Highs and Lows

This season has been a roller coaster of highs and lows and this past week was no different. There was a high on Tuesday when we ran our second meet of the year. We had only five runners compared to the eight that ran in the first meet. But the four that were running for the second time knocked anywhere from 2 to 7 minutes off their previous times for the course.

A low came the next day when two of the female runners informed me that they wanted to go to basketball practice as well as show up for X-C once in awhile. The school had just started basketball tryouts last week and were allowed to start early in the year (as well as overlap our season) because we are not a member of the NJSIAA and are not governed by their rules. I didn't care for this news and told the AD in so many words. He put the kibosh on their intentions and they can only practice X-C until 11-8.

A high came on Friday when the Girls Basketball coach came over to me in the gym. I thought he was going to talk to me about the season overlap, but instead he informed me that he wanted his entire team to run X-C next year so they could be in better shape for their season. I've never subscribed to the idea of having basketball players running X-C to "get in shape". I've always preferred to have a team made up of "runners" who are dedicated to the sport and not some ulterior motive. But an increase in team members is a good thing.

And then more lows on Friday and Saturday when only three and two runners, respectively, showed up for practice.

Tomorrow we begin the final two week preparation for the championships on 11/8. There are 4 or 5 runners who will be running in that--the others have one scheduling conflict or another. It will be interesting to see how many show up for practice this week. The weather will be getting cooler (forecast is for 40s and 50s) and the other runners don't really have anything to run for other than to just run for the sake of running. The two basketball players won't be racing in November so they may not show up at all.

Every day I go to practice and instead of concentrating on my plan for practice, I wonder instead if anyone will be showing up. But it's still better than E City where the entire team quit. Next year has to be better. How can it be worse?