On Being in One's Element

In Bozeman Magazine.

On the Run: Track's Sociologist

At Sport Literate.

A Few Notes on Racing

No sooner is the gun raised than it is fired. Chekhov would approve.

The calmest place to be during a race is running it.

For some reason, there are people who will spend their leisure time watching you race. Those GO RANDOM STRANGER signs? They're for you.

The paradox at the heart of racing is that the point of this activity we profess to love is for it to be over as quickly as possible. The point of running a race is to get it over with.

Philosophers would call this the difference between telic and atelic goals. The more time we spend doing what we love, the more we have failed. We run toward what we want but not through it. The end justifies the means. Or fails to. We race so that we can have raced. The present self submits himself to the future self.

There is no limit to the number of times you can achieve a personal record, but as soon as you stop getting faster you start getting slower.

You cannot know your best until it's behind you.

Which mostly it is.