The Alphorns play perfectly note for note. Dozens of parents take-up duty stations. The officials run the meet on time to the second. Everything working as designed, except for one thing.

Every twelve years, New Glarus-Monticello hosts the Capitol Conference Cross Country meet. The school campus provides the only unflooded Green Country turf, so we measured loops around each of the practice fields and loops around the school. When we reached 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) we drew a finish line and proclaimed it our new course. After planting three dozen directional flags and spraying severa...