Hats off to cross country runners

With the Greene County Invitational cross country meet this week it's time to salute the area boys and girls who run cross country.

Cross country is a sport that requires endurance and physical and mental toughness. These athletes are doing something I couldn't have done - and wasn't much inclined to do.

To me cross country is a grueling and demanding sport - not my idea of fun. We used to hear coaches yelling "Gut it out." That's another way of saying fight through the pain and fatigue and finish strong.

I attempted to run cross country my freshman year. Basketball coach Jim Callane insisted that all basketball players who didn't play football would run cross country.

Most basketball players didn't particularly enjoy running. Some of us detested it. Roger Tharp was a notable exception in those days - a basketball player who excelled in cross country and the mile in track. Most of the rest of us couldn't wait for the season to end.

Cross country didn't end well that year. In the freshmen county meet at Switz City, I was among the leaders at the halfway mark. Three-quarters of the way through I completely ran out of gas. I stopped for a breather - bent over, hands on knees as every runner in the field passed me - and I managed to stagger home dead last.

Coach Larry Hasler wasn't too pleased with me that day. That wasn't the last time I invoked Coach Hasler's displeasure but that's another story.

Needless to say I didn't "gut it out" that day.

As a basketball player, I came to associate running with punishment. With good reason - running has long been a favored - and effective - form of punishment used by basketball coaches.

Countless bleacher laps or suicide sprints will make a player think twice about slacking off in practice, goofing off or mouthing off to a coach. Not being the easiest player to coach, I probably ran more than anyone.

I actually tried running for about five years in the mid to late eighties. I ran three miles three times a week at a pace I could handle. Stress fractures in both feet and chronic patellar tendinitis in my left knee made my decision to give up running for good an easy decision.

So clearly it's evident by now that running wasn't my thing.

But for some of these boys and girls distance running is a passion and they excel at it.

Terry Schwinghammer is a sports writer at the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached at (812) 847-4487 or at tschwing32@yahoo.com.