The phrase "One more 'til one more" has become the unofficial motto of the girls cross country program at Dublin Coffman High School. It started a number of years ago as a way for athletes to motivate teammates in a workout. Everyone can smile and gut it out for the last interval in a workout under normal circumstances. This was an attempt to be recursive and push that little mental boost back one in the workout, letting it give you a little laugh before the second to last interval. Some kids used it this morning during a workout, and it was a powerful reminder, no matter how different practices now (and meets will) look, there is a certain power in the collective effort of a workout. The sense of shared suffering and shared accomplishment is part of what makes most sports, but cross country in particular, worth the effort.
This has been a weird season. Usually most of the summer is spent with the kids getting together on their own to run every day. This summer it was groups of at most 9 kids arriving at their designated start time, having done a temperature and symptoms check ahead of time. Masks are worn until the warm ups are completed and the kids head out on their run or start their interval workout. As soon as they return, masks are back on. Our groups are being as strictly enforced as we can, which has made it hard to generate the same sense of camaraderie as a normal season. Groups arrive at staggered times so that we don't overcrowd the available space. With 92 boys and 48 girls, things can be crowded even when we are broken into groups. But we are soldiering on, getting them to spread out and not letting them hang around when they get done. That hurts, because we know that we making cross country less fun. We just hope that these measures keeping them apart will also keep them safe, and maybe let them compete in a few races.
Those races will be different. Much smaller than the races with which our athletes are familiar. We are trying to schedule some dual meets, because with teams as big as ours, two teams can fill up or exceed the maximum allowed in a meet. Some meets may use staggered starts spread out competitors. Others will just drastically limit entries and spread out the starting lines and lengthen and widen starting straightaway in order to let the field stretch out before having to make crowded turns. Some places will do both. No one will hang out at the starting line until just before the start. The athletes will wear masks until just before the race starts, and have to put masks back on as soon as they finish. The changes represent a way to cut down on the risk. And if we get in a few races safely it will be a lot better for the kids than no races or or having a couple of normal races and then a sharp stop to the season because of spreading infections.
This brings me back to this morning. It was hot for at 8:00 am start, but not nearly as hot as it would get today. Two groups of girls starting on different sides of a large field, running intervals around it. Forty-five minutes later two more groups arrive and start their workout while the first groups head off (in different directions in groups of 3-4) to cool down. The same thing happened for the boys, but on the track. Put simply, it's not nearly as much fun as it would be under normal circumstances. But we are making all of these changes for a reason. And that reason hit me in the face this morning when some girls smiled at each other and said "One more 'til one more." That little bit of normal, of working hard and sharing that hard work with teammates is important. It is a piece of normal that will, I hope, give kids a mental lift and make it a little bit easier to navigate our current reality.
[Side Note: Please don't take this as a "We need to find a way to let the kids have a season polemic." If anything this is a "Why are you not willing to make any of the sacrifices or changes that would let the kids have a season polemic."]
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