NCAA xc were supposed to be this weekend. What do you miss most about the meet?

I went once when I was 15 and saw Brie Felnagle run by a few times. I thought that was pretty cool.

The opportunities for virginity loss back at the hotels.

Why was my post deleted?

LRC Response. Your post was deleted because it was false. You posted, "I’ll tell you what I don’t miss: you complaining about race cancellations due to a global pandemic."

That's not what the article says at all.

Nice read!

For me, the #1 thing about NCAA xc is running across the race course with thousands of others. There is NOTHING like it. I love to see all the pageantry, the face paint etc. But I remember being there in college as a fan and not even knowing the course and just running wondering "Where the hell do we run next to see them" and chasing after a mass of people.

Running to the next stop, trying to catch your breath and then breaking down the race with some random fan- asking them who is winning, etc. I guess I may not talk as much to the random fan now as I'll try to get a live score update on my phone.

It’s been an annual guy’s-weekend trip for nearly 20 years. I mean, the race is great and being in the middle of thousands of people running around to watch it is great. But it’s that road trip thing I’m missing.

Nothing compares to cross country. In what other sport do the fans run around the course, falling in mud, taking short cuts through the bushes, getting stuck with thorns, to be able to cheer on their athletes?

For some reason I always remember the Great American Smokeout where I am not sure if anyone actually avoided smoking that day but it seemed like it was usually the week of the meet and I recall traveling to National meets on that day.

John Wesley Harding wrote:

I went once when I was 15 and saw Brie Felnagle run by a few times. I thought that was pretty cool.

That reminds me of a story.

One year at NCAA track regionals, I drop my star at Cornell off and tell him, "I gotta park the car. Find a place at the practice field to be our homebase and i'll be there in a few minutes."

When I finally find him 20 minutes later, his stuff is right next to hers. Any doubt as to whether it was a coincidence were dispelled by the huge grin on his face. He looked like a 5 year old on xmas.

I miss subject-verb agreement.

I miss following the progress of teams throughout the season into their Conference Championships. Always fun to see the early teams start to get caught by those with late season priorities. Then the regional meets...Who didn't make it and who are the surprises that don't get the opportunity much if any in school history. Then on the week of the big day, it's watching the weather forecast. I've been around for awhile so when the meet used to rotate it was interesting to see who could handle the conditions best whether it was in Tucson where it was high up and warm or Ames where it was -19 below wind-chill factor!!! On that day....there is no tomorrow.

I'll have to say that my first NCAA meet I attended in Des Moines (87) made an impression. Two individual winners from Indiana including a freshman in Bob Kennedy and some obscure team in yellow tops and blue shorts from Flagstaff, AZ I had never heard of that got the runner-up trophy. I immediately became a big fan for the little guys that day. We all know who the big dogs are but I love it when a sport like CC gives the little guys the same opportunity. It was fun to see how the D2 & D3 chips fared in the race as well even though they didn't have much time to prepare.

i miss watching it free online before flotrack aka flocrap put it behind a paywall

An American male winning.

It’s not an either/or troll.

Selfish grandma doesn’t want her grandkids to experience life. Stop lamenting missed events and start feeling sorrow 24/7 for the 1/10 of 1%.

Vaccines coming folks.

Cause most canceled events could have should have been held.

Grandma is selfish.

The meet in Ames that Kennedy won was in '88. '87 was in Charlottesville, the first of 13 I attended in 15 years. But I've only been to two since - having kids de facto pushed me into choosing coaching my own team over following college teams. If they are open to the public, I'll probably get to Tallahassee next year - not entirely unrelated to the fact that younger son is a HS senior this year. I ran the '91 Tucson meet that Gault says was the hottest ever according to NCAA records. The 65 degrees seems reasonable enough - I don't recall anything about the weather at all, which is kind of the definition of 65 degrees. But the '96 meet in Tucson was MUCH hotter. Probably 80, with bright sun. Numerous people collapsing. By far the hottest I've attended, and unless the Tucson '86 meet was hot almost certainly the hottest ever. I wouldn't have described the locations back then as a "rotation" because there was just a year-to-year bid process, but they didn't go to the same place multiple times in a short period, and didn't stick in a tight area of the Midwest. Starting in '86: Tucson - Charlottesville - Ames - Annapolis - Knoxville - Tucson - Indiana - Lehigh - Arkansas - Ames - Tucson - Furman - Kansas - Indiana - Ames - Furman.

My bad. 88. Point was that I miss the buildup and rotation. I had my own teams for 30+ years as well and managed to get them to the course when the local university was competing. I wanted them to see what the next level looks like for sure but on Championship day they got to see the highs and lows of that last race of the season in a variety of conditions that nobody has control over. You just do the best you can, no guarantees.

coachhonea wrote:

But the '96 meet in Tucson was MUCH hotter. Probably 80, with bright sun. Numerous people collapsing. By far the hottest I've attended, and unless the Tucson '86 meet was hot almost certainly the hottest ever.

Definitely accurate, I was also there. Don't recall if we met (we have a mutual friend, former Nike South/Georgia Tech coach) though I do remember you on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. How's Dvorak doing these days?