BELL LAP #33

CAN CROSS COUNTRY HELP KIDS LEARN TO WALK? (November 15, 2000)

As we wrap up another high school cross-country season, I'm reminded of everything the sport has to offer teenagers--health, fitness, camaraderie, a sense of belonging, an opportunity to learn to deal with life's ups and downs, a chance to exorcise personal demons.

And one more--running's ability to inspire confidence in being able to hoof it. We adult runners know the feeling. We run up hills, through traffic, into the countryside, and straight through areas of town where, for one reason or another, we wouldn't normally set foot. We do so with conviction, confident in the power of two legs and a high-functioning cardiovascular system.

Sometimes we forget how rare this is in today's world. I've been reading "A Walk in the Woods," Bill Bryson's insightful and often hilarious account of hiking the Appalachian Trail. As Bryson reports at one point, "On average the total walking of an American these days--that's walking of all types: from car to office, from office to car, around the supermarket and shopping malls--adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day."

This is followed by the author's account of his attempt to get insect repellent in Waynesboro, Virginia. A man suggests he might find it at the local K-Mart, then is stunned to learn that Bryson plans to go there without benefit of car.

"It's well over a mile," the man warns. "Maybe a mile and a half, mile and three-quarters." When he hears that Bryson won't be dissuaded from walking this incredible distance, he wishes him good luck and, in a final effort to talk some sense into him, recommends a cab company around the corner. Bryson declines, and earns another good luck as he heads down the road.

Maybe this reaction shouldn't surprise. It's rare, after all, that anyone anywhere in this country gets where they want to go on foot. Even kids. According to information reported by the Center for Disease control in Atlanta, in the 1950s and 60s, 50% of American kids walked or biked to school. That number today is...10%. A measly one out of ten. We know this instinctively by seeing the number of parents who drop their kids off at school each day. It may be concern for traffic, fear of predators, or just the simplest way to silence whining offspring, but it happens. I've been there.

And that brings me back to high school cross country. It is, certainly, the BEST way to nudge teenagers toward a fit lifestyle. Training does that. And in the process, traveling through neighborhoods on foot also gives kids a sense that one's own power might actually be of some practical use. I've spent a fair amount of time on cold winter evenings escorting high school runners through ten mile runs in the dark. I'm always amazed that there are still kids willing and able to do this. But I also know that, once he or she does it, the world is a different place. Forever.

Both my daughters ran cross country this fall. I can't claim miraculous transformations as a result, because both are still typical teenagers, insisting that they can't go anywhere except by auto. Both, in fact, still complain when I park too far from the front door of the mall.

And so occasionally, I have to turn to them and say, "You run five miles a day but you can't walk all the way to that door?"

And they glance at each other. Then they start walking, because they know they can make it. And that, I think, may be cross-country's greatest gift.