Once school started, Corbin immediately went out for the junior high cross-country team. Of course, Texas is a football state. In fact, I am still not sure we fully appreciate the importance of that sport here. We are starting to get an inkling. For example, when we registered Corbin for school, we signed him up for an athletics class with the understanding that he would actually be practicing for his sport (running) during that hour. Sadly, once school actually started, this huge class was almost all football players, and they actually made Corbin change his schedule since they didn't have staff to supervise kids doing the fringe sports.
I have to give my kiddo the props here. Once he started after school practice with the team, it quickly became apparent that his coach was not going to have the kids putting in much mileage. According to Corbin, most of his teammates were not able to run very far without walking. And so the early morning run once again became the routine. Corbin has been getting himself up before school so he can put in an extra run. Those genes are all Martin!
Last weekend, the first meet had arrived. Corbin was scheduled to run in another town called Borger. We got up early Saturday morning, dropped him off for the bus ride, and prepared to drive over as a family. Upon arrival, we were quite surprised to see that this was not a small meet. There were probably at least a dozen schools in attendance, and kids were all over the place warming up. We had a few brief moments of interaction with our son as he prepared, but for the most part, we did the usual milling around waiting for the fire of the gun.
At one point, Theo declared how weird this was. I was a bit chagrined by this comment. I thought that this was totally normal to me. How many countless cross-country meets have I attended over the years? There were lots of kids in track suits and running shoes. Parents were preparing their cameras. The PTA was selling t-shirts. All normal.
Then Theo clarified his initial statement, "I don't know anyone...."
That pulled me up short. It had not occurred to me that it might be completely non-typical for my husband. My husband, the Arizona native, the other half of a set of locally famous twin runners, the All-American track and cross-country hero, the accomplished coach living in the hometown that was the beginning place for all of his incredible athletic achievements. In that moment, I realized that he was not normally wandering aimlessly with me in the minutes prior to the race. I seldom saw him at all on a race day. He was always right in the thick of the race directing. If he wasn't coaching, he was timing. If he wasn't timing, he was scouting the course. If he wasn't scouting the course, he was talking with other coaches, greeting parents, encouraging nervous kids, offering last minute race strategy, scoping the competition, and always, always greeting people that wanted a minute or two of chat time. Always, people wanted to talk with him about glory days when they watched him run with his brother, or raced against him back in high school, or read about him in the paper, or wanted to wish his team well.
He may not have known everyone, but everyone seemed to know him...
It was a moment. Things here are different.
Back to the runner of the moment, Corbin. He was on the line, and ready to go. The gun went off, and the race was on. Theo's natural instinct took over, and he was off as though shot by the starting gun. He loves to run to far reaches along the course to yell encouragement. The rest of us mortals, jogged to a couple of nearby points where we could see Corbin go by as he raced the two-mile course. We were thrilled to see Corbin in the front of the pack each time he zipped by. As we hurried to the finish line, he cranked it down into the next gear and flew in at 7th place!
As the race wound down, we walked with Corbin and some of his teammates. They had made a very good showing, in fact, their team won the meet. We originally planned to have Corbin return to Amarillo with us, and approached his coach to take care of the signing out. My guess about her is that she was once an athlete of some sort several years ago, maybe track or basketball, she coaches those sports as well. We congratulated her on a well-run race and talked about the season at hand. Then, another reinforcement of the moment we had before the race began. Corbin's coach started to explain to Theo how a cross-country race is scored. I smiled and nodded. How would she have any idea who she was talking to? It was kind of comical. Mostly weird again.
As we prepared to leave, we followed Corbin to the school bus to tell him we were ready to go. I stepped up into the bus to see him huddled in the back rows with a crowd of his teammates rehashing every moment of their glorious run, sharing tales of manuevers, strategies, and victories. Bonding. He didn't even see me until I called out. He quickly dismissed me with a declaration that he wanted to ride home with the team. It was yet another moment that day.
At least in that little group, everyone knows Corbin.
No comments:
Post a Comment