My freshman year I won the 400-meter dash in 50.9 seconds, anchored the 4 × 400 meter relay, and won the mile in 4:28. That made me state champion in three events. Dad drove me home in silence. No celebration dinner. No day off. No moment. He parked the car. “Five o’clock will come early. If you’re going to break four minutes by your senior year, you’ve got some work to do.” Somewhere in there it occurred to me that, to my dad, I was only as good as my last time, and in truth, no time was ever good enough.
