Cross Country Meet!

This past Saturday was the Cross Country meet for our students. LPSD students along with students from Bristol Bay, Unalaska, Dillingham and a few others that I forget came together to have a 5k meet. There were about 70 runners in all so Friday was a busy day for flights into King Salmon! Each of the teams were able to come together that night to walk the course that the race would take place on. It was a beautiful day and the temperature was pretty mild. 

In typical Alaska fashion however, the temperature changed overnight. When we woke up on Saturday morning, it was a crisp 35 degrees. Oh and did I mention the wind?

Someone told me that the real feel temperature was in the high 20’s. It was chilly to say the least, and half of the kids (and adults- myself included) weren’t prepared for these temperatures. Most of the runners ended up going out in shorts and tank tops which made me colder just looking at them.

The girls ran first, and the boys were able to sit in vans and buses that had the heat going. The race volunteers, myself included, had to jump in and out of warm vehicles in between our tasks. My job was to record the times for the runners coming in which shouldn’t have been too difficult a task (especially because I’ve been used to calling numbers on the tree farm for so many years). However, the wind as an added factor made it so that my hands were incredibly stiff. It was a challenge to put a check mark on the paper. Kasie and I did plenty of “get the blood flowing” dances as we waited for runners to cross the finish line.

As the race finished up however, the sun began to come out a bit. It was still freezing and super windy, but the sun was shining and made for a pretty view. My friend Kirsten and I stayed at the finish line to help clean up, not knowing that it would soon backfire on us. One minute we were surrounded by people and vehicles, and the next, we were among few people left behind with no van in sight. I don’t know how or when it happened, but we missed our ride back, and had to walk back to the starting line. The left side of my face was numb by the time we got back, but I quickly found a toasty warm van and began to thaw. Not your typical cross country meet but the excitement in the atmosphere made for a fun morning:)