne Wallace and Chris Jarvis. I felt a sense of belonging every time I entered a race and so much support from two guys who clearly had many more running credentials than I did. They were experienced, incredibly fast, lean and fit. They had cool sunglasses and wore shorts actually made for runners. They had running shoes, like shoes made just for running. Who knew? I can honestly say, not me. In my first sport, we didn’t need shoes. They were “real runners”, and I was a poor facsimile. They could have chosen not to give a swimmer turned runner a second look, but they didn’t do that. Instead, they were kind and generous, warm and welcoming. What made them such good mentors to me and to so many others was their deep and abiding love of running and their willingness to accept me where I was. They shared a superpower, Chris and Wayne. They both operated from a place of love. That statement might make either one of them a bit uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. They loved running and for them, service to others meant sharing with generosity that which they held so dear. Each came to running to build a better life and both wanted to show you how to build one too. Both were men of few words, but they overflowed with the virtues of using our bodies as they were designed to be used and guiding others in that same pursuit. Their love of running, racing and their friends, who were only competitors for the distance of the race, poured forth and made everyone around them better runners and better people.
I hung on every bit of advice Chris and Wayne gave me. If Chris and/or Wayne did it, I wanted to do it. Chris and Wayne both liked to make tank tops from t-shirts by cutting off the sleeves. I cut up a lot of race shirts. While other women were wearing fancy running tops, I was running in cut-up t-shirts. They ran in Asics at the time, so I ran in Asics. If they stretched, I stretched. If they didn’t stretch, neither did I. (One of my favorite “Chris-isms” is “Stretching? You could get hurt doing that.” Funny thing, though, Chris became a pretty reliable stretcher as he got a little older.) Perhaps the only time that taking in their wisdom might have been a questionable decision was a marathon and 50-miler in Kansas where the first words out of the race director’s mouth to begin the race meeting were “There are three types of rattlesnakes native to these parts.” Chris was standing next to me, and I may have committed a slight act of violence. They may have also led me astray by forgetting to mention that there is a “mile”, 5280 feet, and then there are “Kansas miles,” something much, much longer. Wayne might have forgotten to mention that there is a special kind of mile after you cross Nebraska’s southern border. That marathon might have actually been my first ultra. Snakes and extra-long miles aside, I loved them because running on the same course that they ran made me feel like a “real runner.” It is that feeling of belonging that I have committed to re-creating and keeping alive.
From day one of this thing we call the Platte River Fitness Series, I turned to Chris and Wayne for advice, support, mentorship, and most of all, friendship. I had no idea how to host a race. Chris and Wayne directed many. Their generosity in sharing their wisdom, their insight and experience were the water and sunlight that allowed the PRFS to grow and bloom. If Chris and Wayne did it “that way,” I did it their way. We have a half-marathon in the PRFS because Chris asked me to add one. Chris is gone, but Wayne continues to mentor and support all the work we do. There is no one who tends to a course better than Wayne Wallace. I couldn’t do any of this without him and without the memory of Chris.
I do not believe in the idea of a “self-made” person. We are made of the people who have cared for us, loved us, supported us, challenged us and most importantly, those who taught us. I believe that we need agency, but agency does not exist on an island. I offer deep gratitude to you, all of you, for the mentorship you offer to other athletes. It is the key to our longevity. We have more new faces this year who are consistently joining us, race after race. To do that, they must know they are welcome, just as Chris and Wayne made sure I had all that I needed to fall in love with an active life. We are singular, unrepeatable experiences of the universe and we are also a group project. Always both/and. And as we get ready for Sutherland, I am glad TeamMates believes it too.