I run into mini-bouts of insomnia from time to time. Okay, maybe not full blown insomnia, but the sleep is hard to come by. Combine that with my healthy love of the movie (and book) Fight Club, and it makes my imagination run wild. I’d be lying if I wasn’t secretly hoping to find other Level Renner cells set up when I got to Kentucky to cover the club cross country nationals. “Have I been here before?” I’d ask. They’d reply with, “is this a test, sir?” Yes!
I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.
Okay, I’ll ease up on the Fight Club references in the off chance that there are any non-Fight Club fans out there reading this. Assuming Tyler Durden hasn’t been making trips to KY and setting up shop, I’ll be out there (solo) taking care of business. That doesn’t mean I’ll be alone. As you can see from this list here, there are plenty of local teams and runners that’ll be out there. In fact the number is much greater than I initially thought as I was reminded that a couple more of the Greats will be out there: Greater Lowell Road Runners (aka the Angry Chickens) and the Greater Springfield Harriers.
While everyone is going out there focused and determined, we’re only human and naturally some fun will be had after the race. As one anonymous Wolfpack member so eloquently put it:
“Please make the Level piece something that tells the tale from the start line, to the finish, and far beyond. I’d say some Saturday night video interviews would prove useful for future referencing while painting the true picture of what taking part in Nationals is all about. After all, aren’t we all just Galen Rupps who drank in college?
Side note: since I offered the Saturday video idea I would appreciate no videos be captured of my night, but if KY is anything like Charlotte I’d imagine some Facebook defense will be required on my part come December 9th.
This should be a good one.
Oh, and the nightlife after Nats is the only time when not respecting the process is actually respecting the process. The meaning inverses somewhere between 8k and 10k depending on how your race is going…
In the meantime; respect the process.”
– #AnonymousOnTheLevel
You can’t see it, but a single tear just rolled down my cheek. That…was…beautiful. He (or she?) couldn’t have said it any better. An epic post-race gathering could get more people thinking about getting involved in cross and making the trip to Nationals. How could it not? We might not be able to totally transplant the Whip City vibe all the way out there, but I’m sure there are suitable alternatives.
Now, to the ugly side of the business. Every year hundreds of journalists freeze or starve to death while covering club nationals. Please don’t let EJN become another statistic. For about the cost of an airline ticket, a hotel room and a couple of reasonably priced meals, you could adopt a struggling “journalist” and provide him with an airline ticket, a hotel room and a couple of reasonably priced meals. If your business steps up, you’ll get credit on all posts we do for this event (even throw in some status updates and tweets). To sweeten the pot, it also comes with an ad in the next issue of Level Renner.