Individual or Team?

The first athletic games I learned were baseball and football. Somewhere in the mix were croquet and badminton, both of which I played with a passion to win, but neither kept me from going back to baseball and football.

My brothers and I, there were three of us, would make up football plays, handoffs we were sure would score touchdowns. We challenged the Bell Brothers, our black friends, and were overwhelmed by their athleticism. For some reason our well rehearsed plays didn’t work the way we had diagramed them. What was that about? After that lesson, we made our challenges more carefully. If us white boys were not particularly gifted athletically, we did know how to draw water from the well. We invited the Bell Brothers to join our team and we then issued a challenge to our cousins, Garland, Marvin and Doyle Baker. These Bakers lived not just across town, but slightly out of town, in Telferner. They knew neither of their parents would drive them in to play football on the vacant lot next to our house, so they secretly hitchhiked into town, a roundtrip adventure of 16-17 miles. To tell the truth, I had all but forgotten about this grudge football match until Garland recently reminded me of it. I can’t even recall who might have padded out the rest of the Telferner Baker team, but I am told my team, full of Bell “ringers” won going away.

Solo or Ensemble?

If I have learned anything in my pursuit of athletics, a modest quest at best, it is the lesson learned lately that team sports are still a lot of fun. My bones wouldn’t stand even flag football any more, and I never had a baseball player’s eye, though I love the game with a passion. My sport these days is running. I have flirted with triathlon, but really get my kicks, physically and mentally, from moving my feet down the road. It’s a largely solitary activity, as are the races for which we all train. For the most part, that’s fine by me; I am largely a do-it-yourselfer. That’s why I was so surprised a few years ago when I organized my first running team. Six musician runners from the Mid-Texas Symphony teamed up to run the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon, an annual event in Corpus Christi, Texas. None on the team had experience with relay running, so we were all flabbergasted to find how much fun was the team dynamic. Duh….let’s think about this. Six musicians, none of us recitalists or soloists. We were all orchestral players, comfortable in an ensemble. Somehow, it still took us by surprise how the running parallel of orchestral musicmaking was, logically, team running. We fell for it, and fell for it hard.

Not every runner wants to be part of a team. One of our original team runners drifted away, and I have had other runners pass on joining the team, preferring to run alone. That’s fine, though those runners might be surprised to find they would like running with a team. There are several elements of team running which contribute to its appeal. Ask any of us who run with team Mid-Texas Symphony, and we are unanimous in saying it makes us run faster and with greater determination as individuals. This might seem counter-intuitive, but it is at the core of being ensemble musicians. You play your part for the greater good of the orchestra. Play your heart out and those around you will do the same. In the end the sum is greater than the parts. With relay running, it’s much the same. Each runner knows their ability, and what might be extended from that ability, and for the most part everyone gives greater than 100 percent.

I have not been on a running team which contends for first prize. We run for the challenge and run against our expectations. Occasionally we run to beat another team. (I’m still not quite sure why Jonathon Hager seemed so driven to beat the Dairy Queen team at the Texas Independence Relay, but WE DID.) Our Mid-Texas Symphony team has always been a mix of tortoise and hare. Frankly, I am tickled as can be that the fast runners on the team seem to enjoy, or at least tolerate, those of us who run more deliberately (a kind way of saying s-l-o-w-l-y). I like to believe that it is the ensemble dynamic which binds us together: runners with varied abilities teaming for surprising results. But what I also know, and it’s what served so well in that Baker Bowl grudge football match so many years ago, is to look for a few “ringers” when you can. A six minute miler sure goes a long way to making my ten minute mile look like eight. Thanks to my teammates who have given me and the others on the team such thrills over the years.

And now, what I originally set out to say is thanks to those other teammates who helped us so much at the recent Texas Independence Relay (TIR). My sister Brenda Jackson, the original “Wrunner Wrangler,” has been with us from the first Beach to Bay. She was ably abetted by Dorian Ramirez at the TIR. Thanks for keeping us on track and running strong. And then there was the considerable generosity of Carroll Voss, of San Antonio Fleet Feet. Carroll has taught me a great deal about race hydration, while encouraging me to take satisfaction from my modest running accomplishments. Carroll also contributed a variety of Hammer hydration products to team Mid-Texas Symphony for the TIR, keeping us all better able to perform at our respective competitive levels.

And finally, there were individuals who support the Mid-Texas Symphony, board members and others, who gave monetary support to help defray the cost of registering the team for the TIR. Thanks to all of you for your generosity. I hope you enjoy being on our team as much as we enjoy being on yours.