Rumor has it

There's a distinct running grapevine that I've experienced morer and more this year. It started with inter-cross country relationships in the fall and has evolved into a complex network of hearsay and gossip that is facilitated by the ample time we runners have to spread the word. When not out of breath from workouts, we are constantly talk. Often, this talk centers on fellow runners. I recently heard about a certain middle school boy who has blown the competition out of the water. I initially took this to mean he could run a sub-six minute mile, and was determinedly unimpressed. However, my brother kept saying he could run under five minutes. Yeah right. But today, running 150s on the track, I saw it first-hand. This kid was running at least 100 meters in front of the pack and continued to open the gap. As I head the times announces over the speakers my jaw literally dropped and I was so distracted I missed the start of my next sprint. But seriously, this kid was good. It's funny how this runners' line of gossip travels so quickly, but also that it is relatively accurate. My theory is that there is a lot of fact checking in a big group of runners flitting down the road. We are all subconsciously listening to eachother and unafraid to pupe up or butt into another conversation to out in our two cents. This provides for a bit of accountability and really cuts down on tall tales. Also, we're all really interested in the hearsay and want to get to the bottom of it... And the actual bottom of it, the reality-- not just sensational news. This intererst crosses grade boundaries, as illustrated by this impressive middle schooler; social boundaries, because we come from many different groups; and even school boundaries, seeing as many of us keep up to date on the high profile, competitive highschoolers from our conference and section. In all, the running community is much more than just a group of individuals sharing a hobby. We all become linked incidentally though this network of athletes.