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Last run with the "Next Generation"

April 22, 2019 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
With Anthony off at Holton with the jumpers and throwers, distance runner practice was left to me, Nomi, and Lauren to manage. Which obviously meant that the one coach among us who is not actually an official coach and has no authority got to decide where we ran. Actually, I pretty much followed Anthony's instructions of having everyone run the backway to STA and then come back on Wisconsin, but with a little athletic license. I may or may not have said we could run around the Cathedral if we want, or through it, or play hide and seek among the shrubbery... whatever. Then I managed to get lost on the way there. Have I ever actually known what the "backway" is? I'm not sure. Fortunately Ana knows. Unfortunately she's graduating. AnSo, were you paying attention? Otherwise we'll all be following Corbin next year and will probably end up in Virginia. Which would make Smurphy happy. But that's besides the point. Hopefully Camelot will save us all.

Once we got to the Cathedral, where the faster group has paused to wait for us, I discovered that everyone had taken my suggestion to play hide and seek literally. After a concerted lobbying effort by a determined coalition of team members, I gave in. What can I say? Apparently when Corbin, Anso, Arthur, Camilla, and Ella start begging like 5-years-olds for me to come play a game with them, I can't help but fall into the mentality of a daddy just back from a European business trip who feels guilty for not spending enough time playing with his kids. We agreed on 2 minutes to hide, 10 minutes to search, the searchers being me, Lil' G and the Smurph. I caught Camilla, Ella, and Benji F. almost immediately in a stairwell that Abby and Ana were prepared to entirely overlook. Really guys? I'd expect both better hiding and better searching from you all. Then again, I'm not really one to talk. After catching Ethan Litmans resting on a bench who told us "there's someone hiding who I can see right now from where I'm sitting" I started climbing a tree in an attempt to see if someone was hiding behind a stone wall and failed to notice his younger brother Tyler Litmans who was hiding IN THE EXACT SAME TREE several feet above me. We all agreed that he had the best hideaway, except for Arthur who believes choosing to hide in a Port-a-John was more clever. I was inclined to give him some major props for that, but Camilla raised a very fierce protest, claiming that he had violated my "no hiding inside" rule. I don't remember what I said exactly, whether it was a ban on hiding "inside the cathedral" or merely "indoors". All I can say is that when I was in town for a meet a year ago I asked Anthony if Camilla had begun talking or smiling yet all year and I'm pretty sure the answer came back in the negative. How times change.

We then had to send out a search party to find Corbin who had hidden himself so well that even he couldn't find his way out, but after a few minutes of calling "Corbin! Cooooooorrbin! Here boy! [whistle]" Ethan Litmans announced that the prodigal junior had someone how found his way back. In the meantime, Jeff Elias had magically shown up. Nomi also disappaered and reappeared during this time, and I had a flashback to XC camp at Mackemie Woods in 2011 when we were all lying in the field at night with Cory Coates giving us a tour of the night's sky (science teachers apparently are jacks of all trades when it comes to sciences, even beyond their speciality). Suddenly Nomi, at the time a junior and new to the team, pops up and starts yelling "Find me! Catch me!" and running in wild circles arounds us in the grass. It's a wild Nomi someone shouted. That's pretty much been my fundamental image of her every since.

When we got back to school I had the kiddos do striders on the grass. They were pretty bad at them, except Ella, so I decided to embarrass her by having her demonstrate for everyone else how to run. For the record, Jacob Greene's form is also very impressive, but he's a bit too fast for everyone to fully appreciate it. Major points to AnSo for actually requesting feedback on how to improve. Abby needs to become aware of the fact that she is the proud owner for two arms. Joyce has fine form when not giggling.

Talking to Hannah, Lucia, et al. while watching Corbin, Benji, Ruby, and Arthur play their extremely-ethusiastic version of mini-trampoline 4-square in which Corbin nearly wounded Ruby with a high energy high five, I managed to drag out practice for another 30 minutes, much like I'm dragging out this running-log entry, because I wasn't ready to say farewell. I'm heading back to Bosnia tomorrow, but not before one last run with Anthony to share all the insights and rumors I've picked up over the past few days. Then, at long last, I'll give my legs the 2-3 weeks off they've been begging for. (Their begging is much less fun to be subjected to than that of the sophomores, but no less insistent.)

Just for fun, I engaged in one last little unconventional core workout later this evening.