Of moonbeams and camaraderie

28

Notes from The Blur

The NJCAA National Championships in Tallahassee, Florida, was my first opportunity to run in a championship race. I hadn’t qualified to run at the Colorado State Championships all four years of high school. I’d only run in the unified/paralympic races at state. This would also be the first time I had flown in an airplane. I was so excited about the trip that at the R.A.’s desk in the residence hall I wrote on the white board about the upcoming Nationals meet, and drew an airplane taking off with lines behind it to represent the plane flying.

The Friday before the trip, Coach Darren had us run a 1-mile time-trial on The Boulevard in Leadville. This is a long gradual downhill road that is also part of the Leadville Trail 100 course. For this we had to wake up in the dark that Friday morning. We warmed up in the morning twilight by jogging from the campus to The Boulevard. We did our usual stretches and stride-outs. After that, it was time to go. During the workout, I was kind of tired because it was so early in the morning. I felt pretty fast but like I was not performing at my best. I would later feel glad that I got the run over with early. I went back home with my dad for the weekend.

That following Sunday evening on the way back to Leadville, the mountains to the west were glowing by the light of the 14-day-old moon. I knew there was going to be a total lunar eclipse of the Full Blood Moon early Tuesday morning. I wanted to stay up for it but my dad told me I needed good sleep that week before the trip and the race. Nevertheless, I woke up at 3:20 a.m. that night anyway. I’m not sure why. It might have had something to do with the bright moon. So, I got up and walked toward my window and looked at the moon for a bit. It was just entering the eclipse phase. Then I went back to sleep.

Thursday morning I was excited to go on the team bus to the airport and fly to Florida. I planned to run that morning with some of my teammates but nobody showed up. It might've been because of the snowy and cold weather outside. So I decided to just run on my own.

We left the college around noon. Right away I noticed things weren’t right. The whole team was told to wear masks on the bus due to sicknesses going around. I began to fret about all this, but Brooklyn distracted me from the situation by getting me to look at the scenery outside. One teammate refused to put on his mask. The coach told him that he was going to turn the bus around if he didn’t put his mask on. There was some back-and-forth talk but eventually, he put on his mask.

When we got to the airport we went through security, then went to a fast train to the airport concourse. My teammates boarded one of the trains very quickly and I missed it. This upset me but I calmed down and got on the next train with my parents.

The flight was delayed by around half an hour. At last, we boarded the plane for Pensacola. When the plane was taking off, it felt like I was on a rollercoaster due to the high speeds. Once we were up in the air, I saw a red waning gibbous moon rise in the northeast. Throughout the flight, I could see land, cities and forests in the moonlight below. Right before we landed, I could see the ocean and Pensacola, and the buildings and roads getting bigger and bigger. 

The next morning, we went to the Apalachee Regional Park to preview the race course. It was really exciting to do a shake-out run on the actual course with other athletes from all over the country. It was mixed grass and trail with sand and mud spots left over from the hurricane.

That evening there was a dinner party and reception at the Florida State University stadium. We all wore nice clothes but many of the runners from other colleges were dressed up like for a formal event.

Afterward, the team gathered outside near the parking lot. Darren had each teammate to pick a mentor of their choosing and explain the impact that person has had on their season. First off, Nate picked me and told the team about all of the challenges I had faced to be where I was. Also, despite my difficulties this past fall, Nate said he and other teammates accepted me as a brother.

Next, I went ahead and gave a speech to Lexi thanking her for her support this season, and also told her, “I know we have our struggles through this semester, but we are here now and I appreciate you getting through that with me.”

It felt like my teammates were family. I went to bed that night thrilled to be running at Nationals the next day.

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