The last installment had me racing a dual meet to re-make the '93 Varsity squad. I raced hard, won that dual meet, got back on Varsity and this time stayed there for good. Then I had to adjust to a very different role from the one I had a year earlier as the first man. The opportunity to be CBA's top guy was one I relished, but I was no longer that guy.
That dual meet was the third or fourth meet of my senior year and I had become a solid third man. Sure it was a nice jump from being 7th man at the start of that year but it was still not where I was at the same time one year earlier. I was still behind and playing catch up. Our number one was Brian Zink. Brian and I had been classmates at St. Leo's. Brian had not even been a scorer on our Frosh XC team a few years earlier. If I remember correctly he was the 6th or 7th guy on that Frosh squad (I was 5th man on that Frosh team. We were a deep squad.)
Brian had always been a good runner and improved quite a bit each of his first two years at CBA. But by the end of his sophomore year he had not broken through from good to great. The barriers only get tougher the higher you climb. Brian decided the summer before our junior year that this sport was hard whether you half-assed it or gave it your all. The rewards, though, were drastically different for those that made the full commitment. So Zink put in the time. There is a great part in the fantastic book Once a Runner that aptly describes the process as the "Trials of Miles and Miles of Trials." There is no other way to get there. You have to log the miles. You have to take the journey. Brian made it through that summer to begin his junior year a new man.
When our junior year began Brian was second man to me. It was a massive leap for him. Then, abruptly, I went down with injury and soon thereafter illness. The torch was passed to Zink. He never hesitated, not even for a moment. He understood what it meant to be the low stick on the team. He must have found out while he was getting through the miles and the trials at Holmdel Park, at Thompson Park, at the Reservoir, at Allaire, on the boardwalks and around his neighborhood that hot and muggy summer.
He was a leader by example. He was a hard ass. Athletes that rely on work ethic rather than talent always are. That '92 harrier season was not an easy one for the Colts. We had just won two straight New Jersey All Groups Championships in '90 and '91 and the pressure to be the first school to ever win three consecutive was great. We were preseason #2 behind the great Bob Keino and his Ridgewood team. But we had entered that Autumn strong, real strong.
I went down the week of Shore Coaches. We were to face off with Ridgewood in what was being billed as a Meet of Champions preview. Brian finished as first man for CBA there just as he would for the rest of the '92 season. We lost by 10 points to Ridgewood that day. Brian immediately took the reigns on a very disappointed team. Through sheer will and effort he kept that group together as injury and sickness rocked the group. He was never given a chance to adjust to this new role. He just did what came naturally. He demanded from the others only what he demanded of himself: everything.
I watched. I watched as the team went on to win the Eastern States Championship as well as the Monmouth County, Shore Conference, NJCTC and Parochial A Championships. I limped around Holmdel and watched them finish a crushing third at All Groups. I watched a team that lacked depth but never a leader. It was burned in my memory the way Zink took the loss. No excuses. Never excuses. If you give everything then there can't be excuses. It was the way a CBA runner was meant to be.
The injuries and the illness of '92 made me a better runner but it was that hard ass that forced me to become a better leader. We approached the sport, the training, and the philosophy from different places. He led from the left and I led from the right. We were polar opposites in personality on and off the course. But there is no doubt, without following Brian Zink I would never have been able to lead anyone myself.
So, the '93 season was now beginning to get into full swing. This was my Senior year and the last one running XC for CBA. I was a solid third man. But the runs felt different. The Trials had been seen to and the Miles were being done. I was changing. I was not tired anymore. I was not limping or coughing. I believed in my coach, my team and myself. The journey was not over but the chase was over. I was no longer playing catch up with my fitness, my confidence, with myself. I was getting stronger. I was getting faster. It was now time to step up and I was ready. Heath knew it too.
"Sweats off! Get on the line! It's time to rock and roll!" Yeah, coach. It's time to rock and roll…finally.
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Sometimes Leaders Need to be Led…