Chantilly Coach Matt Gilchrist offers his thoughts on the nascent club cross country movement. This is a good reminder that RunWashington welcomes input on issues related to Washington, D.C.-area running on all levels, and if you have thoughts to share, contact Charlie Ban at charlie(at) runwashington (dot) com.

The sun rises over Burke Lake and it’s 7 a.m. on an August morning.  We’re the first ones there, the first Monday of a new cross country season, with all the promise and potential that lies ahead.  We are brimming with enthusiasm and filled with confidence and energy that is gained by a full summer of group conditioning, motivated for another successful fall season.  This has been the same ritual that we’ve practiced year in and year out, but this year when August came, we stayed home.  For the first time in my 25 years of coaching, there have been no practices at Burke Lake.  Instead of heading to Lost River, W.Wa. for our annual team camp, we all stayed home.  The motivation hasn’t changed and the hunger to run and to compete is still there, but in the world dealing with COVID-19, these annual rites of passages are chief on a list of things that we are missing out on.

Kelly Deegan lives close enough to a park that almost every day, she sees organized sports practices and games happening. She also got a phone call from the Westfield High School administration, asking if three teenagers — who a local resident saw running together — were on her cross country team. She hasn’t seen her runners since March… they weren’t her runners.

That drove home her frustration about the fate of high school cross country during the COVID-19 pandemic.