Countdown to Nationals
26
Notes from The Blur
The regionals race was a very chaotic event for me and my teammates to process. We had expected our regular home course but because of the snow we had to run an emergency route. The women’s team was very unhappy. The men teammates were disappointed too, but less vocal about it. I think we all did the best we could given the situation.
I felt OK during the race although tired from running up that hill all those times. I was also very excited that I was going to nationals. This seemed so much of a bigger deal than going to state in high school because there would be runners from all across the country running at nationals.
Later that day was the Haunted Hills race. Lexi asked me to be her partner for the spook mission. Also when there were no runners passing by, we sang several songs under the trees by the Mineral Belt Trail. It seemed like the problems between us had started to fade away. This was something I felt good about.
After Haunted Hills, my mom and dad decided to get pizzas from High Mountain Pies for the entire team to thank them for their support. Everything seemed to go well until one point when I was riding to the pizza place with my mom I kept talking about Lexi offering for me to go with her on the spook mission, mainly because I was glad about the two of us being friends once again. My mom told me to remember boundaries. This sent me into a bad meltdown and would resume again that night. This was so upsetting for me because I don’t like when my mom gives me feedback — especially concerning women because it somehow triggers some trauma from past experiences and mess-ups with them.
I had trouble falling asleep and I caused a scene that went on into the next morning. This felt really bad. I wasn’t able to get out of this loop in my mind because I was so upset and frustrated about how discussing Lexi with my mom had turned out. The next morning it got so bad that my dad took me by the hospital. He was close to taking me inside because I was out of control.
This episode went on even longer because I was also mad and upset that it had resulted in not getting much sleep. I later calmed down and then we went to the coffee shop for breakfast. There was a long run on the schedule for that day. We decided to do it on the trails in Buena Vista with Ben.
Later that day, we went to an area below the highway with abandoned railroad tracks and a big rock on the tracks. When I saw that, it reminded me of a favorite song, “That Train,“ by Don Conoscenti. More specifically it reminded me of these lyrics:
Month of record snows
dragged the weaker trees
down across the tracks.
Even if I started out tomorrow,
that train’s not coming back.
Even if I started out today,
trying to clear the lines,
everything about that train,
is past the reach of time.
That night I went to bed and fell right to sleep. While I was sleeping, there was a loud disturbance in the hallway outside my room. My dad told me about this after I had woken up the next morning, which was Halloween. My dad was awakened by this noise and was really irritated. He stayed still during this because if he moved he might have woken me up. I somehow managed to sleep through it, partly because I was so tired from not getting much sleep the night before. When I went over to breakfast in the cafeteria, I noticed a whole bunch of torn-up pieces of paper from the overnight rampage all over the hallway floor.
Welding joy and no fear of flying
Halloween turned out to be a surprisingly quiet evening at the residence hall. Perhaps the students were all partied out from the previous week’s activities. Plus, things were getting serious academically. There were papers to write and projects to complete. There were only six days of classes until the team left for for the NJCAA Cross Country Nationals. And when they returned there was only one week of classes until Thanksgiving break. After that there was just one week left in the semester and then finals week. It was going to fly by fast.
With high-school cross-country done for the season I had more time to spend at the college. I sometimes would help Harrison pack his welding gear to and from the shop. In the process I got to know the professors better and gained a glimpse of the assignments and a feel for what was going on in the courses. One thing that impressed me was that Harrison always seemed eager to go to welding class. If I showed up at the end of the class he was typically smiling and happily cleaning up his workspace. Seeing him in this element gave me an incredible sense of joy.
In Oxy-Fuels, he was producing some craft items, as well as a series of steel cubes consisting of identical metal squares. To build a cube he had to cut all six square components perfectly to size. Then the squares needed to be welded together at perfect right-angles and corners. What’s more, to pass the project, the first cube needed to float when placed in the shop’s dip tank, a tub of water used to cool hot metal. In other words, the welds holding the cube together needed to be leak-proof. It took Harrison a couple of attempts but he finally put together a floating steel cube. After this he was able to move on to building a cube from heavier metal, and finally a cube that was brazed instead of welded.
In Shielded Metal Arc Welding the big focus was on practicing for the upcoming “bend test.” This required that two bars of steel be welded together and then bent into a U-shape. The weld holding the two pieces of metal together would be stressed at 100,000 pounds per square inch. If the weld passed the bend test it also would be graded for deformities and cosmetic defects.
Of course with the final weeks of training and the trip to Florida looming, focus on academics was difficult for everyone on the cross-country team. Darren had come up with the funds to bring the entire squad. A big concern I had was keeping Harrison healthy. With the communal living in the residence hall and cafeteria, there were waves of illnesses going around — Covid, Strep, flu and norovirus. Most of his teammates had been ill but Harrison had so far had dodged getting sick. I also was on guard to not catch something myself and pass it on to him.
Harrison had never flown on a plane, and therefore there was some apprehension about how he would do on the flights. Mary was a little nervous. Darren was concerned as well, and pulled me aside to ask what I thought. I told him I wasn’t worried about the flight at all, that Harrison would view it like an amusement park ride. We agreed to have a plan to redirect Harrison in case he had some sort of problem on the plane. Mary made sure there were a couple of Harrison’s favorite animated movies downloaded to his iPad, and his AirPods were packed just in case we needed to change his focus.
When Harrison was excited to participate I had seen him do well in situations that might throw many autistic kids off. Even though he had never flown he was thrilled about the plane ride and to be racing at nationals. Actually, I had not flown on a place in 22 years myself, and was more of an anxiety risk than Harrison.
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