Little did I know how really exciting it was going to be.
About half way into the drive, there's a text message from Coach O'Malley informing the rest of the staff that he won't be making it to the meet today. Instead, he's at the hospital where his wife is expecting to deliver their first child. Looks like this one might be a couple weeks early.
Needless to say, we're a bit caught off guard by this - but we've got a great crew and we get the buses loaded and we're on the road no more than 5 or 10 minutes behind schedule. Coach Jonaitis gets everything setup to "live stream" the meet, so Coach O'Malley can watch all the races on the Twitter Periscope app in between the contractions. We're not sure how Mrs. O'Malley feels about this!
Upon arrival, we unload the buses, set up the tents and pass out the race tags. The girls Open race is up first, followed by the boys race. We've been anticipating hot weather all week, but as we prepare to race, the temperature is pretty reasonable and there is a bit of a breeze. It's still humid, but much better than we expected. Just as the first girls race goes off, I hear a faint rumble in the distance. Uh oh! About halfway thru the race, there is some more thunder and a bit of lightning and so the race gets stopped. Everyone is directed into the fieldhouse to wait out the delay - a minimum of 30 minutes. We text Coach O'Malley to let him know we are on hold at the meet - he says they are in a delay at the hospital too.
After about an hour, things have cleared up and it's been determined that the girls Open race will not be restarted. Our Open boys complete their warmup, including a few strides, and toe the starting line. At the gun, Danny Laskero shoots straight into the lead and isn't challenged the rest of the way. His winning time is a solid 15:30. Paul Siezckowski follows up in 2nd in 15:44 and Anthony LiFonti runs his best race of the year to finish in 15:54 - good for 3rd place. Patrick Foster (5th place in 16;07), Alex Szymanski (9th place in 16:27), John Wagner (10th place in 16:28) and Miles Draskovic (12th place in 16:31) round out the top 7 for Sandburg. Overall, it's a very solid performance with Sandburg winning with 20 points, followed by Lyons Township (42) and Lowell (97). Open race results are here.
We head back on the buses to Sandburg and unload our cargo. I make my way in to work to scan the results and calculate the race splits for the team. Late afternoon, we finally hear that some progress is being made at the hospital. Finally, at about 9:30 pm, Coach O'Malley texts us that the newest addition to the Eagle family has arrived! The Sandburg "Runner of the Week." Finley O'Malley and Mom are doing great. Congratulations all around!!!
Oh Baby!!!!!!