“Somebody may beat me, but they’re going to have to bleed to do it.”
– Steve Prefontaine
Heard this quote from friend of the Lodge Chris Sheckman. A good reminder on focusing on what you can control. You can’t control how talented you are, or how naturally fast or strong you are, or what kind of genes your parents passed along. You CAN control your effort and how hard you work. You can make the other guy bleed.
February 24, 2015
I like the quote, but I had something slightly different in mind. I pictured him tripping them as they passed him on the track. I guess you could still consider that out working them? It reminds me of something my friends Anna and Jay Chapman like to say; “The Chapmans, we might not win, but we’ll still beat you.” They are big fans of cheating.
February 24, 2015
For me, I interpret it somewhere between hard work and cheating. I’ve watched a lot of bad basketball lately. It kills me, especially at the college level, to see players or whole teams give up when they’re losing. Just basically pack it in and say, “welp, they’re better than us, oh well,” and then sort of go through the motions for the last 10 minutes. And I’ve seen that A LOT.
Even if the other squad IS better, and even if you’re down 30, why make it easy for them? Why not scratch and claw for loose balls, dive on the floor, and make them earn it from the line? Why not make them remember you?
There’s a life metaphor in there somewhere, and I guess that’s what the quote meant to me.