It's about 5 PM on Saturday night as I am beginning to record my thoughts about today's State championship cross-country race. I'll admit to being 
a little worn-out. We got-up early to drive an hour and a half to the high school (let's call it Hartford High) hosting the State championship. Judy's team was running in the 4A division (the toughest in the State) and their race was slated to begin at 10:00 AM. The girls were pretty relaxed but for parents, the combination of a tough field of competitors and what has to be considered the States most challenging course created a "perfect storm" for generating anxiety. It was a real challenge for Jane and I, but our training paid off. In all seriousness, this was my first time at any State championship event and it was exciting. The temperature was great for spectators, but maybe a little too warm for the runners; the sky was crystal clear and the moon was hanging around. The spectators were kept in a fenced-in corral that had a good view of the race, but we were definitely kept at a distance from the runners and were not allowed anywhere near the finish line. There were a couple of amazing athelets that were very impressive to watch run this course. Judy's team had a great race finishing tenth out of the twenty teams that qualified to run at States, which was the best they had hoped for. Below is the starting sequence at the beginning of the race.
a little worn-out. We got-up early to drive an hour and a half to the high school (let's call it Hartford High) hosting the State championship. Judy's team was running in the 4A division (the toughest in the State) and their race was slated to begin at 10:00 AM. The girls were pretty relaxed but for parents, the combination of a tough field of competitors and what has to be considered the States most challenging course created a "perfect storm" for generating anxiety. It was a real challenge for Jane and I, but our training paid off. In all seriousness, this was my first time at any State championship event and it was exciting. The temperature was great for spectators, but maybe a little too warm for the runners; the sky was crystal clear and the moon was hanging around. The spectators were kept in a fenced-in corral that had a good view of the race, but we were definitely kept at a distance from the runners and were not allowed anywhere near the finish line. There were a couple of amazing athelets that were very impressive to watch run this course. Judy's team had a great race finishing tenth out of the twenty teams that qualified to run at States, which was the best they had hoped for. Below is the starting sequence at the beginning of the race.
About 5 minutes before the start of the race. The girls walked to the starting line in their warm-up clothes and then lined-up for the race to start in their team uniforms.
Bang! The girls are off, fighting for position in the pack. Whereas you don't want to go out too fast, it's important to get somewhere near the front so that your not at the back of pack and spend the whole race running around all the slower runners. Not that I have had that experience.
After this picture I saw Judy a couple of times but couldn't get any good pictures, because I was too far away from the course and had a hard time picking out Judy in time to get focused. Anyway, it was a good day.
1 comment:
Hello Jetson,
Jane linked me to this. Very funny. That job at mega science corp must not be too inspirational. All is well here.
nnr
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