Our cross country team ran at our sectional meet yesterday up in Hibbing to close out the season for most of our students. One student, Eva Johnson, qualified for the State Meet next Saturday in Northfield with a great run. We had hoped to have more students qualify; in fact, we had hoped that our entire boys team would qualify. All of our runners worked hard all year and gave it their very best, but it was not to be this year.
However, the outstanding performance of the day came from one of our varsity boys, Eli Fromm. The passion he poured into his run was the most surprising, memorable, and exciting part of the day.
Eli is a solid runner who works hard and is a vital part of our team, both for his performance on the course and his character and leadership throughout the season. It helps also that Eli is just an incredibly nice guy and very funny.
Eli has regularly placed third or fourth on our team throughout the season, but yesterday he astounded everyone when, sometime in the second half of the race, he poured out everything he had and put on an incredible burst of speed. I'm not sure where it came from, but he reached down deep within and began to pour it on, passing both team members Charlie and Ethan, our two front-runners who consistently battled between first and second place on our team.
As I watched him race the final few dozen meters to the finish line, I could see on his face a combination of both effort and pain in equal measure. He crossed the finish line in a lot of pain and utterly exhausted. When you talk about someone giving 110%, this is what you are referring to. I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 9:24: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." That was Eli yesterday.
Eli was less than five seconds away from qualifying for State as an individual. Nevertheless, he made us all incredibly proud. His heart and passion were evident in his performance, and he left a stellar example for the rest of the team to follow.
Really, it's a great example for all of us. What are you passionate enough about to go all out and give it your all?
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