Because Tennessee Street is closer than Terre Haute

If you were driving from Indianapolis to St. Louis on Interstate 70, you might stop for gas in Terre Haute. Other than that, I'm not sure why you'd ever end up there. I'm sure it's a very nice town, but the "Queen City of the Wabash" doesn't make most people's short list of preferred destinations. However, the NCAA has sited the Division 1 cross-country championships there the last few years, so if you're a college distance runner you really want to be in Terre Haute in November.


That doesn't make it any easier for a cross-country fan to get there, though. And somehow the NCAA cross-country meet got passed up by the all 17 different ESPN channels, relegating it to NCAA streaming video. Streaming video is a step or two up from telegraphy, but that's about it. And at least if you were sitting around the telegraph office a century and a half ago waiting for news from the Battle of Gettysburg, you'd be sharing that wait with other people. Watching streaming video on a hand-held device is about as solitary as it gets. It's certainly not the same as hanging around a grungy sports bar cheering on the home team with dozens of other fans who couldn't travel hundreds of miles to see the competition in person.


But two hours before the race I heard that the Tallahassee Buffalo Wild Wings on West Tennessee Street would be showing the video stream on one of their big screens. This was like a return to the early 1990s, when BWW was Doc's Sports Bar, and Tallahassee runners would gather there each April to watch the Boston Marathon broadcast from a signal that Doc was stealing off of the satellite. The good ol' days. Of course I was going to be there.


So were between 30 and 40 other Seminole cross-country fans, mostly students, mostly junior varsity runners and alumni, mostly ordering lunch (either deep fried or liquid). Kevin Cook banged on a keyboard, getting the stream from ncaa.com. Noon came, then eight minutes past noon and the start of the women's 6K race. Everyone watched closely, trying to catch glimpses of Florida State's women as Virginia's Morgane Gay jumped out in front early (and then died horribly, ending up 126th). There was a murmur of excitement in the room when the mid-race team standing appeared on the screen: FSU in 5th with 217 points, one point behind Villanova. I'll be the first to say that mid-race scores don't mean a whole lot, but it was all we had to go on. Maybe one of the blurs on the screen was FSU's Pilar McShine, and maybe not.


Texas Tech's Rose Tanui surged in the second half, trying to steal the race. Nothing doing, the pack ran her down. Then Sheila Reid of Villanova started to drive for the finish. The runners passed the starting line for the final time, and it looked like the race was Reid's. It was. Running the 6K in 20:07, Sheila Reid of Villanova was the 2010 NCAA D1 women's cross-country champion.


We were waiting for team scores, though. Nice interview with the winner, but could you show the finish line? More finishers then, but no scores. Then they started interviewing the Villanova coach? What about Florida State? Finally, the top five appeared on the screen:

1. Villanova 120
2. Florida State 154
3. Texas Tech 165
4. Georgetown 167
5. New Mexico 127

That rated some cheers; the Lady Seminoles had equaled their best-ever finish at the NCAA meet. But then it was time for the men's race. The camera was on the leaders, so for most of the race we couldn't see much more than Sam Chelanga of Liberty, Stephen Sambu of Arizona, and Luke Puskedra of Oregon. When we could see anything at all, that is. Much of the time the view was blocked by spectators lining the course, the lead vehicle, or some fat guy in a windbreaker waddling in front of the camera. By the end of the race we earnestly wanted to meet that fat guy. We desired to share with him our views about his character, his habits, and his ancestry. We were concerned about his health, and yearned to have some effect on it.


The fat man couldn't block the 2K, 5K, and 8K in-race team scores, which was once again our only clue as to how Florida State was doing. The 8K was encouraging; FSU was in second behind Oklahoma State. How much could change in two kilometers?


Puskedra lost contact with the leaders during the second half. Chelanga outkicked Sambu on the final straightaway. Then everyone in Buffalo Wild Wings howled as the camera tracked Chelanga and Sambu strolling through the chute together, leaving us ignorant of the other athletes crossing the finish line. Eventually someone on the production crew figured out that any athlete actually doing something was more interesting viewing than an athlete, however gifted, just standing around, and the camera went back to the finish line. The room cheered for each Seminole who crossed the screen.


Then began the wait for the team scores. The 2K, 5K, and 8K scores had reached us lightning fast, but the NCAA was coy with revealing the final scores. Eventually the team winner was leaked, as the camera cut to a mob of hooting and hollering Oklahoma State runners.


"I've got a bunch of happy Cowboys behind me," Larry Rawson announced to the television audience. Buffalo Wild Wings erupted in hilarity. No one made a "Brokeback Mountain" joke; no one had to.


At the keyboard, Kevin Cook grew impatient and started looking for results. He found a link, "Click Here For Results." He did. In Buffalo Wild Wings, on a fifty-inch color screen, a porn site appeared. Cook fumbled with the computer, finally succeeding in closing the offending window after an hour or two.


People started to drift out. There were classes and work to return to. Finally, ncaa.com put some team standings on the screen:

1. Oklahoma State 73
2. Florida State 193
3. Wisconsin 223
4. Stanford 237
5. Oklahoma 281
   

And that got a reaction from those of us who were left. The Florida State men had put together the program's best finish ever at the National Championships, one spot away from the title. Eventually ncaa.com got around to showing the awards ceremony; a few of the fans hung out in BWW to the very end, watching both Florida State teams collecting their runner-up hardware.


The broadcast wasn't without its faults. For instance, I still think that the camera should have been left on the finish line at least until the last All-American was in, possibly while a live tally of the team scores appeared on part of the screen (of course it would be unofficial). The area in front of the camera should have been corralled with some barrier designed to keep out fat guys in windbreakers. And it should have been live on some television station. Sure, I could have watched it at home on the internet, but if you can't go to a live event, the next best thing is hanging out in a sports bar viewing it on video with a mob of other fans. It was fortunate that BWW had the capability to put the event on one of their flat screens, and kudos to Ashley Calhoun for arranging it. But many seedy sports bars aren't equipped yet for the emerging age of internet television.


But we did get to see the Seminoles make history, and we didn't have to go to Terre Haute to do it.


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