Paul Lacoste speaks to the PLS participants.
“I’m here today because of you, Ramsey.”
A familiar voice came out of the darkness behind me. It was 5 a.m. and the waning Harvest moon struggled to illuminate the Madison Central football field. Our six lines were stretching.
“I went to bed at 2:30 this morning but I’m here. All because you wrote what you wrote in your blog yesterday.”
It was Daryl, a longtime friend. Daryl and I worked out together years ago at the Y. He was much heavier then. Over 100 lbs. heavier. He’s one of Paul Lacoste’s earliest success stories.
“You know, the part where you talked about putting your feet on the floor.”
I knew exactly what he was talking about. Because I had one of those moments today, too. But my feet hit the floor. See, I didn’t want to disappoint the person in front of me. John is another PLS success story. He has lost over 50 lbs. and is training for a Spartan race. He’s also my workout partner. Sure, I wanted to sleep this morning, but I didn’t want to let him down this morning by not showing up.
Yesterday, I was sprinting next to Christina. She’s one of the more accomplished people I know personally, professionally and athletically. Christina is a tough competitor. She started to pull ahead of me on the 50-yard sprint. I kicked it in and barely beat her by one of my gray whiskers. She made me work harder. She made me get better.
Today I was running with Kevin as we ran a mile on the track. He told me about his uncle who is undergoing melanoma treatment. Later, when Scott, one of our new guys, was struggling with an exercise, Kevin stepped in and got the whole line to halt so that we could do the exercise with him. That’s leadership. And another great example of the dynamic of our line.
We push each other, help each other, motivate each other and are friends with each other. It’s a friendship that’s forged with sweat and effort.
I can go run 12 miles by myself. And I do it all the time. But the greatest satisfaction is adding friends to my workout routine. Paul Lacoste’s catch phrase is “Next Level.” I think the friendships you build while giving your all are the strongest friendships of your life — it’s truly friendship to the next level.