Since
1986, I’ve gone to every State Track and Field Championship…with three
exceptions. Mayfield High School has its
students walking for their graduation on the first Saturday of June, which is
when the run the State Meet. For each of
my three children’s graduations, I thought it prudent to be at the graduation
ceremony and skip the state meet. On two
of those occasions, athletes I had coached were running in the meet…and missing
their own graduation ceremony. This
year, Jack would be walking and I would me missing a state meet for the fourth
time. And then lightning struck.
“I’m
going to the regional meet next Friday,” I told Holly two weeks ago.
“That’s
the night before Jack’s graduation…so wouldn’t that be the week of the state
meet?” she asked.
And
she was right. The regional meet is
always the week before the state meet because it is that meet that determines
who will participate in the state meet.
I went to my computer so google the State Meet and figure out where I’d
gone wrong. I found out that I hadn’t. The regional meet WAS the weekend of Jack’s
graduation and the state meet was the following Saturday. Apparently, when the first Saturday of the
month was also the first day of the month, as it was this year, the state meet
got pushed back a week. I couldn’t
believe my good fortune. I would be able
to see my son graduate AND see the state meet in the same year.
Anyways,
it was Friday night and the regional track championships in Youngstown would
have me and Kim as spectators. I pushed
myself hard through 23 stations of the Survival Workout while crushing two
annoying deer fly against my skull. I
hurried home, dove in the pool for cleansing purposes, and dripped my way into
the kitchen to prepare a smoothie for the drive…and as a dinner.
The
regional meet is always the most exciting of the year, for participants,
coaches and spectators. Only the top
four competitors in each event, the state is broken into four regions, advance
to the state championships. That means a
qualifier is one of the 16 best in the state should they make it. If you take fifth or less, you go home for
the year…or maybe for your career. It’s
always been tension-packed for me when I’ve had an athlete here, but today I
could sit back and enjoy the fierceness of the competition without have a brain
aneurism since I wasn’t coaching anyone.
It was still gut-wrenching though to see a couple of races where someone
made a charge in the home stretch and took a state meet qualifying spot away
from another athlete who probably thought they had it made, but had nothing
left in the tank to hold off a challenge that they never saw coming.
We
spent the evening talking track, future plans for life and everything in
between. I love the atmosphere and the
camaraderie of the young athletes I’ve coached, like Kim. She will be unable to attend next week’s camp
out and state meet, though I will drag her sister Marie, John, and Savannah
down for those festivities. For me,
there is no better sports entertainment.
Thanks again, calendar, for having June 1st fall on a
Saturday and allowing me to see a state meet in a year of one of my children’s
graduations. The stars aligned quite
nicely.
Survival
Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart
Rate: 100-150 bpm.Calories burned: 600.
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