I spent a couple of hours serving as a spotter for the conference cross country meet held at IMS this afternoon. Over the years I watched my kid run or drove the team to meets it seemed that cross country fans generally show a lot of sportsmanship during the course of the event. Parents and fans will encourage their kid, but you usually hear lots of affirmation for the other kids as well. Some fans make a point of staying till the last runners finish even though they may be several minutes behind just to give them a word of encouragement.
I haven't been at as many meets this fall so maybe it changed earlier, or perhaps it was the chilly, miserable weather, but tonight I think I heard more yelling at a cross country meet than I've heard before. It started with a mix-up in the Junior High race. Because of the mix-up the junior high boys all ended up running about 600 extra yards. Based on how they were running I doubt the results changed but the way one parent yelled you would have thought we had committed treason. He tried to yell at me, actually he did, but I gave him my grumpy look and he quit. There wasn't anything I could do about it anyway. He decided to leave me alone and "take it up with the race officials."
The Junior High race was followed by the varsity girls race. I was stationed near the first corner after the start so I am supposed to make sure fans don't get in the way and that the runners follow the right line. After the start I move over a few yards to make sure people leave a clear lane along the woods. As the girls came up the hill it was interesting to hear the mothers (i assume they were mothers) yell "words of encouragement" to their daughters. "How could you let that big girl get ahead of you?" "Go faster, go faster" they screamed as loud as they could. What was humorous was when the moms who were at least 100 lbs overweight tried to run along side their kid hollering, "run, run..." Usually after taking five steps, or nearly falling up the hill, they stopped, and either expressed their satisfaction or disgust with their daughter's increased effort, or seeming inability to try harder. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do cpr on any of them. Thinking about it, maybe it was more of a mother-daughter thing, since the races for the boys seemed much calmer. The fathers were just more inclined to shake their heads if their kid wasn't doing as well as expected.
