The last time I covered a cross country meet before Thursday's stormy 24th annual Norski Distance Classic in DeForest was the WIAA state meet at Wisconsin Rapids last October, when the weather was brutally cold.

I will never forget Madison La Follette's stellar senior distance runner Abdou Seye, who was expected to contend for individual honors but struggled to finish the Division 1 boys race. Instead of being on the podium as a medal winner, he finished dead last and was later diagnosed as suffering from the H1N1 virus.

Meanwhile in the girls Division 1 race, Sun Prairie was making its state meet debut and Liz Berkholtz was finishing just 1 second from earning a spot on the podium in her third straight trip to state.

Flash forward to Thursday's meet and it will prove to be just as memorable for a variety of reasons, including the weather and Berkholtz and her Sun Prairie teammates, who never got to compete.

A rapidly approaching storm forced meet officials to move the starting time of the boys' 5,000-meter race up 15 minutes, hoping to at least run that event before lightning, rain and high winds were due to arrive.

Baraboo junior Gerrit Bruni, who was hampered by a hip injury last season, crossed the finish line just seconds before the rain started to fall, posting a time of 17 minutes, 8 seconds to win the race. By the time the final runner finished in 34:57.2, the storm had gotten much worse — with high winds, a driving rain and lightning forcing spectators and competitors to seek shelter.

I was able to conduct post-race interviews with Bruni and teammate Matt Rosene, who finished third and also helped lead the Thunderbirds to the team title.

Unfortunately, though, I ended up being stranded at the finish line under a portable tent with several volunteers, literally hanging onto the tent to keep it from blowing away and us with it.

Meanwhile, Berkholtz, who recently had nasal surgery and was prepared to make her season debut, was wondering along with the rest of the girls field if there would be another race at all.

There wasn't, as officials eventually were forced to cancel the 4,000-meter event when another storm blew threw the area.

"Yes it was going to be my season debut ... I was very nervous but I knew I had to get a race under my belt to lift my confidence," Berkholtz said in a note via Facebook Friday. "A little stress went off once we got called into the high school from the pouring rain because then I knew I didn't need to necessarily worry about time because they would all be slow."

Following the completion of the boys race, there was a break and officials decided to try to start the girls race at 6:10 p.m., 10 minutes later than the originally scheduled time.

But as the teams were finishing their warm-ups, I was one of the thoroughly soaked observers still stationed at the finish line, who were stunned to see a pack of girls suddenly take off as if the race had been started.

"It did look like the race started," Berkholtz wrote, "but I knew that it was just all for fun because a lot of the girls were excited that the meet got canceled. The starter announced that he had seen lightning and they couldn't run the race so a bunch of girls just took off for fun because they seemed happy that it was canceled."

While the word the race had been canceled hadn't yet been relayed to those of us at the finish line, it was actually a no-brainer as we could see scattered flashes of lightning and another serious storm front rapidly approaching.

That's when Berkholtz said she and her Sun Prairie teammates decided to join in the fun.

"My teammates and I just ran around the first turn and ran right towards the finish line," she wrote. "After that we turned around and joined the rest of the kids that were jumping around in the middle of a massive puddle.

"The water came up to right under my shorts line. There was no way we could have run through it. Swimming would probably have been faster."

While Berkholtz could appreciate the humor in the situation, she was disappointed that the race was canceled.

"I was ready to finally race again. I feel like I just need to get this 'unknown' feeling out of my system and see where I stand fitness-wise," said Berkholtz, who was held out of the Cardinals' season-opening race at Watertown last Saturday.

"It's the scariest feeling not knowing what kind of race shape you're in. There is a lot of pressure to live up to but running is my favorite thing to do, and I have to get back on the horse sometime. The faster I can do that, the faster I can start focusing and really get ready for the competitive races ahead."

Berkholtz said the last time she competed in such bizarre weather was at the Watertown Invitational three years ago.

"It was my freshman year and it had rained a lot before the meet and the whole course was like a mud-fest. It felt like you were running on sand the entire time. It was the first race of my high school career. It's meets like those where you see what cross country is really like."

Berkholtz said Sun Prairie is scheduled to compete Saturday at the Waukesha Blackshirt invitational.

"I'm nervous because it's a hard course finishing with a very long hill," she said. "It's similar to the state meet. I'm just excited to finally be able to race. I'm hungry for that feeling."

Berkholtz might need a parka Saturday morning as temperatures will be dropping into the 40s tonight.

But next time I cover a cross country meet, I plan to bring along a wet suit just in case.