Throwing up all over oneself....

Discussions on why one runs always come up. There's always the typical fitness, it makes me feel good, I like to compete, etc....arguments made, but alas I seldom like to fit myself into some running category. Hell I hate wearing running shorts.

But when this subject of why one runs comes up I have found no better way to explain it then by a section from a golf book. John Feinstein is easily my favourite sports non fiction writer. He's best know for his classic "A Season on the Brink' in which he followed Bobby Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers around for an entire season (Knight was not a happy when the book came out). Feinstein has put out many more books over the years (my personal favourite is the 'The Last Amateurs', but his next most famous book is a golf book entitled ' A Good Walk Spoiled' in which he once again followed a handful of PGA tour players around for an entire season. In his introduction he mentioned a story about Curtis Strange (2 x US Open winner), who had been playing poorly for a while. Strange had somehow positioned himself into a situation where he was one stroke away at a US Open, but over the last hole he hit a poor shot and missed a playoff.

Rather than be angry or even disappointed Strange had IMHO the best description of what competing really means....and the one I've always used to explain why I still run:


They all want to be there because they know the work that goes into getting there. Shortly after Curtis Strange had come up one stroke of making a playoff at last year’s US Open , I ran into him in the empty locker room at Oakmont.
I asked him if he would sleep that night.
“Probably not,” he said. “I’ll probably go through every shot and every thought.”
He smiled . “But you know what? That’s okay. It’s disappointing, but goddamn it, I was there. I hadn’t had that feeling in a long time. This is what you play the game for – to get yourself in a position on Sunday at the US Open so you can throw up all over yourself.”
He was glowing. “My God,” he said, “it felt great.”
He hadn’t won. But he had had a chance right to the very end. All the work was worth it, just to have that feeling. That’s what they all search for: the chance to be there on Sunday afternoon. They live to have the chance to choke. At Q-school; at Hartford or Memphis; at Augusta or Oakmont.



....so if you ever hear me talking about 'throwing up all over myself' it was probably not due to a long night......