It was the middle of October, 1977. It had snowed in State College the week before. Lynyrd Skynyrd lost 1/2 their band in a plane crash on Friday, and Saturday morning dawned with 12 skinny geeks getting ready to face William and Mary and Georgetown on the grounds of the Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, VA.
We jogged the entire course before the meet as those close to Coach Groves heard the tale of the escaped lunatic he helped capture back in the day. A creepy tale while out in the forests of Virginia with the notorious mental facility popping up after every turn in the course.
The meet went well for PSU and we were jubilant as we started off on our warm-down. Then I realized that we were doing the entire course as the warm-down on these grounds where lunatics dwelled, more than 18 miles of running on race day! I fell behind and slumped against a tree momentarily, dizzy from a pretty good effort in the race. Coming to quickly, I had to summon more effort to catch back up to the group than I had during the race, lest I become another victim of a serial killer.
I was reminded of these circumstances because of this news report yesterday!
https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/eastern-state-hospital-escapee-taken-in-custody/
Maybe another generation of runners can live my experience anew!
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