The other day Adele ran a cross-country race as a representative of year five for Nelson Central here in NZ. Actually, all of the year five kids from a half dozen schools around town showed up to a wet, muddy, soggy field on a crisp autumn afternoon. They came to compete. They came to win.

In typical New Zealand fashion the entire event felt like it was thrown together last minute. It was almost as if one of the teachers called a few other teachers and said, “Right, thinking about cross country this Thursday in the park, want to give it a go?” To which the rest of them said, “Suppose so, what can we bring?” To which the teacher replied, “Oh, I’ve got a watch with a second hand we can use, can you bring the whistle? And let’s say all the kids in years five and six? We’ll go about 2K give or take, probably on an out and back, we’ll throw in the hill, top finishers go to Regionals.” Done deal.

In the States something like this would have been organized to death. For months on end several team leaders from each school would hold committee meetings that would then splinter off in to sub-committees to plan fund-raisers to pay lawyers to assess liability issues and weigh in on any threat of potential lawsuit or government intervention. Gym teachers would hold conferences to carefully plan ever detail of the race and map every inch of the coarse to make sure it complied with some obscure Elementary School cross country standard.

Parents would jockey for pole position at the finish line and orchestrate cheering sections with school banners and marching bands. Kids would get all decked out in new Nikes that match new school running uniforms created just for the event. An entire curriculum would be put together to properly train kids to assess running skills and weed out any weak links: the slower ones would be relegated to after school “art classes” to work on the banners, the faster ones would go into seclusion where they would “train” for weeks at the expense of everything else. There would be an assembly, maybe a “wear your uniform to school day”, and the PTA would work around the clock to make sure that everyone went home with a medal. After all, we are all winners.

TWEET! The whistle blows! Seventy or so year five girls leap forward and come flying down a long, grassy straightaway. The wide horizontal line begins to form a V, kind of like a flock of birds: the leaders begin to pull away and stragglers are left behind.

By the time they pass our section they are covered in mud, breathing hard and running all out. The classmates and parents go wild. The racers pick up the pace.

It is beautiful to watch. The natural runners just glide across the muck and mire, legs turning over like clockwork, arms pumping, with a slight lean forward, there’s a quick glance around to check the competition. Adele is in the front pack: in the lead group of Nelson Central runners. She is clearly in her element.

Most of the 2K run is up and down a single track on the backside of a local “hill” so the kids are out of sight for a while. When they come back down into view, Adele is the third yellow shirt to come around the corner, about a dozen kids back from the lead. She is very intense and very, very focused.

The kids are covered in mud, some are bleeding, cut and scrapped up from falling, others can barely catch a breath. What amazes me is that no one steps in to help and none of the kids stop. Every kid finishes: on their own: to the cheers of their classmates, parents and teachers. The cheers for the last are as great as those for the first. There is a certain degree of honor in sport: even at this young age.

By the final turn Adele is the second yellow shirt and well ahead of the main field. As the second fastest year five girl in Nelson Central she earns a spot to represent her school at Regionals in a week and a half – as the fastest cross country runner in the family she earns something even more. She earns the title of “runner” to go along with “writer, artist, pianist, mathematician, tell of jokes, competitor, triathlete, gymnast, and tennis star” just to name a few.

Once again we all see her in a whole new light…