Found This Forty-Year-Old Note

Back in the day, as The World’s Slowest Professional Runner, got a little depressed once in a while.

Guessing more than a couple types of fatigue.

Imagine if you wanted to be fast…

imagine if you wanted to win…

imagine you wanted to be good and worked so hard, so very hard. – JDW

Prefontaine 10K. Coos Bay, OR. 1979ish. Pre wasn’t scared of hills.

Feeling sorry for myself.

Guessing late ’70s.

Here’s the note:

“Whenever there’s more than one

race in the region,

all the fast guys show up

at the same starting line.

First time you finish towards the front,

the papers will

spell your name wrong.

First time you actually win a race

papers won’t

publish the results.”

Never, never, never

never give up.

Never.