READY...SET...GO!

It's Wide Wednesday and the challenge is "Natural Environment."
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I'm going to stretch that concept a bit by saying that athletic competition is a perfectly normal part of the Natural Environment of the high school in the U.S.A.
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This is a mass start of a Cross Country running event. This is a relatively large XC (cross country) meet...most have fewer schools attending. There are separate events for boys and girls but, typically, they run the same distance.  It's about 3.2 miles....not sure how many kilometers that is.
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Each school may have as many as 7 runners entered but only the top 5 from each school are counted.  Lowest score wins.  In theory, one just adds the place numbers of each school's runners and that determines the final point structure:  therefore, if a single school has the top 5 runners, the final score would 1+2+3+4+5 = 15...the lowest possible perfect score.
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Lots of very good runners and, typically, the boys run a bit faster than the girls but not always.  Good runners will finish in about 17-18 minutes (boys) and 20-21 minutes (girls).
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Lots of very good competition......and right after this I had a 20 mile drive back to the home school to shoot some volleyball.
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Last night was a late one getting photos ready for newspaper deadline at 10:00 this morning.
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