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Week 10: Coach Prime, The "S" Word, and Paying Now to Play Later

As we round into Fall, familiar winds of change are in the air.

It’s a total cliché, but the years do seem to go by faster and faster. With two young kids, the days are long, but the weeks are short. In the blink of an eye, the seasons come and go.

Soak it in folks. These seasons of love are fleeting.

Leadership

I’ve been following Coach Deion Sanders (Coach Prime) since he joined the college football coaching ranks and have been a big fan since jump.

He’s brash. He talks a big game. He often backs up the big game. He doesn’t apologize for being different. And, this is part I love the most, he stands up with and for his players.

Like most people, he and his football team revel when victorious.

Anyone can handle winning though. It’s easy. And fun.

But the real measure of a leader is when you lose, and maybe when you get your butt kicked especially. After some emotional wins to start the season, Coach Prime and his Colorado team were humbled at Oregon.

The head coach didn’t try to deflect from what it was; it was a beating.

No, he thanked the Lord for allowing it to transpire. (He really did)

He took full responsibility and full ownership. He’d also kept his best player out of the game due to injury, and told him that one game was unimportant to what he accomplish with the rest of his career.

I dare say some college coaches might not say the same thing with big games on the line.

He’s all in. He puts it all on the line with his team. And then he stands by the results, win or lose.

That’s the kind of leader I’d follow.

And that’s the kind of leader I can learn something from.

Philosophical Dad Stuff

While walking home from school yesterday with my oldest son, he was describing his day on the playground. As he talked about running around with his friends, he got quiet for a moment and then said he got mad earlier and wanted to say “a bad word.”

I was curious, so I let him go on.

He went on to say he got angry about something and was going to say the “S” word, but then thought the better of it. I asked him what the word was.

He looked around furtively before whispering to me, “The s-word is butthole.”

I almost lost it laughing.

Fighting to keep my composure at the “pushing the envelope” look on his face, I told him that while I understood he might feel that way and have fun talking that way with his friends, he better not let his teachers or his mother hear him use that kind of language.

He smiled and said, “Okay, Daddy” and happily walked on.

The S-word is butthole. Lolz. Didn’t expect to be writing that one this week.

Being a dad is funny.

What a life.

Couch to Ultramarathon

The main issue with picking up ultrarunning at age 40 with two young kids, an amazing wife, and a career that matters to me, is time.

I’m in a phase of training where logging miles matters a lot.

While I’ve built up my cardio base over the last three months, it takes our musculoskeletal systems longer to toughen up. The sinews, bones, and muscles must logically grow just as much as our hearts and lungs to withstand running stupid distances.

So last night, I found myself running at 9:30pm, in order to log said miles.

As I ran past house after house, I could see bright televisions with Monday Night Football in full swing. Cincinnati was playing last night, so many folks in Dayton were tuned in.

At first, I was envious of those sitting there comfortably, probably with their feet up, watching some football. I enjoy that stuff and want to do that too!

But then I remembered why I was out there when everybody else was hanging out.

One, I’m not a Cincinnati fan, or else I’m sure I would have found a way to run earlier...

And two, the goal at the end looms large as the literal mountains it takes place in.

Pay now.

Play later.

In closing, I leave you with some awesome words from an aviation hero.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process it its own reward. -Amelia Earhart

Live triumphantly. See you next week.