Chasing numbers

It was a quick moment, but it happened a number of times.

While I was roaming the field at the track meet on Tuesday, watching different events in all levels of progress, I saw a ton of amazing feats.

I saw heavy favorites dash to victory and up-and-coming athletes try to pick them off. In the 800, I saw a kid lead for an entire lap, only to realize after the first go-round that his pace was a little ambitious. In the 300 hurdles, I saw the favorite leading by 50 meters through the turn only to nearly get caught at the finish line. I saw an extremely close 100 meter race and a 400 relay that was neck and neck at every turn.

There were leapers and runners and jumpers and throwers of all levels of experience.

But the thing that caught my eye time after time was the handful of kids running up to their coach to say they just set a personal best.

It happened a number of different ways. Some acknowledged it at the event, some came over a while later. Every time they were more than happy to report the news.

The personal best in track is one of the most unique things in high school sports. There’s personal bests in every sport but rarely do you get a chance to take so much joy in them. A football player can set a personal best for tackles or rushing yards but if they celebrate in the middle of the field after catching their fourth pass of the game people look at them funny.

Of course in track, the most individual of the individual sports, the competition isn’t always against the other kids on the track, but also against yourself.

Every person on the track that has competed in at least one meet likely knows their personal best. That number, which is different for every kid, is etched in their brains.

Those heavy favorites that are lapping the field and winning the events have that number, as do the kids huffing for air at the back end of the race.

It’s fun to watch over the course of two months, kids top and top those numbers as they all try to compete for a spot in the state tournament. Now with qualifying marks in Class AA and A, there’s even more numbers to chase and moments of joy when those numbers get caught.

Perhaps the best part of all is watching how quickly most of the kids improve in the short season. Fighting everything from spring break to senioritis, everyone seems to pull together to try to get to Memorial Day weekend, hoping to compete for a title.

I’ve watched countless times over the last few years as kids wait for their mark, and even in a state of pure exhaustion give a little bit of a smile when they top their personal best.

There is the flip side of the coin. And there were more than a handful of kids who came close to setting big time marks that were frustrated with their own performance. Of course it’s those days that keep driving them toward those moments when they can tell their coach they’ve set a new best.

And no matter how they do it, that moment never gets old.