Stanford Invitational: Golf Courses, Dehydration, and Human Pyramids

Stanford: the deceptively easy race on a golf course. The fastest runners desperately chase after a golf cart leading the way, while the rest of the large field straggles behind. While this course appears to be relatively simple, with its flat, manicured grass contributing to the relaxed ambience, don’t be fooled. Many CPS runners have fallen victim to the Stanford course.

Your Mens’ and Womens’ Varsity Cross Country teams went out to the Stanford Invitational on Saturday for our first 5k (3.1 miles) of the season. As Ethan A. (‘17) kept reminding us, this was our most important race yet.

After arriving, most of us purchased our annual Stanford Invitational souvenir t-shirts, then warmed up and prepared to race. As Coakley had warned us beforehand, the first mile was very fast – and although it wasn’t blazing hot as some other courses, dehydration was a real threat.

Last year, Elie S. (‘18) infamously became dehydrated and fainted about 200 meters before the finish. He had to be transported to the med tent, where he was unceremoniously dumped into an ice bath. Unfortunately, this year Ethan followed in his footsteps, also becoming dangerously dehydrated. Although he managed to finish the race, his eyes were glazing over near the end and he had to get an IV afterwards.

Nevertheless, the girls got 3rd, and the boys got 5th, out of 24 teams in the Division V race. In addition, fans even showed up to cheer for us! (A rare occurrence for cross country meets.) After the race, we celebrated with more than the usual baguettes and mounds of fruit – we took many post-race pictures, some with human pyramids. After getting Jamba Juice, we returned to CPS at around 6:00, completing a tiring, but rewarding day of cross country.

Wish a cross country runner good luck, and stay tuned for the second League meet in Hayward (on a completely new course for everyone who’s not a senior) on Tuesday!