D-E-D-I-C-A-T-I-O-N

Cheerleaders are great spellers.

In their cheers and chants at games, cheerleaders hand out directions to their teams like teachers hand out spelling tests. Players are told to B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E. They are told their team is A-W-E S-O-M-E, awesome, awesome, totally.

And in case spectators forget whom they should be cheering for, the cheerleaders are there to help out.

Give me a B! "B." Give me an E! "E." Give me an A! "A." Give me an R! "R." Give me an S! "S." What's that spell?

It's a great tool, sticking spelling into athletic endeavors.

I propose a new cheer.

D-E-D-I-C-A-T-I-O-N.

This past weekend was Wauconda Fest in the village of Wauconda, and Sunday morning was supposed to start with a 5K/10K challenge.

Many runners, such as myself, showed up at 6:30 a.m. to register for the race, and waited patiently for the starting gun to sound at 8:05.

As hundreds of runners lined up at the starting line at approximately 7:57 a.m., a Wauconda Park District spokesperson grabbed a bullhorn and said the race had been canceled.

Members of Wauconda's Certified Emergency Response Team had been monitoring the weather, and the radar showed a massive thunderstorm was only 12 miles away, the spokesperson said.

The storm would hit Wauconda within 20 or so minutes, he continued, and so the decision had been made to cancel the race. Vouchers for next year's race would be given to all participants.

As the crowd of runners stood around uncertainly, I saw a few people shrug their shoulders and start running down the race path.

More and more runners followed suit, and before I knew it, a long line of runners had taken off down the course.

They weren't going to receive any medals at this race, but they wanted to finish the course all the same, and I admired their dedication.

Inspired, I took off, too.

As predicted, the storm hit about 25, 30 minutes later, just as I was getting back into my car.

I realized on my drive home that it wasn't just the runners that were dedicated. 

It took dedication by Wauconda's CERT team to watch the radar and make sure that they warned the runners that danger was approaching. In hindsight, I think it was a smart decision to cancel the race. Anyone who would have taken longer than 30 minutes to finish the 5K/10K would have gotten soaked to the bone in the driving rain that hit the area. It would have been very dangerous to be out in the middle of the course when the storm struck.