My Note To Our Track Team Today

Meb Keflezghi Trying to hold on for victory yesterday

My post is a little late today. But like lots of folks I was moved by Meb Keflezghi's win yesterday in Boston. I wanted to write a piece about it today but did not have time. LetsRun.com has the best quote of the day ever about the win -- "victory does not always go to the brave, but it did today." One of our track and field assistant coaches emailed me a link to some of the back story to the victory this morning and I shared it with our track team. I thought it summed up how I felt about the victory and the lesson we could all take away -- runner or not.

Team: Yesterday after the assembly ended I spent 20 minutes watching the end of the Boston Marathon. A near miracle happened. An American won the mens race -- Meb Keflezighi. 

He did it in such a gutsy manner that I cried -- OK I know you probably did not need to hear that. But this was an incredible victory. And there was a long thread on my favorite website ---letsrun.com -- of lots of other people who cried too!

The last time an American man won Boston was in 1983. I was a sophomore in college. I have seen lots of potential American victors flop over the years. So to see this happen was to me what a CUBs world series win would be for others -- maybe better because it happened the year after the bombing -- and Meb is 39 -- super old for an elite marathoner.  

What is interesting to me is how the story developing today is that other Americans decided when Meb made his move in the race to support the move and not push the pace. The great African runners when they finally realized how far Meb was away couldn't catch him -- although they did close to within 6 seconds.  Many Americans actually sacrificed their race for another American. 

Some people call this an individual sport. But I will continue to reinforce to you, when it is truly great, we put our individual hopes and dreams aside for the betterment of all. Today, every major newspaper -- NYT, WSJ and USA Today -- has the picture of Meb winning on the front page above the fold. I don't know if that has ever happened in this sport in my lifetime. It was that momentous. 

Here is  good read for today with some lessons for all of us. 

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/04/untold-story-american-teamwork-ryan-hall-helped-meb-keflezighi-win-boston/