Colonial Relays: Lonliness of the long-distance runners

Day 1 of Colonial was a long morning, afternoon and evening of track and field in the aforementioned summerlike weather. We arrived early (before 8 a.m.) for the unseeded distance races and we stayed late (past 10 p.m.) for the evening distance events. The entire travel party headed back to the hotel at around 6 p.m., except for three men's distance runners -- freshman Jake Hensler, who had completed the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the late afternoon, junior Mark Valentino, who ran the seeded section of the 5,000-meter run at night, and senior Billy Hild, who ended the evening in the 10,000-meter run.

We just arrived back at the hotel a little after 11 p.m. Having other athletes stay and cheer on these guys would have made zero sense, after a long day in the sun and with a day of competition to follow on Saturday. It was a small crew of us there under the lights, but such is the nature of a long day at the track.