Angels of Autumn
XC runners take off at Willow Hills
When I look at the calendar, I see that it is now autumn. When I go outside for a run, I still feel the iron grip of summer’s heat holding fast to Sacramento. But there are signs of change. The teams are back.
Nothing says “autumn is coming” like the herds of high school cross country teams hitting the bike trail. It harkens me back to a fictitious time in my youth, testing myself against my own preconceived limits. Learning that the pain was temporary but the accomplishment of a goal had permanence.
I’m embarrassed to say that the naked and less flattering truth is while I did go out for cross country in my sophomore year, I only made it through about a week’s worth of practices. I showed up the first week of school and got thrown into the pack that was running at what seemed like break-neck speed around the campus.