Friday, November 20, 2009

Hours before the state meet at Little Everglades


"Boy, this is a lot better than what we had to run on," commented Bob Braman. "We always had to run the state meet around some school yard." Florida State's head track and field coach was looking over the course for Florida's high school cross-country state championships at Little Everglades Ranch, just north of Dade City.


I'm roughly of the same vintage as Coach Braman, but I don't remember the state championships as always being run on a high school campus. Half the time, maybe. What I do remember is that the courses were always flat. I've been at Florida cross-country state meets in Jacksonvillle, in South Plantation, and in Deland--and all of them featured course that were innocent of even the smallest hill. Little Everglades at least has some hills. Which you wouldn't necessarily expect because the course is built around a horse track. Well, it's a steeplechase track, so hills are almost a requirement.

I was out at Little Everglades Ranch on 20 November 2009, the day before the state meet. The course was open for inspection, making it one of very few days of the year that an ordinary person could go for a run out there. Little Everglades is privately owned, and you can only get to the track on the day of the state meet by paying a $7.00 parking fee and an $8.00 admission fee. Forget about running the course, unless you're a high school athlete who qualified to compete in one of the eight state championship races. There's also the Pre-State meet, but the rest of the year you have to be a horse to get onto the track, and I imagine the admission fees are even steeper to get into the stands.

So I jogged the course. It's five kilometers of cross-country and includes just over two full circuits of the horse track. The surface of the track isn't as smooth as it looks when you're watching the races, and it's soft. Soft is almost certainly good if you're a horse (or a person who had an economic interest in the leg bones of a $5,000,000 race horse). It's also good if you're a jockey who takes a spill during a steeplechase. (Hello, Prince Charles). It's not so good if you're running cross country. Five kilometers is challenging enough on firm ground, but this stuff is like a sponge that soaks up momentum.

The second circuit of the track is interrupted by a detour onto the infield. The ground on the infield is no smoother than the track, but it is a lot firmer. The short layout on the infield also features some tighter turns than the track, which is all straights and gentle curves. There is even a 180-degree turn near a dead tree. A sign on the turn reads "Bus Stop." This probably means something during horse race events at Little Everglades, but seems comically out of place during the state cross-country meet.

The high school runners out at the course seemed to be having a good time. Tomorrow is serious business, but today was stretching out the legs on good green grass, and setting up team tents for tomorrow. Lots and lots of tents. The numbers of tents suggest a military encampment, but the haphazard placement and assortment of sizes and colors tell a different story. The teams will want their tents during the state meet--it is going to get warm and bright as the morning wears on on Saturday, and there isn't a lot of shade at Little Everglades.

The day before was also a time for team pictures. I'm sure that team pictures will also be taken the day of the state meet, especially by the teams taking home trophies. But people wanted pictures of their teams today, while the runners will still full of hope. A few teams tried to take photos standing behind a banner proclaiming "FHSAA CROSS COUNTRY FINALS--HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS." This made a fine picture. Unfortunately, posing for this picture would bring a man out of the woodwork: "No one is allowed on the infield! No one is allowed on the infield!" he would bluster. "It's against Little Everglades track policy! Against track policy! See? See what has already happened?" He gestured at a banner on the fence; it's corner had come loose. Apparently the nylon "tie" securing it had broken, a material failure no doubt caused by the presence of unauthorized people on the wrong side of the fence. Still, the gate was open, and there wasn't a sign telling you not to go through the gate, so people kept trying to line up for a photo, and the officious little man kept chasing them away. I think he was having a good time.

Around 4:30 an announcement came over the public address system that we had thirty minutes before we all had to go away, no matter what side of the fence we were on. By then I had seen all but a mile of the course and had plenty of time to finish surveying that. The officious little man had replaced the broken nylon "tie." So everyone drifted away from Little Everglades. Cross-Country begins early enough on Saturday.


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Posted by Herb Wills at 9:15 PM
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2 comments:

  1. dugcoNovember 22, 2009 at 11:46 PM

    Good to see the offending team that you chose to show illegally capturing a photo op behind the fence had no visible clothing on to give away their identity. No matter what you may think, that is NOT 1A State Champ PSwain from Maclay in the middle of that group of his alleged teammates.

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  2. Herb WillsNovember 23, 2009 at 12:40 AM

    I wonder if the photo prevents me from invoking the classic Sgt. Schultz defense when questioned.

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