Track Meet Nostalgia...Almost

A few weeks ago, I was thinking that I almost missed going to high school track meets. Almost...

I was driving home from work, past a high school track on a day that was sunny and unseasonably warm for early April. I had seen some runners out on the road – highschoolers, maybe just baseball players getting into condition, perhaps girls' soccer players, but they could have been track kids, getting ready for the season. I had a sudden longing to go to a high school track meet. It's been nine years since I've been to one. (I don't count the college track meets I've been to in the years since then. They are a whole different entity...) And for about two minutes on that drive home, I really wanted to be at a high school track meet...

My son was a distance runner in high school, running cross country in the fall, the mile and the 4 x 800 in the spring track season. Cross country was a fun sport for parents. Most courses in our area were scenic and viewer-friendly. They provided good exercise for spectators, and the season was usually warm enough to make for very pleasant viewing conditions. I remember only one cross country meet in four years where I wondered if I had brought enough warm clothes. There were probably others, but for the most part, my memories of cross country seasons are full of glorious fall days.

Track meets, however, can be grueling events for parents as well as the student athletes. My son's two events were at opposites ends of each meet. Since high school track meets last anywhere from two to five hours, this makes for a long time commitment for “good” parents. The track season begins in March and ends in late May. In our area of the country this spans the gamut from snow and freezing temperatures to the beginning of intense summer heat. Aluminum bleachers can be unbelievably cold in March, even April, and uncomfortably hot by the end of May. A single track meet, because of it's length and, in the case of afternoon/evening meets because of the time of day, can have extremes of hot and cold. I learned to think of my car as a traveling closet. For most of track season, it contained two pairs of gloves, a scarf and winter hat, a wool sweater, a raincoat, a spring jacket, a windbreaker, and a hooded winter jacket. During the course of a single meet, I would return to the car to put on (or take off) however much clothing was necessary to see me through the rest of the meet. I remember one spring meet that ran late into the night, waiting for my son's last race, standing by the side of the track (It had grown too cold to sit on the bleachers any longer.), thinking that I really hadn't brought enough clothes. And then it began to snow...Actually, it was kind of pretty, in the dark, with the track lights on, seeing these large spring snowflakes coming down, barely coating the track, while the final races continued on.

From a parent's perspective, the best meets are always the one's where your son does well in his event. From a viewer's perspective, however, choosing the right parking space can make a track meet truly great. The best meets were the ones that had parking spaces right up against the track. I would come early just to get one of those spots. My car, usually equipped with a thermos of hot tea (in March) or iced drinks (in May), assorted snacks and reading material, was my home base. Close enough to see much of the meet from the driver's seat of my car and to hear the announcements over the sound system, I would snack and read between races. Yes, of course, I would be at the track side for my son's races, and I would usually pop out of the car for the races that his friends were in as well. But great books were read in the between times of those long meets...

During one of the last meets of my son's senior year, on a hot May day, I was reminiscing about the races of the last four years with another parent who had two runners in both cross country and track. It would be ending for me this year, the dad said. (His sons were younger, and he would have another year or so of bleacher-sitting.) Would I be one of those parents that would show up at meets next year, after my son had graduated? I didn't have to think long on that. Sure, I said, I'll probably show up at a cross country meet in the fall (and I did, every year, for most of the years since then). But, I said, you will probably never see me at another track meet again. (I said this, sitting on a blazing hot aluminum bleacher seat, on the same track where we were once evacuated from during a meet because of a tornado warning.)

And I haven't been back to a high school meet since. But on these nice spring days, when I see kids running in the road, maybe training for their mile or their relay, I think that maybe I do miss that season of track meets and I think about maybe going to one...almost...

You can tell when you are on the right track. It's usually uphill. - Amish Proverb