Anatomy Of A Race

Prior to any race a good coach will give his team a pep talk and go over any interesting facts about the course. Usually a team will have an opportunity to walk the course before the race. Our team had bus issues this morning and didn't get to the site in time for a walk through, so the coach had to do his best to describe the course to the girls.

The start of any cross country race is incredible. The runners are all lined up along a line sometimes one deep but sometimes two or three deep. When the gun (or in today's case, the cannon) goes off the better runners have to quickly grab a position in front lest they get blocked into a slower pace by other runners. The following shots show the start of the the girls' JV 3 mile race today.

From there the runners settle into their respective paces and follow the course trying as they go to pick off the runners in front of them.

No race is complete without spectators. Today we had Grandmama, Granddaddy and Uncle Bill join us to cheer Morgan on! Cheering runners on in a cross country race is almost as difficult as running the race itself!

In this race the course looped around in such a way that the runners passed us 6 times - once each at the start and finish, and twice each on either side of the field. David and I (and many other parents and coaches) ran back and forth to cheer our girls on.

Here they are passing on the uphill the first time.






And then running on the downhill side of the field for the first time.









Here they are again, heading into hillside for the second time, after making a loop through fields not visible from our vantage point.

And again on the downhill side for the second time. From here they round a curve and head up a hill to the finish.









The finish is long uphill. It's a tough finish because of the hill but also because the actual finish is just beyond where you'd think it would be.

After their run the girls chatted and rehydrated before heading off to run a mile cool down.