"Wish You Were Here" -Pink Floyd
After a long hiatus, I have decided to write again. I am not sure how this post will work out. I have a lot to say, and I might get bored and quit midway, so don't burn yourselves out if this becomes the next Lord of the Rings trilogy. The song above will have some meaning (besides it being one of the best songs ever), but I will eventually get to that point.
My how time flies. I have been think about this the past couple of weeks. It seems like yesterday I was graduating high school, now I am one summer away from my 10 year reunion. I guess that is where I want to begin with this. Nine years ago, I sat down at a table and listened while my high school athletic director and coach both spoke to my accomplishments as a high school runner. A few minutes later I signed a document that would change my life. That document was my letter of intent to run for the Eastern Washington University. I remember that day vividly. Little did I know at the time, what direction Eastern would take me. It helped mold me into the person I am today. I have always believed in loyalty. I think my family taught me that at a young age. So even through some tough times in my life (schoolwork, girlfriends, teammates, friends contributed to these moments) I stayed loyal to Eastern and always gave it everything I had. When I left Eastern in the fall of 2011 to move to Minnesota I figured I would be back at some point, but not for the reason that I ended up coming back for.
Around this time in the summer of 2012, my friend (and former coach) Chris Zeller called me up and asked me if I wanted to come back and help him coach. It took me a whopping 35 seconds to realize that yes that was what I wanted to do. By August of that year I was back in Cheney and starting a journey that has put me in the position I am today. My first year went pretty typical of any person trying to start a career as a coach (even though I was a volunteer). During the course of that first year I applied for graduate school at Eastern and was accepted into the Master's of Science in Sport and Recreation Administration. This is where my real story begins here. Sorry for the slight bit of fluff it took to get to this point.
My first quarter of grad school was a mixed bag of emotions. Coming off of what is (to this point) the greatest race of my life at the USA Half Marathon Championships, I began to gear up for the Twin Cities Marathon (which happened to be the USA Marathon Championships). I was in the best shape of my life, ready to crack the Olympic Trials standard and achieve a life goal of mine. Instead what cracked were a couple of bones in my body. Specifically bones that are known as my hip. It all happened so fast, well it seemed like it did. I was out on a 15 mile run in the middle of what was supposed to be a 135 mile week of running. Midway through my run (which was out and back) my hip began to lock up on me. It had happened before so I brushed it off and figured it would loosen up. Sure enough, it didn't, it got worse. I was to the point that I was hobbling on my left leg and dragging my right leg behind me. It wasn't pretty and it hurt, BAD. For the next week I tried to walk on it, when that became too much I began using crutches and a week later I found out that I had two stress fractures in my right hip. Just like that my dream marathon was behind me. My thought at that point was that I would be able to focus on school. The first quarter went by so fast. It culminated in my highest GPA ever, a 3.85. I was extremely excited and ready to tackle the next quarter. I was in such a good mood at the end of the quarter that I asked Coach Zeller if he would allow me to write and supervise our long distance runners on the track. Sure enough, he said that it would be good for me and allowed me to do so. The high of the first quarter of grad school seemed like it would never end.
After a great winter break with my family I returned to school for winter quarter, refreshed and ready to go. I had been running consistently and feeling like I was back on the upswing. Everything was going my way. Unfortunately, reality, or maybe it was life, decided I needed a reminder that some things just happen. (Note: Remember how I said the Pink Floyd song would come back, well here it is.)
It was just another Wednesday on campus (although it was lightly snowing) when I returned to my office before I was supposed to TA a class for my adviser. I checked my phone and found that I had a message from my friend Bobby Schneider. The three words that I read forced me to collapse in my chair. The words, "Chris Stover died" may not mean much to some people, but to me it meant a giant hole had just been created in my life. Chris was many things. He was a teammate, a friend, a mentor, but most of all, over the years, he became a brother. Running does that to you. You run enough miles with a guy and you know more about him then you know about your own family sometimes. A run is a sacred place for people, it is where they can say things they normally can't. I shared a lot of memories with my friend over the years, and now those memories felt like they were gone.
Even though I believed Bobby (the guy has been my most loyal friend for as long as I have known him), I still had to see for myself. Sure enough, I logged on to the computer and there it was, links to the newspaper article confirming that he was gone. For the next hour I couldn't stop crying. Time seemed to stand still when all I wanted to do was have it speed up. I was shattered. My friend Alicia saw my post and immediately came to my office to check on me (Alicia if you read this, you are the best). I walked downstairs to the room that I was supposed to help TA and informed my adviser that I would be leaving. I couldn't be there on this day. Luckily, I did not have class that evening and after sending the team out for their run I went home. I sat in my room and reflected all night. It was difficult. There were a lot of texts and calls that night from back home. All who knew Chris were communicating with each other. Some of us had barely talked since high school, but the loss of our friend brought us back together. It was a struggle, we were all hurting, but at least we had each other. The rest of the quarter would be a roller coaster of emotions and most of it was low points, the complete opposite of fall quarter.
I think this is where I will leave off for the evening. In the next day or two I will finish the rest of this story. Hopefully, my lack of sleep the past week did not turn me into a complete fool in the writing of this.
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