Me and the trees (The trees and I?)

The men’s cross country practice this morning was lonely again. After having an assistant coach to keep me company for the past three XC seasons, it was back to me, myself and I again at the men’s practice. Coach Chuck was back to his teaching job for the school year. Last year, I had Nick Cruz as an assistant and for the two years prior to that, our program was fortunate to have Erica Maker as an assistant. Both added much to the program and both made my middays so much better. Erica is just a flat-out great coach. I learned a lot from her, and bouncing ideas off her allowed me to expand my coaching mindset. Young Cruz had no coaching experience, but he has an analytical mind and it made for good conversations and a much-needed sounding board for someone often set in his ways. But now, today, it was just me and the trees (the trees and I?). At one point, on this beautiful summer day at the Cator Loop at the Roosevelt National Historic Site, a tourist came by and started talking with me. I thanked him, saying it beats talking to the trees. “When you start hearing them trees talk back to you,” the old guy said, “it might be time to reconsider what you’re doing.” I’m not there yet. The trees were decent enough company today, but I sure do miss my coaching companions.