Red and Blue descended on Salt Creek Beach Park again for the 4th Annual Red vs. Blue Middle School Cross Country Meet and Picnic. The 42 6th, 7th and 8th grade team members were divided into two teams and raced through the park and along Salt Creek Beach for the 1.25 mile course. The goal for this race is to have the kids see how much they’ve improved as a result of their hard work all season and to have some fun together before the season ends.

In traditional cross country meets, only the top five finishers per team count towards team scoring. This meet included a non-traditional scoring method where every single member of the team counted towards their team’s final score. Everyone works hard; everyone is pushing themselves just as hard as the next person; it’s only right to ensure that their effort counts in the final score tally.

This year’s result was as close as could possibly be. After all 44 runners had crossed the finish line, we added up the score and the result was a narrow one point victory for the Blue team (451 to 452). It’s easy to tell kids that when you feel tired during the race and your brain tells you that it doesn’t really matter if you put forth that extra bit of effort to pass that one person here or that one person there that it really does matter. It’s a whole different thing to actually do it when you feel like you are completely exhausted. You may not know it at the time, but that one extra bit of effort at that instant could make the difference for the entire team.

This year’s one point margin put that life lesson into perspective. When you work hard, push yourself and do things that you weren’t so sure you could do at the time, it can come back to pay dividends down the road; literally and figuratively.