Canceling Meets??

(Ed. Note: I also posted this at Dyestat, maybe more people will see it.)

We just had our 3rd meet of the season canceled yesterday! I don’t understand why coaches and meet directors are so eager to cancel meets, especially living in Colorado where the weather changes ten times a day! The first meet that was canceled on us was canceled Friday afternoon before lunch! More than 18 hours away from start time!!! Are you serious, you don’t have a Home Depot in Colorado Springs that sells shovels? You don’t have a 100 kid track team and free Friday night? Shovel the track, dry the throwing areas, maybe cancel a few events, but not the whole meet! Or the next week, when we got all the way down to the Springs and halfway through, it starts snowing. After very LITTLE deliberation, the vote was to cancel the meet, even though six miles north of the stadium, it was sunny and beautiful. (After those two weeks, we decided to not attend any CO. Springs meets for a little while.)

Which brings me to yesterday, Liberty Bell. It starts snowing during the one hour lunch break. You know what that means... put it to a vote, and all the coaches vote to cancel the meet! (Bet you didn’t see that one coming.) Hinkley, Highlands Ranch, Smoky Hill, and before I could see anyone else’s vote, I had my miler out on the track warming up to do intervals. (More on that later.) I don’t get it coaches. You have dedicated your Saturday to being at the meet, why not wait until the scheduled lunch break was over, and then have a vote? What, you gotta get home to get yard work done? Or you really just don’t want to be there? Your kids have worked hard all season, they want to race. Why so eager to go home? Why coach, is that is your prerogative? It is a valid question, as the perception I have is that when the weather gets bad, everyone gets eager to pack up and go home. Any answers, coaches?

As for my miler, she got a great interval workout in, little snowy and windy during the warm-up, but after the first couple of repeats, the track started steaming up and fogging up, pretty cool conditions to do intervals on. Halfway through the work-out, no more snow, and the sun starts to come out. On the drive home, at 2:00, 41 degrees and climbing, no wind and sunny. And it stayed like that the rest of the day. Pretty good race conditions if you ask me, especially in the last meet before the “play-offs” begin.

That’s my rant, before coaches are so eager to vote to cancel meets, why not wait five minutes, the weather is sure to change!