Mud in Your ... Lens

I enjoy covering cross country racing. Maybe it's because I grew-up in Eugene, Oregon, where running is as ubiquitous as leaves in the New England autumn. In any case, the state class championships are a feast of visual possibilities each year with 12 races over the course of the day at Wickham Park.

For the photographer from the small local paper, this also can mean hours of races with no local runners leading the pack and no mandate to cover the competition. This is the ideal time to move around and try some new things. Maybe it will be something that will work for a race when I'm looking for the local angle, or maybe it will just be a good experience.

The course at Wickham can be challenging in good weather; lots of hills, winding paths through the woods, add to that the mud remaining from the rains the night before and the runners had more than enough to challenge them. This area was right by a road that crosses the course a couple hundred yards from the start line. Race officials, if given the chance by runners previewing the course, suggested it was better to leap this mud than try and run through it. Many competitors took that advice. Some did not and at least one lost a shoe.

Looking for something different I staked out the spot right at the edge of the road. The runners would be skirting the borders of the course and many would be quite close to me. It only lasted a few seconds, the mass of bodies leaping over the mud, and then they were gone.

Of course more than a few mistimed their leaps and a couple hit the mud right in front of me. I walked away from that spot with a photo I liked and plenty of mud spattered across my cameras and clothes.