I will never forget this story related to a conversation between a talented, but lazy as hell teammate and a zealous, young coach of mine in college:
Coach: You're ready for Penn Relays?
Teammate: What? What is that?
Coach: (now smiling) It's a big race up in Philadelphia; I signed you up for the 5k.
Teammate: What? Why you do that?
Coach: You've been training right? There's nothing to worry about. (with a bit of sarcasm; he knew the guy was running no more than 20 miles a week and was trying to get a reason to ship him back to Kenya or take his scholarship and let him quit/transfer)
Teammate: So when's the race?
Coach: 2 weeks.
Teammate: Okay; I'll be ready.
Results: 14:12 5k.
That was the first time in my life where I was excited for a friend, but at the same time wanted to kick his butt for not trying/training harder. Anyone from Butler University would know exactly who I'm talking about.