One of the biggest high school races and a legend for all those who ran high school cross country in Illinois takes place in Detweiller Park on a small island in Peoria. Detweiller hosts a few regular races each year, a conference race, and the state finals. The same Detweiller course has existed for God only knows how long but my dad and I both ran it in our high school days. It's a quick rectangular course with few irregularities in the footing. There's a long slow incline at the end. It's also a tricky course as for most races a few hundred students are racing simultaneously. Dad would give me tips and tricks on how to best get around the tight corners when runners inevitably bunch up and the average pace slows for a few seconds. Stay on the inside, keep your elbows up but firm. Dad would tell me to 'watch out for the footing in this section as it's uneven and there's an unexpected pit that can cost you a sprained ankle if you aren't ready'.
Here Dad is at Detweiller, when I ran the course the last time as a cross country freshman, hence the Knox hat. The course and weather was the same as it's always been.
Same sport - Cross Country. Same course - Detweiller.
There were 40+ years between my dad running the Peoria course in highschool and me. The route never changed. It's a fast route for a mass of highschool runners with no bad spot to watch for the viewers.
Deitweiller is sacred ground for all cross country runners - past, present, and future. It has a sense of excitement surrounded by hundreds of highschoolers and family alongside vendors selling shoes, bags, shirts, anything a runner could ever dream of. Yet, you also saw seriousness amidst the excitement on the faces of the runners - this was the time to bring it. For Deitweiller is a unique route. Deitweiler, unlike other routes (with nicknames like 'nosebleed hill') sets the runner up to succeed. The course is a straight shot. The footing is relatively even. The turns around the trees are few and easy to glide in and out of (depending on your place in the pack). The weather is always perfect for a race. Never too hot with a breeze from the Mississippi helped along by the trees. This type of race is almost too easy - where are the haystacks of Elmwood and the grueling climb of Mt. Assissi. This race is in a way even tougher because of it's simplicity - because it's not about the pure physicality of cross country - it's all about the mentality - the game. To succeed at Deitweiller - you need to know your body on a good day and a bad, where you should be in the pack at all moments of the race, and know when you need to kick it and when to not. This is where people fail at Deitweiller - they think it's a piece of cake as it's quick and flat. Deitweiller's all about strategy - after all - at the end of the season, this is where the best of the best in Illinois come.
When you want to be on the outside - what your splits should be for 0.5, 1, 2, 3 miles, 3,1 finishing time. As I've looked at pictures from my dad's races at Detweiller and mine - there are almost no differences to show that time has lapsed. One might think the flat top grill hairstyle of the 50's would give the picture away - but not necessarily. The only thing that gave the time difference away was the fact that the photo was faded and in grayscale. 50 years after my dad ran the course and I'm sure for another 50 years to come (at least), highschool kids will still learn their strengths and weaknesses while battling it out and elbowing each other around the trees in back.
The tips and tricks to conquer the course that my dad used were still good for me in the early 2000's.
There were 40+ years between my dad running the Peoria course in highschool and me. The route never changed. It's a fast route for a mass of highschool runners with no bad spot to watch for the viewers.
Deitweiller is sacred ground for all cross country runners - past, present, and future. It has a sense of excitement surrounded by hundreds of highschoolers and family alongside vendors selling shoes, bags, shirts, anything a runner could ever dream of. Yet, you also saw seriousness amidst the excitement on the faces of the runners - this was the time to bring it. For Deitweiller is a unique route. Deitweiler, unlike other routes (with nicknames like 'nosebleed hill') sets the runner up to succeed. The course is a straight shot. The footing is relatively even. The turns around the trees are few and easy to glide in and out of (depending on your place in the pack). The weather is always perfect for a race. Never too hot with a breeze from the Mississippi helped along by the trees. This type of race is almost too easy - where are the haystacks of Elmwood and the grueling climb of Mt. Assissi. This race is in a way even tougher because of it's simplicity - because it's not about the pure physicality of cross country - it's all about the mentality - the game. To succeed at Deitweiller - you need to know your body on a good day and a bad, where you should be in the pack at all moments of the race, and know when you need to kick it and when to not. This is where people fail at Deitweiller - they think it's a piece of cake as it's quick and flat. Deitweiller's all about strategy - after all - at the end of the season, this is where the best of the best in Illinois come.
When you want to be on the outside - what your splits should be for 0.5, 1, 2, 3 miles, 3,1 finishing time. As I've looked at pictures from my dad's races at Detweiller and mine - there are almost no differences to show that time has lapsed. One might think the flat top grill hairstyle of the 50's would give the picture away - but not necessarily. The only thing that gave the time difference away was the fact that the photo was faded and in grayscale. 50 years after my dad ran the course and I'm sure for another 50 years to come (at least), highschool kids will still learn their strengths and weaknesses while battling it out and elbowing each other around the trees in back.
The tips and tricks to conquer the course that my dad used were still good for me in the early 2000's.
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