Stephen Picks Up the "W"

Saturday was certainly an eventful day. As many of you know, Stephen is playing football and running cross country for Brookwood Middle School in Thomasville. He has really picked up on football quickly and has avoided any major injuries so far. That is more than I can say for many of the kids on his team. He starts at offensive guard (nobody knows why they have him at guard as he is one of the fastest kids on the team). It just doesn’t look right when your guard outruns your running backs.

He also starts at defensive tackle where he has at least two quarterback sacks. One of his sacks caused a fumble which our team picked up and ran into the endzone.

But this post is not about football. This post is about cross country.

A Little Cross Country Background
Several weeks into the cross country season I asked Stephen if he would like to try running cross country too. The thought first came to me after seeing him scamper all around the mountainside like a mountain goat in north Georgia at Scout Camp in July. He said he wouldn’t mind giving it a try so I e-mailed the cross country coach.

The coach replied that they were already several weeks into the season, that he had already missed many of the practices but they wouldn’t mind having another JV runner. She said since the football players couldn’t practice after school, some of them ran early in the mornings before school. She also said the coaches wouldn’t be there in there mornings. Stephen practiced two times before his first meet (they run 1.7 miles) and didn’t meet the coaches until the day of his first meet.

His First Meet
There were around 50 kids at his first meet in Thomasville and he ended up coming in 6th. They gave out ribbons for the top 8. I was actually surprised that he didn’t finish higher and that he was as exhausted as he was. But (like his dad) Stephen is a mouth breather and began getting cotton mouth about half way through that meet. If you have ever tried running with cotton mouth you know how difficult it can be to even focus on the running. All of the other kids were sweating and his mouth and forehead were bone dry.

His Second MeetThere were about 60 kids at his second meet in Albany. We got there a little bit early and tried to game plan a strategery. The best we could come up with was that he would line up on the front line to start out. If you don’t start on the front line you end up playing frogger until you can work your way out of the slower pack. You lose a lot of energy just trying to get where the kids in the front start out at. We planned for him to start out fast to break away from the pack with the faster kids and then pace himself. I also gave him a mint to keep his mouth salivated.

Despite our strategery he came in 7th. He actually did better in the second meet as there were more and better runners even though he finished lower. They only gave out medals for the top 5 so Stephen was on the outside looking in. He didn’t like that. Like the first meet, he got cotton mouth about half way through the race, was completely worn out and was unable to sprint at the end. The mint apparently hadn’t lasted very long.

Saturday’s Meet
That brings us to Saturday’s Meet in Tifton. During the week we discussed a revised strategery for the Tifton meet. He would drink a bunch of water early that morning and then just pee it all out before his race. Also, instead of a mint we went with chewing gum to keep him from getting cotton mouth. I kept him with me in the shade prior to the race instead of skipping rocks in the lake like most of his teammates. Another thing we decided to do was about half an hour before his race he would take one lap around the jogging track. We did this because (like me) when Stephen first starts to run his lungs start coughing up flem and he has to spit until he gets rid of it. We figured that if he went ahead and got it out of his lungs he wouldn’t have to fight with it during the race.

We got there early and saw that the race was to be run on a dirt track that weaved in and out of the woods before circling around the school and finishing at the back of the school. The track basically went around a large grassy area where all of the cars were parked which gave the spectators a chance to follow the runners as they came in and out of the woods. We noticed that there was a huge log that ran across the final exit from the woods. I told Stephen that even though that log didn’t look like much now, I bet it would seem like a giant wall after running ¾ of the race.

The middle of the track was hard packed and the outside of the track was soft. About 200 feet into the race the runners had to go up a steep incline before the track leveled off again. The left side of the track was a more gradual slope but took longer before it leveled off. We decided that Stephen would break out early with the faster runners and get to the right side of the track so he could get to the level ground faster. He would then follow one of the kids who had beaten him in the first two races and try to pass him at the end of the race. He picked a kid who is about Jacob’s size but has finished in the top three in both races. There were actually about 5 kids there who had beaten him in the first two races.

Once the race started, my job was to jog across the parking lot and meet him in two different places where he would be coming out of the woods and then about 150 yards before the finish line. I would tell him about how far behind he was and how much more effort he needed to put forth to catch up. His goal was to finish in the top 5 and win a metal.

Things Don’t Always Go As Planned
When the race was about to start we looked over at the starting line and saw that the first two rows had already filled up. By the time Stephen got to the line he was about 5 rows back. He doesn’t have the personality to just shove his way to the front like I told him to. By the time all the kids were lined up there were about 80 runners total and he was behind half of them. The thought crossed my mind “he’ll be lucky to finish in the top 15 starting in the back like that.”

The horn sounded and, as I thought, the faster runners took off leaving Stephen to do the frogger dance with the slower kids. The pack sort of pushed him to the left side so it took him longer to get up the incline at the beginning of the race. Stephen later told me that in addition to the poor start, the slower pack he was in had pushed him into the softer sand making it difficult for him to run. He said he finally just looked over at the kid next to him, reached out his hand and gently swim moved the kid until Stephen had worked his way onto the harder packed dirt. He said the kid gave him a dirty look but Stephen felt the kid would get over it.

While all this was going on I started jogging across the parking lot and as I did I could see the lead runners starting to disappear into the woods about a football field ahead of Stephen and the slower pack. By the time Stephen reached the woods, though, he had pulled away from the slower pack. My guess was that he was right in the middle of the faster pack (now well into the woods) and the slower pack he was leaving behind. I also figured that he had had to expend too much energy getting out of the slow pack to catch up to the top 10.

The Waiting BeginsOnce Stephen disappeared into the woods the waiting began. I made my way over to the first exit from the woods and got ready to count the runners as they came out. I wanted to be able to tell Stephen how many runners were ahead of him once he made it out of the woods. After what must have been 4 minutes (it seemed like half an hour, but given Stephen’s eventual time of 10:58 it couldn’t have) I saw the first runner emerge from the woods and right on his heels was Stephen. I couldn’t believe it!

I got so excited I yelled “Go Babe, Go!” When I did he started to bolt ahead of the other runner and I realized there was still half a race to go. I then yelled “Wait! Slow down! You’ll wear yourself out!” Stephen later said when I started to yell “Go” his heart began to race so he took off. Then he remembered our strategy and slowed down to let the runner pass him back as they headed back into the woods.

Another minute later they emerged a second time from the woods, Stephen still right on the lead runner’s heels. I noticed this time that the two had pulled about 200 feet away from the third place runner and it was starting to look like a two man race. Then back into the woods for the final time.

Remember the Log
When the two runners made their way back into the woods I ran to my final cheering station on the other side of the school building and about 150 yards from the finish line and waited. I could no longer see the woods as the finish line was on the other side of small hill. I had no idea who I would see first as the runners rounded the school building. And then it happened. After about a two minute wait Stephen rounded the school building about 75 feet in front of the next runner. When the other kid saw that the finish line was near he started to sprint. I yelled “Go Babe or he’s going to catch you!” Then “Go! Go! Go! ...”

Stephen started to sprint. When he did, the other kid looked up and stopped his sprint. I guess he figured “I’m not going to catch him now and the kid behind me isn’t going to catch me so why kill myself?” That’s what I would have been thinking anyway. Meanwhile, Stephen didn’t realize that the kid had slowed up so he continued sprinting.

He finished the race in first place and started puking his guts up. It reminded me of the swim test I had to take at Scout Camp after eating a pack of hot dogs. The boys all thought that was pretty funny.

Stephen later told me that as he and the other kid exited the woods for the final time the other kid slowed down to get over the log. Stephen said he remembered Coach Field (his old P.E. coach at Shiver) tell him that Stephen was one of the best jumpers in the 6th Grade. Stephen then decided not to slow down, but to just hurdle the log. He said that when the kid saw him hurdle the log (passing him in the process) the kid started to give up. We had earlier talked about why Lance Armstrong usually wins. Because his mind will not let his body give up.

What the Coaches Thought

After the race, one of Stephen’s coaches (whose son has a full ride cross country scholarship to Mercer) said that in 20 years of coaching she has seen only four other kids with Stephen’s natural ability to run. She then got onto me for making Stephen run in heavy leather shoes and Boy Scout shorts. The other kids have nice shoes and running shorts. Just then, one of the girls on the JV girls team said “Apparently it’s not the shoes on the runner, but the runner in the shoes.”

Stephen’s coach said she thinks Stephen can get a full ride to the school of his choice in cross country. She said in addition to the shoes and shorts, he will need to quit football and work on cross country full time. I told her I didn’t think he’d want to do that. He LOVES football. She asked him and he told her he didn’t want to quit football. He wants to be like his uncle Richard and uncle Jared. He talks about them all the time.

Well that is it for now. He has another meet this weekend and Regionals next weekend.