One last message before we all travel to New Hope tomorrow for
the much anticipated Bucks County Blue & Orange Track & Field Day:
I have heard concerns from multiple runners, from both
teams. Unneeded concerns, like I’ve
never done anything like this before, or maybe I’m too old, and even I don’t
want to let my team down. I say bottle
up all that nervous energy, swat away those pesky butterflies fluttering in
your bellies, crack open a “cold one” and relax. Seriously!
The sound of “Track Meet” has you all worked up over nothing. At the end of the day tomorrow not a single
one of us will have a deal in place with Nike.
The idea behind Blue & Orange Track & Field Day is to introduce
runners who might not have had a track experience in an earlier time. This is how I sum it up; most of the runners
I know outside of Chris Mortensen and Greg Yerkes (ran with them in high
school), got started running recreationally (shit Charlotte claims all her runs
are recreational), they got asked to support a family member or a charity by
running a 5k. Their first response was
how far is that again? And after they
think to themselves how hard can 3.1 miles be, the rest is history. Am I correct?
How many of you got started this way?
I’m willing to bet the majority.
In any case I came up with the idea so you too could feel what it’s like
to race around on a track, to do events you had seen done on television for years,
but didn’t think you would have a chance to do.
I’ll share a quick story with you: My senior year in high
school I was part of the 4x800 relay team.
All year I had anchored the relay team, but at one of the biggest track
meets of the year, Penn Relay’s (maybe you have heard of it), my track coach
comes up to me and says Chris you’re the most aggressive on the relay team (big
surprise I know), I’m going to switch you to the lead off leg, if you take an
elbow you will give one right back, and you also won’t get knocked around like
the other guys. I agreed and lead off to
one of the biggest let down’s in Track History.
The coach was right, there was a lot of pushing and shoving and even
elbowing when the starter pistol fired.
And before the smoke could even clear from the pistol’s barrel I had
lost the baton. It got knocked out of my
hand and as hard as I tried to get to it I couldn’t. The sound of 52,000 people simultaneously
saying “oooohhh” has echoed in my head ever since 1998. My last year at Franklin Field as a high
school senior is one I will never forget.
So, if the cold beer won’t help maybe my story will. Just remember you’re supposed to have fun
with this tomorrow. Come on, isn’t there
an unwritten rule that any event that incorporates tossing water balloons and
hopping around in potato sacks has to be classified as F-U-N…
Check List:
Clothing that is your teams color: Blue team wears all blue
and Orange team wears all orange. Dress
the kids in your team colors; paint your nails blue or orange, color the hair,
get crazy.
Bring something to sit on. It’s a long day; you will want to
rest when you can.
Sun block (we’re hoping for a beautiful sunny day).
Towel, flip flops, sun glasses
Running sneakers (spikes)
Change of clothes
Bathing suit for the after party
And most importantly wear your smiles it’s going
to be a fun filled day!
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