On Thursday, the JV team performed for the last time this season at the championships held at Coe-Brown Academy. With some impressive racing on such a rainy day, the boys placed seventh, a three spot improvement from where the boys JV team placed last year. Following this, on Friday, the team went out for an easy run through an area that has been inaccessible due to construction on a local bridge. With the bridge now open, many members of the team took advantage of the opportunity to run a favorite short route called “the pipeline.” The “pipeline” itself is a large brown pipe that used to carry water to the mill located next to the bridge. Out of use now, it makes for a great running surface. We run single file on top of the four and a half foot tall pipe as it travels through the forest. Most of the time it sits atop the ground, but in a few places it goes over rivers and streams that are quite a ways below. Although it is short, less than a mile, it is a blast to run, especially with first-timers. Consider it a right of passage.
Earlier in the week, the team also went on an easy run up to the Nussdorfer with a specific task to complete. With the exciting win a Derryfield School, the boy’s team won a large pumpkin that proudly sat on display in the cross country trophy case for a week. In time though, it began to show signs of aging. We took it up to an outlook in the Nussdorfer, and in a celebratory fashion, threw it off and watched it sail to the ground far below and explode. This disposal was much more exciting than allowing it to rot in a compost pile.
Maybe hoping for some explosive disgustingness, or maybe simply sowing the seeds for next season’s success, this past week was a time to look back on the season, the races and workouts, and see how far we’ve come. The JV race showed promise, and helped settle some concerns on whether we were ready for the tasks at hand. Not sure of what exactly to expect, as my last season of cross country comes to a close, it hasn’t always been easy, but it’s definitely been worth it.
Ready or not, here we come.
