Monday, June 27, 2016

TRACK & FIELD: A road trip to Atlantic City

It's on to the Nationals in Houston for the Young Relative!
The UHS student won the 1,500-meter race in his age group on Sunday at the regional AAU qualifying meet at Stockton University, near Atlantic City.
Five members of the Tally-ho clan were there to cheer him on. The meet started at 8:30 a.m., and looking at the schedule the evening before we were happy to see that the YR's event was the second on the list. We'll get there by 9 and we'll be home before lunchtime, we thought.
Oh, so wrong. So very, very wrong. The first event was the 400-meter run. Each race was only one lap around the track, and as soon as one heat finished, the next one started.
There were THREE FULL HOURS of heats. Do the math as to how many heats that involves.
What's funny is that initially we were all boasting about how quickly we'd made the trek from Unionville to Atlantic City. I took the Walt Whitman Bridge and the AC Expressway and made it there in 90 minutes, beating my GPS's projected time by 15 minutes. Little did I know that I could have slept in and even gotten some yard work done!
The Tally-hos are eternally grateful to the coaches, parents and athletes of the iHolla Track Club of Philadelphia, who let us share the canopy they'd set up in the bleachers. Of course, we got to chatting and laughing with them during the seemingly endless 400-meter event, and by the time the YR's race started they were cheering for him as vigorously as we were.
As we were leaving after YR's race, one of the iHolla coaches congratulated the YR and told him he was more than welcome to join their club. "Where are you from?" he asked.
"Chadds Ford," replied the YR.
"Chadds Ford? They have a winery there!" said the coach.

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations to YR! No surprise, wine trumps art.
    JT

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