You may know about the Friday Night Lights cross country meet but do you know about the music, fireworks, and more. With food trucks from Kona Ice to Chick Fil A there are many different choices for what to eat while you are participating in or watching the meet. There was also a stage with a dj, smoke machine, loud speakers, and colorful lights. When you walk in you may notice the massive number of easy ups and that is because of the 131 different schools and 1851 runners participating in the event.
The meet is hosted by Mount Tabor and takes place at Ivey Redmon park in Kernersville, North Carolina. The park was built in 2001 in honor of the World War II veteran, former alderman and Kernersville citizen, Ivey Redmon. The property spans over 103 acres and is home to a cross country track, soccer fields, softball fields, and baseball fields. It is home to the Kernersville soccer association and hosts adult softball leagues, youth soccer leagues, and cross country meets for middle school, high school, and college runners.
The goals and feelings of the runners varied like how Emily Lewis was, excited but also nervous, while Blythe Beveridge was Pumped! The mixed feelings of feeling excited and also nervous was also shared by Sean Doyle Murphy, Teigan Babcock, and Allie Kinlaw. Some goals from members of the team were Berkley Willis wanting to break 19 minutes and 30 seconds, Lauren Dowtin wanting to feel like she had, given her all, and get a personal record, and London Coley wanting to get it over with.
The PHS cross country team coach, Coach Kinlaw, a Biology teacher at Page, says that she has high hopes for the meet and that she believes that it is a good opportunity for the runners to race against fast people pushing them to run faster and get better times. She says that it is a great environment for the runners to race in because of the large crowd and the music. Her goals for the meet are to see where the runners are at their skill level in the season. Coach Kinlaw says that the practices in the week of the race were great but harder the week before because of high temperatures making it not possible to have practices at all. She feels as though at this point in the season she has done all she can to prepare them for Friday Night Lights.
