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Not
the Night Before A Race by Glenn Fuchs
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I remember going to the Allentown Invitational CrossCountry meet one year in particular. We had to leave early for that meet like all the rest, but that particular morning I remember it being exceptionally chilly. Most of us were already on those rickety old blue athletic vans the college stills owns. Coach McCorkle had stocked us with plenty of Halo Farms goodies, crumb cake, doughnuts, OJ, Ice T, fruit punch, etc. As the time for our departure came and went, we were still missing an important team member, Marlon Matthews. Five minutes after we were supposed to have left, Coach sent someone to go get Marlon from his dorm room, thinking he probably overslept. Another five minutes passed and our search party came running back with Marlon trailing behind carrying his blue athletic bag. When Marlon got close enough to the van for us to see him better we noticed a few things out of place. Firs,t his hair was a little messy as were his clothes. His bag wasn't zipped completely shut either because he probably had to leave in a hurry. What really caught our attention though was the enormous grin Marlon had at 6:30AM. We immediately knew Marlon must have had a good night, so we asked for the details. He told us pretty much what we expected to hear, but it was the end of his story that really shocked us. It was bad enough he got some loving the night before, but he said that at 5AM it happened all over again with the girl who had spent the night. Needless to say, while we were jealous of Marlon's previous night, we weren't the least bit jealous of his extremely poor race performance that day. That's why Coach always said "no funny business the night before a meet!" It really does rob you of your strength, don't do it. For whatever it's worth, Marlon did go on 2 years later to qualify for nationals, which is more than can be said for those of us who laughed about his race that cold autumn morning. |
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