Cross Country Saturday — From Room 418

Early morning. Cross country Saturday.

You're covering the War Eagle Classic in Gainesville from a slightly different perspective.

After all, the other coaches and the team are in Gainesville.

You are in Room 418 at the Hampton Inn in Athens.

It seems your body left the football field last night after the game.

Your throat did not.

So you set the over/under for texts received — in addition to the GroupMe notifications — at 150.
The over wins.

You receive 90 texts during the day, to go with 82 GroupMe messages.

A clarification: The texts are between the coaches at the meet, with you chiming in occasionally while gargling salt water back at the hotel.
The GroupMe is more open — runners, coaches, parents, and people you've never heard of despite your 23 years doing this.
Moving forward, you're not going to print every text and every message.

After all, people in this world have short attention spans.
Have you ever actually read all 10 pages of a contract?

Still, here are some race-day highlights, before and after the guns went off:

Coach Mavity: "There's a hot dog truck here! Hope our kids don't get a PR in hot dogs eaten before the race!"
Coach Lundy: "I'm at the starting line! A few teams here already doing strides. Don't see any hot dogs."
Later:
Coach Lundy: "How'd we do in the boys race?"
Coach Taylor: "They are in good spirits — though Harrison is not happy with his time. Still, no one threw up!"
Coach Mavity: "This is a true XC course! Not a PR course, but a true one!"
Coach Lundy: "Two coaches are arguing over whether you can wear an Apple Watch or not. Man, people argue over the craziest things."
You, from Room 418: "Word! Leave it to humans to make running complicated. I mean, it's just left foot, right foot, forward, yes?"
Then:
"Wow! Emma Boeschen is running on one leg — she rolled her ankle. But she's toughing it out! And look at Alice Poe — she finished, ran to the finish line, and is yelling herself hoarse!"
And it just went on like that.

The GroupMe chimed in with Friday night pasta-dinner highlights, pictures of other teams' tents, course videos, observations, encouragement, and the general cross-country chatter that somehow makes a Saturday morning at a meet feel like its own little world.

You weren't there.

But you were there.

At least enough.

The overall report from the texts:

Good day.

Fun course.

Edie loved it — and Edie is honest.

Therefore, we must do this next year.

And, naturally, there was the most important logistical question of the day:

Does the bus driver have directions to the nearest Chick-fil-A?

No.
Go to the second closest.

The nearest one will be too crowded.

That, in its own way, pretty much sums up cross country.

Enough.

Over and out.

Our runners get a deserved break next weekend for Labor Day.

It's been a busy August.

Checking out of Room 418, you realize something:

You love these kiddos.

And the coaches, too.

Even from a hotel room 40 miles away.

— Dunn