On track for success

I may never look at Hershey-brand chocolate bars again.
Not because I ate too many and regretted it afterwards but simply because I laughed so hard it hurt and Hershey was the reason.
It started rather innocently. I got a call at my office May 18 and the person at the other end of the line was asking if I’d been invited to a track meet that night for coverage.
I had not in fact been told about the group of eight athletes and several parents and coaches from Sandy Lake who had flown to Thunder Bay for a track and field meet.
So I made arrangements to attend the evening meet.
When I arrived at the meet things started to pick up.
I met the students and coaches and started taking pictures.
As I snapped and reviewed the images, I started seeing a pattern. Anyone who wasn’t wearing a real track shirt was wearing an event T-shirt, complete with the title sponsor’s logo on the back. That sponsor? Hershey, the chocolate manufacturer.
That set off my laughing attack. I was standing at the Legion Track Complex taking pictures of a track and field meet who’s title sponsor was a chocolate bar company.
It was the Hershey’s Track and Field Games.
I was lost in thought about the irony. Health and fitness seem to mesh with track and field. Chocolate and candy mesh more with couches and potatoes.
My first thought was what’s next? Will Pizza Hut be the new sponsor and diet regime for Biggest Loser contestants.
Once I recovered from the laughing fit, it was business as usual. I went about shooting the events and chatting up the friends, relatives and supporters who came out to watch the Sandy Lake students.
The excitement in the student’s eyes when they set foot on the track was priceless. I didn’t know smiles that big could be sustained for so long.
Win or lose, the students, from Thomas Fiddler Memorial Elementary School, battled hard and didn’t stop running until they crossed the finish line.
It was a sight to see.
The students’ coach Matt Kennedy, kindergarten teacher at the school originally from outside Toronto, could hardly contain his enthusiasm.
The track team in the community was his brainchild. It started as a running club about two years when he moved to the community and blossomed into a track team with a membership of more than 30.
Of those, eight students came to Thunder Bay for the meet.
The were Gabriel Kakepetum (bib 923), Clarissa Crowe (803), McKenzie Kakepetum (805), Rebecca Kakepetum (804), Creedance Anishinabie (920), Pierce Meekis (932), Darian Crowe (921) and Jeff Meekis (922).
Despite not having the same training facilities as other competitors in Thunder Bay, the students did remarkable well.
Pierce Meekis and Clarissa Crowe each placed first in midget divisions of the softball throw.
In the running events, the students held their own. They competed in the 50-metre, 100-metre, 200-metre, 400-metre and 800-metre races.
Kennedy said it wasn’t about winning and losing but he was clearly pleased with and impressed by the team’s results.
For that matter, so was I.
The students were clearly well-trained.
Kennedy explained the students ran in the community with distances measured out so they knew how far the races were.
The 800-metre races were the highlight for me.
The students seemed concerned with pacing but didn’t seem to figure out how they wanted to approach the race.
Some chose to start fast and faded during the second lap while others started slowly and picked up their pace during the second 400-metre section.
Either way, the expressions on the students faces – the look of sheer exhaustion after a long race in 25+ degree heat – and the thrill of pinning winning ribbons on their shirts after such an effort is something I will remember for years to come.