Very much enjoyed this post. I'm Elizabeth Robinson's husband and she forwarded it to me. I ran track and cross country in high school and college but now I'm running news adjacent as evidenced by the fact I had to look up NXM.
The Nike Cross Nationals series was inevitable because people wanted some kind of national team championship. Foot Locker is only an individual showcase, and only one company has the $ to put on anything of greater scale.
I had a terrible college coach (https://kevinbeck.substack.com/p/collegiate-womens-running-some-encouraging), with the silver linings that 1) we were allowed to treat being on the team as the joke it was, and 2) it left me with unfinished business when I graduated and motivated me to do chase goals in my late 20s and into my mid-30s that I might not have bothered with otherwise.
Very much enjoyed this post. I'm Elizabeth Robinson's husband and she forwarded it to me. I ran track and cross country in high school and college but now I'm running news adjacent as evidenced by the fact I had to look up NXM.
The Nike Cross Nationals series was inevitable because people wanted some kind of national team championship. Foot Locker is only an individual showcase, and only one company has the $ to put on anything of greater scale.
I had a terrible college coach (https://kevinbeck.substack.com/p/collegiate-womens-running-some-encouraging), with the silver linings that 1) we were allowed to treat being on the team as the joke it was, and 2) it left me with unfinished business when I graduated and motivated me to do chase goals in my late 20s and into my mid-30s that I might not have bothered with otherwise.