Track teams aren’t convinced spring is really here.
TOPSHAM – The bus from Mt. Blue rumbled across the parking lot at Mt. Ararat High School and inched to a stop.

As track athletes emerged through the front door of the bus, their bodies shivered almost immediately as a stiff wind whipped across the wide open track.

“Oh my God, it’s so cold out here,” one girl said as she made her way into a grove of trees, trying to keep out of the breeze.

Some athletes even had winter parkas on, the hood pulled over their heads and their arms tucked into their sleeves like a turtle in a shell.

Such are the pains of early spring track in Maine, a scene coaches and athletes alike are getting used to. This year, though, the season seems to have started even earlier.

“Last year I think our first meet was during school vacation week,” Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg said. “In a way, this is a good thing, though. A lot of kids take off for vacation, and it’s good for them to get into a meet early.”

With three weeks of practice already under their belts, many teams were just happy to get out of the gym and face some actual competition.

“The athletes are all anxious to see what they can do in a meet,” Cullenberg said. “You can only do so much in practice.”

For teams like Lewiston, which has its largest team in over a decade, the athletes and coaches were raring to go.

“The kids are anxious of course,” Lewiston coach Ray Putnam said. “But so are the coaches. It helps us out to see what the kids can do outside of practice. Some of them are great in practice but may not do so well in a meet, while others we get to see if they are slacking in practice if they do well in a meet.”

One thing on all of the coaches’ minds this early in the season is the injury bug. Already, Lewiston is missing some runners with shin problems stemming from training on concrete floors in the back hallway at school, and for smaller teams like Mt. Blue this season, any injury could be devastating.

“It’s definitely cold out here today,” Cullenberg said, “but it’s dry. The surface of the track is dry, the runways are dry, and as long as the kids are wearing proper warm-up gear and doing warm-ups and cool-downs, they should be OK. The biggest group of kids at risk are the sprinters.”

So despite having to constantly rub their arms for warmth while waiting to run, jump or throw, there was a palpable excitement in the air and on the faces of the athletes as they waited their turn, cheered on teammates and huddled inside winter parkas.

“These meets aren’t necessarily about winning but about working on your time and distances,” Putnam said. “The state meet is the main goal.”

In case anyone is counting, the state meet is on June 5, less than two months away.

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