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This event is crazy if you’ve never been.
Best way for me to explain it is it’s like an amusement park without rides. There is just one long, winding track that a mass of people line up around.
As the race starts, pockets of humans race off from end to the other, shouting encouragement to their respective runners as they speed by.
Then the coaches, friends or family members will scurry to the next corner to repeat the process.
Finally, everyone meets at the finish line where a clash of chaotic sound takes over.
It really is a crazy 20-minute span wherein you see random people just go streaking by in an empty hay field.
However, the reason I want to talk about this event is because our local schools were so well represented at the competition and did great too.
The Lansing girls’ squad did the best, coming in third overall as a team and having two girls medal.
I know there is no way I can run that fast for that long over that many hills and they made it look easy, so that was very cool (and personally self-debilitating) to see.
Also, Pleasant Ridge’s Tony Weber threatened to win the entire thing during his 3A race. He was the lone PR runner and to see him literally give every piece of energy he had was awesome.
Unfortunately, this year it wasn’t enough as he came in 29th overall. But, the young man is only a sophomore and since this season was his first ever running cross-country, I think he is going to be just fine.
Congratulations to all involved.
Brent Lager joined the Leavenworth Times in 2010 after a year and a half of covering high school sports for the Platte County Citizen. Before that, he previously worked for the Columbia Missourian as well as Cumulus Broadcasting in Columbia, Mo.
