A winning formula: mentorship!

I grew up in a sport where everything you learned was from riding on the coat tails of the older kid who was faster than you. I'll never forget taking a 200 meter lead on my older brother and trying to hold him off through piece after piece. Mentoring: there is no more successful formula in my book. Everyone gets faster and everyone feels better. The older kid thinks about the quality of teaching his own techniques while feeling good about helping the younger kid.  The younger kid learns the ropes and gets into the mindset of someday being fast like his mentor. Mentorship works. Knowing this benefit, when my son started running, I wanted him to have someone to look up to.  Coginchaug senior, Jeremy happily ran with Peter almost every Wednesday this year. He has allowed Pete to feel like he is part of a team.  You may have seen the two tearing up the turns along Main  Street. Thankfully, Jeremy has taken over so this parent can step back. A real friendship has grown out of mutual respect these boys have for each other.  Today, Peter had a very important "appointment" to get to at 2:30. He hustled down his middle school hallway so he could get to Jeremy's 2:30 Shoreline Championship race.   Throughout all of this, I proudly beamed watching these two boys; the one racing, and the one with such great hope for his own future. Together, they will Go Far. Thanks for sharing your time Jeremy, your future looks bright and so is my son's because you took the time to care.