General Information about Item:

• Superstition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: USA
• Informant: JL
• Date Collected: 11/6

Informant Data:

• JL is a Dartmouth class of 2025 from Connecticut who is currently in their freshman year of college. While he is new to the team, he is learning their customs and traditions rather quickly.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: Many runners on the cross country/track team have their own personal rituals they do before a meet. There is a lot of variety in these personal rituals, with different runners doing different things to get them in the right mindset to compete. Some of this variety may arise from age, as freshman will continue to do rituals from high school while upperclassmen may develop new rituals throughout their time at Dartmouth.

Item:

• This athlete, before every race, takes off his watch. The watch he wears is a smart watch that has a lot of features built into it Many other runners keep their watches on during a race.

Associated Audio Recording:

Informant’s Comments:

• JL has continued this ritual from high school into his collegiate career. He believes that each race is a personal challeng,  and as a competitive person he wants to mitigate the number of distractions that could occur. 

Collector’s Comments:

• While I am no longer an athlete, I used to play several sports in high school. I completely understand the informant’s desire to minimize distractions as much as possible. Before any of my games I would usually try and find a quiet place to mentally prepare myself for the competition ahead of me.

Collector’s Name:

• Jonah Kahl