A season ends

by Tom Atwood

High school cross country can be a heartbreaking sport. Heartbreaking when a good runner--because of biorhythms, dehydration, anxiety, or any one of a thousand other distractions called 'life'--has a bad race. Heartbreaking when a good team has a bad day. Heartbreaking when a season ends too soon. Even one week too soon.

We all wanted the season to go on. Some of us would like to have seen it go on forever. But no season ever does. Every season ends.

For me, the hardest part about watching the season come to a close Saturday (for everyone except Liz Speicher, who moves on to the state meet after qualifying individually), was the realization that I had watched my son's last cross-country race. Riley has been running since he was in sixth grade at what was then Edwardsville Middle School. George Patrylak was his coach. In fact, George is the only cross-country coach Riley has had in his seven cross-country seasons. An outstanding coach. I have looked forward to and enjoyed every single race. Winning, losing, running well, or running poorly never really mattered. All that mattered was simply running.

Saturday, though, losing did matter to me. Because it meant Riley's last race--and my last chance to see him run. I guess it's just the first of many "lasts" this year for seniors like Riley, who will all too soon move on to life after high school, to life after cross country, to the next season.

On that note, some scenes from this season's final race at East Peoria:


A Season Ends
Produced by Tom Atwood
Photographs: Roger Mueller and Tom Atwood
Music: Paul F. Page
© 2007 Edwardsville Cross Country Booster Club
All Rights Reserved