Sunday, June 24

My own running mojo

When I, rslight, was a kid growing up in Dallas, I spent many Friday nights (and some Saturday nights) watching one of the greatest sporting events in the world -- Texas high school football. My grandfather was a referee and I got into games at no charge.
Odessa Permian Panthers were among my favorites years before they became national darlings through "Friday Night Lights." In the 1980s they were the best. The boys in black didn't just beat other playoff teams. They punished them with scores like 56-6. Fans chanted "mojo" during the annihilations.

Permian did one extremely arrogant thing I'll never forget. I was in the 15-0 Permian crowd when the Panthers played 13-2 San Antonio Marshall for the state championship at Texas Stadium. San Antonio had a very talented and frightening running back with wild hair named Carlos Reza. My fuzzy memory imagines him with spiked hair or a mohawk. Maybe both. Either way he was scary.
Did Permian fret? No. Instead the booster club sold shirts declaring Permian state champs before the game even started. And they won big! I couldn't believe the bravado.

I just mention all that because I surprisingly found some mojo of my own this past week. I knew I could beat my 10K PR of 1:03:38 at Saturday's Aldersgate 10K at Nixa MO and boasted about it before the race. I know that's arrogant, but it pumped me up. I was excited about Aldersgate all week because I wanted to back up my words with actions.
I guess you could say I wanted to put my feet where my mouth was (chuckle, guffaw).

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