Last week at a Slippery Rock school board meeting, parents and students tried lobbying for a reversal to the ban that keeps track and cross country runners from training on area roads.

I can understand the concern for the safety of students. I also understand that all it takes is one incident — or accident — for the school to be bombarded with questions about why it happened.

As a longtime runner and proud member of the Trinity High School cross country and track teams, I know the potential problems that can arise on the roads. However, the benefits far outweigh the negatives.

First of all, there are no negatives.

In the fall, our cross country team would take a 3-mile bus trip from the high school down to the middle school, which went from a city to nearly a rural setting.

When we didn't do course or hill running, we hit the roads — winding, hilly, but wall-to-wall trees most of the way. When we went around blind bends, it was a common practice to turn back and scream "Car!" which worked its way back like an assembly line.

In the spring, things were much different. Our track was at the high school, which is more of a city environment. If we had a track workout, Coach Tanner would have his distance guys do a 2-mile loop through the streets of downtown Washington.

Sure, there were some wide sidewalks, but there were plenty of four-way intersections with traffic lights and the beginning of rush-hour traffic. Running in place at the intersections was pretty common, but most drivers were nice to us, often waving us along.

Wearing jackets and sweats emblazoned with our high school name, we weren't looking to cause any problems. We knew if we did anything stupid it would work its way back to Coach, and we didn't want to disappoint him.

Plus, if we did, we most likely would lose our road privileges. There was something great about being able to leave campus and get out while doing a workout.

On days we did our distance running, we got a kick out of Coach saying, "Distance guys, do 'Greenhill' or 'Armstrong' or 'Quarry.'" We knew our loops and Coach knew we'd do it without any problems. Since he was our cross county coach, he knew we'd do the work and be smart about it.

We were probably the envy of the rest of the team, which was forced stay around the track, but that's the beauty of being a distance runner: You get a little freedom, a little independence, especially at the end of the school day.

Being able to run on the road was a great bonding experience for us and a change-of-pace workout, which was a big benefit.

Hopefully, the school board will allow the runners to hit the road. It is safer than you think — and a lot more enjoyable. I'm sure the runners will look out for each other. We did — and we got so much more out of it.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.