First Impressions {iwgbtp}

Almost daily, I continue to remember little moments from my summer at Philmont. The fun, the hard, the disappointing and the hilarious moments. I want to share some of them. In no particular order. Just as they come to me.

The first story is about a cat. Little Grim, the quickly growing kitten of Harlan. I met him when I passed through Harlan with my 3rd crew in early June. The staff warned everyone of his unpredictable and usually aggressive behavior. I really didn't understand what they were talking about as the cute little puffball fell asleep in my arms. Maybe I was just a cat whisperer.

Fast forward two months. 

I was with my last scheduled crew of the season. The night before, I had talked so my sister crew ranger, Parker, and we had agreed to hike back to the bus turn around together. We said goodbye to our crews and left Lost Gap camp. We tumbled and slid back down the incredibly steep road that we had hiked up the evening before. As we neared the bottom, we came upon a crew who was huffing their way up. They stopped and called to us, asking if we'd return a certain cat who had been following them since they had left Harlan that morning. There, sitting behind one of the adviser's legs, was Grim who was now grooming himself. I looked at Parker, not sure of what to do. We had been planning on hiking straight to Cito turnaround and going to Harlan would be a slight detour, making it more difficult to catch the first, and possibly only, morning bus.
The reliability of the bus system was about as good as telling a three year old to clean their room and expecting them to actually pick up more than 5 things before you have to tell them again. So, the earlier you got there, the better. Being stranded for hours wasn't unusual at all so getting there as soon as possible was in our best interest.
But, we couldn't just leave the cat with this crew, who didn't seem too keen on turning around. We agreed to take him back to his rightful home. He protested as I picked him up. We finished descending and turned towards Harlan. Grims struggling became more and more violent as we went and I nearly lost my grip on him a few times, knowing full well that if he made it out of my arms, we'd have a heck of a time getting him back. I assured the cat that we'd be home soon and that I'd put him down there. Several times he threatened to bite and scratch me so I'd hold him by the scruff and let him hang until he calmed down. This battle went on all the way to Harlan as I began to regret ever agreeing to this task. The cat obviously didn't want to go back right now.
We were on the outskirts of the camp when he seemed to calm down. I held him closer and, unwisely, near my face. Big mistake. He lashed out and I felt his teeth hit my chin. There was hardly any blood but thank heavens we were there because I was done with this cat! He definitely wasn't the sweet kitty I had met weeks earlier. We arrived at the cabin and I set him down on the porch. A staff member came out and we explained what had happened. He just shrugged and said that it happened all the time. I was a little hurt that I didn't even get a "thank you" but it was early so he had probably just woken up and wasn't fully awake. I, on the other hand, was definitely awake. And we still had a bus to catch...

P.S. We missed the bus. We saw it's dust trail as we neared the bottom of the mountain. Thankfully, an unscheduled bus arrived as we made it to the turn around. All in a days work.

A Bad Race Does Not Define You

A Bad Race Does Not Define You

That's what I had to tell myself all season. I came back from Philmont thinking I was in decent shape. Physically, yes, I was. Mentally, something had broken. I'll break the news now: I never came within a minute of my PR. Each race I started with a new hope only to be crushed by disappointment as I crossed the finish line. But I did start making progress half way through the season. It was probably when my coach confirmed my suspicion. My body wasn't the problem. It was my mind that had given up. Before this one particular race, he came up to me, tapped my head and said, "Its all up here. Quit telling yourself that you're not fast and just go for it." Although I never fully recovered from my "mental breakdown", I had better races from then on.

I was asked to be the team captain this season which mostly involved me making sure all the girls knew the course and were warmed up before races which I wasn't great at because I always seemed to forget the stretches.

Oh, but we all had fun nonetheless.

At one of the first meets, the boys placed 1st and the girls placed 2nd. Cool plaques are cool, right?

I suppose you don't need a meet-to-meet report. Running is just running to people who aren't into that kind of thing. So here are pictures that I actually look good in for the most part.

One meet was cold and rainy. I was freezing up until I went up to the finish line. At that point, I guess I was past the point of freezing and went numb. The beginning of the race was straight into the wind and rain so I could hardly see but as I settled into my pace, I zoned everything out. I just had to finish this one. Cold water drenched me and mud seeped into my shoes. It was the worst time I had got since my first cross country season but you don't feel like a hardcore runner until you've raced in pouring rain.

Medals aren't everything but it's still something to work towards. There were many races where my goal was simply to finish in a metaling position and that's the only thing that kept me going.

The last meet was spent in Springfield as usual and this year it was over Halloween. I didn't mind tho because we all spent the evening in a hotel lobby as a team which is better than trick-or-treating in my opinion. That night I got pretty sick and didn't want to run the next day. I don't know what it is about feeling crappy but I had a pretty good race. It wiped me out tho and I was lethargic the rest of the day.

I did the CCCNYC nationals again this year. This time it was in Nashville. The trip felt a lot longer and more tiring than last year. I didn't know how well I'd fare in the race. Well, I didn't PR this year but I still had a strong race despite the course being long (this was confirmed by multiple GPS watches).
*grumbles about people being sloppy when measuring the course*
The interesting thing about it was that the course was around a horse track and the surrounding land. Pretty flat with some sharp hills here and there.

The race finished with a steep down hill and then a gradual uphill. I tore down that hill while passing several people. Then on the uphill I gave it all I got and passed a couple more. I stumbled over the finish line and immediately felt like I was going to puke. I continued to gag for a few more minutes as I caught my breath. This was new. I'd never run hard enough to do that. Nothing came up but I was pretty proud of myself for pushing myself that hard. Still, no PRing time.

And finally, even tho it's not officially part of the season, the Thanksgiving 5k has become a fun way to end the year. Each year we've had cross country friends come join us in running this fun race. I was happy to have my teammate, Emily, run with me the whole way even tho she beat me by a couple seconds at the end. Last year I placed third in my age group but the competition was upped this year so I placed tenth despite cutting a couple seconds off my 2013 time.

That's all folks. This concludes my high school cross country career. It was short and had a lot of ups and downs. But it was a great experience with great people. Road races will probably be something I'll be doing until the day that I can't walk. There still is one more season of high school track so I'm hoping for the best there. And maybe, just maybe, I'll run in college.