Aiden Colton and his Berthoud teammates are on the list of teams coming down to Lakewood for the Brighton Runners Roost meet on Tuesday. Photo by Alan Versaw.
It's a light schedule of early-in-the-week meets, but both of this week's meets are heavy on the uniqueness factor.
For starters, there is the Brighton Runners Roost meet in Addenbrooke Park. If you know Bill Stahl, this is his meet. And, he tells me it will be bigger than ever this year. The meet has both middle school and high school divisions. Both divisions get pretty large, but the middle school division tends to be larger. Maybe some rain between now and then will help with the available water supply for getting soaked. Nobody leaves this meet dry.
Times are never great at this meet, but times never were the point of this meet. Coach Stahl hates flat and fast courses. There aren't a lot of rocks or technical sections on the Addenbrooke Park course, but there are water holes, which satisfies the inner yearning for a course with character.
The other early-in-the-week meet gets within sight of water (if you look a long, long way down through the gaps in the bridge) but stays very dry. The Canon City Invitational has this year abandoned its home of many years along the Riverwalk Trail for a new home at the Royal Gorge. This may not be a good meet for acrophobics, but what would I know?
None of us really know how fast this course is going to run. Conditions appear to be shaping up as cooler than it has been for the last week or so on Thursday afternoon. Rain would be welcome on a number of fronts, not the least of which would be for its help in settling the dust.
Teams coming in for this meet include the usual collection from El Paso, Fremont, and Pueblo Counties, plus a scheduled appearance all the way from Garden City, Kansas.
While you're there, buy a ticket for the zip lines. I'm told they're pretty good. I don't think bungee jumping off the bridge is allowed.
And then fasten your seatbelts for an amazing collection of weekend meets. This coming weekend tends to be the last weekend of big invitationals before teams gear it down a little in advance of the championship season.