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FLY YOUR FLAG

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I am trying to give up doom scrolling. The algorithm knows me well, sucking me in and holding my attention. I don't usually pay attention until the evening, when Callie and I are hanging out and I'm not too interested in another episode of SVU.

Doom scrolling doesn't feel toxic in the moment, but in the four nights I have avoided looking at my phone I've slept better. No anxious 3 am wakeup, no need to take deep calming breaths in the darkness. I often lie there and wonder what I'm worried about and have absolutely no answer. Either that or I obsess about something of no consequence. For instance, the timer on my backyard fountain is acting up. It's supposed to run from dawn to dusk but instead runs from dusk to dawn. In the light of day, it's just an annoyance to be researched and corrected. At 3 am, it's the apocalypse.

Two gentlemen in sweatshirts smile with a lake behind them

Me and my roommate, Sean Railton

So no more doom scrolling, but I'm not done with X. I like checking scores and reading odd bits of interesting minutiae. Steve Magness weighs in daily on his theories about how to do hard things. The Naval Institute posts fascinate me. All those Charlie Kirk conspiracy theories can go hang.

After a magical weekend break for my college reunion last week, hanging out in Marquette with my college buddies, I came back wanting to do more than just stop doom scrolling. My X account doesn't really have an identity beyond sharing Springsteen quotes. What it needs is a sense of purpose. I have settled, perhaps temporarily, on kindness. I've got a running book coming out but there are any number of self-styled running enthusiasts. No one wants to read my training strategies (hint: rest is the magic ingredient at this point in the season). And while I've written 30 books of American history, I prefer to read other people's takes on history (Alex Kershaw is amazing).

I used to be the angry young man. Last weekend, my college buddies told me I was a little "punk rock" back in the day, which is a kind word for emotionally labile. This came as a surprise. Now, I'm increasingly drawn to just being nice to people. Costs nothing. Doesn't take away my edge. I think it might even help me sleep better. Rage festers and grow like cancer. There's no strength in rage but kindness is the opposite of weakness.

After a big meet yesterday, in which my teams ran fast and without fear, a journalist paid me an enormous compliment, stating that the runners "ran with grit and passion, like a typical Dugard team." Wow. Mind blowing. So in the name of kindness and coaching, here's the coaching philosophy I posted on X last week. It applies quite well to every day life: 1) Fly Your Flag, 2) Be On Time, 3) Show Up Every Day, 4) Listen, 5) Work Hard, 5) Recover Easy, and, 6) Be Kind.

The grammar nerds among you will note that I should have separated that sentence by commas instead of semicolons. That is intentional. I was feeling lazy. Anyway, you'll note in those traits that there's nothing about being agro or pushing limits. In what may come as a shocker, my longtime "keep pushing... always" mojo doesn't really vibe anymore. If the daily process is the goal, as it should be, much better to have a runner fly their flag in their own unique way instead of feeling some absurd — and perhaps artificial — need to relentlessly keep their foot on the gas just because their coach demands it.

I have no idea where all this acceptance is coming from. Well, I do, but I've talked about that in this space often enough that you can guess. So Fly Your Flag. I'll fly mine.

Martin Dugard