Asotin Men at State

Well, shoot. The Asotin men, having run well all season, had a down day. Telling them it happens doesn't help, I know. Telling them they'll be back might.

Probably the most disappointed Panther is team leader Thomas Weakland. A young man who always aims high, his fifteenth place finish was far removed from the fifth or better that he worked toward all season.

As expected, Northwest Christian-Lacey destroyed the field. This team rocked all season and is solid 1-5. Totalling 47 points, they defeated the runner-ups, Northwest Christain-Colbert, by a whopping 59 points. Led by junior Luke Schilter, the Navigators took three of the top ten overall placements.

NWC-Colbert answered with three of their own, led by Jack Ammon. The weakness I noted last week at the end of the squad for them hurt against Lacey but not against any of the other teams.

Kenneth Rooks of College Place won the overall race in 15:44, a goodly drop from last year's record breaking effort from former Asotin runner Chandler Teigen, though the course was much slower this year than last due to the recent rain. Also running their way into the top ten were Ben Klemmeck of Liberty Bell at fourth overall, Oren Cox of Bridgeport in seventh, and senior Nathan Vanos in tenth as he led his St. George's team to the podium for the first time quite a few years as the squad took third overall.

Outside the top ten but within the top twenty were a slew of athletes running as individual qualifiers. Andrew Gannon of Bickleford PR'd his way to eleventh place in 16:46. Tarell Manjarrez of White Swan did the same, two steps and one second behind at thirteenth place. Hunter Swanson of Tonakset split the difference between them for twelth. Nathan Hopkins of Davenport placed fourteenth, just in front of Thomas Weakland. Eli Neilson of Liberty Bell ran solidly to land on the individual award podium in sixteenth.

Spencer Reiss of Republic took seventh, with Phillip Geist opening the scoring for the Tri-Cities Prep team. The solid core of that team secured fourth place on the podium as each teammate did their job for Coach Scott Larsen.

Probably the best finish involved jumping and sprint specialist Nate Prior of Asotin, who launched from the top of the hill and chased down a half-dozen runners from various teams. Only one runner managed to hold the speedy senior off at the line; Thomas Martin, Asotin's promising freshman. I think they both were surprised at the result.

Eli Endgelow of Asotin placed second for the team while senior Spencer William finished strong to close his high school career.

Summer Reading for Runners

For those of you visiting the blog for the first time - which will be the majority of you - thanks! I am assuming that you found your way here from the nice little blurb that Running Times magazine put out in this month's issue. While I knew that there was the potential for a bit of exposure, I was very happy to see the way the folks there presented Finishing Kick.

They also had very nice articles on two other books by very accomplished writers. One, Rachel Toor, lives and works nearby (as we measure things out here - a couple of hours away, at most.) I've already ordered her book, On the Road to Find Out and I'm excited to read it. Runners should have more fiction to call their own.

After I'm done with Rachel Toor's book, I'll move on to Brewster: A Novel" by Mark Slouka. This book has won numerous high honors and I'm looking forward to the change in viewpoint, going from a female protagonist to male, from a contemporary story to one set in 1968.

I also have a slate of  books that I'll be reading to get ready for cross country season. Just as the runners should be putting in the miles (intelligently, please) so the coaches try to get better at what they do. Speaking for myself, I have loads of room for improvement.

Up first is Pat Tyson's Coaching Cross Country Successfully. He's been one of the most successful coaches in the country and again, he's close by at Gonzaga University in Spokane. With this book, I'm looking to become a better assistant to the head coach of the junior high team and develop better skills at teaching the kids running form and good habits. At some point, I may drop. Bashful I'm not. Before I do that, I'll try to absorb everything in his book.

In that same vein, Jason Karp's 101 Developmental Concepts & Workouts for Cross Country Runners"> 101 Developmental Concepts & Workouts should provide a good foundation of material so I can correctly help the athletes to improve. The Asotin JRHS team has a wide range of experience so finding ways to individualize the workouts while maintaining a strong team concept is huge.

Which leads me to my last book as I prep for the season, Bruce Bowen's Teaching Character Through Sport: Developing a Positive Coaching Legacy. While not exclusively a running book, Coach Bowen has tremendous insights on the role of athletics in a young person's life. His organization, Proactive Coaching, has a wealth of materials. The team there travels the country lending their collective wisdom to the coaches, athletes, and parents that they meet. They are one of the few organizations I follow on Facebook. Almost daily, they see an angle or have a positive story that makes me go, "Hmm."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get out the door for a run. I've got some youngsters who will fly away from me if I don't get my miles in. And running always makes the day go better.

Run gently and have some fun!

Windy day at the District 9 Meet, Sun and Good Sportsmanship Breaks Through

I had a chance to get to the District 9 meet in Clarkston yesterday, mainly by ignoring my usual activities like work. It wasn't the best weather for a meet-the wind was definitely a factor, gusting to 20 mph-but I'm sure the athletes weren't complaining about the mid-60 temperatures. Almost any of the seniors can rattle off a list of races where the skies soaked them with 35 degree rain, pelted them with hail, or lit up the skyline with lightning. A little wind can be tolerated pretty easily, even a headwind into the home stretch.

I snuck in early, Goldfish in hand for the Asotin gang, and settled into the stands to watch Coach Sal Lopez directing the kids on getting the field events set up. He had them organized and the 'work' ended early, leading to a couple of athletes tossing a football in the infield. Turns out that the girls can throw a pretty tight spiral.

The meet started on schedule with a unique opening by Lucas Johnson, one of the English teachers at Asotin (most of the volunteers were Asotin teachers and parents since they were hosts.) I pestered him, and he agreed to let me print it, so it's below, in its entirety.

“Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome this fine spring day to the district 9 1B/2B track meet. I am the illustrious and ever-humble DJ Johnson, the voice of Panther Athletics. Join me and my melodious voice as I narrate the trials and tribulations of the dozens of talented athletes you see before you today. You can expect to see running in an oval pattern, various dangerous projectiles being hurled (usually in a safe direction) and even those brave souls who hurl THEMSELVES forward in gravity-defying acts of valor. It is my hope that you will make some noise as these athletes battle gladiator-style for  honor, prestige and glory with the ferocity of warriors, but with the respect, sportsmanship, camaraderie and humility that makes the events of track and field all the more special and unique. Give these fine folks a hand!”

Probably a good time to slip in a disclaimer. I'll be doing these posts this year in preparation for setting up a website to do cross country. Essentially, these are practice posts. It took something over a nanosecond but less than ten minutes of the meet to figure out that track and field can't be covered by one person. I didn't get to all the events and, since I'm not yet very good with my new camera, I have some pictures but not many really good ones.

On to racing. The first race was the lady's 4x200m relay. Asotin won the race but the athletes battled for the remaining placements. Pictured are of TO-GP in the yellow unis, with of St. John to the right and WWVA in maroon to the left at the second exchange. It was the first of a host of solid hand-offs. No one dropped a baton or missed a handoff in the transition zone all afternoon.

Field events were going on simultaneously. I missed a lot of these, unfortunately, though I did watch some of the discus (my event in high school) while the women's 3200m race was under way.

The 3200m was a little thin on competitors with Heather Siegel of St. John winning, a result she's familiar with. Several of the Asotin runners that normally participate were spread out in other events. WWVA didn't have a runner in the 3200m, nor did Rosalia. (Rosalia, which used to be part of the TOR - Tekoa, Oakesdale, Rosalia - has formed their own team this year. Garfield and Palouse join Tekoa and Oakesdale to round out their side, hence the TO-GP.) Zoe Robertson of TO-GP took second place.

Men's and women's hurdles came next. I always considered hurdles to be the NASCAR part of a track meet. Lots of speed and grace, with a constant threat of catastrophe lingering. Part of playing around with the camera led to the discovery that head-on pictures of hurdlers  are tough to nail and a good side on picture can be pretty darned good. Even if it was a "what the heck" attempt from the far side of the track. No disasters to record. Walla Walla Valley is very strong in the hurdles with Wesley Hendrickson and Abbie Underhill winning both the high and intermediate hurdles.

Back to discus. Results were announced and Asotin dominated both the men's and women's result. Coach Sal Lopez, a former collegiate thrower proves that he has a knack for imparting the technique to his younger athletes. Dirk Whitmore won with a nice throw of 131'6", edging his teammate Jacob Swearingen. Piper Loop won the women's side with a hurl of 104'10".

Over in the long jump pit, Nate Prior won both the long jump and triple jump on the men's side. The women were split, with Abbie Underhill winning the long jump to complete a trio of first place finishes while Olivia Pakootas of TO-GP edged her out in the triple jump.

TO-GP women javelin throwers came close to matching the standard set by the Asotin discus throwers. Annie Bailey of St. John-Endicott won but the next five placements were all TO-GP. The Asotin men toss javelins nearly as well they do the disc with Dirk Whitmore winning with a throw of 145'3" and the Asotin men taking the top three slots.

The most competitive race of the day took place in the women's 800m. The two young ladies paced each other around the track and jockeyed for the lead coming out of the final turn with Madeline Eggleston swinging wide to pass her sister, Lucy Eggleston. Lucy matched the kick, though and won by a half second. The next finisher, Katarina Stephenson of Asotin, was 17 seconds back of the Eggleston sisters, holding off Katie Holbrook of TO-GP.

The duel between Katarina and Katie was a repeat of the 1600m. Both of these runners are underclassmen so we should have a lot more to look forward to over the next couple of years.  Lucy Eggleston won the 1600m in a time of 5:42.

The men's side was far less competitive with Chandler Teigen winning handily in both the mile and 800m. Asotin  took the top three spots in the 800m and the top four in the  1600m with Thomas Weakland placing second 800m, and Brian Strobel and Spencer Williams taking second and third respectively in the 1600m.

The top three finishers in the 100m, 200m, and 400m for the men followed the same pattern. Eli Richardson of Rosalia won all three, closely followed by Caleb Atkins of Walla Walla Valley. Chasing them in all three races was Jacob Koerperich of Asotin.

The women's races were a little more diverse. Julia Ristau won the 100m while Rebecca Reyes of WWVA took second, beating out her teammate, Rachel Thiel. Sarah Nicholas from Asotin won both the 200m and 400m with Reyes pulling another second in the 200m and Megan McCain from Asotin taking third. Second place in the 400m went to Maddie Bogenrief from TO-GP. Alyssa Hendrickson was third.

The wind made for a tough day high jumping but Olivia Pakootas, state runner-up last season, seemed to be the only one unaffected and slightly limited by gravity as she easily won the high jump to add to her win in the triple jump. Jessica Ford of Rosalia and Rose Debruin (Asotin), competing in the event this year for the first time, rounded out the field.

I somehow managed to miss the men jumping but Connor Madden (Asotin) won with two TO-GP jumpers, Tanner Dingman and Tristan Smith, pulling second and third.

The highlight of the meet, though, didn't occur in any single event. Brady McKay of Asotin raced and won the 3200 meters in 10:46. I checked with him after the race as he was grabbing his knees but he said he was just "a little tired." Understandable. What he did next was more impressive than his race.

He started cheering for his competitors, not just his teammate Brady Mulikin, but all the other athletes in the 3200m. He was loud and enthusiastic, drifting down the track to meet them as they finished. It reminded me of a small snippet from Born to Run by Christopher McDougall who tells the story of Scott Jurek, one of the truly great ultrarunners. Jurek won almost every ultra he ran but would wait at the finish line, wrapped in a sleeping bag in cold weather, to cheer every one of the competitors to the finish. He'd be out there hours after his race ended. It also reminded me of the Asotin coach, Tim Gundy, who I've had the pleasure of joining on a couple of relays teams.

Brady McKay was, whether he knew it or not-and I think not because he looked surprised when I high-fived him for being so classy-was exemplifying sportsmanship. I don't think it crossed his mind to behave any differently.

And he wasn't the only one. I saw a couple of the WWVA ladies doing the same thing. Ditto for a TO-GP runner.

And those were the ones that I saw or heard. I'm betting that others, our of my earshot, acted just as openly, honestly,  and enthusiastically in supporting their fellow athletes.

This is my first effort at writing up a track meet. The plan is to build a website for cross country that will give race reports, course information, and a little bit of recognition for these young athletes throughout the Inland NW. If you like what you see, or have suggestions for making it better, please let me know. Leave a comment or send me an email at thatguy at paulduffau dot com. Just insert the appropriate symbols - many, many thanks. Paul Duffau

The "I'm not dead!" Update

Sorry about a lack of blogging lately but I've managed to contract a sinus infection from a flu bug. So, from March 3rd until I broke down and went to the doc on the 20th, I've been slowed a touch. Now that the meds are kicking in and I'm feeling better, I thought I'd do a little housekeeping. First, to the kids who want to know if I'll be showing up to their track meets - yes. It's already baked into my schedule. Can I be at every one? No. The dog likes to eat and I'm partial to red wine so I should work at least a bit. That said, I've raised my rates because working six and seven days a week is not part of the life plan I have going forward. My problem, no worries, it's fixable. I'll see you guys at the meets.

Second, marathon training. Losing nearly three weeks of training when you're already under-trained is a prescription for a tough marathon. Meh. It'll hurt - or Adric and I can drop at the half, give each other a high five, and drink a beer while planning next year's assault. Still planning on being in Pagosa Springs in June.

On the writing front, I've submitted Finishing Kick to the Washington State Book Awards. It is highly unlikely that I'll win. The book can have wide appeal but is pretty narrowly targeted. The folks that I wrote it for have already read it, loved it, and pestered me for more. From here everything is gravy.

The new novel, Trail of Second Chances, is getting close to done on the first draft. I'll need to blow some stuff up in the beginning as the story changed a bit while I was writing but I'm getting excited. Also figured out the opening scene for the next book, The Lonesome Mile. Still looking at an August release date for Trail and hoping for a February release on Lonesome Mile. I'll have a better idea on that one once I get busy writing it.

I also have some plans on for a non-running series - three actually. Two action/adventure and one sci-fi. (See why I need to stop working so much - I have too much other 'work' to do!)

By the way, Hugh Howey has a great post on how to make it big as a writer - or most other things. In another post, he links to a NPR article on what makes great 'art'. The answer might depress you - luck. Not great writing or painting or virtuoso technique. Luck.

I like to make my own luck. Will I create a blockbuster? Unlikely. Can I sell enough to eventually do this full time? Probably. It'll take a lot of hard work, putting in the time to write, and to write better. Luck doesn't count if you don't show up. Many people who count themselves unlucky aren't unlucky - they've tried to find a shortcut to hard work, sacrifice, and, most importantly, caring.

John Denver, in a concert in L.A. back in the seventies, talked about his old guitar, about how he'd go to the beach at night and practice his songs, and long for an audience to sing to.

If you don't care about something, want it so bad you'll run through walls, ache to put your work in front of people, to put up with the laughter of your friends who tell you to be reasonable, if you don't pour all your heart into it, you probably won't get 'lucky'.

That much - and only that much - you have control of.  It's up to you to seize it.

Snake River Canyon Half Marathon

Working an aid station at the Snake River Canyon Half Marathon in March has become enshrined as a ritual for Asotin Cross Country. Normally it's a warmer ritual, not 29 degrees with a stiff wind. Tough day for the runners and workers alike. The kids at my station - Jessica, Megan, Kyle and Nate - worked hard and were awesomely upbeat with the runners. It was cold enough that ice was freezing back in the cups. Gatorade, too. By the time the first rush was over, our hands were resembling the ice, so I fired up the FJ, turned up the heat, and rotated kids into it. My youngest daughter fired up the iPod and speakers to treat the runners to some classic rock as they came back with the wind.

The runners were wonderfully appreciative and sported great attitudes. The leaders didn't slow down long enough to do more than grab water but the middle and trailing packs freely indulged. Many of them probably pushed too hard into the wind and were a bit worn by the time they made it back on the return trip.

I grabbed some pictures of the leaders but after that, it got too busy to pull someone out of the line. I'll post them when I get a chance. In the meantime, I'm awfully proud of the kids for helping out and giving back to their sport.

A side note: great job by Morgan Willson taking second overall in the women's division. It was just a couple of years ago I watched and cheered for her as she won the 2B State Championship. Nicely done, Morgan.

Starting a new Pacific NW Cross Country News Network?

I was contemplating trying to build a website around Cross Country news in the Pacific Northwest – kind of a one stop, here’s what happened this week at the meets and maybe the occasional feature on a runner. The question is (well, one of the questions, anyhow) would runners and their parents be interested?

The easiest option is just to run it through my author blog but I could create a site dedicated to the idea.

Anybody that has some ideas is free to comment. Share the idea around with runners you know and see what they think.

If you prefer, you can send me an email at that guy at paulduffau.com. Just combine it all, swap the @ into it. You get the idea.

Eventually, I’d like to cover the whole region which means building a network of volunteers to help with the reportage but in the meantime, we could at least spotlight our little corner.

Run gently, friends,

Paul

PS. Somewhere in the midst of all these plans, I need to figure out how to keep making a living.

Races around Asotin

Time to look at some local races around Asotin. The holidays are over and, if my scale is correct, the damage was minimal - except to the habit of running. Since I have a marathon that I need to be ready for (running, not racing), I need to get it going. The nice thing about marathon training is missing a day won't break you. Trying to do too much, too fast, might. Patience, perseverance, and a good sense of humor will get you to the start line. In the meantime, we have a bunch of local races on the calendar. I'll only probably do two, one as a training run, the other as a benchmark to see where I'm at.

Here are all the races I could find in the area for the late winter/early spring.

Feb. 8 - Sweetheart Run, Lewiston ID - 4 mile run or 2 mile walk, benefits local youth charities.

Feb 15 - Edge of Hell, Lewiston ID - 4 or 8 mile trail run in Hells Gate State Park. Beautiful scenery and one of my favorite areas to run in the Lewis-Clark Valley. If you look across the river, you can see my house.-and most of Asotin.

Feb. 22 - Celebrate Life, Lewiston ID - 7K run, 3K walk, benefits kids with cancer.

Mar. 1 - Snake River Half-marathon, Pullman, WA- 13.1 miles of running beside the Snake River, sponsored by the Palouse Road Runners. No traffic and a course elevation chart that looks like this: ________________. If you run it, I'll be at the 4 miles aid station cheering you on. The rest of the Asotin cross country team will be there along with Coach Tim Gundy, manning the 4 and 6 mile stations.

Mar. 15 - St. Patrick's Day 5/10K, Clarkston WA - Your choice of distance on a fast course. You have to wait for the holiday itself for the green beer.

Mar 21/22 - Snake River Triathlon, Lewiston ID, The swim is Friday, the evening before the ride/run. Check the website for details. The race is put on by Lewis-Clark State College's Cross Country program. Mike Collins, the coach, does a great job of organizing the event and it is chip-timed.

Mar 22 - Hells Canyon Adventure Run and Ultra, Idaho - A self-supported run of either 15 or 28 miles depending on which version you choose. 100 percent on trails in Hells Canyon. This is the one on my list as a training run.

Mar 30 - WSU 100K Relay/Solo, Pullman WA - Got some friends? Grab them, put together a team and have some fun with a relay. If you don't have friends crazy enough to join you, you can always run it as an Ultra. I heard a rumor that since this is the 25 Anniversary, the Palouse Road Runners are planning  25 percent weather. We'll see how that goes.

Apr. 5 -  Mike Jensen Memorial 5K, Lewiston ID -  Another charity run, this time for grieving children.

Apr. 18 - Twilight 5K, Lewiston ID - Another of Coach Collins events, it's a fast, flat course on the levee. This will be my "where-am-I-at?" race as I get ready for the marathon in Colorado.

Apr. 26 - Seaport River Run, Clarkston WA - I'd put up a link but the City of Lewiston hasn't posted it yet that I can find.

Apr. 26 - St. John Hog Jog, St John WA - I haven't done this one and maybe it's time I headed up. 2 and 5 mile options in one of my favorite little towns. Also the chief competitors for Asotin Cross Country girls and really nice kids.

So that gets us into later spring. Pick a couple and have some fun.

Holiday Fun Runs

Yep, Christmas is coming, so it's that time of year: the holiday fun run in frigid temperatures and, for the more adventurous, costumes. The Asotin Cross Country team is sponsoring the Joy to the World Run on December 21st. Last year, it was the End of the World run but apparently the Mayans were wrong. It's a 2- and 5-mile fun run that starts and finishes at the Asotin track. You can download an entry form here --> JTTWFunRun13 As an added bonus - and a surprise to the Race Director, Tim Gundy, since I didn't bring this up to him yet - I will be sponsoring a "Best Costume Award" which is probably a $15 gift certificate to Tri-State Sports.

There are other relatively local holiday fun runs as well:

The Seaport Striders have their Santa Run this Saturday, December 7th, at Swallows Nest Park in Clarkston. Entry form --> 2013santarun. They also have their annual New Year's Day Hangover Run - which I have never run but not due to hangovers. Entry form

Want something more challenging? How about a winter 50K. Pullman is holding one on the 14th (though you don't have to do the whole thing). Pullman Winter Ultras. Kindly, they include this informational notice. IMPORTANT: The Pullman Winter Ultra Series is a no-fee, low-key, no-support, slip-on-ice, freeze-your-toes-off, drink-a-beer-afterward-or-during, fun-run-style event.

If anybody knows of other fun runs at the holidays around here, let me know. Colfax used to have one (the Santa Run, where I dressed up like a reindeer with a couple of friends and pulled Sara around on a sleigh. Lance had to wear the red nose.)

Up on the Palouse Divider, they used to run the Mangy Moose 5K and 10K but that disappeared a couple of years ago, unfortunately.

Run gently, folks, and bundle up. It's a mite nippy out there (single digits this morning) and a white Christmas looking more likely by the day. Perfect for trying out new running gear that Santa brings.

Yesterday I watched a girl run the best race of her life - and cry.

Both the girls and boys teams qualified at the District meet last week and lined up yesterday to compete against the best runners in the State of Washington at the State Cross Country Championship in Pasco, Washington. For me, it marked the end of an era. I had no children of my own racing for the first time in nearly a decade but, for a decade, we've made the trek west. We did it again yesterday.

The girls ran first, at 10:00 under a single patch of clear sky, the only one of the day. At the previous editions of the Championship, I sped from point to point to cheer on the team and, specifically, daughters. This year, I camped at the two mile mark, out past no-mans-land and cheered.

One girl suffered from a lingering cold but the team ran well, competed hard and took fourth place in the State. The race for placement was almost impossibly tight. A single point separated the second through fourth place finishes.

The boys team faired better, placing second overall with Chandler Teigen just missing the course 2B record. Given some serious competition, the record probably would have fallen. It will next year. All boys ran well, confident and aggressive and proud. And they deserved their place on the podium.

But the lasting memory that I carry away isn't the girls or boys on the podium, the freshmen running so well, or Chandler running away from the field.

It was of a single girl, a team captain, a senior, holding onto her dad and in tears, not from disappointment - at that point they didn't know the scores - but because it was over. A team that she has been a part of for four years, the relationship with a coach that she admires, the memories of the girls she competed against resolved into a single moment - and was over.

Sometimes the kids don't realize how special their teammates and their competition is. But some, a few, they indeed realize that an important marker just passed, one that can never be recalled except in memories.

I coached this young lady five years ago and the images from that time still make me smile. At least one element of her will eventually make it into a book of mine - one of my favorite memories of coaching, a little waif of a girl with steady, wise eyes and a question.

Last year, I held my daughter while she cried, and I had no words other than 'I love you' and 'I am so proud of you.' I said the same things to another daughter on her final high school race, though it took her two years to understand fully.

So yesterday, I watched athletes run with beauty and grace, with strength and heart, flying towards that finish line. For one moment, I saw a scene of beauty, family, friends, teammates, bound up in one hug and some tears.

Asotin - District Champions

Asotin girls cross country went to Plantes Ferry with a girl banged up, two recovering, and high hopes - and came home district champions. It was a crowded field and St. Johns/Endicott, their rivals all season, gave them a great race but it came down to the number five runners - Asotin's was a bit stronger than St. Johns' - and the difference was a trophy. A reminder that cross country is a team sport scored by individuals.

The Asotin boys finished third in a very close race with Tri-Cities Prep and NW Christian-Colbert. It's measure of how far Coach Tim Gundy has brought the program that the boys were disappointed. Expect them to come out at State and battle for the lead.

Congrats to both teams. See you next week in Pasco . . .

Long runs for Junior High School

Defining long runs for junior high school athletes can drive a coach slightly batty. At one end of the spectrum, you have the kids that are natural runners and, in some cases, already ran on a regular basis before the cross country season started. The other end of that spectrum is occupied by the kids that are doing this for the first time and for whom a jog around the block may be the furthest they've ever run.

In Asotin, even with a very young team - we have no eighth grade girls and the boys team has only two- we have both, just as every school does. A difference for us is that some of our seventh graders were with us last year and bought into running - and baseball for the boys.

So we've adopted two strategies. The first was to take the strongest of the experienced runners and let them run with the high school team on the easy days for the high school. Even that is a bit much for them but an occasional dose - and exposure to the work ethic that our high school athletes have - is meaningful for them.

The other strategy we used yesterday is to let the kids segregate into groups - for the most part, we let them self-select - and each coach plus a volunteer, my daughter Sara, took a group out. Different paces, different distances, different goals.

For the speedy Gonzalez's, it was about 4.5 miles at 9 minute pace. Some of the kids bit off a touch more than they could chew and eased into the park at the end at a walk. One kid, feeling a twinge, wisely did the same after 3.5 miles.

I ran with the middle group. These were mostly kids that are new to running (one was an eighth grade boy that I wanted in the group for some leadership) and we discovered all sorts of things on a 3.25 mile jaunt at 'Coach Paul' pace. One girl noticed another constantly speeding up and then stopping to walk - understandable as she is a sprinter on the track team. Pacing is new to her but I was tickled that I wasn't the one that pointed it out to her but a teammate did. One of the sixth grade boys had never run this far so he got a PR on distance - it certainly won't be his last.

The final group, led by Sara, was on a mission: Run without walking. It doesn't seem like an ambitious goal for athletes but for kids that have no base of running, learning that they can do this is huge. The emphasis is not speed but perseverance. For most, it was a success.

Since we're dealing with young athletes, we don't do many long runs and, obviously, what is a long run to the kids now will someday be a short easy day. When we plan long runs for junior high athletes we take the long view and make sure that we give them just enough of a challenge to help them develop and not so much that we kill the run or injury the runner.

Because, in the long run, we want them to be runners for life.

The Starter - A Guy with a (Fake) Gun

Cross country season is off to a great start - not in small part due to the volunteers that help staff the meets here such as Les - today's starter at the Seaport Invite in Clarkston, Washington. I've watched Les start races in the Inland Northwest for about a decade and always wondered at his easy disposition and calming effect on a mob of athletes itching to sprint away. Today was nice because I had a chance to chat with him briefly after the junior varsity race got under way since I was the backup timer today and didn't have to call splits at the mile mark.

This marks the 28th year that Les has acted as a race official, working both cross country and track. Before that, he coached for a couple of decades - between the two, he has five decades of experience which is a stunning concept, at least for me (having just reached my fiftieth year - it means he started coaching the year I was born.) He plans on sticking around for at least a few more years so that number will only grow. Like Ripken's consecutive game streak in baseball or Coach K's wins in college basketball, it's a record that's going to be awfully hard to beat.

Interestingly enough, he grew up in Maryland, not far from where I grew up. Both of us were children of people in government service - his father was military, mine Department of Defense and we've both been to Okinawa. It's an odd feeling - a touch of nostalgia - to meet someone from that neck of the woods when I've left it far behind, both in distance and in time.

Les projects an old-fashioned graciousness and warmth and I suspect that aspect of his personality is what gets the races off to such smooth starts. Listening to parents compare him to other starters just reinforces the importance of the role that he plays - whether he knows it or not - to the community and to the athletes.

I also suspect that if you brought you his role, he'd tell you that it's all about the kids and the joy that they bring as they compete against each other and themselves. It certainly wouldn't be about Les and five decades of service to these youngsters. The Starter is that kind of man.