Small, Porter, Bedicek, and Bailey

At 5:30 the sun was shining, and the inside of the car was hot, but the wind was blowing hard. I parked the car and walked to the gate. The swallows were swarming under the stadium, swooping out of nests stuck to the bottom of the concrete bleachers and swirling in circles over the nearby fields.

The woman at the table charged $2.00.

For four hours the Middle School boys and girls raced and competed. Teams from four schools (Small, Porter, Bedicek, and Bailey) stood on the infield and gathered in groups near the finish line. The black shirts of Bailey. The green shirts of Bedicek. The red shirts of Porter. And the purple shirts of Small. Seventh graders. Eighth graders. Boys. Girls. Sprinters. Distance runners. Shotputters. Discus throwers. High jumpers. Long jumpers. Relay runners. Hurdlers.

For hours they met.

There were close races with sprints to the finish. There were runners who collided and runners who tripped. There were boys with pumping arms and grimacing faces. There were girls with pony tails tied behind their heads and skinny legs taking long strides down the far stretch.

And there was a boy who ran the 300m hurdles.

He bounced a bit in his starting blocks in the inside lane before the start. At the gun, he dashed out, staggered behind all the rest, steadily closing the gap. One by one he passed the others. As they went around the turn, he overtook the last one. And the lead he opened up in the final stretch was huge.

He won. But he stuck around.

As the evening sky got dark and they made the final call for the 1600m and the second call for the relay after that, he hung out by the track and eventually (with some head nodding and pantomime from a father in the stands) worked his way to the final turn, where keeping with family tradition he cheered on the runners as they hit the straightaway.

And then the meet was over.

The heat of the day was gone, and the wind had largely died down. The woman at the gate was nowhere to be seen. The swallows were quiet in their nests. And I walked back to my car with a hoarse throat. It was 9:30, and it was dark.

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