Memoir: When The Going Gets Tough, Don’t Give Up - A Life Lesson

When I was at school, there were two sporting events each year that I dreaded.

The first, was the annual school swimming festival. 

We were expected to take part in the swimming trials to qualify. Swimming was not a sport that I was good at. I was a recreational swimmer, not a competitive one. I did my best, but it was never going to be good enough. It wasn't a question of giving up, I just knew that there were other boys better than me. They liked swimming in the same way that I liked football or cricket. I was never going to put swimming ahead of the sports that I liked to play.

I swam, but never made it to the big day.

Then there was the annual cross-country run.

The run was over a course of approximately three miles, and the cross-country part was mostly across the fields of a local farm. The path across was poorly maintained, and with the race being run in early spring, April showers had turned it to mud. Crossing without falling over was a challenge. It was muddy and slippy. 

No one made it across clean.

And many of us spent a lot of time trying to avoid cows and sheep. I wonder if the farmer knew that the race was taking place that day.  

But I was not a long-distance runner. I was more of a sprinter. Some have the body to be a distance runner, some a sprinter. It's something to do with slow and fast twitch muscles. Over the longer distance, I would get the dreaded runner’s stitch. The last mile or so would be painful. I trained for shorter distances.

I don't think the school paid too much attention to that detail. We were all lumped together, the annual cross-country run was something that everyone was expected to do.

We had to do it; we had no choice. Only those with a doctor’s certificate managed to avoid it.

I knew that I was never going to win or be in the top ten, or top fifty.

But for those five years at school, I finished the course every year, usually covered in mud, relieved that it was over. Until the next year.

My goal was to just finish the race, and I did.

It was hard, but sometimes there are things in life that you have to do that are hard.

 

A version of this story was first published on Medium, Sep 18, 2024.

When The Going Gets Tough, Don’t Give Up 

Photo by Samuel Clara on Unsplash