I was running to the final stretch in the poorest cross country race of my life. I felt like I trained for nothing, but then I heard a man yelling at me from behind the ropes: “finish hard, Stu” and “I know you're stronger than this.” It seemed unreal that a coach would be happy with the time I was finishing at, but Coach Razor was different.

When I first saw him, I noticed his spiked hair and his strong physique. He’s a little shorter than my six foot height, but he made up for it by being as tough as steel. He personally never seemed to be one of the coaches would care so much about you if you failed to meet your goal, but he surprised me.

I have an older brother named Stephen and he ran cross country for one season. He hated every second of it. Stephen would always be one of the last few guys to finish, but coach Razor always believed in him and cheered him on. After the race, he would talk to my dad about how good Stephen could be. He still hasn’t forgot Stephen even though its been about five years since he was in cross country. Coach Razor is truly a great coach.

Razor and I have had numerous encounters where I think I’m in too much pain and he ends up pushing me like a father pushes his son to be a man. He has taught me how to achieve the goals I set so highly for myself. He helps me achieve these goals by giving me ways to keep helping me imagine and think of actually achieving it. Without Razor, I would’ve never known I could achieve such high goals. A goal I couldn’t have achieved without him is breaking twenty minutes in a five kilometer run. Having talks with him about the race is great because of his personality. He can make me laugh in an instant because of how hilarious he acts. He knows how hard I’ve worked and he wants to do everything he can to help me show it.