I Guess Things Have Changed...

Years ago I participated in a Ragnar Relay race. This required I get in shape. I had a couple of weeks to prepare and I did the best I could. Instead of joining a gym or running on a treadmill, I chose to go to a local high school on my way home from work and run on their track. It took me back to my high school days.

I wasn't the best runner in high school, but I did enjoy it. I like running on a track because I can gage how fast I'm going and how far I've gone. It's simple--four laps, pretty much a mile. Months ago I had access to an indoor track, but I did not renew my contract so I stopped using it. I also stopped running. I did, however, get in a play that required a lot of dancing. That kept me active for the past couple of months.

I missed running on a track, even an indoor one, but I was excited because just down the road from the indoor facility was a shiny new high school complete with a shiny new track. Last night I thought I'd give the track a test run.

Except, I didn't realize times had changed.

I should have anticipated it really. A brand new multi-million dollar facility will have first-class sports facilities (since that is what we seem to worship in our educational institutions...). It was just about sundown when I arrived. I parked the van and headed toward the football field.

Uh oh, I thought.

The field--and track--was completely surrounded by a high fence. There was no way in, except, of course, to hop the fence, something I wasn't going to do. The high school where I trained for Ragnar was not new--it was decades old. It had no fence surrounding it. Maybe it does now, who knows?

I'm not one to push the "I'm a taxpayer" line when it comes to using the resources that those taxes go to support. I did think, as I stood outside looking in, that it would be nice to be able to use the facilities. But there's too much at stake. They've got too much invested. If it were open to the public, anyone could walk onto the field or the track and do whatever they wanted to do, be it train, or vandalize. It's simply not allowed.

Years and years ago when I was in high school I'm pretty sure we had access to the old track. It was so inferior compared to what's available today. I don't know if people--old people--old runners or walkers would use the track like I wanted to last night. I'd like to think they did.