Weather Interrupts Track Regionals But Spurs an Unusual Camaraderie

The forecast called for thunderstorms and a tornado warning was issued on Friday evening but events at the Virginia High School League Northern Region Track and Field Championships continued until an ominous storm cloud consumed the sky.

An announcement advised athletes, coaches and spectators to enter Lake Braddock Secondary School's main building until the weather improved. As competition stopped and crowds of schools, each divided by team colors, trudged into the school, the lights flickered on and off in intervals with screams audible in the darkness.

After half an hour of waiting in the halls and the rain still pouring down, a beat began to echo through the corridor. At one end, a mob had created a circle with an opening in the middle where two athletes were directing clapping from the crowd.

Competitors who had been racing against one another just a few hours earlier were now joined together by a common beat. Intermittently, members of separate teams would jump into the center of the circle and dance with boisterous encouragement coming from their teammates and opponents alike. 

The shouting and clapping was brought to a hush when an official started to address the stranded crowd. “We will wait 15 more minutes and competition will begin in 20 minutes with time given to warm up,” said the announcer.

Within seconds, as if the group remembered where they were and what they had trained for, the mob dispersed and everyone went back to their respective teams to start stretches and warming up.

In a time of rivalry on the track, athletes were brought together by the furies of Mother Nature.  

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