Moving Indoors

The indoor track season is a week old, but I've been reluctant to move indoors with the rest of the HS running crowd. For one thing, the warm weather has lulled me into a pleasant reverie, in which I think that it's September again. I run in shorts and t-shirt, even late into the November nights, and the last thing I want to think about is breathing the dry, dusty air of the Reggie Lewis center. For another thing, cross-country hasn't really ended. There was the Footlocker Regional meet last Saturday; there is the Nike Team Nationals meet today (you can watch the Webcast at 1:15 p.m. EST), followed by the Footlocker champiopnships Dec. 9th; and, as someone pointed out, the rest of the world (Europe and Kenya, anyway) is just beginning its cross-country season, which won't end until late March.

And finally, with no one to coach but myself, and no important indoor races in my future, I haven't had any reason to worry about preparing anyone for races that take less than 15 minutes to run.

In fact, I thought about writing a long diatribe entitled "The Case Against Indoor Track," explaining why, in my opinion, an intense indoor season is detrimental to the long-term development of distance runners. Maybe I will some day, but not today. Among other things, the first indoor meet of the season at Reggie happens today -- the Northeastern Winter Carnival for collegiate and open athletes. Next Saturday (12/9) there is the Harvard Open, at Harvard's Gordon Track facility. The following week, HS league meets begin, as do the BU development meets, and then the season will be in full swing. Resistance, as they say, is futile.

You might think I have some bleeding-heart liberal objection to running fast, but this is not the case. Actually, I have a hermit's objection to crowding. In fact, my reluctance to move indoors is really only a reluctance to embrace the crowded, harried nature of indoor meets and schedules and races. I see the crowding everywhere: in the tremendous competition for the use of indoor facilities, in the clockwork precision of managing six simultaneous dual meets during Bay State league contests at Reggie, in the calendar, which swells to bursting with opportunities to race, in the races themselves where everyone is packed so tightly in around those sharp turns. Indoor is about crowds.

I know, some people thrive in crowds, and live for the hustle and bustle of it all. I imagine that for them, indoor track is a big party. Well I don't like big parties, I'd rather have a nice quiet conversation with a few close friends. Even at indoor track meets, I prefer to "warm up" out in the cold, by myself or with one or two others, away from the tumult and strife.

Oh well, I'm sure I will get used to it all again. As the season progresses, I'll be as excited as anyone else to see who's running fast, which teams have a shot at the class and state championships, what records will fall. It will be exciting, stimulating. I know that.

But until then, and while I still can, I'll stay outdoors, thank you very much.