Week 9: Boy Named Sue
A Metaphor to Season Goals, The Journey, Practice, Racing & Reflecting.
At the heart of A Boy Named Sue is a simple motive, it’s a boy’s journey to find and confront the man who named him Sue. Finding a motive towards anything is truly the heart of everything. When you find your motivation, you find a clarity and your goals begin to come alive. Our motivations are running, for a boy named Sue, as life beat him down, his motivation was to cure the curse of being born to this rotten man. For Sue the ultimate remedy was to kill his Father, it’s farcical but all of the elements of planning, practicing, traveling around in preparation towards a final goal exist in this story and they all directly relate to how runners train. So here we go, time for the list of important Metaphorical take aways.
Season Goals
Examine why you want to run. For Sue he identified with being disrespected daily for his name which was rooted in the ultimate disrespect that his father served him when he was born. This is a very personal thing for Sue. Personal goals are just that, very deep rooted motivations that runners need to tap into. Deep roots weather harsh conditions from season to season gaining foresights into the future through reflecting on past experiences that presented the opportunity to wither and giving up across dry spells and hard times. Take sometime to consider your deep-rooted motivations and your goals should start to come alive and our Journey as a team will begin.
The Journey
But I grew up quick and I grew up mean
My fist got hard and my wits got keen
Roam from town to town to hide my shame
But I made me a vow to the moon and stars
I'd search the honky tonks and bars
And kill that man that gave me that awful name
Practice, practice, practice. By the time Sue tracks down his own rotten old dad he’s hardened himself through his daily conquest. Getting in fights and practicing his lines right up to the moment that he finds the dirty, mangy dog that gave him that name. If we’re going to get fast and if we are going to reach our potential we’ve got to focus on training everyday. It’s important to know and understand the purpose of training, why we run particular workouts and why we take rest days. Also just as important are recovery practices, sleep and fueling work outs. All of this is to prepare us for our final show down.
Racing
My favorite part of this song is the final show down between Sue and his Dad. When Sue’s dad cuts off a piece of his ear it becomes clear to Sue that killing his big and bent, gray old dad was not going to be as easy as he thought. Every race we run across the season is prepping us for this kind of conflict. That final showdown race where we should be at our peak fitness and the opportunity is there that anything could happen. We have to understand that our opponents have been preparing too. As Sue finally gains the upper hand his old man looks at him and smiles. Essentially the race or fight is over and Sue’s dad tells why he gave him that name.
"Now you just fought one heck of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right to kill me now
And I wouldn't blame you if you do
But you ought to thank me, before I die
For the gravel in ya gut and the spit in ya eye
'Cause I'm the son of a bitch that named you Sue"
What could I do?
Reflecting
As Sue reflects on his journey to this point he realizes his dad was right, if it wasn’t for that name he would not have had the life or journey that he did. In our training and races it’s our teammates and other schools that challenge us and push us to our limits. Sue see’s that with his dad, he has been the driver to his motivation and he get’s all choked up and gives him a hug. Sue gains respect and an appreciation for his enemy. These are the moments we share with teammates and runners from other schools with great reverence for pushing one another to the limit.
Finally, when Sue looks back at all of the hard things he had to overcome it becomes obvious that he now has the ability to change the future by naming his son anything but Sue. That’s the purpose to sports, we want to have a challenging experience that leaves us changed at the end, a true journey. When the season is over we want to reflect on what we were able to accomplish and what we can do to improve on our next season.