March 27, 2019
In my three days in Maryland at the home of Renaldo Nehemiah to begin work on a biography of him, I kept a journal of my thoughts at the beginning of each day. My notes are below.
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March 25, 2019 (morning)
I was 14 years old when Renaldo Nehemiah became the first hurdler ever to break the 13.00 barrier in the 110m high hurdles. I didn’t see the race when it happened, as I didn’t follow track closely at the time. Not until the following year – my sophomore year of high school – did I start hurdling, and I saw the race on tape when my coach showed it to me one day. I was so in awe that I fell in love with the hurdles instantly. Now here I am at the age of 52, about to board a plane to meet Mr. Nehemiah himself in our beginning stages of collaborating on a book about his life.
I’ve never met Nehemiah in person. I never watched him run in person. In the second year of my website’s existence (2005), I interviewed him for a profile piece I wrote on him. Prior to that profile piece, I had written one on his high school coach, Jean Poquette, who shortly after contacted Renaldo for me, and the connection was made. That interview was a whole lot of fun to conduct, and the subsequent article – some 5,000 words long – turned out really well. I often found myself involuntarily thinking that it was the best writing I had ever done, even though at the time I had let any aspirations of pursuing a professional writing career fade into the background of my mind.
I also interviewed Nehemiah twice in putting together the biography I wrote on Rodney Milburn, A Hurdler’s Hurdler, which was published this past September. So, though I haven’t met him in person, and won’t until this afternoon, I feel like we’ve built a strong relationship through phone interviews and through mutual respect for each other’s work, as well as a mutual love for the art form of hurdling.
As much as I was in awe of that world record race he ran in 1981, I’m equally in awe of the fact that I, an average hurdler in my college days whose personal best was 15.63, am about to co-write a book on the man whom many consider to be the greatest hurdler ever, and a man who definitely was an idol of mine in my early teen years.
When I first started teaching English back in 1994, my plan was to stick with teaching for a few years on my way to becoming a published author. But it took 25 years to become a published author. In that time I settled into the life of a teacher and coach, and indeed have had much success as a hurdles coach. Yet here I am about to embark upon my second book, which goes to show that I had to take the long and winding path to finding myself as a writer, and as a complete person. Between my roles as teacher, coach, and now author, I feel like I’ve finally found the balance in my life that I was always seeking. It feels really good to be able to say that.
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March 26, 2019 (morning)
Yesterday Renaldo invited me into his home, and I am writing this post from the guest room where he is allowing me to stay until I return home tomorrow. Yesterday I met his wife Lynn and stepson August, and felt quite welcome and at ease here. My day consisted of a lot of pleasant conversation mixed with long interview sessions and some very good food. Renaldo is an outstanding cook. Don’t sleep. I feel like the book is starting to take shape in my mind. Yesterday’s interview sessions focused on his track career, and today we will get more into his personal life, his personal values, his family life, etc. The whole point is to ultimately tie it all together, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. The initial interviews are all about creating the pieces. I can already say that I’ve fully moved on from being a fan of Nehemiah, and feel more like a friend and collaborator. The beauty of biography is that it demystifies people, reveals their humanity, and thereby makes them more real.
This man didn’t have to pick me up at the airport. He didn’t have to let me stay at his house. He didn’t have to cook me dinner. But he did anyway. That alone speaks to who Renaldo Nehemiah is as a man, and also serves to explain why I wanted to write a book about him after finishing the book I wrote on Rodney Milburn.
As I told Renaldo, the thing that impressed me the most when I interviewed him back in 2005 for my website was how he talked about hurdling as an art form. Most hurdlers can’t get deep with it like that, can’t see beyond the winning and the losing and the times on the watch. I had always viewed hurdling as an art form, so when he mentioned that, I felt like I instantly understood how he was able to run with such fluidity and ease of motion. I understood why watching him hurdle made me say “wow” to a degree that has never occurred with any other hurdler, even though there have been some who have run faster since he retired.
It’s like Coltrane once said, when you hear someone playing an instrument, you’re not just hearing that man play that instrument; you’re hearing that man. Who that man is comes out of the horn. Similarly, Renaldo’s races were an expression of who he was as a person. And now that I’ve gotten to know that person a whole lot better over the last 24 hours, I can much more fully appreciate how true that is. Renaldo is a no-nonsense, to the point, let’s get it done kind of guy. He’s a very confident person. Very self-assured. He’s a competitor. He’s practical. He’s a man of faith, but that faith is grounded in reality. He believes that all is possible through God, but not if you’re not doing the work. And without being showy about it in any way, he is compassionate, caring, and empathetic. I’m excited. I feel like this is going to be a great book.
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March 27, 2019 (morning)
Did more interviewing yesterday, touching on Renaldo’s personal life and the role that his religious faith has played (and plays) in his life. Overall, I have over six hours of interview material to work from, which will be enough to formulate a plan of what each chapter will consist of, and to provide foundational material for each of the chapters. The plan will be to follow up with more questions once I’ve written a rough draft sketch of each chapter so that we can continue to add layers to the story as a whole. Our goal is for this to be much more than a sports biography, but to be a book that has appeal to all people who are facing metaphorical hurdles in their own lives, that inspires the youth, that provides insight into the “inner stuff” that is needed to overcome life’s struggles, and that reminds us all of our common humanity.
Soon I’ll be boarding a plane that will take me back to my home in North Carolina, while Renaldo will be boarding a plane to Florida to watch his athletes who are competing in the Florida Relays, and to visit with his youngest daughter. I am grateful for the two-plus days I’ve had to spend time with him and work with him. My whole purpose in making this trip to Maryland was to get a feel for the man behind the legend, to see him in ordinary situations so that I could better understand how he was able to accomplish such extraordinary things. Also, I felt that if we were going to work on this project together, he deserved to meet me face to face so he could gain a clearer idea of who this person was who wanted to write a book about him. Phone conversations are very useful, phone interviews are very useful, email and social media communication serve a purpose, but there’s nothing like being in another person’s presence and getting a sense of that person’s energy, of that person’s spirit, in a private setting.
Several years ago I wrote a personal essay that I entitled “Every Journey is a Pilgrimage,” and the theme of that essay was that every time you travel somewhere, you’re not the same person when you return that you were when you left. You’ve experienced new things, become more aware of things about yourself and the world. You’ve grown in some way, you’ve gained more clarity about who you are and your larger purpose. The journey can be as short as going to the grocery store or as long as a three-week trip around the world. Or, in my case, a three-day trip during my spring break. It doesn’t matter. The point is, something inside of you changes. And it’s the inner journey that makes the outer journey a pilgrimage. So, visiting Renaldo Nehemiah in his home in Maryland has been, for me, a pilgrimage. It has taken me away from the comfort zone of my everyday life as an English teacher and hurdles coach, it put me on a plane and landed me in an airport where it took me way too long to find my way to ground level (that’s a story for another day), and it gave me an opportunity to spend valuable time with one of my childhood heroes.
I have work to do. Honestly, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. It’s that same feeling I get when I open the box of a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle: yes, I’m eager to get started, but dang, this is going to take a long time. I got a lot done while here, but the work has only just begun. The vision in my mind of how this book will take shape is still being formed. Transcribing the interview notes, putting them together with the research I’ve already done, doing more research, creating a list of more people to interview, interviewing them, transcribing those interviews, sketching out the chapters, incorporating the new material into the sketches, and about 140 other tasks still lie ahead of me. But this is my life. This is the life I have chosen. This is an opportunity to use my gifts in a way that can truly have a meaningful impact on the world. I don’t take that lightly. I am grateful to be who I am, right here, right now.
I’ll be sure to keep posting updates, so keep checking back. Thank you.
