The first week of official practice officially ended on Friday of last week. If you’re wondering why the article was delayed until Sunday, you can remain silent and remember the chickens.
Back on topic, the first week of official practice went smoothly. The attendance was commendable, efforts were respectable, and the jokes were still not funny. The most memorable “joke” was when Team Clown Conrado Jocson informed us that old root beer may have contained carcinogens. No wonder Gary, former demigod and team captain, ended up that way…
As for our featured story this week, it’s far less nuts than last week’s, but nuts nonetheless.
On Thursday, the most humbling route in Madison was on the docket: Eastview. If run to completion, Eastview is 5.5 miles with five hills to be summited, ranging in difficulty from moderate to brutal. Also, Eastview is meant to be a fast route, so you better keep your pace pretty swift. Safe to say that not every runner is ready for the complete Eastview experience. For those, their task was “Easy,” or Short Eastview, which is only two miles with two hills.
Along with some other XC veterans, I chose to do Complete Eastview. The remaining 85% of the runners who were present chose Short Eastview, as many of them had only a two-week running career.
The one issue I have with the Eastview Route is that sometimes you have to wait at the traffic light to cross. At 6:30 in the morning, that typically isn’t a problem for a seasoned runner like myself, as there is little traffic on the road. For a 13-year-old who’s been running for three days, it may be a bit more challenging. I was told that there were difficulties in crossing the road. I assigned two seniors to be crossing guards for the children, so I have no clue how that happened. Safe to say, Mrs. Van Dam, our team administrator, was not happy.
In other news:
- The old man from the previous article made another appearance. He complained to Mrs. Van Dam about his so-called plight, and she expeditiously put him in his place. However, she did give us a semi-ironic lecture about the whole situation, in which she described the old man as “very curmudgeonly.”
- Coach McIlwain will be returning from Europe next week.
