Conference Meet Trick-or-Treat

On Friday the cross country team loaded up 2 charter buses and headed off for Storm Lake, IA where Buena Vista was hosting our Conference Championship Meet on Saturday. From Decorah it was over a 4 hour trip, so we made sure to have plenty of movies along. The mood was one of excitement, not only for the Conference Meet on Saturday, but because of the feeling that Halloween brings to everyone who has memories of dressing up as a youngster and getting loads of candy to either hoard, share, or consume in record time.

We arrived at our motel a little after 10pm. I think that most of us were surprised to see that it was actually a motel, not a 5-star hotel with a pool and hot tub. As I walked into my room that 3 other girls would be sharing with me, 2 of my roommates exclaimed, 'It smells like my grandma's house!' And surely, it did. Never the less, it served the purpose.

At our coaches' direction, the team dressed up in whatever costumes we stuck in our meet bags on the way out the door and went trick-or-treating at the rooms of our fellow teammates. It was a ton of fun since we were at a motel and able to go door-to-door outside in the dark of the night. Some of the costumes were pretty creative and the stash of goodies wasn't bad either.

Some people might not have gotten much sleep Friday night depending on how much of a sugar high they had or how nervous they were for the upcoming race, but Saturday was a successful day never-the-less. The race was held on a golf course that was as flat as a pancake (no complaints about that!) on a day when the weather couldn't have been better. A slight port-a-potty toilet paper crisis occurred early on, but not even that could distract the runners from focusing on the race.

The men raced first at 11 and the women followed at 12. The times were ridiculously fast thanks to the outlay of the course and the level of competition. The Luther men won first place as a team in the varsity race and also in the JV competition. The Luther women took 2nd place to Wartburg in the varsity race, and took first place in the JV competition. It was a successful day all-around, leaving the Norse runners feeling proud of their efforts and excited for things to come. Perhaps we should try to combine Halloween and Conference every year!