{"id":6747,"date":"2023-10-29T09:18:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T13:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=6747"},"modified":"2023-10-29T09:18:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T13:18:07","slug":"the-saturday-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2023\/10\/29\/the-saturday-before\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saturday Before"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is another in the \u201cSunday Story\u201d series.  No politics today, just a story about Cross Country running, and the toughest day in the season \u2013 the Regional, the meet to qualify for the State.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Meet<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I went to the Regional Cross Country meet yesterday at Pickerington North High School.  It\u2019s 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\u2019t allow myself to focus on \u201cracing\u201d.  That path leads to my old role in Cross Country, as a coach; and that\u2019s not what I\u2019m supposed to be doing.  I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional competition is the most pressure packed of the entire season.  Sure, next week\u2019s State Meet is a big deal, huge as a matter of fact, but it\u2019s nowhere near as serious as the Regional.  Next week when runners line up at \u201cFortress Obetz\u201d, the current site of the Ohio Championships, they will have already achieved two things.  They are \u201cState Qualifiers\u201d, on the list of the few and the best.  And they are running the last \u201chigh school\u201d race they can run this season.  They will finish the year at the end \u2013 nothing is left \u201con the table\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So running in the Regional has all of the pressure of making it to the State, of becoming one of those few and best.\u00a0\u00a0There is no \u201cmercy\u201d in Cross Country; whatever was achieved leading up to the Regional meet is just history.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ask the elite Division I boy who fell in the \u201cpack\u201d at the front of the race in the first half mile.\u00a0\u00a0There were\u00a0\u00a0kids all around him.\u00a0\u00a0When he fell, I\u2019m sure every one of them tried to avoid stepping or falling on him.\u00a0But spiked shoes still tore his arm, and ended his, and his coach\u2019s, dream of \u201cState\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s no \u201calternate\u201d qualifying based on some earlier performance.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s all about today\u2019s race; perform and move on; falter and the season\u2019s over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure it Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I was coaching, the Regional was so important that I altered our entire training regimen to match the Regional course.\u00a0\u00a0In most of those years the meet was held on the hills of the Lancaster High School, the most difficult qualifying course in the state.\u00a0\u00a0In the mid-1980\u2019s, I found ways to make hill work a fundamental aspect of our team training.\u00a0\u00a0That wasn\u2019t so easy, it\u2019s not like there\u2019s a lot of \u201chills\u201d in the Pataskala area.\u00a0\u00a0So we travelled to hills, found \u201chidden\u201d hills within running distance from school, and even had team \u201carguments\u201d about whether one frequent workout was really on a hill (“Really, this isn\u2019t a hill, it\u2019s simply a gradual incline\u2026\u201d declared our obdurate lead runner, Chuck).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201ctravel-day\u201d workout might still be in runners\u2019 legs on a Saturday \u201crace-day\u201d.  But it didn\u2019t 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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get There<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Watkins Cross Country runners still have nightmares (they\u2019ve told me) of that front hill, and the eerie, long distance command from me:  \u201cARRRRRRMS\u201d.  It was my shorthand; use your arms when your legs are failing, drive your arms to get your knees to lift, don\u2019t be afraid to \u201cpay the price\u201d up the slope.  At the top; make the turn, and \u201clet it go\u201d.  Let gravity rip you past the others; fly down the hill.  Don\u2019t waste energy breaking, slowing \u2013 it\u2019s \u201cfree speed\u201d.  Use it.  It took years to figure out the strategy, to decipher the course.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 but we were there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pickerington North\u2019s course is deceptive.  It seems flat, and yesterday, incredibly fast.  But it still \u201cruns\u201d like a hard course, like one with hills and other obstacles, rather than the \u201cflat\/fast\u201d race courses that makes up a lot of modern Cross Country competition.  I\u2019m not sure I ever figured it out, the way we did Lancaster.  Speed more than strength seems to be the key \u2013 but too much speed early at Pickerington leaves runners struggling in the far-quiet reaches of the back side of the course.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the Best<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It was a good day overall.\u00a0\u00a0After forty years of Central Ohio Cross Country, I saw a whole lot of old friends, and even a few old adversaries.\u00a0 I had several conversations with spectators, about the course, and the pressure, and the nature of our sport.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And I ran into several of my “old runners” and students, graying; and cheering on their kids competing in the race. As an umpire, there\u2019s always some \u201cdown time\u201d to converse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I got to hang out with some of the best officials in Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0Our crew has decades of experience.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone knows their job, and does it with a lack of \u201cofficiousness\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It’s important to put the athletes at ease and help them do their best, even as the \u201cblack and white\u201d of rule and schedule was maintained.\u00a0\u00a0One young athlete watching the races, asked me why he saw the same officials week after week, no matter what school was sponsoring the competition.\u00a0\u00a0My answer:\u00a0\u00a0these officials are the best, so they work at the biggest meets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an honor to be a part of that crew yesterday.  Many of them will serve at \u201cFortress Obetz\u201d next week \u2013 I\u2019d wish them \u201cluck\u201d, but I know, regardless of what happens, they\u2019ll do what\u2019s right.  They\u2019ll follow the rules, and they\u2019ll take care of kids as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional week, the toughest week in Cross Country, is over.\u00a0\u00a0State week, the \u201cfunnest\u201d week in Cross Country, has begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n