Mud & Cocoa: High School X-C Wrap-up

“When you put yourself on the line in a race and expose yourself to the unknown, you learn things about yourself that are very exciting.”~- Doris Brown Heritage

As promised by the local meteorologists, the weather was indeed wet and muddy yesterday afternoon for the Monroe County X-Country (Section V) Championship meet at Mendon Ponds Park. In the true spirit of "old timey" x-country running, there was plenty of wet, slippery, muddy goodness to be had and (from what I could tell) no serious injuries occurred (which had there been it would be no joking matter at all). From the time the first race, Modified Boys, went off at about 11:15 a.m., until the last race (Varsity Boys B at 2:30 p.m.) the weather did not let up for any discernible length of time and the courses continued to deteriorate.

As one of the few parents who had two student's running at opposite ends of the meet schedule, I had the opportunity to stay for nearly the whole meet, a length of time which was made much more comfortable due a hospitality tent and the makeshift "food court" set up by my kids' school's booster club. Beginning with hot chocolate upon my arrival late in the morning until the fare-the-well chili preceding the final run, I was able to keep myself relatively warm despite the occasionally torrential downpour athletes and spectators endured.

Clearly, not only did those folks there to watch the races (like moi), but the students actually competing yesterday had their experiences greatly improved due to the kindness of these not-so strangers.

I suppose it is no coincidence that after having rambled on in this wrap-up that after two paragraphs, I have yet to give any results (all of which for every category and gender are available here). After a cold and successful day, it was my feeling from the athletes and fans that whether finishing first (as some wonderful athletes obviously earned the right to do) or last it was an overall very positive event despite the weather. As alluded earlier in this post, for those folks like me who ran themselves there was something nostalgic about the elements coming into such strong play. It is cliches to suggest that 'everyone was a winner," but if it's so, it's so.

Out of pride, I will share that both my son and daughter finished in the top twenty-five in their respective races and had a wonderful experience... though my daughter insists that she had a poor race by her standards and WILL do better next week at the Sectionals... one things that is sure is that the weather is likely to be much more conducive to a good time if not an odd elemental experience!