Thursday, May 15, 2014

District 6 Swimming Championships?

The PIAA District 6 AA Championships began on Tuesday before a monsoon hit, causing the Mansion Park track to flood and forcing the postponement till Wednesday. Luckily no one drowned or washed away. I believe the remainder of the meet went off without a hitch the following day

Yeah I know I know back in the day they would have raced anyway, all while munching on rusty nails dipped in motor oil. I guess kids were just tougher back then.

5 comments:

  1. I coach HS XC and track and I don't think the kids are any less tough now than they were back in our day. I think many parents and administrators these days don't think their kids are tough. But they are. And they like to show it. Don't forget, the kids don't make these decisions not to race in the rain, the adults do. Just sayin...
    -RMH

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  2. Toughness is when the water jump is frozen and the steeple is run with regular hurdles turned backwards as a substitute. The only toughness found on the youth of today is the callouses on their thumbs from Playstation/XBox overuse.

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  3. I know. It was more a joke than anything else.

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  4. Wussy kids...not really. It's all about concerns for safety. The "moronsoon" (my word for what weather people missed by a helluva lot near Philly...in and out in 2-4 hours...going on 10...I progress!) affects effect each athlete and event differently so much so, a postponement is best. I recall in HS that an indoor meet being held outdoors at Haverford School I believe was CANCELLED because of snow on the track...come onc We could there and it would have been a great story for life...but some dumbhead ADULTS grew up. I also recall being stopped at the Ohio border in our PSU charter bus on the way to an indoor meet because the state of Ohio CLOSED. Harry had choice words as we likely all did. In December 1979, we ran The NVTC Marathon on snow and ice and in a snow storm.

    Finally, last Labor Day I took part solely in a near 40 years Eastern Oregon-Washingtion state Walla Walla Roadrunners Club mile run on Swarthmore College's track (where the NCAA 1500 and mile conversion records were broken in the rain). The track in areas was six inches deep. I was shooting for a 6 something but I hit 8ish. I ran with a camera and laughed. I even had janitors and parents of kids competing inside cheering me on from the flooded doorways. My profile pic on Facebook (Kevin Kelly O'Brien) shows me afterward when thw rains calmed. Behind me is a set of stairs that loks like a waterfalls. I'd love to post some pics and the videos of my sloshing thru the rain but not sure how...Skwilli and Mr. Groves, the younger, any help appreciated.

    On second thought maybe those kids are....
    ;-)
    KKOB80

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  5. I don't have much input on this as I try to avoid kids as much as possible. I did have a pleasant surprise when my daughter ran her season ending Xc championship race in a day-long downpour. I told her to put 1/2 inch spikes on and have fun in the conditions. She managed to beat several teammates and many others she had not beat before and set a PR on her most-run course. But then she has been tough since the day she was born 9 1/2 weeks early.

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