09/13/2026
Unfortunately, there was a timing malfunction at today’s meet, and as far as I know, they are still working through the process of getting the official results corrected.
But one of the most important results from today won’t show up on a results sheet anyway.
One of my former runners, Azenet, was gracious enough to take pictures for us, and she captured this moment of one of our newcomers.
He may not have earned a medal today, but what he earned was bigger.
He finished.
He kept competing when it would have been easy to slow down or give in. He passed a few runners along the way. He kept moving forward. And when he crossed that finish line, he had one of the biggest smiles of the day.
As a coach, that’s what I want our athletes to learn.
Anybody can be motivated when there’s a medal waiting for them. Anybody can feel good when they’re winning. But character is built when you keep competing even when you know you might not get the reward.
You run because you made a commitment to finish what you started.
You compete because the person you are becoming matters more than the place you finish.
You keep pushing because every time you refuse to quit, you prove to yourself that you are capable of a little more than you thought you were.
That’s one of the greatest lessons this sport can teach.
We celebrate medals. We celebrate PRs. We celebrate winning.
But we also celebrate the kid who shows up, accepts the challenge, keeps fighting, and crosses the finish line proud of what he accomplished.
Because someday the finish line won’t be at the end of a cross-country course. It’ll be something difficult in school, at work, in a relationship, or somewhere else in life—and I want our athletes to already know what to do:
Keep moving forward. Keep competing. Finish what you started.
That’s a win.
🐯💜💛
Here are some pics from today! Thank you Azenet https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T3LNX5tY4HxCrmuW_5O_xPGblwSwRwS6
