I originally was attending this race because a fellow cross country runner from high school has a daughter that was racing. It was much colder than the day before and these athletes had to contend with the differences.

In both races, the winner took off fast and didn’t really have to fight too hard to keep the spot. They just had to run their race.

Watching these races I had several different thoughts cross my mind. First, I ran for a class 2 school, but my son runs for a class 3 school. The fight to get better at these smaller schools is much harder as you don’t always have the depth of other athletes to really push you.

Secondly, being a former collegiate cross country runner and USATF certified coach I couldn’t help but think, “I wish I could work with some of these kids, I see so much potential.” It’s not that they don’t have qualified coaches, we just all see things differently and smaller schools tend to have less in terms of financing to help bring in coaches with lots of experience.

Regardless, I love watching the smaller schools race too. These athletes put so much into it and to make it to state is a real feat. I’m already looking forward to watching them race again next year.

If you want to see more shots from class 2, check out this link: alancombsphotography.passgallery.com/r1CmOTL78wSfY

If you have tried any of my other links and can’t get any of them to work to access the class you would like to see, email me at alan@alancombsphotography.com. Sometimes cookies cause issues and prevent the galleries from loading correctly.