Week 2: Something for Everyone


Rifle's Sarah Wagler was a breakout star of Week 1. She will, no doubt, be joined by others this week. Photo by Matt Scoggins.

Opening week is done. For most teams, anyway.

We now move into week two. Although week two means Labor Day weekend and all the attendant problems of attendance that brings, it's also a particularly fascinating weekend for meet options.

Do you like grinders?

Well, do we have a grinder for you. Or two! Or maybe even three. 

The long-standing grinder is the Lake County Invitational. This meet hearkens back to former days when Lake County cross country was the scourge of Colorado. People came to Leadville to get humiliated by the home team at 10,000 feet of elevation. And, even though Lake County cross country took a slide and the course changed venues, people never stopped coming. For many still, this meet remains a rite of passage.

But, just over Tennessee Pass, a new right of passage has begun at the Beaver Creek Ski Area. This is where Battle Mountain hosts their annual stick-it-to-the-flatlanders meet. And, wow, the flatlanders keep coming for all the punishment Rob Parish and his charges can dish out. They pay to participate in this!

Evidently, imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. Now Delta has jumped onto the grinder wagon with their Devil's Thumb Hill Climb. Though Delta's elevation doesn't hold a candle to either Leadville or Beaver Creek, the heat in Delta can be merciless in early September. And, guess what? Half the Western Slope is showing up for this sufferfest.

The Delta grinder is on Friday, followed by the Lake County and Battle Mountain grinders on Saturday. So, it's possible you could double your pleasure and get two in this weekend. That said, not everything on Labor Day weekend is a grinder.

If your tastes tend toward a meet with a very long and deep tradition, a very large field, and water crossings you are, no doubt, pointed at the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational on Friday afternoon. This meet probably checks in as the most competitive meet of the weekend (although at least one rival to that throne has emerged). Expect something around 40 teams and know that the meet has a recent history of lightning.

Maybe you like hot?

If you know hot, you know that the Lower Arkansas Valley does hot like no place else in Colorado. Rocky Ford is the spot, and the melons are ripe. So, after you do some 5K heat acclimation, you hit up Coach Shep for directions to the nearest cantaloupe stand to get some calories and fluid back into your system. Hopefully, the stand pulls your melon out of a large tub filled with ice. If you're just there for the watermelons and cantaloupe, any day of the week will do. If you want to race, too, you need to show up on Saturday morning. There are only three cross country teams in the entire Lower Arkansas Valley east of Pueblo, though, so don't go there for the monster meet experience.

Maybe you like it rainy?

For the first two years of its existence, the Ponderosa Mustang Stampede has welcomed meet attendees with a drenching shower to accompany the afternoon activities. Better still--rain, yes, but lightning, no. The course is mostly flat and mostly soft surface, but there are a couple of spots that get a little greasy, and occasionally wild, when saturated with rainfall. You'll be joining Evergreen and a large contingent of southeast Denver metro teams if you point your bus toward Parker. You can race on Thursday and get out of town for Labor Day weekend.

Maybe you like Monument Valley Park?

What's not to like about Monument Valley Park, after all? Vista Ridge's Joe Davis Classic joins a long list of other meets that zip around the certified 5K course at the only Colorado Springs city park spacious enough to shoehorn a 5K into. Like the Ponderosa Mustang Stampede, it's a Thursday event, so you can also get your meet in before everyone decides to leave town for the weekend, leaving your varsity roster riddled with holes. Colorado Track XC will be there for coverage of the meet.

Maybe you like it intermittently rocky with a chance to rub shoulders with the collegians?

In this case, you probably want to point your bus toward Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins on Friday afternoon. The CSU course tours the scenic Hughes Stadium parking lot, traversing over an astonishing number of cobbles between start and finish. But, if one of your school alumni is running for a local collegiate team, this might be a great chance to catch up with them. And, honestly, there aren't that many course options around Fort Collins and Greeley that don't feature a lot of asphalt and concrete. 

Maybe you like a blazing fast course with a popsicle for every finisher?

It this is the case, there's no other place to be than the Adams County Fairgrounds for the Horizon Invitational. That would be on Friday afternoon. Never mind that the popsicles are probably full of artificial colors and ingredients--you're hot after a race and this is a quick way to cool down. And maybe you kind of like doing the blue lips thing without the oxygen deprivation. I'm not sure if coaches are allowed to beg a popsicle off of meet management or not. In any case, please find a trash receptacle for that sticky plastic wrapper.

Maybe you've always wondered what it would be like to run around in the grass of Washington Park for 20 uninterrupted minutes?

If, so you can wipe that one off your lifetime bucket list with a few hundred other folks at Denver South's Washington Park Invitational. Washington Park on a Friday afternoon in early September can be a delightful place to be, so much so that you might end up running for 60 uninterrupted minutes.

Maybe you like a cross country course that runs a lot harder than it looks?

Surging to the top that list is the Widefield Invitational at the Widefield Community Center Park. Erik Nelson will have you running up and down, crossing over, zipping around ballfields, over grass, over bare dirt, under both shade and blazing sun, along people's back fences, and even past a tantalizingly tempting swimming pool on Saturday morning. If you're 4A, you'll probably be back there in October for your regional meet. It's unfortunate, though, that they call this place a park, because there really isn't all that much room on site to indulge in exactly that activity with your car. Figure you're as likely as not to be leaving your car in front of someone's house. I'm guessing the locals are kind of accustomed to that.

And what if none of that appeals to you?

Well, a) you're kind of picky, and b) you can join me and a couple thousand other folks at the Centaurus Warrior Invitational at Lafayette's Waneka Lake Park. Parking, by the way is mostly at Centaurus High School, which will leave you about a half-mile of walking or warm-up running to get to the park itself. Although most of the weekend's meets are not combined high school/middle school meets, this one is and that will help to account for the dizzying array of people present at this meet. Then when you go home Saturday afternoon, look for photo and video coverage of the meet to appear on Colorado Track XC.

Interesting how the two mega meets of the weekend are all about Warriors...