The Woodberry Harrier 2010: Volume 6

Heading into Mile 3....

            Recently, our manager John Moylan started working on a project: compiling statistics going back to 1976.  Thirty four years. It is hard to fathom that Woodberry harriers have been running along the same courses and up the same hills for so long, but it is even harder to grasp that many of us have only three weeks left on these trails. With only three more races and one more week of hard workouts left, our time to make a lasting mark on Woodberry Cross Country’s long legacy is coming to a close.

            On Tuesday we ran our last paper trail workout (doing a 5K in very fast 3-minute segments). Taking place out at St. Chris coach Bruce Nystrom’s farm, the workout tested a proposed future State Meet course. Four years ago Josh and I ran the same workout at Woodberry in preparation for our first State Meet, and now, as we prepare for our last, we know that it may well be the last State Meet ever held at Woodberry.  We feel the finish drawing near. With each morning that I wake up shivering on Walker Building, I inch closer to the chute behind the Barbee. The golden leaves falling from the trees signal the final stretch.  It is time to kick it in once and for all.

            Around this time of year, Coach Hale begins to remind us of how much Woodberry runners have sacrificed in the past. Stories like the one of Cordon crawling to the finish line have taken on an almost Biblical significance. Hearing them, it was always tough to comprehend how anyone could give so much for the sake of the team, but now I understand. I have spent the last four years trying to contribute to the Woodberry cross country legacy in any way I could. In every race and every workout I have tried to give a little bit more.  Now that I feel the final stretch ahead, I know my time to give is running low, and once I cross that finish line on November 12, my time is up. We all know we must pour ourselves into this team for these last three weeks. We have twenty days to write our chapter in Woodberry cross country history, and then the pages will be sent to the printer. Ready or not, they will be preserved in ink, waiting to be read thirty years down the road.

                                                            -- Conor Flynn

            Good words, Conor. Of course, as the teller of these stories I get a little choked up remembering Cordon's epic finish and then my mind wanders back to Rudd Olmstead's tragic collapse in the final stretch, to JR Floweree's amazing move into the lead coming down Parrot's Hill.  I think all the way back to my first season with Davant, Anderson, Young, and Gallahan running their hearts out even when we had no real chance of winning the championship, and so many great races in between. But I need not think back so far. I need only remember last year's State Meet when Conor Flynn ran with unheard-of determination past people he had never before beaten to be our fifth man and cinch a State Championship the odds-makers had not considered seriously possible. Heroism does not lie merely in the past.  It is here and now.

            We saw much of that last week when we ran our traditional dual against Episcopal on such a fall day as even we in Virginia only dream of---blue skies over bright foliage in 70-degree air which was so dry it felt cool. Given that we had come off a very tough week of training, I was amazed by the performances. They raced together and looked awesome, and they narrowed our 1-5 gap by 40-seconds from the first dual meet of the season. Here are the results:

EHS Dual Meet
Woodberry Upper 5k Course
October 22nd,  2010
1st place out of 2 teams Top-five spread: 0:34 Top-seven spread: 1:09
Runner	Time	Place out of  17
Winston	17:43	2nd	a 39-sec. WFS PR.
Garrison	17:44	3rd	a 14-sec. all-time PR
Laws	17:46	4th	a 19 sec. WFS PR. A 6-sec. all-time PR
Trudgeon	17:59	6th	tying his '09 State Meet time
Rafield	18:17	7th	an 18-sec. all-time PR
Shelton	18:18	8th	a 26-sec. WFS PR
Grantham	18:52	10th
Flynn	18:53	11th
Evans	19:03	12th	in his first race of the season!
Exum	19:33	16th	a 52-sec WFS PR!!  A 41-sec. season PR
Bennert	DNR
Gimbert	DNR

           Despite the good day, we were back at it Saturday morning doing one of the hardest workouts of the week, and I enjoyed seeing that cheerful effort almost as much as I enjoyed the meet the day before.