Coach Tripp kept a sign in his classroom window at the school. It had the names of the elite seven runners of the varsity team. This was in a location where everybody in the school could see every day. How I wanted to be on that list. But it was not going to be on there in my sophomore year. The big meet was the region championship meet. As a team we went on a carbohydrate loading diet. This was calculated to start seven days before the region meet. For the first three days we ate nothing but protein. Mom bought me special food, because I couldn’t have any carbohydrates. We also took kelp pills. All this was designed to build our muscles and create a deficit for carbohydrates.. The next three days we ate nothing but carbohydrates. This was to give us energy and the extra carbohydrates would rush into the holes created by eating just protein and give us an extra boost of energy. It might have worked. We’ll never know because Coach Tripp received a call that the Region championship meet was to be postponed one day. By the time we got word, it was too late to alter the diet. We ran a day later and probably did worse even though we had expended so much effort. On the day of the meet though, we all met at the International House of Pancakes for breakfast. Just before we left, Coach Tripp rose to speak. “I don’t know what religion you are necessarily,” he said, “and I don’t really care. But I do know that many of you believe in God. Regardless of how we place in this meet, let’s all go out and really glorify the Lord!” We had practiced many times on the region cross country course at Sugar House Park. Now the real time had come. We didn’t win, but I believe we glorified the Lord.
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