2017-18 Year End Summary

For most people New Year's Eve represents the end of one year and the beginning of the next. For some businesses it is the transition from June 30th to July 1st. But for me, my life has followed the rhythms of the "school calendar" for almost 50 years. School, and thus my year begins in August and ends in June. Because this blog is covering HS distance runners, it obviously follows that same yearly sequence.

So this past year began last August and just ended. This article provides some numerical data for the year, some personal thoughts, and consequently some closure.

By the numbers: I attended 22 XC meets and 28 track meets. That is 50 totals races. There are 52 weeks in a year (but there are essentially no meets in Dec, Jan, Feb, Jun, Jul, and Aug) so it is really more like 28 weeks of actual races...almost 2 races per week for me. Of course I took photos at those meets. A quick look at Facebook tells me that I posted 7715 XC photos and 6241 track photos (13,956 total). I easily took at least twice that many photos at those meets and deleted the non-posted ones. Thank goodness I am no longer shooting actual film. I didn't even attempt to calculate the # of hours sent at meets, but even 3hrs for each meet (and it would certainly have been more than 3) would be a significant amount of time. Not to mention the time cropping those photos (usually at least the same time as what I spend at the meet). Oh and then there is the time researching and compiling results to summarize on the blog...this all might have come out to about 300 hours or about 18 full days.

I traveled from Angel's Camp to Half Moon Bay and from Fresno to Folsom.

This labor of love is not about the miles or the hours...it isn't the trip but the journey. In XC I handed out 24 Runner of the Week shirts. I created All StanCo XC team photo collages. Each member received a All StanCo patch and collage. The twelve StanCo runners who qualified for State also received a special collage. During track I awarded shirts to the County Meet champions in the three distance events--6 more shirts. Two shirts went to female runners who broke 12 min for the 3200m. Also there were collages dispersed to the 12 members of the All-StanCo Distance Track team. One additional shirt went to a retiring coach and another to a runner who exhibited exemplary character. That is 34 shirts and 44 photo collages.

For the first year I offered a $500 scholarship. There were 5 applicants and one winner.

At a track dual meet it was pointed out to me that a runner of an opposing team needed new training shoes. I went handed that needy runner a $200 gift card so he could get new trainers.

That was my year in numbers.

Some of the highlights for me were watching Gregori's VBs qualify for State in XC.
Mavleen Mann's (Pitman) incredible improvement to eventually run 10:55 in the 3200m.
Madison Kackley (Gregori) running 5:01.23 in the 1600m.
Santiago Ruiz (Gregori) running  9:16 and Mason Reeves (Gregori) shadowing him to a 9:17 in the 3200m.
The massive improvement of Kayden Legan (Oakdale) to 11:14 in the 3200m.
Elizette Ysais (Hughson) finally breaking 12 min in the 3200m
Esmeralda Aguayo being the first person to make the All-StanCo XC team 4 straight years.
Awarding Carlos Aguilera (Riverbank) the first StanCo scholarship
Seeing Briseida Garcia (Gregori) after breaking a foot in XC and another one just after track began, still win the MMC 800m title (in trainers)
Watching Brent Curiel (Pitman) spend a very hot afternoon at the CCC Championship meet picking up garbage on the field.
I received shirts from Riverbank, Pitman, Hughson, and Modesto HS--my trophies
Jenna Stanislaw (Beyer) looking all over the Sub Sect course for me so she could give me a thank you card and make me cry.

The meets are long. The hours cropping photos are even longer. The payment is in the smiles, handshakes, fist bumps, and Facebook "Likes."

It was a good year...I am already looking forward to the next one.