There’s something special about Cross Country season in Southern Nevada.
School is back, practices are underway, and nearly every weekend for the next couple of months, hundreds of high school runners will toe the line somewhere around the valley. And at Red Rock Running Company, we absolutely love being a part of it.
This year’s season kicked off on August 22 with the Red Rock Running Company Invitational at James Regional Park—and it was our biggest one yet.
Nearly 1,000 high school athletes competed under the lights in the first race of the season.
We’ve always tried to make the RRRC Invitational a little different. Cross Country runners work incredibly hard, and we want the first race of the year to feel like a celebration of that.
So we bring out the ridiculously big medals. The top 25 finishers in our Newcomer races earned one, along with the top 35 in our Returning races. Are they probably the biggest medals these kids will receive all season? Yep. That’s kind of the point.
And because this is August in Las Vegas, we race at night. Once the sun went down, James Regional Park took on a completely different feel. Our favorite local DJ, DJ Prenup, kept the music going and the crowd energized, while Kona Ice helped everyone cool off with snow cones.
HOKA joined us too, giving athletes a chance to try out some shoes and providing backpacks for the top 10 finishers in each race.
But the best part wasn’t the medals, backpacks, music, or snow cones.
It was seeing nearly 1,000 young runners show up and compete.
Some of them will be among the fastest runners in Nevada this season. Some were running their very first Cross Country race. Some crossed the finish line thrilled with their performance, and others probably already started thinking about what they want to do differently at their next meet.
Every one of them is a runner.
That’s the part we love.
Here’s to another great season of Southern Nevada Cross Country. We can’t wait to see where these kids go from here.
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Every Run is a Good Run