OHSAA State XC Championships
It was late on Friday night. Sadie Miller looked up from the computer screen and rubbed her eyes. She had been reading about unexplained prehistoric sites in Eastern Europe for hours now. They were amazing, just as the Van Winkles had assured her they would be. Nearly all of them were aligned along the summer solstice, and they were constructed with giant stone megaliths, precisely smoothed and beveled so that they locked together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Sadie stretched her back and cracked her knuckles. She accessed her Google Map tab and zoomed out so that she could see all of Armenia and its roughly two dozen archeological sites. What was she missing? What was she supposed to see? Ever since she had become the sole Fairbanks qualifier for the state meet, Sadie had been feeling an inordinate amount of pressure, especially from the Van Winkles, who had almost immediately begun sending her text messages via Remind about her practice schedule and upcoming episodes of Rogan. Suddenly Sadie squinted. What was that? Another megalith? She hadn’t seen this one before. The Carahunge Obetz. It rose like a ziggurat out of the rocky foothills of Western Armenia. It looked like some sort of amphitheater or stadium. There had been enough seating to hold thousands of people. Having taken Mr. Carter’s AP World History course, Sadie knew that the ancient Armenians were renowned for their distance running prowess. Cave paintings told the story, that, thousands of years ago, these ancient people had run alongside and hunted now-extinct megafauna such as the wooly mammoth and the sabretooth tiger. Her phone buzzed. Sadie looked down and saw that it was former Panther standout and current BGSU Falcon Rachael Hoover calling. Quickly Sadie answered.
“Hey, Rachael, what’s up?” asked Sadie.
“Did you find it?” asked Rachael, in a serious tone.
“Find what?” Sadie asked, innocently, and glanced at her computer screen again.
“The key,” said Rachael, “the key to the Seventh Sign!” She sounded like she was running out of breath.
“Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Sadie. She could feel her face blush red at the lie.
“Quit it, Sadie,” said Rachael. “There is no time for this. You’ve found the Carahunge Obetz, and, right now, you’re wearing last year’s state qualifier sweatshirt, and your hair is in a ponytail.”
Sadie froze, and began looking around her room, fearfully. “But how could you possibly know that I—”
“There’s no time!” repeated Rachel. “You run tomorrow morning. You must be prepared.”
“I know, Rachael, but I’m not sure if—” but Rachael had already hung up.
Six hours later, Sadie was aboard the school bus, heading towards The Fortress at Obetz. Joined by her fellow Lady Panthers and a group of four of the boys, Sadie felt confident. Some of her teammates had made signs for her, and despite the chilly autumn weather, Sadie was sure that she would run well today. There was so much depending upon it, she had to.
The bus rounded a corner, and there it was, rising like a ziggurat out of the flat grasslands of Southern Columbus. The Fortress Obetz. It was a site that Sadie was familiar with, having raced here last year as a freshman. The bus parked and the runners saw that the Van Winkles had already arrived and established team camp.
Before she could put her backpack down on the tarp, Coach Emily Van Winkle drew Sadie to the side. “Did you find it?” asked Emily.
“I think so,” said Sadie.
“What is it? It’s been driving us crazy.”
“Well,” said Sadie, “I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with the site we’re at. The Fortress.”
“Of course!” shouted Coach Van Winkle, who had been standing nearby, using some sort of astrological measuring device to ascertain the path of the sun. “How could we be so foolish?”
“There’s still time, Mike,” said Emily. “The Seventh Sign must be nigh.”
"Where’s my phone?” said junior Mollie Thrush.
“What?” said Coach Van Winkle.
“My phone! It was here a second ago, and now it’s gone.”
Mike and Emily looked at each other with understanding. “We’ll find your phone later. Right now, you need to get with the rest of the girls and take a warm-up with Sadie. She races in an hour.”
The girls took off, while the boys began playing the classic game that they had developed over the course of the past four years, Throw the Tent Stake into the Ground. Knowing that they’d be occupied for hours, Coach Mike Van Winkle took advantage of the time to continue his measurements of the sun.
Soon, the girls returned, and Sadie strapped on her distance spikes. It was now or never. She said farewell to her teammates and she and Coach Van Winkle jogged over the start area for the race.
“How are you going to start the race?” he asked Sadie.
“I’m going to go fast,” said Sadie.
“And during the second mile?”
“I’m going to go more faster,” said Sadie.
“Correct,” said Van Winkle, then he glared at her through sleep-deprived eyes. “And the final mile?”
“I’m going to go most fastest,” said Sadie, recognizing that despite the lack of integrity in her grammar, it was what Van Winkle needed to hear.
“Then there is no more to be said. The time hath arrived. There’s the ref. He’s calling the athletes out. Go.”
And before you could blink, the starter’s gun sounded, POW, and the top female athletes in the state took off down the opening straightaway. The lead runners established a brisk pace, but Sadie was in the mix.
As Sadie ran, she began to reflect upon the season that she’d had. Yes, there had been some strange moments, but she knew that the memories she had forged over the past few months would last her a lifetime: Ben Logan, the Farmbanks Invite, Michigan, the Ponderosa Steakhouse. Nearing the end of the first mile, Sadie began to hear the roar of the crowd. It sounded like a heavy surf, crashing against a craggy shore. Above the din, Sadie could hear the voice of Mollie Thrush. “Have you seen my phone?” Sadie refocused. Still two miles to go.
She ran through the stadium and reached the back half of the course. She could see a line of runners ahead of her and she could sense them behind her. She hammered on the gas pedal and entered a new gear. The blue sky became bluer. The sun’s rays became more comforting. She was experiencing runner’s euphoria and felt as though she could go for a hundred more miles.
Alas, there was only one to go. As the runners re-entered the arena, it was clear that the team from Minster was destined to win the school’s 16th team title, while Caroline Hamilton from Legacy Christian would take first place with a meet record time of 17:34.
Sadie would cross the finish line in 78th place, with a near personal best time of 20:08.
Her teammates were waiting for her at the end, and after congratulating Sadie on a brave effort, they reconvened at the team camp. Everyone was waiting for something to be said, and the athletes grew quiet as Coach Van Winkle arose from his seat on the medicine kit.
“My acolytes,” he began, and unfurled his creased copy of The Farmer’s Almanac, “The Seventh Sign, it hath passed.”
The athletes looked around, but they couldn’t see any tangible evidence that Van Winkle’s words were true.
“Check your phones. You’ll see what I mean,” Van Winkle concluded.
The athletes grabbed their phones, and were shocked to find that each of them had received a text from Mollie Thrush. It read: “At the end, you’ll find your beginning. The 2025 Cross Country season has officially begun.”
“But, Mollie, I thought you lost your phone!” said Ava Lahmers.
“I did!” said Mollie. “I still haven’t found it. Those texts didn’t come from me.”
“Check your pocket, Mollie,” said Coach Van Winkle.
Mollie did, and sure enough, there was her phone, as if it had been there all along.
“But I don’t understand how—”
“Silence!” commanded Van Winkle. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Mollie, than can be dreamt of in your philosophies. The season hath ended. ‘Twas a great success. Now, I can sleep.”
And with those words, Coach Van Winkle seemed to evaporate before their very eyes.
But he was certain to return soon. In fact, he would be there at 6:00 on Thursday, November 7th for the Cross Country Banquet at Fairbanks High School.