Mood for a day

It’s one of the more famous opening lines in poetry, and it has been swishing through my head for the past 24 or so hours. T.S. Eliot started his poem entitled “The Waste Land” with the line: “April is the cruellest month … ” Now, I’m not going to pretend to analyze exactly what he meant when he penned these famous words nearly 100 years ago, but I will say THIS: When it comes to the weather in April, “cruel” often can be an accurate description. As the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes and it may change.

So yeah. On Friday down at Colonial Relays, we were traipsing about in shorts and T-shirts, searching for sun screen and sunglasses and the temperature soared to near 90 degrees. On Saturday morning, the rain was coming down in sheets and it was windy and raw most of the day. As the meet neared its conclusion, the sun came out. Of course. On the bus ride home last night/early this morning, through the long and dark night, we drove through a spectacular thunder and lightning storm in the DC area of northern Virginia and Maryland; the heat on the bus was blowing cold air, which led one alert athlete to ask if I was preparing for an Arctic expedition – I was wearing four layers, hoodie, hat, gloves … inside the bus. And lastly! As we arrived at the McCann Center around 3:30 a.m., we were greeted with a winter wonderland of wet, slushy snow, blowing in our sunburned faces. Swell. A 60-degree temperature swing in a matter of days. Looking at this week’s high temperatures and it is cruel, indeed. But alas, such is the life of outdoor track in the Northeast. Was T.S. Eliot writing about that all those years ago? Of course not! But after a few sleep deprived nights, a lot of miles and a lot of changes of clothing layers, that provides us with a good Mood for a Day.