A for Effort

I think I accidentally ran in a high school cross country meet today.

I run at Cleveland Park downtown pretty often, and it butts up next to the Greenville Zoo. I usually park in their parking lot and start running from there. In retrospect, there were a few red flags that should have tipped me off to the fact that this was not a normal afternoon, like the occasional fleet-footed teenager zipping past me in a snappy uniform, or the middle-aged moms standing on the side of the path with stopwatches. But it wasn't until I rounded a corner coming out of the woods and was met with a wall of people, cheering and taking pictures, that I finally thought "uh...." I mean, the people of Greenville are friendly, but this was ridiculous. And then I saw the busses parked nearby... and the tables full of water coolers... and I realized "oh sweet lawsy I'm running a 5k with 200 high schoolers."

As soon as I recognized what was going on, I tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. As there were several thousand people there, this was not an easy feat, and eventually entailed me sprinting off the path and into the woods, trying to look as natural as possible, as though that was my normal running route.

I told Kristen the story and she texted me later to tell me she was proud of me for doing so well in my race. I appreciate the sentiment, but I think it would be best for everyone if I quietly step down from competing in the high school circuit.