By ANDERS BROOKER
If you want to see Game Four of this year’s NBA Finals from the front row, you’ll have to cough up $6,000. This last weekend, for five high school athletes and two adults, it cost us $213 total to sit in the front row of the biggest track meet on US soil. This year’s Prefontaine Classic, an annual Oregon track and field event, was full of Olympic stars and world record holders.
We were actually lucky enough to witness two world records and one national record. After each event, the winner would do his or her victory lap, which included high fives and autographs for anybody interested. I don’t think the high school kids that we took over will wash their hands for a week!
In the middle of the night on our way home, I couldn’t help but think how cool running is. There are very few sports where you have access to the best in our sport. Take a race like Bloomsday: Every one of the 50,000 or so runners get to start and participate in the same event as some of the best runners in the world. Now you might not actually run with these athletes, but you are in the same event. How many times does a fan get a chance to play football with the best NFL players?
Not only do we have access to the best runners, we can relate to the best on most levels. If you were to hear the training issues that best distance runners in the world deal with, you would be surprised that they are the same issues you are dealing with.
Whether it is finding the energy for the next long run or dealing with nagging injuries, we are all on the same page and relate to each other’s struggles. If we are being real, running isn’t always the most fun and easy. But hopefully ,personal reward — whatever it might be — is worth the struggles that we all relate to.
Happy Running!
Like this blog? Chances are you’d like these posts from our running blog: Follow Your Dreams or Runwild Missoula Creates Running Friendships, Or, check out our Missoula Running and Walking page or Missoula Outdoor Recreation section.
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Anders Brooker opened The Runners Edge in July of 2001. When he is not in the store, he is probably coaching the Hellgate High School Cross Country in the Fall and the distance runners during the track season. If that wasn’t enough running in his life, he just recently found himself in the role of Missoula Marathon race director.