Blue
ovals have been a part of my life since 2001. The first blue oval I ever ran on was the mile run in PE in first day. The high school track was
being resurfaced so we ran at Luther. I don’t know why I remember that, but I
do. Perhaps it is because I set the first grade girls mile run record that day
(mostly I was clueless and just kept running until someone stopped me). I lost that record years later
but I am pretty confident I still have the second grade shuttle run record so I’m
basically a legend in my elementary school. I realize now how important that particular blue oval and later other
blue ovals have become to me.
I remember high school teammates working year-round to be
able to run at the state meet. I had been to the state meet several times before and there is never a dull moment. I have spent countless hours "picking" the winner of the heat on the track, rarely winning against my friends' picks. Watching the boys team win the high school state
title my senior year comes back to mind instantly (along with a lot of horrible
sunburn lines going into graduation the next weekend). I have never yelled so much
or so loud in my life but when your team is out there competing, you do what
you can to help on the sidelines.
Then I went to college where I met another blue oval. It was
the same blue oval I ran on as a 7 year old but it had a different meaning to
me now. I wasn’t planning to go out for track at Luther. I didn’t know anyone
else on the team and I was pretty intimidated by fall workouts. I started going
on long runs through the neighborhoods around campus. Eventually, the head
coach saw me run past his house a bunch of times and sent me an email
suggesting I go out for track. I relented and went out. It is one of the best
decisions of my life.
The vast majority of my college memories come from the blue
oval or the people I met on it. I have no idea how many miles I ran on that oval. I
don’t even know the number of workouts. What I do know is that I made some lasting
friendships from the people I met there. During my college years I knew everything about everyone in my running group. And I mean everything. Looking at you, Samantha Ea. These people ran with me, cheered with me, cried with me. Some even threw up near me. I can't even begin to fathom how many of them have seen the lower half of my butt while I was in the starting blocks or after a race with spandex half way up my behind. These are my people. These were the people I went on ice cream runs with (track pun right there!). These are the people who fill my college house party experience. #longlivenakedhouse These people ate meals with me every single night after workouts. They understood me when no one else did. Now, I miss seeing them every single day. I would have never known them without the blue oval.
This weekend marks the 110th Annual Drake Relays. I remember
years’ worth of friends working their hardest to make the cutoff times and head to
Des Moines for the weekend to run on a huge stage of the Drake Relays. I don’t
run to compete on that blue oval anymore and really, I don’t know a lot of
people even competing anymore. But there is something special that happens
every Drake Relays. Athletes rise to the occasion in unimaginable ways- not
letting gale force winds or torrential downpours hold them back. The weather
seems to be world’s best weather or world’s worst weather (sometimes both in a
single day) the weekend of the Drake Relays. My husband and I were brought together by the blue oval in college. Now we go to the blue oval at the Drake Relays, seeing as it is less than 10 minutes from our house. There is truly something magical about the voice of Mike Jay and 8 lanes of blue polyurethane in front of a devoted fan base. The first year my husband and I went to the Drake Relays it poured. Continuously. For hours. We left early because we were frozen. We bought rain suits shortly after that trip too. But anyway, the first time we went to the Drake Relays we sat next to a couple that had been going to the Drake Relays for the last 60 consecutive years. Since everything is a competition have a long ways to go before we catch them. It's our weird, cute, annual track date. Blue ovals wouldn't matter to us if it weren't for the first blue oval that brought us together.
Some of my favorite memories and people are from blue ovals.
I met some of the best and brightest and funniest people I know on blue ovals.
Half my wedding party had a connection to blue ovals. Never underestimate the
power of your own blue oval or green square or orange hexagon.
