One evening you decide to go visit some friends. You head out of your dorm like you have hundreds of times before, only this time bundled up head to toe like you are headed on an Arctic expedition, all the while you are thinking “I wonder if security would believe I was scared of the cold air and give me a ride?” Suddenly out of nowhere there is a large group of people running at you full speed and yelling “move,” or “look out!” You wonder “who are these people?” “Do they realize how cold it is?” “Is there some type of running gang making its way through Appleton?” These people are members of your Lawrence University Indoor Track & Field team. We practice outside in the winter not because we lack the ability to feel cold or we enjoy self-torture, but because we have nowhere else to practice. With the size of the jogging track in the Buchanan Kiewit Wellness Center, the entire team can not fit up there all together—and it was not designed to handle the speeds at which we run, hence why it is called a jogging track—so we have half or more of our team out training on a 500-meter loop around campus. This seems crazy and we all appreciate the irony of having an indoor Track & Field team that practices outside, but this is the best we have. We are tough and we make the absolute best of it!
The loop we run begins at the brick walkway that connects the Wellness Center to Sampson House and goes down towards Hiett Hall. After passing the front doors of Heitt, the loop heads around the security gate turns right again at Ormsby Hall. The loop makes a quick left towards the front of Main Hall, over the seals. At the front of Main Hall, the loop veers to the right and heads back towards Sampson house, past the Giving Day Clock, finishing where it starts on the brick walk way. The reason I tell you this is to help prevent serious injuries to you as well as the student-athletes I coach. We have had some very close calls and collisions and I don’t want this to be the year we send someone to the hospital. So if you happen to be walking along this loop anytime between 4:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. please be alert. If you hear someone yelling at you please understand they are not mad at you, it is the opposite actually; they care for you so much that they do not want to collide with you while running full speed. Also understand that we would definitely be more polite given more time and more access to oxygen so please do not take the tone or shortness personally. If you encounter the team either stand completely still until everyone is by you or just briefly hop off the sidewalk. If you have problems with any of the runners please connect with me personally at jason.fast@lawrence.edu. Happy Winter Term everyone!
