Let's hear it for running

I went on location to Toledo on the Ottawa golf course, where my good friend AJC (No relation) ran her city meets in high school. It was an absolutely perfect day for a meet. It was cool enough to make running pleasant, but not so bad as to make it painful to stand still.
For the men, I showed up at the gunshot. The men stayed surprisingly clumped together through the first half. Michigan had a great showing, staying in the top teams throughout the first half half. They passed up Notre Dame (who have some serious fans) to take third. Indiana fought a war of attrition to take second and Wisconsin began in first and ended by their five runners crossing shoulder to shoulder just because they could. Wisconsin is yet to no make it to nationals since the system was put in place. While Michigan does not Automatically qualify, they stand a good chance of getting to nationals on time.
I was considering not staying for the women's race, but I am glad I did. The women tended to break up much more quickly, which is understandable as the race was shorter. Our women pushed it better than I have ever seen.  We dominated. Our top ladies were first, second, fourth and eighth in the overall scoring. They earned a first place finish and a trip to the nationals in Terre Haute Indiana a week from Monday. I am half inclined to skip class and head down there.
A bit of commenting on spectating. First off spectating a Cross Country race involves running. You have to beat the runners to the next viewing location. Thankfully they have a longer trip to go. We'll I wouldn't have a problem, maybe. Anyway the spectators do have one restriction on how they can get to the next location, they cannot interfere with the race. This was not a problem with the men, because the men were so clumped together. The women, had a problem though. People got impatient and started moving between the runners in droves. This was complete disregaurd for the sport. I am disapointed. Boo.

As for being a spectator, I always feel so weird being there. Cross country spectators are essentially a few parents the other gender's team and the the track and field teams. Since I am not a member of these teams, I feel really out of place. I can talk to a relative or two, but that is about it. There was a woman taking notes, I was not sure if she was working for the paper or the school. I asked her if she was working for the Michigan Daily. It turns out she was working for my second guess and one of my favorite websites, mgoblue.com. She said that the daily would not send anyone to the meet. I feel i must rectify this. I am heading the daily sports meeting tomorrow. I will volunteer to cover any minor sport I can, including the national championship for cross country, and possibly the field hockey championship if we upset UNC tomorrow. What this means is that I will actually have to start writing in an interesting manner.