Leaving Josiah with Lulit at the little clump of trees just
north of the finish line at Rim Rock Farm I set out some forty-five minutes or
so before the gun for the 6A Boys’ State Cross Country Championship in search
of my firstborn son. Finding his teammates
proved to be no problem. They came
jogging up and Nate asked me, “Where is your son?” I said I didn’t know and that I thought they
would know. They were looking for him
because they all wanted to start their warmup.
They decided that they would make a quick pass by through the general
vicinity to look for him and then go on if they didn’t find him. Some 15 minutes later I found the girls’ team
near the team tent and asked them if they had seen Wyatt. Yes!
They had! But to my dismay they
had not found him warming up with his teammates, but they had seen him a while
before in the porta-potty line. They
reported that he was about to bail out on the porta-potty line so he could go
run a warmup. By himself.
Race time was rapidly approaching when the boy’s mother
showed up after a long drive up from Wichita that morning. I relayed to her that no, in fact, I had not
seen Wyatt, and that while the boys’ team did not know where Wyatt was, the
girls’ team had at least reported a sighting!
We were both concerned about the potential state of his bowels, although
I think he made the right decision to warm up, and I hoped if it was just a
matter of #1 that he had the good sense to find some trees on the back side of
the course during his warm up. Not everything
goes according to plan on race day, of course, but it was the State meet. I was sure hoping he would be able to get
past the logistical difficulties and focus on his race. I told Kay not to worry. In 2007 I had run the entire Marine Corps
Marathon with a serious urge to go pee.
Sometimes we just have to rise to the occasion in spite of the
difficulties.
The first time I finally spotted Wyatt that morning he was
at the starting line with his teammates.
Well, that was a relief, I can tell you!
The race itself was a thing of beauty, and I have perhaps
never more enjoyed watching a race unfold.
Wyatt and his teammates looked good out of the gate, after which I
positioned myself near the mile mark.
I find the State meet to be the coolest thing ever. On this day the boys (and girls) get to run
against the best teams from all over, many of whom they have never seen before,
and it’s just inspirational to see these kids who live 300 miles apart competing
against each other for place and pride at the most important meet of the
year. Wyatt came through the mile in
about 5:17 sandwiched between a couple of Dodge City kids, and he was looking
good. Oh yes, I thought, this is going
to be okay.
At the two-mile point he was still looking good. I think he came through there in about 10:42,
and he looked fine. He seemed to be
holding his own in there, and it also started occurring to me then, where is
Olathe East? They had nudged us out of
winning the Regional Championship. Man,
I wasn’t exactly sure how the scores would stack up at the two-mile point, but
I was pretty sure we were having our way with East.
After our runners came through the 2-mile I ran hard up the
hill to my new favorite third viewing spot at Rimrock positioned about 500 or
600 meters from the finish line (as measured along the course). Fortunately the course makes a big sweeping
curve there, so it’s only maybe a couple hundred meters for me to get from
there then to the finish line. At this
point Wyatt and Nate crested the hill right next to each other, and Emmet, our
usual #5 guy was not very far behind them (and coming on strong). I looked at my watch. I yelled at the boys that I thought they were
going to run good times today!
Having a huge breakthrough race with a strong finishing
kick, on the absolute best possible day, Emmet surged past Nate and Wyatt in
the last 100 or so, and Wyatt beat Nate, although just barely, for the first
time all season. Really the finishing
order on the team didn’t matter much.
Those three guys came in 17:03, 17:05, 17:07, and just like that Olathe
North had all their scorers across the line.
Of our top 5, Easton, Wyatt and Emmet all ran personal records, and Alex
and Nate ran very well. I think Nate was
a bit disappointed for not matching his sub-17 time from the previous week, and
maybe for just getting edged by Wyatt and Emmet, but he still ran a great
race. He always leaves it all out there
on the course. As usual Alex paced the
whole team, running a nice 16:20, only 3 seconds off his PR. Carlos ran 6th for us and had an 18-second PR for his part, and poor Zan, our only freshman varsity runner
just had one of those terrible days that I think he will like to forget. Hey, every runner has bad days, and Wyatt
knows from personal experience that freshmen especially can be susceptible to
falling apart on a big race day.
When the final scores were tallied, our Olathe North boys
placed 5th in the State, a huge accomplishment for them. I doubt at the beginning of the season if
anyone would have picked them to do so well.
I’ve never been so pleased and so proud.
Of course, I am proud of Wyatt. I’m
proud of him going out and really competing hard two weekends in a row to get
to State and then to place well there.
The fact that he got his PR at State is sweet. It sure helps pass the winter when you can
look back on that last CC race with fondness.
I am also proud of the whole team.
They worked hard and they came and competed when it counted.
