A little flashback to my youth: WRESTLING

I just saw this preview for a new movie with the sport of wrestiling as a plot theme. 



Paul Giamatti is a great actor, and I'm sure he would make a great wrestling coach. Not because you have to coach wins in wrestling, but it is important for adolescents to learn the value of Participation.  (Thank you Mr. Schafer!)  In my 7th and 8th grade years I won a total of...wait for it...one match. 

Then I went out for High School wrestling.  I learned a different lesson here, which was Hard Work.  (Thanks, Wags. RIP.)  I have never been as sore in my life as after the first week of wrestling practice as a 9th grader.  I was a little wierd at that age.  While other kids were going to parties and goofing off, I was jogging and reading biographies of great athletes. 

Vision Quest was a movie that my friends and I liked to watch to get fired up for meets. 

Pre-match warm-up.


The Climax of the Movie.


I was only marginally better at wrestling as a high schooler than in junior high.  But I soon realized that while I wasn't the best wrestler, I was the best runner on the wrestling team.  I went out for track the spring of my freshman year, beginning a running career that is now 22 years long and counting. 

Are we born to run?