Welcome to the official blog of U.S. marathon runner Josh Cox. Every other Wednesday visit http://joshcox.thefinalsprint.com for Cox’s latest blog entry and for more information, also please visit: www.joshcox.com
“I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.
Oh, I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.”
-The Ramones,
I Believe in Miracles“Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn’t be there to help you along.
So I give ya that name and I said good-bye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s that name that helped to make you strong.”
- A Boy Named Sue
(A song written by Shel Silverstein made famous by Johnny Cash. A song about a dad who names his son Sue and leaves - the son vows to exact his revenge for his awful name. He finds his dad, fights him, his dad gets up, smiles, and explains why he named him Sue. )“The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian literary giant & Casino fiend
Somewhere around 41 miles, in the high hills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains the race came undone. I could no longer run; a humbling experience for a self-assured 22-year-old college senior who, several hours earlier, had thought running a 50-mile race was a good idea. For the first time in my life I wished I were jogging – oh the horror – anything but the “J-word.” But alas, I was doing the S-word. Shuffling. Shuffling is what we runner’s do, we bypass the jog and enter straight into the shuffle. It’s part of the unwritten code – run slow, shuffle, but never, ever jog.
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Check back every other Wednesday for his latest entry and for more information about Cox, also please visit: www.joshcox.com
In ‘97 Cox ran and won a 50-mile ultra, in ’99 he ran his first marathon making him the youngest Trials qualifier. The following year he clocked 2:13, which opened the door for him to train with the world’s best in Kenya. Cox has tried his hand at Reality TV, been all over magazine covers and is a fixture in the sport.
CARPE DIEM
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights leader“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.”
- Francis Bacon, English philosopher and statesman“Never, never, never quit.”
- Winston Churchill, Author, soldier and Prime Minister
October 1980, Paul David Hewson and his band - formally known as “Feedback” and “The Hype” - had just released their first full-length album, Boy. Their single “I Will Follow” climbed the UK charts and their star was born. Around that time, the band joined a religious group in Dublin, the Shalom Fellowship. Time passed and some of Shalom’s leaders began criticizing the bands “involvement in the world.” The leaders told the band that in order to please God they would have to give up rock ‘n’ roll.
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“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”
- Jim Valvano
Below are textual excerpts from my interview with U.S. Olympic Marathon hopeful JOSH COX.
NOTE: To listen to the interview in it’s entirety via Episode 99 of The Final Sprint Podcast, please click here.
In the interview Cox talks about a multitude of topics, such as: Sunday’s U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials, his comeback, his father’s battle with cancer, their father-son relationship, faith, his “calling”, GodTube, Team Running USA, the transition to Mammoth, and much more!
On Competing in Sunday’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials:
“I’m gonna run November 3rd like it’s the last 26.2 miles of my life”
“[Once I’m at that start line] - I’m gonna let it rip. A lot of guys are motivated by a lot of different things but I am running this [race] for my Dad.”
On His Comeback – Physically, Mentally and Emotionally:
“I’m excited that I am excited about running again which is something I hadn’t been for the last two years.”
“I was basically the fat kid when I first showed up to Mammoth] … I am just getting’ my butt handed to me daily by Meb”
“My Dad told me, ‘Just be faithful with what God has entrusted in you’ … [and now when I run] that’s what this is all about.”
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My Dad thought I could be the first person on Mars. He also believed I could be the first female president. He figured I was smart and talented; therefore, there was nothing of which I was not capable. Nothing. When I ran my first 5K and finished in about 33 minutes, he wondered aloud, as if were the most realistic thought in the world, why I wasn’t in the group of runners finishing sooner. Did that bother me? No. This is how my dad has always been, pushing me (and my siblings) because he thinks it’s the most natural fact that I would succeed.
The thing is that I’m never the one at the front of the finish line. When I was in eighth grade, I was forced to sign up for a field day event. I was painfully skinny, comically uncoordinated and god-awful scared of anything slightly athletic. Whatever event I was assigned to, I had made up my mind that I’d likely lose. The only available slot for the races was on the end of a 4-person relay and I was quite certain I’d let the other three down. Was my Dad going to let that attitude persist? No way.
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Jim Fortner is a weekly, guest contributor to TheFinalSprint.com. Make sure to also check out his own personal running and advice site: “Jim2’s Running Page”.
I was angry….and hurt. But, mostly, I was tired. Drained. The events of the day had exhausted me, both physically and emotionally..
Although it was a nice day for a run ….. cool and dry ….. and I hadn’t run for a couple of days, I really didn’t want to do it. But, I knew a run would be good for me. And I had to get off to myself. Away from the others for awhile. So, I began.
My legs felt heavy. My breathing quickly became labored, even though I kept the pace slower than usual. This was not going to be a good one.
Two miles into the run, he joined me. His presence, which I sensed suddenly, startled me. I had never known him to run a step in his life. Oh, he wasn’t unfit. He worked hard all his life. Often, under brutally hot and humid conditions that were typical of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And, there he was. Running with me.
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