Episode 60: Tim takes a break from fiction to give the listener a window into his past success as a runner. Tim's sister does not hold a candle to Tim's prowess as an athlete, nor do Tim's parents. The jealousy Tim has to deal with from his family members on a day-to-day basis is a burden that Tim bears with great aplomb.
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Middle school and early high school were the peak years of my running prowess. Cross country, that was the season I ran. Through the autumnal, tick-filled, mosquito-infested woods of New Hampshire I ran, trying to pretend I wasn’t tired even though I was tired, very tired. My thoughts, while running, focused solely on ways to get out of future training runs that the team engaged in each day after school. Thinking back, I still can’t believe I ran every day after school. What kind of child abuse was that? What mental tomfoolery did my parents engage in to convince me that I wanted to torture myself? For I chose to be on the cross country team. Of my own volition. Was I just mentally stunted? Was I? As bugs bunny would say, a maroon? What an ignoranamous!
I must have had an assumption, back then, when I was a BOY, that because of my parents’ affinity for the practice, and because of my sister’s success (she regularly won races, even back in middle school, but we’ll get more to that later) I held an assumption that I would be on the fast track to success of my own should I just keep running. With those genetics backing me up? Of course I would be an elite runner. This, however, was not the case. Not even close. I was, on my best days, average, and on my worst brutally mediocre. “Average and mediocre are kinda the same words, Tim.” Yeah? Well, go fuck yourself.
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If you enjoy westerns like True Grit or The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, check out Tim’s western novel, Dust, available on Amazon in eBook form in addition to being read on the podcast.
For more, visit timdrugan.com.