Jimmy Dean Freeman, coach, distance runner, racounteur, holds up an inspirational sign addressed to himself. I'd do stranger things if I just ran 50.9 miles in 8 hours 9 minutes and 39 seconds. (That's a marathon, followed by another marathon.) Those results qualify Jimmy to run twice that far over tough, inaccesible terrain in the 2008 Western States 100.
Last month, his attempted qualification for Western States resulted in failure. Running the Angeles Crest 100, he was forced to drop out because of injury. Disappointed, Jimmy Dean persevered and yesterday, up in San Francisco, achieved his goal. As Confucius once said:
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
He also said that anyone who bought him a shot and a beer was wise, but that's another saying.
4 comments:
John,
Thanks for the shout out! The sign addressed to myself was actually put up on the course by another runner I've coached, and when I realized that she had left (to get ready to compete in the Nike Women's Marathon the following morning), it was my responsibility (and pleasure) to go back out and get the signs... then I had my idea to do a faux finish with my favorite of her three signs.
Being a libra, I'm all about making signs for myself though, and I might have done something just like that... *wink*
See y'all at Western States...
Not that anyone (other than me and the Western States race director) is counting... but it was 8-hours, 9-minutes (and 39-seconds)...
So noted and officially corrected.
yeah, Jimmy is THE man!
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