This is another in the “Sunday Story” series. No politics today, just a story about Cross Country running, and the toughest day in the season – the Regional, the meet to qualify for the State.
Last Meet
I went to the Regional Cross Country meet yesterday at Pickerington North High School. It’s my last meet of the year. My job was as an umpire, a crowd controller, and observer. I saw a little bit of some great races, but to be honest, I can’t allow myself to focus on “racing”. That path leads to my old role in Cross Country, as a coach; and that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m in the black and white uniform of an official, not the black and gold of a bygone era. So I focused on the job at hand, not the spectacle of our sport.
Regional competition is the most pressure packed of the entire season. Sure, next week’s State Meet is a big deal, huge as a matter of fact, but it’s nowhere near as serious as the Regional. Next week when runners line up at “Fortress Obetz”, the current site of the Ohio Championships, they will have already achieved two things. They are “State Qualifiers”, on the list of the few and the best. And they are running the last “high school” race they can run this season. They will finish the year at the end – nothing is left “on the table”.
So running in the Regional has all of the pressure of making it to the State, of becoming one of those few and best. There is no “mercy” in Cross Country; whatever was achieved leading up to the Regional meet is just history. Ask the elite Division I boy who fell in the “pack” at the front of the race in the first half mile. There were kids all around him. When he fell, I’m sure every one of them tried to avoid stepping or falling on him. But spiked shoes still tore his arm, and ended his, and his coach’s, dream of “State”. There’s no “alternate” qualifying based on some earlier performance. It’s all about today’s race; perform and move on; falter and the season’s over.
Figure it Out
When I was coaching, the Regional was so important that I altered our entire training regimen to match the Regional course. In most of those years the meet was held on the hills of the Lancaster High School, the most difficult qualifying course in the state. In the mid-1980’s, I found ways to make hill work a fundamental aspect of our team training. That wasn’t so easy, it’s not like there’s a lot of “hills” in the Pataskala area. So we travelled to hills, found “hidden” hills within running distance from school, and even had team “arguments” about whether one frequent workout was really on a hill (“Really, this isn’t a hill, it’s simply a gradual incline…” declared our obdurate lead runner, Chuck).
Sometimes those hill sessions cost us in the short run. Pounding on steep hills at the back of Infirmary Mound Park in Granville or on York Road south of Morse required days of recovery. A Wednesday “travel-day” workout might still be in runners’ legs on a Saturday “race-day”. But it didn’t matter; all of the hill work in September got us ready for Lancaster at the end of October; the leaves changing, the covered bridge thundering with the pace of a hundred runners, and the hill in the front in the second mile, where the outcome was determined.
Get There
Watkins Cross Country runners still have nightmares (they’ve told me) of that front hill, and the eerie, long distance command from me: “ARRRRRRMS”. It was my shorthand; use your arms when your legs are failing, drive your arms to get your knees to lift, don’t be afraid to “pay the price” up the slope. At the top; make the turn, and “let it go”. Let gravity rip you past the others; fly down the hill. Don’t waste energy breaking, slowing – it’s “free speed”. Use it. It took years to figure out the strategy, to decipher the course.
But year after year, that got us to the State meet. When we lined up for that final race, we might still have some Lancaster hill fatigue left in our legs – but we were there.
Pickerington North’s course is deceptive. It seems flat, and yesterday, incredibly fast. But it still “runs” like a hard course, like one with hills and other obstacles, rather than the “flat/fast” race courses that makes up a lot of modern Cross Country competition. I’m not sure I ever figured it out, the way we did Lancaster. Speed more than strength seems to be the key – but too much speed early at Pickerington leaves runners struggling in the far-quiet reaches of the back side of the course.
Watch the Best
It was a good day overall. After forty years of Central Ohio Cross Country, I saw a whole lot of old friends, and even a few old adversaries. I had several conversations with spectators, about the course, and the pressure, and the nature of our sport. And I ran into several of my “old runners” and students, graying; and cheering on their kids competing in the race. As an umpire, there’s always some “down time” to converse.
And I got to hang out with some of the best officials in Ohio. Our crew has decades of experience. Everyone knows their job, and does it with a lack of “officiousness”. It’s important to put the athletes at ease and help them do their best, even as the “black and white” of rule and schedule was maintained. One young athlete watching the races, asked me why he saw the same officials week after week, no matter what school was sponsoring the competition. My answer: these officials are the best, so they work at the biggest meets.
It was an honor to be a part of that crew yesterday. Many of them will serve at “Fortress Obetz” next week – I’d wish them “luck”, but I know, regardless of what happens, they’ll do what’s right. They’ll follow the rules, and they’ll take care of kids as well.
Regional week, the toughest week in Cross Country, is over. State week, the “funnest” week in Cross Country, has begun.
The Sunday Story Series
- Riding the Dog – 1/24/21
- Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
- A Track Story – 2/7/21
- Ritual – 2/14/21
- Voyageur – 2/19/21
- A Dog Story – 2/25/21
- A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
- Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
- Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
- More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
- Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
- A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
- My Teachers – 5/9/21
- Old Friends – 5/23/21
- The Gift – 6/6/21
- Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
- Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
- Running Memories – 7/25/21
- Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
- Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
- The New Guy – 9/5/21
- Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
- The Interview – 9/26/21
- Night Moves – 10/3/21
- Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
- National Security – 10/24/21
- Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
- Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
- Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
- Watching Brian 12/12/21
- Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
- Team Trips – 12/26/21
- Uphill, Both Ways – 1/9/22
- Old Trophies – 1/30/22
- The Last Time – 2/7/22
- Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
- Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
- Track Weather – 4/3/22
- What’s Missing – 4/11/22
- A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
- Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
- Origin Stories – 5/22/22
- Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
- Back at State – 6/5/22
- Out in the Country – 6/19/22
- Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
- Car Stories I – 7/24/22
- Car Stories II – 7/31/22
- Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
- Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
- New to the Pack – 8/21/22
- Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
- A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
- Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
- Fair or Foul – 2/26/23
- Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
- Busy Season – 5/15/23
- Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23
- A Pole Vault Story -6/11/23
- End of an Era – 6/25/23
- Paybacks – 7/2/23
- Graying in Pataskala – 7/17/23
- Being a Goat – 7/23/23
- Toy Truck – 8/20/23
- Medical Terms – 8/27/23
- Missing Margaritaville – 9/3/23
- The McGowan – 9/10/23
- Who’s Watching – 10/22/23
- The Saturday Before – 10/29/23
