Thursday, March 29, 2018

Raleigh Relays: Notes from the road



Our bus pulled out of the McCann Center parking circle in the predawn darkness, at around 6:10 a.m. Nearly 12 hours later, we are still nowhere near Raleigh. Hey. I’m from Jersey. I’m allowed to complain about Jersey traffic, in which we sat for the better part of the morning. For the record? Jersey traffic sucks. So, too, does the dreaded I-95 corridor. Did I mention that Delaware traffic stinks too? Oh yeah. It does. A noted, loyal blog and program follower is a grizzled veteran of such I95 wars. Not fun. No Bueno. And so, this trip has dragged on and on and on.

We just got done with a delightful stop in a delightful southern town (actually not being sarcastic, for once), Ashland, VA. We needed to drop our first driver (Andy) at a hotel off the highway. Surmising that we wouldn’t make it to NC State before dark for our pre-meet practice, we made the decision to get our run in here in Ashland, home of Randoph-Macon College. Much to this old coach’s extreme delight, it was sunny, breezy and 80 degrees. 80 blessed degrees! Shorts and short-sleeve shirt. For the first time in 2018, the wool socks came off, in favor of the stylishly challenged tube socks. While our athletes were getting their pre-meet running in, I took a brisk walk around Randolph-Macon. I found a nice lacrosse/football stadium, and it was surrounded by a one-lane “track” that was quite nice (see?). Hey. It’s better than what WE got, for sure.

We’re back on the road now for a dinner stop, a few more hours on the highway, and finally checking in to the hotel. This heat wave is short-lived, but for a few hours it was nice to glimpse summer. Actually, once the racing starts tomorrow, summerlike weather is exactly what we don’t want for our athletes. Here’s hoping for good weather and good racing in Raleigh.

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