Lion Power-Track 2013

And so ends my 4th year of track. I have come to love the sport more and more over this season. I have become closer to my teammates, more than I ever have in any other year. I have learned that, when you raise the bar, you will always find a way to make it, even if the bar seems unreachable.

90% of track (and probably many other sports) is painful and disappointing. You can't seem to PR no matter how hard you try, the baton is dropped, you are DQed, injury keeps you from training. But then there's that other 10%. Where the physical pain is at it's greatest but victory is at it's sweetest. When you do PR, when the handoffs work perfectly, when you break a record (even if its just a team record), when you've had enough of failure and the absolute need for winning trumps the doubt. You give it more than you thought you had and winning becomes possible. That mere 10% is what makes the 90% worth it.

So, here are my 2013 track records. Yes, each one of my PRs were broken this year. Some many times over. The 800 was the race I focused on most this season and I ended up breaking my previously recorded PR by 36 seconds. My 4x400 & 4x800 teams were also pretty beast if I do say so myself.

100m 0:15.85 (relay split)

200m 0:32 (relay split)

300 Hurdles 0:59.45

400m 1:11 (open)

800m 2:44 (relay split)

800m 2:47 (open)

1600m 6:52

4x400 4:46 Team Record

4x800 11:35.69 National Homeschool 16U Record

The weather this season was cold, snowy & rainy which caused cancellations for a few meets and made practices and some uncancelled meets quite miserable. The first half of the season, we practiced in low temperatures and even the snow a few times. Last year at that time it was already hitting 70 degrees regularly.

30 degrees and still having a blast. Mostly.

Sitting in the bathroom and warming ourselves under the air dryers was pretty normal at cold meets.

But there were a couple meets that were pretty warm and I got a little burnt. Midwest weather is quite bipolar like that, as I have stated before.

Whether cold or hot, our team stuck together and had a great time. 

 The high school girls relay teams became very successful.

 At one meet there weren't any other 4x800 teams so we just ran that one easy, which is why I'm smiling in this picture (that's not normal by the way). Our HS and JH boys also had no competition in this race so our three teams had a fun time running together and maybe messing about a little bit.

We had to write a number on our hand at one meet. Apparently it's how they run meets in the ghetto. That meet ended up getting cancelled after only a few races because it began to rain, but only after I broke my 400 PR.

Some days were good days, some days were bad. But my teammates always made it worth it. Every meet was fun in it's own way.

Homeschool nationals was a great success for the whole team and myself personally, despite my injury. I'm still not sure what that injury is but I'm thinking it might be tendonitis. I was taped up and in a bit of pain but I think that just made me push harder. I came the closest to my 800 & 400 PR's that day than I had all season (not including the days that I actually PRed) and I PRed in the 300 hurdles. Plus, the 16U girls placed first overall!

For the entire season I avoided eating processed sugar. It was difficult most of the time but I think it helped. As soon as my last race was over, the first thing I did was go eat a cookie. But not any ordinary cookie. Mrs. Ardnt had been bringing cookies to all the meets and, according to my teammates, they were the best cookies ever. But I restrained myself every time. Now was the time of truth when I could eat one. Yes, it was amazing.

The team went to Cici's pizza for dinner where we did a spontaneous Harlem Shake. They had a jukebox and everything!

A week later we had an end of season cook out. We just can't stay away from each other! We played keep-the-ball-away, capture the flag and cops & robbers. All running games of course.

 And if that wasn't enough, the awards banquet was the next Tuesday for the last and final hoorah of the season.

I brought home more hardware this season than all my other sports seasons combined. I didn't even know that was possible. I also lettered. Its been a great year and I'm looking forward to the next two years that I can compete.

And hey, guess what? Cross country pre-season starts in a week!