U.S. Olympic Trials and This Irrelevant (Yet Valuable) Sport

Newsletter #7

Author

Brett Meyer
May 21, 2024

Hello everyone,

Happy Tuesday! I hope this newsletter finds you well. 

Last month, I competed at Drake Relays and felt it went well. I opened up my season with a time of 3:38 for the 1500m, which is a great sign of fitness and health! I was nervous, to say the least since training has been a little inconsistent since Judah’s arrival, but that's why we built a solid base in the fall and spring, right? Although I didn't place high in this race, it helped boost my confidence going into my next few races. My race at the Sound Running meet in LA was decent. I got out of my comfort zone and received some good stimulus by hitting my second lap of the race in 57 seconds. The last 300m didn't feel the best after that, but I’m hopeful everything will come together soon! I ran a time of 3:39 in this race. This year, I have so much to run for, and I am not going to take these amazing opportunities for granted.

Support for the Trials

My amazing family members have so kindly put together a fundraiser to help sponsor my family and me as we head into the Olympic Trials this June. I may not have an official sponsor, but I have an amazing community of family and friends (you all) who continue to offer the best support someone could ask for.

We would love for you to rep our Hold Fast Running shirts! The proceeds from these sales and your donations help us cover travel and competition expenses. 

Finally, we would really appreciate your prayers. Specifically for safe travel and that God uses us and this platform for his glory. 

Whether you sponsor, purchase a shirt, or keep our family in your prayers, please know that we are incredibly grateful for your kindness and generosity!

MIAA Outdoor Conference Meet in Maryville, MO

A Little Encouragement 

Every year, we recognize our seniors who are moving on after graduating, and we always ask them to share a life lesson they have learned from track or something they are grateful for that came from their time as athletes. The first year we did this, we saw a neat trend among the athletes’ messages. Nobody shared about their flashy personal bests, the time they won a big race or a fancy workout they did. One would think the athletes would share about the time they threw the furthest or ran their fastest time in an event, but they didn’t. The athletes were always moved to tears talking about their teammates and the lifelong friends they gained from this sport. It is very touching and helps us coaches have a great perspective that running fast, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really matter that much… We understand that our main goal is to help these athletes achieve great feats on the track or on the field, but only considering personal records and competition for four years is missing the bigger picture.

Rod Murrow shared the message “Lessons from the Starting Line: Priceless AND Irrelevant” with me after I graduated, and it is a big factor in why I still compete. Running teaches us many lessons and gives us great opportunities, friends, and relationships. That's why running fast isn't all that important, right? Rod's article on MileSplit Kansas is my favorite. I’ve enjoyed sharing my own twist on the message about what running has taught me. 

Can something be both so unimportant that it's almost irrelevant and so valuable that it's almost priceless, all at the same time?

I imagine the instant after you die and come to meet our Savior, one topic that would not come up for discussion is your track and field PR, what place you got in some race, how you did at the conference meet, or even how you did in the Olympics.

This shows that it's unimportant, almost irrelevant, because how you do in some race or event isn't the measure of who you are as a person or how you lived your life.

However, this irrelevant sport has enriched my life and hopefully your lives in ways we can't even describe. That's why it's also so incredibly valuable. I have learned more from this sport in the last eight years that I use every single day of my life than I did in my college classes... maybe that means I was just a lousy student.

But this irrelevant sport has enriched my life greatly. It has taught me how to live, how to persevere, how to have integrity, how to be both passionate and disciplined. This sport has taught me how to run with endurance the race that is set before us. It taught me how to learn from failure and use failure as a tool for growth rather than something that destroys me or makes me quit. It taught me to chase my dreams and find my limits. 

It introduced me to remarkable people from every walk of life, race, and part of the globe. This sport has brought me lifelong friends from all over Kansas and the United States, Africa, Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands, to name a few. My college teammates are still some of my best friends. We've been groomsmen at each other's weddings and there for each other in rough times. It's a bond forged out of a shared struggle to become something better than we were. This irrelevant sport has taken me all over the country to many national meets, and I got to compete at two of them with my high school sweetheart.

This sport has helped me find my purpose. I’m passionate about running, coaching, and educating young athletes, but my purpose is to use this platform given to me to share Christ and what he has done for us on this remarkable journey. God gives us gifts, but it’s our job to find and use that gift! 

So, what does this mean? It means that every time you step on a starting line or step up to your field event, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. You have everything to gain because this sport is so incredibly valuable, and you have nothing to lose because this sport is so unimportant. And if you have everything to gain and nothing to lose, then you have nothing to fear when you're standing on that starting line, and I don't care if that starting line is for some small invitational meet or the Olympic Trials.

Don't let anyone ever convince you that sports are important because they aren't, even though our culture, unfortunately, sends that message, including some well-meaning but misguided coaches and parents. Making sports important can make them destructive rather than valuable. But it's just as important that you don't let anyone ever convince you that sports have no value because the pursuit of excellence in sports can be one of the most valuable things in your life.

Upcoming Races

I met with freelance writer Diane O’Brien about my upcoming journey to the Olympic Trials. She wrote an article about me in 2021 when I was headed to my first Olympic Trials, and it was so neat to visit with her again and reflect on the past few years. Check out her write-up here! 

Hold Fast to the Good News and embolden others to RUN the race! 

Cheers,

Brett, Kelly, and Judah

Sound Running 1500m | Photo by Deeg Designs Photography + Media