For three years straight, I made my way to the North Atlanta track every fall afternoon for cross country practice. Doing anything over and over makes it seem unremarkable, ordinary. I can say that’s exactly what happened to me in this case scenario, the track became less of an anticipated destination and more of a pause in my afternoon. This fall however, everything changed.
Once the track closed for stadium renovations, practicing there became obsolete. The strangely comforting combination of sounds from pads clacking, shoes rhythmically thumping, whistles blowing, and coaches yelling, was gone. Even more than this, an entire atmosphere was gone – the chaos of so many people in the same place can be quite entertaining. Now we practice as a team located off-campus, all by our lonesomes. What was an under-appreciated aspect of the track has become something I miss.
Not to say I liked getting taken out by loose footballs, but the mayhem of multisport practices added a level of amateurism to practice. The unseriousness of dodging players, balls, and stray equipment let us stay loose and find enjoyment in the randomness. No longer can we quietly grab a football and toss it around while we run. I’m sure Coach Aull loved it when we did this.
Beyond just the track being disabled for running, the cross-sport relationships created on the field could be quite special. Whether it was dabbing up a fellow in pads, tossing the baseball mid-stride to players in offseason practice, or pausing to bomb a perfectly arced soccer ball during captains soccer practices, the small interactions made on the field will be missed. And yes, you thought correctly, cross country runners are not athletic. A weak slap on the soccer ball is a more accurate description of what our kicks look like.
For anyone but cross country (*ahem* football *cough*), our lack of presence might be a good thing. But I’d like to think that dodging runners flying by and having to constantly worry about not hitting them with a football brings the same lightheartedness to practices as dodging them brings to ours. At the end of the day, sacrificing these small things is necessary to update our football field. But in a few months, the field will be back. Then let the chaos ensue.
