Jeff Johnson came out to speak to the HS runners in the
Washington/Oregon Border Clash. (An XC duel between the two states sponsored
by Nike.) Jeff is a low-key humble man who resides in New Hampshire. He was
Nike's first paid employee, developed the concept of the swoosh, retired in
1985. He came out here to coach the Farm Team (for free) to Nat'l prominence
for 6 yrs.

BORDER CLASH, 2001: REMARKS by JEFF JOHNSON

Thank you. Good evening.

It's a real pleasure for me to be with you tonight.

It seems to me that I've spent my entire life surrounded by winners. First,
on my own high school and college teams, then later working here at NIKE,
and finally in coaching. It is a privilege to be back in the company of winners
once again.

I come to you tonight with a question. It's a rhetorical question, so don't
raise your hands.

Here's the question: Why do you run?

You've probably been asked that question before. It's not an easy question
to answer, is it? If someone has to ask, they'll probably never understand.

A man once came to Mozart and said: Teach me to write a symphony.

Mozart answered: I can't teach you.

The man said: Why not? You were writing symphonies when you were 4 years
old.

To which Mozart replied: Yes, but I didn't have to ask how.

To write timeless symphonies requires a genius that running does not
demand. Lucky for us, but the problem of explanation is much the same:

If you have to ask, you just don't get it. And you probably won't get it.

But you get it, don't you? You would never ask someone: Why do you run?
(Except maybe rhetorically.)

Nevertheless, even you who "get it" have a hard time articulating your
passion. I think that is because running is a passion of the spirit. And explaining
the spirit is never easy.

Running is the expressway to self-confidence, self-awareness,
self-discipline and self-reliance.

From running, you learn the harsh realities of your physical and mental
limitations.

From running, you gain strategies for extending those limitations, that you
might run farther, run faster, and run tougher.

You learn that personal responsibility, commitment, sacrifice, determination, and persistence are the
only means of improvement. Running, you come to understand, is a profound, far-reaching and never
ending contest of the runner with himself or herself. And you learn that runners only get promoted through self-conquest.

Running asks a question of you, and everyday it's the same question:

Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?

And when you answer that question in the way that you people in this room
have answered it, you become a better, stronger, more confident animal with a
capacity for achievement greater than before, and a formula for success that
is forever engraved on your brain.

(It is no accident! I think, that this place was founded by runners.)

The single, most outstanding characteristic of the runner is independence.
Through your own will, you present yourselves to the fire; and the fire
changes you, permanently and forever.

Body and spirit
I surrendered whole
To harsh instructors - -
And received a soul.

Rudyard Kipling wrote those lines nearly a century ago. It's unrecorded
what Kipling's PR was for 5K, but I suspect that he had one.

Why do you run? Each of you may articulate it differently, but perhaps we
can agree that running touches us spiritually. It forms us and it strengthens
us. It makes us who we are and at some level, it is who we are.

But you can be a runner without being a racer.

So here's another question for you: Why do you compete? Why do you race
3.1 miles? That's gotta hurt. Why do you do it?

For most of you I imagine that you race for the challenge, the danger, the
'rush' of putting yourself in a place where you must do your absolute best. Becausethe race requires it. To give your best is to honor your fellow competitors, your teammates, your coach, your school, your family, your
community, and all the good people who have worked so hard to put on the
race.

To give your best in a race is a matter of honor and duty and you know that
going in. You know, also, that the course will challenge you, that your
competitors will challenge you, and that you will challenge yourself. You
know, too, that there will come a critical moment in the race where you must
make the decision to lay it on the line, to take your shot, or to fall back
and regroup.

And you hope you'll be up to the challenge, but you're never entirely
sure and it's that uncertainty that calls to you because it is there, at
that moment, that moment of decision, that you offer yourself up to be
measured: by the clock, by your legs and lungs, by your guts, and by your
heart. And if you want to win the race, in that moment of decision, you're going to
have to go a little crazy.

You race, then, because races are a big deal. (In fact, speaking from the
vantage point of both experience and hindsight, I dare say that at this time
in your lives, the race may be the most important thing that you do. A girl
on one of my high school teams came up to me on the day of her graduation
and said, " I learned more in cross country, than I learned in high school."
"I'm glad," I said, "so did I".

Races are a big deal. Races are the culmination of all the forces that have
brought you here: desire, commitment, focus, sacrifice, suffering, self-discipline, hard
work, responsibility. You race because you are invested in effort, and you
are invested in success. Moreover, you are invested together. Look around you.

Go ahead. Do it. Look around. Who are those people you see? Do you think they are your opponents?

People who oppose your quest for excellence? Well, they aren't. They are not your opponents. They are your fellow
competitors. In fact, they are your co-conspirators, for to compete is to
enter into a conspiracy.

The conspiracy is revealed in the word itself: compete, which comes from
two Latin roots, com (CUM) and petere (PET-ER-AH), which mean "to strive
together". Al Oerter, the 4-time Olympic gold medallist in the discus, once said:
"I've never competed against anyone in my life. I've always competed with people.
To compete against people is a negative thing. To compete with people is a
celebration, a celebration of human capability."

And so it is. The worthy competitor is essential to the race, not as an
enemy, but as a co-conspirator. The race, you see, is a secret form of
cooperation. The race is simply each of you seeking your absolute best with
the help of each other.

Steve Prefontaine said: "To give anything less than your best is to
sacrifice the gift." What gift do you think he was talking about? The gift of your
talent, surely. But perhaps also the gift of opportunity and the gift of
youth. Perhaps even the gift of life itself.

In any case, you give your best to the race as a matter of honor? You can
do no less, because your competitors are giving their best to you.

Now, not all races justify all out, total effort. For some races, you have
lesser goals - - to score points for your team, to qualify for a more
important race later on - - or just to have fun.

I offer that qualifier to my remarks tonight because I know that all of you
are coming off a long, hard season. For some of you, tomorrow's Border
Clash is not another test but, rather, a fun, end-of-season reward. For others,
it may be a tune-up for the Footlocker Regionals still to come. For all of
you, your goals for tomorrow's race are a matter between you and your coaches.

We understand that. It isn't my intention tonight to try to get you "fired
up" for a race where an all out effort may be inconsistent with your goals.
The Border Clash is held solely to honor you, the best cross country runners
of two states, and in the hope that you will all gain something joyful and
positive from the experience of meeting and competing with each other.

But the next time you step to the starting line of an important race, the
conspiracy of striving together for excellence will be about to unfold!
That white line on the ground before you, and that other white line five
kilometers away,will define a sacred place, rife with potential, an arena in which
excellence and ultimates are the only acceptable. Indeed, the only honorable
standards - - and an arena into which only a few, special people ever
venture.

There - - between those white lines, in a race that matters - - you will
give your best to each other. And there - - between those white lines, on that
sacred plain, you will learn who you are of what stuff you are made and what
you can endure, which is essential knowledge, for it will inform your whole, entire life.

Billy Joel wrote: "I won't hold back anything; and I'll walk away a fool, or
a king." For my money, if you've done your best, fool or king, there's equal honor in
both. Doing your best is much more important than being the best!

A friend came to visit me last weekend, and he looked over my intended
remarks for tonight. "What are your goals for this speech?" He asked me.

I told him: "I want to tell these kids that they have chosen a sport that
ennobles them."

"So many runners are thought of as loners or geeks. I want these kinds to
recognize themselves as people who are learning to take responsibility for
their lives, people who are learning to control their own destinies."

"I want them to know that the lessons they learn as cross country runners
will stay with them their whole lives, that as a result of being cross
country runners they will gain the habits of winners: setting goals, working
hard, doing their best, being patient, persistent and focused."

"I want them to see that making a commitment, laying it on the line, and
taking a chance pays off more often than not."

"I want them to understand that competition is not an anti-social act, but a
social one and that to give their best is part of the social contract."

"I want them to know that whatever else they do in life will always be
secondary to having been an athlete. That from being an athlete first - -
and especially a long distance runner - - they are already fundamental
victors."

"They don't know it yet - - and they certainly don't understand it - - but
the sport they have chosen will never leave them. It will lead them down
avenues of achievement and success that they cannot yet imagine."

Those are my goals for this speech.

"Then say that," my friend said.

Good idea, I thought. So I just did.

Thank you for listening to me tonight. I have the greatest admiration and
respect for cross-country runners, and it's been a genuine honor for me to
be with you.

May you all have a safe race tomorrow and may you all reach your goals.