What: All-RunWashington Preseason XC Team Pep Rally!
When: Sunday, August 16th at 6 PM
Where: T.C. Williams High School Auditorium in Alexandria, VA
Who: 62 Top XC Runners In DC Metro Area + All Runners/Teams Who Want To Attend!
Doors Open At 5:30 PM
Join Pacers Running, RunWashington, and New Balance as we announce the 2015 All RunWashington preseason cross country team on Sunday, August 16th at 6 PM in a pep rally at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia! The All-RunWashington team is the selection of the top cross country athletes in the DC metro area. The top athletes receive the coveted All-RunWashington New Balance spike and one lucky athlete will be the cover of RunWashington magazine.
For more information, visit dcxcproject.com
Please note: this event has been moved to the TC Williams Auditorium for 2015 which will allow for a huge crowd of supporters!
We will be offering a free raffle to all attendees. Win one of ten spike bags or the grand prize of a pair of New Balance shoes!
There will also be a social media prize to the person who posts the best photo showing their school spirit. The lucky winner will receive a pair of New Balance shoes.
Also, whichever school team draws the most supporters to attend will receive a visa card that can be used towards a pizza party or whatever else the team needs.
From event organizer Charlie Ban of RunWashington.com:
This is the event's second year, but it's the third year we've recognized all-star teams. Doing this was a natural step in trying to fully represent the D.C. area's running community. Early on, almost all of our readers were an adult recreational runners who might not have any ties or interest in high school cross country around here. But they care enough about the sport that if we pointed out how some of the runners around here are challenging for national titles year in and year out, and coaches are building huge programs full of of kids who are becoming huge fans of running, they'd appreciate that and want to pay attention.
Now, I think kids are starting to realize that we're here, we care about cross country, we can also give them a look at what running looks like in people's lives after school is over, and they're reading what we put out. We're writing about their teammates and their athletic and personal triumphs, their coaches, their communities. Basically, I'm trying to give the kids around here what I'd have loved to have had as a high school runner.
Given the narrative style we've taken RunWashington in the last three years, it seemed right to get a subjective consensus from coaches who know the sport and the area and let their expertise speak for itself in selecting the all-star teams.
Pacers and New Balance were interested in sponsoring and designing the spikes we give each of the honorees, so after last year's pep rally proved pretty popular, we added some more festivity to the whole thing. That means taking it from just being a ceremony where we give the kids their shoes, to the point where it's a cross country season kickoff for the whole D.C. area. We want it to be a chance to meet the other kids who run before they all line up against each other in an invitational. It's a social event for teams to bond outside of preseason practice and a chance to meet some the kids from other schools. Get the running fans together and watch the excitement for the season grow. We'll have prizes and giveaways, but what they won't get anywhere else is the environment where you have other people with the same interests that you don't know well or haven't met before. Here's your chance.
And we really want that to cross the rivers. In college, I knew people from suburban Maryland or Northern Virginia who'd say "I'm from D.C." before they'd clarify where exactly they grew up, so that made it pretty clear they wanted a greater identity beyond "the Northern Region" or "Montgomery County." That's the kind of regional identity we'd like to encourage however we can. And the way we can do that is by having our coaches consider the region as a whole and decide who we'd want representing the D.C. area's roughly 7,000 cross country runners.
What we want from this event is for the cross country runners in the D.C. area to leave knowing that their sport matters, people are interested and they have a real community of people who love what they love. That will just make the next four months a dream come true.
MileSplit Maryland will be on-site with coverage at the event including photos, videos, and interviews!