Are we in Kansas?

The license plates on our leased vans say “Kansas” … and today, during our afternoon practice, it sure seemed like Kansas in the middle of the summer (oh wait, isn't it October?). We were up at Farm Lane in Hyde Park, preparing for a workout, when the ominous clouds started lurking. Our women went for their warmup run, and soon thereafter, the clouds opened up, and the thunder came, and it became obvious we would have to come up with a Plan B – which, regrettably, involves treadmills. As the ladies scurried back to the vans in the deluge, a blaring alert came across my phone, via the Accuweather app: “Tornado warning until 3 p.m., in Haviland, NY.”  Haviland is the Hyde Park hamlet in which we live; Farm Lane happens to be about 1.6 miles (roughly 3km) away. Whoa. Is this Kansas? So, we hustled back to campus, hoping not to see any twisters. We didn’t.

The women hopped on the treadmills in South Field Fitness (“the tent”). It seemed like a raucous wedding reception as Music of Questionable Taste (for this 54-year-old) blared from the big speaker. The sweaty workout resumed, after a “tornado delay” – another in a series of firsts that we seem to be experiencing during this 2018 cross country season.