Bret

Got up early and went to the Florida State Cross Country meet with my daughter Delaney - whose team did not advance, but since one of the girls from her team individually advanced and one of the boys too - I thought it would be good for her to go to support her teammates and get an idea of what the meet will be like for her to have incentive to go next year ---- Plus I was able to see Doug's son Travis compete too.  Great setting at the Little Everglades steeplechase course in Dade City - which had the runners use at least a portion of the horse steeplechase course - which has a vantage point and standing area "stands" which is really nice for view most of the race.  The runners go up a steady incline for the first half mile and loop around the same climb twice again in front of the stands.  Warmish and humid weather made for some difficult racing especially as the morning got closer to noon.  I was amazed at the number of collapsed runners as they crossed the finish line -- several dropped on the final climb - at least one of which made a dramatic crawl - much like he'd just covered 12 hours of an Ironman competition. 

Any way - it was quite a nice spectacle - and Delaney's teammate - one of the four Sarah's on her squad - ran exceptionally well - 19:34 and finished 27th for a PR by over 35 seconds.  Her other teammate on the boys squad - Luke, did not have his best day - finishing 68th and running 17:03 - well-off of his best time by about 20 seconds.  He just looked cooked at the end, which was very uncharacteristic for him.

Doug's son Travis looked solid through the opening half but seemed to have suffered the same malaise as Luke and looked a bit depleted at the end.  Was happy to get to see them briefly after the race, but felt bad for each of them as they appeared quite disappointed on the day where he was a good bit slower than he'd expected to go - and really was without explanation as to what had happened.  The good news is that he has another race at Foot Locker next week and another year to get the state meet right, as he's only a junior.

Oh yeah - I did not run at all - chosing instead to do so vicariously.