When I last left you I was in Warwick Rhode Island visiting the Bishop Hendricken team and getting ready for the Brown University Invitational.  I went to Brown, and this is the first year that the Brown meet was a Nike event.  I got to the course Friday morning and the coaches and I began setting up snow fencing and making the shoot and all of the other fun things that go into making a meet.  I normally just come to the meet and set up my truck and the rest of my gear, and I didn’t realize how long it takes to get everything ready.  It gave me a new appreciation for meet directors, and it was also foreshadowing for my trip to Indiana.  More on that later.

The morning after set up we head out to the course nice and early.  My trucks in a prime position near the retail truck and a tight old tree.  As people start filling in I meet an unexpected guest.  It seems the Shalane Flanagan’s mother runs a website, prettysporty.com, that is taking pictures at the meet.  In exchange for her setting up next to my truck she gives me a couple of autographed posters of her daughter.  I now realize I have a pretty sweet prize to give away. What’s the best way to give out prizes?  Dance off of course.  I go up and talk to the DJ, he loves the idea, so we tart promoting it all day. 

After the championship races finish up and before the awards ceremony a group of, and I’m not kidding you, a couple hundred kids gather for the dance off.  The other judges and I decide for the first round we are each going to pick 3 boys and 3 girls we think should advance to the next round.  For the second round we are each going to pick 1 girl and 1 boy, then we will have the crowd determine by a round of applause who the winner is.  The three rounds finish up, and it is a very close competition, but the crowd makes the winners clear and the prizes are distributed appropriately. 

After the dance off I got to present the awards to the top 3 teams and top 15 individuals in each race.  It was a cool way to end a pretty exciting day of racing.