Last Saturday, 23 August 2014, Florida's high school cross-country season still hadn't started. There was still a week to go before the preps could run in "pre-season classics" and another week after that till the real season. It was especially frustrating in Tallahassee, because just across the state line in Pelham, Georgia, some Peach State schools were already competing in their second meet of the year. But that same day the Panhandle saw open road races in Pensacola and Niceville, and an open cross-country event in Tallahassee. If you glance at the results, you'll see more than a few high school athletes among the top finishers, names that you'll see regularly once the season starts. Jay High senior Micah Kemp wasn't wearing school colors last Saturday, but he did win the Pensacola Runners Association 5K Membership Run in 18:05. In Tallahassee, Jake Mazziotta ran 17:57 to finish runner-up in the Miller Landing Madness 5K cross-country run in Phipps Park. On 6 September 2014 he'll be back in Phipps Park racing the Cougar Cross-Country Challenge as a Maclay School sophomore. The same is true of another Maclay School sophomore, Caroline Willis, who won the women's division in the Miller Landing Madness 5K with a 21:13, just ahead of Wakulla High sophomore Haleigh Martin's 21:33.
Those were just the fastest. There were many high school runners in Northwest Florida racing on Saturday.
Caroline Willis negotiates a water barrier about a mile into the
Miller Landing Madness 5K, two weeks before she races for Maclay
School in the Cougar XC Challenge
I asked some coaches in the region about their philosophy in allowing their athletes to compete in these earlier-than-pre-season races.
"I have a lot of new young kids," said one coach. "We use this as a race to get an idea of where the new kids are. They get the feeling of racing and learn what to expect. We use it as a warm-up for the season."
Another coach commented, "Frankly, being very objective about it, there's no competitive advantage to racing this early, but it does get my runners tied in with the larger running community. They get to see that, yes, old people run, too." Some of them also get to race against their parents. They also get a chance to rehearse meet procedures. Today my captains forgot to bring the tarp, the tent, and the team cooler. This was a chance to do a bunch of stuff wrong before the season."
There were also many high school runners in Northwest Florida who weren't racing on Saturday.
"Some of my guys aren't ready to race," said one of their coaches. "It's going to take the whole season to get them ready for State."
Clearly, the decision of whether to preface the season with a race, or a workout, or a time trial, or something else depends upon the situation.
#3148 Gannon Hundley, #3224 Dylan Peebles, and #3263 Teddy Feracho
splash through a water hazard during the Miller Landing Madness 5K
cross-country run. During the upcoming season they'll be racing for
Maclay, Wakulla, and Lincoln.
One consideration is this: there are eleven Saturdays from 6 September 2014 to 15 November 2014, the date of the State meet. But there are fifteen Saturdays if you extend that to 13 December 2014, the date of Foot Locker Nationals. The very best in the Northwest may still not be good enough to make it to San Diego, but you don't get there without planning for it. The likes of Trey LaNasa, Emma Rudman, and Sukhi Khosla weren't at the races last Saturday, and it may be because fifteen weeks is already a long time.
We'll see the best from the best soon enough, though.
Northwest Florida Correspondent Herb Wills
Herb Wills' running career goes back to the 1971 boys' age-group mile at the Florida Relays. Since losing that race he has won the 1976 Florida High School class 4A cross-country championship, 1979 AAU USA junior titles in cross-country and the 10,000 meters, and the 1989 TAC USA 30K national championship. As a distance runner at Florida State University from 1978 to 1982, he was NCAA All-American three times in track and once in cross country, and won a silver medal in the marathon at the 1981 World University Games. Graduating Florida State with a degree in mathematics, in the following years Wills ran in the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and placed tenth in the Boston Marathon in 1989. After more than a few years of duty as a hurdle setter and lane judge at track meets, Wills discovered that the public address announcer not only got to sit down at meets but was also sheltered from the rain. Since that revelation you can hear him with a microphone in his hand at several track and cross-country events in the Tallahassee area. Writing is another activity you can do while sitting down, and Wills has written about running for Racing South magazine and Tallahassee's local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat.
You can read more running related tidbits in his blog at http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/
Herb Wills NorthWest Florida Reports LINK
