When you've seen it all...

Just when you think you have seen everything there is to see in at track meet, come to Idaho.  I have been going to track meets for over 20 years and thought that nothing could surprise me.  Until two weeks ago, we were at the state qualifying meet near Idaho Falls, Idaho.  The wind was consistently blowing at 30 miles an hour, with gusts up to forty and above.  That is a lot of wind.  As spectator, I got so used to bracing myself by leaning into the wind that if it let up I almost fell over.  Needless to say, it was extremely difficult to run in.  

But the really interesting part came when the hurdle crew set up the hurdles on the track.  The hurdles were all in their tidy little rows, for a second or two.  And then the wind started pushing them down the track.  It would be nearly impossible to run a hurdles race with moving hurdles.  (Although now that I think about it, that could be an interesting event....) As the crew would fix one or two hurdles, another one or two would get blown out of line.  So the solution was to have people stand and hold the hurdles in place until the runners got close, then run to the side at the last possible second.  It was like a game of chicken within the race.  I've never seen anything like it.  The strong guys with razor sharp spikes on their shoes are barreling down the track toward you.  How long do you dare to stay put? It actually worked surprisingly well, though.  Racers, and hurdle holders, finished the race without incident.  And everyone else got a good laugh while experiencing another first at the track.