Don’t Settle

Leigh’s favorite statements and life lessons – lessons she lived by and that she preached to her runners and students and anyone else who would listen – were “you’re stronger than you think” and “don’t settle.”  She actually gave me credit for the notion of “don’t settle.”  Even though she was one of the top runners in the state of Kansas, she never won her own conference championship in her strongest race, the two-mile.  There was an outstanding runner from Lawrence, Kansas. named Mary Powell, who was in the same conference.  She and Leigh had some classic duels where Leigh would push the pace and try to burn out  Mary’s closing speed,  but Mary was always able to out-sprint Leigh in the final few strides to beat her, usually by a second or two.  The fact that she couldn’t even win her conference championship really frustrated Leigh.  We would discuss strategy and I would try to encourage her.  I knew she was carrying too much weight, but I didn’t know why.   She and Mary were about the same height, but Leigh weighed at least 30 pounds more than Mary.   Her extra weight coupled with the pounding her legs were taking led to numerous stress fractures.   I thought her weight issue was due to  a metabolism problem.  Leigh knew the real reason, though.  Unknown to Louise and I, Leigh had an eating problem.  She was bingeing on junk food and at the time was unable to control it.  I knew she had the potential to run much faster if she could get her weight down.  My concern was that she might give up and settle for just being second to the  Mary Powell’s that she would face in her career.  I guess I must have used those words at one time or another, because it stuck with her.

After the abduction in 1989 when she was at App State, she finally realized that she could control her life, to include what she put in her body.  She went on to a great running career at App State and became one of the top road racers in the south.  A year or two after graduating, Leigh met her old high school nemesis, Mary Powell, in a road race in Charlotte.   Mary, who had been a star runner at Wake Forest, was no match for Leigh in the Summer Breeze 5K  as Leigh won the race going away.

Leigh used “don’t settle” with her runners and students at Watauga High.  She would recruit athletes who had been cut from other sports, such as football or soccer and tell them that they don’t have to settle for being a non-competitive athlete in high school.  Once she got them hooked on running, she would tell them “You don’t have to settle for being a good runner; you can become an all-conference or even an all-state runner if you’re willing to work with me and if that’s what you want to be.”   Some of those “cut” athletes went on to become outstanding high school and college runners.   She even used that notion with non-athletes in her Fitness class and in her Exercise Science classes.    She impacted many students by telling them “You don’t have to settle for being what you are if you aren’t happy with what you are.”  Many of those “non-athletes” are now runners for life.

If Leigh were with us today, her lesson to each of us would be,  “You’re stronger than you think, so don’t settle for being less than what you are capable of.”

 Leigh in a high school cross- country race; probably her junior year in Kansas.