On a comfortably warm afternoon at E. P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, KY, Chad Waggoner and I sat in the shade near the finish line on the tailgate of Chad's truck, where we had a brief but intense conversation about how he coaches racing strategy with his Trinity guys. I've known Chad since my first year of coaching in 2004--we met at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville and have run into each other here and there over the years at a variety of places: the McCallie Invitational in Chattanooga; Maymont Park in Richmond,VA;, and, of course, at the Trinity Invitational, which is one of the premier early-season invitationals in the Midwest. Chad has always been generous and thoughtful and even philosophical about the value of high school running and of the importance of the team and filled our ten minutes with an intense discussion of how his guys race so successfully (including AAA State titles)
I'm still processing some parts of our discussion, to be honest with you, because I ought to have the discipline and the consistency to do it, especially when he discusses using workouts to dial in race pace. He also goes into great detail about how he teaches his guys to race smart over the first 400 of a cross country race in order to avoid the big crash that inevitably happens when you get out fast--and we all have those kids who get out too fast and crash. He's teaching his guys to ride a very fine line, and that takes skill, discipline, and persistence. I've always agreed with this strategy but have gotten away from it some and plan to get right back to it--I'm reminded about how much better a race the kids have when they haven't dug themselves a hole during the first mile.
This is a short one but is filled with great stuff from Chad--I'm uncharacteristically quiet. Thanks for listening.
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