Believe it or not, we have reached the last major week of invitationals. Next week tends to be a bit of a lull where invitationals are concerned. Some leagues have league meets next week, and other schools are laying low and healing up in advance of league meets the week after.
So, though there are still invitational meets aplenty yet to come, this is the last of the fully robust weeks of invitationals. And it is fully robust. Stick with me here for a few more paragraphs.
On Tuesday, we have two meets given their beginnings by Bill Stahl, currently the coach at Platte Canyon. The Littleton meet he started (actually long before he got to Littleton) is running at DeKoevend Park. And, his own Runners Roost meet goes at Chatfield State Park.
I don't know which meet will get you wetter, but a feature of late September meets birthed by Bill Stahl is that you will get wet. I'm not sure if Littleton is sticking with that theme, but I'm pretty sure the Runners Roost will embody that theme.
In any case, you have meet options on Tuesday afternoon, at least as long as you can do south Denver metro.
Stretching the concept of south Denver metro a little, but still on Tuesday, is the Rye Invitational on the Hollydot Golf Course in Colorado City. Yes, the exit heading west from I-25 between Pueblo and Walsenburg. That one.
If you missed Florence's Kylie Simshauser in Pueblo on Saturday, she's listed among the entries for Rye on Tuesday. It's been a few years since Florence has had a girl with Simshauser's kind of wheels.
Wednesday's schedule--as you might imagine--is light. For the San Juan Basin programs, there's the John Thornton Invitational out in Blanding, Utah. True to Utah tradition, they run three miles. And, it's definitely southwest Utah kind of terrain.
Denver West is hosting in a more urbanized kind of setting--Sunken Gardens Park, right along the South Platte River and not far from downtown. I have a hard time imagining a 5K course set up in this park, so I'm inferring it must be a criterium kind of setup for this meet. Just going off the list of entries, though, it appears this meet will be reasonably well attended. For at least the second time this season, Cheyenne Mountain will be the team making the longest trip to this meet.
It's still only two meets on Thursday, but the action will be picking up a little as the net number of teams competing figures to be larger on Thursday than Wednesday.
Canon City hosts at the Royal Gorge Tourist Extravaganza and Theme Park. There are always a few runners coming to this meet who have some apprehensions about the water crossing, but most make their peace with it when they see others going across and not falling into the chasm. It is an interesting exercise in mass peer pressure, to say the least.
Garden City, Kansas, is a regular at this meet. It looks to me as if Sargent may be making a first appearance at this meet. Other than that, it's almost exclusively Colorado Springs and Pueblo area schools, which can make for a rather large meet, actually.
Also on Thursday, the Glenwood Springs Invitational runs on their new digs at the Glenwood Springs Golf Course. For a golf course meet on the Western Slope, I'm surprised we're not seeing more of a draw of teams than we're currently looking at. But, registration is still open, so we may not be seeing the whole of the picture yet.
Friday's action is weighty to ponder. You have everything from Desert Twilight in Arizona to the Lake City Invitational in the same place Alferd Packer ate his neighbors one cold winter a few generations ago.
Colorado is sending teams to Desert Twilight. That includes Durango, Air Academy, Niwot, Widefield, Valor, and probably a couple more I haven't caught up with yet. Times will start to sizzle as the temperatures drop into the cool of the Arizona night.
Things will probably start and stay cool in Lake City on Friday, but 5K PRs won't be in view for many attending that meet. Antonito, Center, and Del Norte look to make this one a quad meet this year.
Between Desert Twilight and Lake City in scale are the Delta Sweitzer Lake Invitational and the Thornton Invitational.
Sweitzer Lake has cajoled Bayfield into joining the usual assortment of Mesa, Delta, and Montrose County teams.
Thornton is, by Colorado standards at least, a massive meet. The Margaret Carpenter Rec Center will be a hoppin' and happenin' place on Friday. Stephanie Carrasco will be trying to break the Wyoming stranglehold on girls meet titles up and down the Front Range, and she could have a chip on her shoulder about that with this being her senior home meet and all. Lots of teams and lots of competition to be found here. Ben Hershelman will be writing the story when all is said and done.
Saturday goes big with meets like the Chicken Creek Challenge in Mancos (this one could get seriously muddy if it rains all week down there), the Polson Ranch Invitational in Sedalia, the Moffat County Invitational in Craig (will there by any Sydney Thorvaldson sightings?), the Mead Stampede in Longmont, the Longs Peak Invitational in Estes Park, the Andy Myers in Greeley, the Rampart Foxes and Hounds in Colorado Springs, and the lone meet of the day bearing the name of the host city--the Salida Invitational in Salida.
The most challenging of these courses figure to be Chicken Creek, Salida, and Longs Peak--and not necessarily in that order.
Polson Ranch is a middling kind of course that runs a little on the side of fast. Ditto for Rampart, Mead, and Moffat County. Andy Myers should be the day's fastest track.
Polson Ranch probably gets the nod for featuring the day's stiffest competition. I will tell you right now, though, that Salida is bringing in a massive draw of teams. Hopefully, the eateries in and around town have ordered ahead as there will be some ravenous teenagers roaming the streets in the aftermath of this one.
The concept meet of the week is the Rampart Foxes and Hounds. The runners start on 20-second intervals, with each team's fastest runners starting last. The object, then, is for the hounds to catch the foxes. Don't worry, though, we'll deconstruct the results so that everyone gets an actual time coming out of this meet to add to their athlete profile page.
That's your week ahead! Keep checking back as there will be write-ups and meet summaries coming in all week long. And, there will be usual assortment of articles as well.