Track and Field is a sport that's individualistic by nature. Yes there are team scores and championships, but each race/event goes on in complete isolation from one another. Even within each event the individual athlete controls his/her fate. It's not like a wide receiver needing a quarterback to throw him a pass or a power foward needing a point guard to get the ball into the post....track and field is different...or is it?
This weekend a number of our distance runners from Appalachian State competed in an indoor track meet at the University of Akron. They've got a beautiful facility and the oversized (300m) track gives the runners wonderful opportunities to chase personal bests. It's very rare in track and field to come back from a meet where everyone competing met or exceeded prior expectations. I haven't been coaching for very long but I've got a feeling these special weekends don't come around all that often.
On Friday night, the first day of competition, we had 3 men and 1 woman competing in the 5,000m run. The men ran first, followed by the ladies. In the men's race all three of our athletes ran huge personal bests (17 seconds, 20 seconds, 7 seconds) and two broke our school's indoor record in the 5,000m run (which had stood for 20 years). This race definitely set the tone for the remainder of the weekend (which has to be the best series of distance performances at any meet in our program's history). In the women's 5K our girl ran a 38 second personal best (6th fastest all time)...
Today we had two men and one woman compete in the 1 mile run. Both men ran personal bests (by 5 and 4 seconds...good for 3rd and 5th all-time). In the women's race our girl ran a 5 second personal best as well. The final distance race of the day was the men's 3,000m run where we had one athlete competing. This race has to go down as the performance of the meet for our runners. A new school record (by 16 seconds), a 33 second personal best, and a top 30 time for the distance in the country. It was certainly a special weekend...
While reflecting on these performances I had to wonder what would have happened if the first race didn't go as well as it had. It seemed like there was a certain energy at the meet with each athlete feeding off of one another's success. Maybe there's something to be said for believing in each other and watching your teammates excel that leads one to think, "Hey, Why Can't I Do That?". Obviously each of our runners at this meet was physically able to run the performance that they had; otherwise it wouldn't have happened. By observing others exceeding expectations, each athlete in the subsequent races believed they could do it to.
Being physically prepared to run a certain performance, and actually achieving that goal aren't always as close as some people may believe. As coaches it's our goal not only to prepare our athletics physically for the demands of competition, but also mentally to achieve optimum performances. Never discount the impact teammates can have on one another in competitive settings, because when a group of people all start believing amazing things can happen.
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