I used this to segue into my little lesson that some people are simply more talented than others. There was only one math genius in the room (who was a COM/communications major, by the way) and, let’s face it, some folks are just born fast … howEVER, what I love about distance running is that hard work closes the gap between clever and genius. A former athlete of mine used to say, “When talent doesn’t work, hard work beats talent.”
Next, I held up a single grape and said, “Here is your talented runner, your genius, in cross-country.” I placed this one grape under the weight of a brick and said, “In a cross country race, one runner cannot win the team race.” The weight of the brick literally crushed the grape (nice visual there!), but when I placed five grapes - five to signify the 5 scoring runners on an XC team - under the brick, none of the grapes were smashed. That’s what makes cross-country such an amazing TEAM sport. One lone grape isn’t enough. You need the whole bunch.
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