Tonight, after 11 hours at work, I ran another 5k. It was my first cross country, so I wasn't really expecting great things.

The results surprised me to say the least. I did the distance in 28:14, a PR by 19 seconds with plenty left in the tank, but that wasn't even the best part.

We have a lot of quality high school running programs in the area. With several big private school teams and the public school teams that want to show them up, the competition can be fierce. Unfortunately, so can some of the coaches.

While on course I caught up to a young girl, high school aged, and figured out really quickly what her name was and where she went to school because her looney toons coach was yelling at her. I am not an experienced runner by any stretch, but I can't imagine the path to great results is paved with screams and comments about disappointing times.

As I caught up to her we were around 1K to go and she was gassing bad. I slowed down and just kept talking to her, pointed out where the turn to the finish line was, and urged her on. When we hit the final turn I just said,"Now stretch out your stride and go get it. Kick! Kick! Kick!" She took off at a pace I couldn't keep up with, she seriously pulled about 10 strides on me in the last 100 meters.

She was ready to cry when she was done. It was her first 5K of any kind and she was so relieved. It felt great to help her and see what happens when you get her back out of her own head and some alive for that last push.

BTW, I hope her coach chokes on his whistle. What an a-hole. Every kid I saw wearing that same uniform looked more like they just went 10 rounds with Tyson than ran a simple 5K.

-Tim