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This past weekend, I got to spend Saturday morning at one of my favorite courses in the area, Chambers Bay. Normally, that would mean golf, but this time I wasn’t there to play. I was there to watch my son Charlie compete in a cross country meet. So unfortunately, there wasn’t much golf involved. In fact, I didn’t really get very close to the golf course at all. The race was held down at the park near the water, which still made for a pretty great setting.
Since Charlie is a freshman, this is all pretty new to me. I’ve been to a few cross country meets now, and I’ve learned that one of the first challenges as a parent is simply figuring out where you’re supposed to go. Where does the race start? Where does it finish? Which direction are the runners going? Where should I stand so I can actually see my kid? Unless you’ve done it before, it can be a little confusing. My strategy has become pretty simple: follow the herd. There are usually a bunch of parents and spectators walking around who look like they know exactly what they’re doing, so I just follow them and hope they’re heading to the right place. So far, it’s worked pretty well. It’s basically my version of GPS.
This was by far the biggest meet I’ve seen so far, with a lot of different races happening throughout the day. Because of the size of the event, parking at Chambers Bay was pretty limited. Fortunately, they had shuttles running from a nearby school, so I parked there and hopped on the shuttle. It actually worked really well and made getting to the event pretty easy. Once I arrived, my next mission was to find Charlie’s school’s tent so I’d know where to look for him later. After that, I needed to figure out where the starting line was.
And let me tell you, this was by far the biggest starting line I’ve ever seen. There were runners everywhere. When the race finally started, it almost looked like a scene from a war movie, with two giant groups of runners charging toward each other. Except instead of swords and shields, everyone had running shoes and race numbers. Much healthier, I suppose.
Once the runners went by, the next challenge was figuring out where they would show up next. So, once again, I followed the herd of spectators to another location along the course. The runners did two laps for this race, and the finish line was in a different area from where they started. I was actually pretty impressed with how well the spectators seemed to know where to go. I basically just kept following everyone else and somehow managed to see Charlie run by multiple times.
The nice thing about this particular event was that there was a big HOKA setup near the finish line, including a clock showing the runners’ times as they crossed the finish. So after following Charlie around the course, I was able to get into position near the finish and see him come through. He ended up running a 5K in 19 minutes and 33 seconds, which was his best time yet. It was pretty cool to see him finish and know that he had just set a new personal best.
And honestly, it’s hard to complain about spending a Saturday morning at Chambers Bay. Even though I wasn’t there to golf, being down by the water, watching the runners, and seeing Charlie have a great race made for a pretty good morning. The setting certainly didn’t hurt either. Chambers Bay is one of my favorite places to golf, and apparently it’s not a bad place to watch a cross country race either.
I’m sure as Charlie continues running, I’ll get a little better at figuring out where I’m supposed to be. Eventually, I may even stop following the herd and actually know where I’m going.
But probably not.
For now, I’ll keep following the experienced cross country parents and pretending I know what I’m doing. After all, I’m not lost—I’m just taking the scenic route.
And if you ever see a dad running across a park looking confused while staring at a group of runners in the distance, there’s a pretty good chance that’s me trying to figure out where the herd went.
