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. 

Shooting for the Moon

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” 

-Les Brown

This has been my motto during this passed cross country season. At the end of my post last year, I said my goal for this year was a 23 minute 5k. I wasn't sure how possible that would be. I quickly found out that it was possible. More than possible in fact.

The season started off strong when I placed second in time trials, coming in 30 seconds behind my friend Kailey and cutting about 2 minutes of my time the year before.

For the first meet, which was on September 5, I made three goals. I wanted to run a sub 20 4k, place in the top 10 and beat Kailey. I ran an 18:26 (beating my PR by 2:01 minutes), placed 10th and did in fact beat Kailey.

The second meet (Sept 21) was a chilly morning at a fairly flat course. A perfect morning for a PR. And PR I did; my 4k now a 16:59. Another minute and 27 seconds shaved off. Although this was my final 4k PR for the season, I kept steaming on ahead.

September 28 I arrived out of breath because I was late; only 30 minutes until my race started. I was at the biggest meet of the season. If you're a runner in the Midwest, you might know exactly what I'm talking about when I say Rim Rock Invitational. You may now pause to cringe. It was cold, drizzly and muddy. Mud like I have never experienced. Despite my many near-death experiences on the trail, it was surprisingly fun. The first mile was flat and didn't have too much mud. And then it went down hill from there. And uphill. Lots of painful uphills. Going up those mini mountains was hard but coming down was just a controlled fall. If you could keep it in control that is. I quite near did a face plant multiple times while other people actually did end up tumbling down the muddy slopes. I skidded right off the trail a few times, came to complete stops to regain balance and almost wiped other people out as I slid all over. Needless to say, there was no point in hoping for a good time. I, instead, focused on staying upright and finishing without ending up unconscious. I finished the race in 18:32, my worst time of the season but still almost 2 minutes faster than my PR from 2012. I finished 80th out of 238 in the Blue Varsity division.

October 7 was a rescheduled meet. When we had shown up in McLouth, KS a few weeks before, the JV teams were able to finish their races. But just as I was lining up with the varsity girls, the thunder and lightning struck, causing the rest of the meet to be cancelled. So here we were back at McLouth high school. We did a run through and I thought that the course seemed like it would be fairly easy. Nope. It turned out to be deceptively hard. I was struggling at the end, not really wanting to push it in. But I could hear a girl from my rival team right behind me. In fact, she passed me. No, I would never be able to forgive myself if I let her beat me. It was one of those days that I dug deeper than I thought was possible. And yet my time still wasn't close to what I wanted.

Carl Ozarwick is an interesting meet because it isn't run by team but rather by age group. You run individually and there is no team score. Although a little hilly, I still like the course. It was a very strong race in which I came in 4th in the junior division with a time of 17:32 (4k).

The 14th was my first 5k of the season. My goal at the end of last year was to hit the 23 minute mark for a 5k this year. I got a time of 23:17 on the hilliest course second only to Rim Rock and placed 2nd. It was the least competitive meet of the whole season so I wasn't exactly pushing too hard. I locked in my second place win at about the quarter mile mark.

At West Platte, the 29th, I was determined to do a sub 23 and I was fairly confident that was possible. I invited my first track coach and his family to come watch me. His son ran to different points on the course calling out my splits and telling me that I needed to catch this next person to get my goal. I can say that was one of the most helpful things anyone could have done for me during that race. I crossed the finishline at 22:36, ecstatic that I had actually done it!

October 23rd was the last meet before homeschool nationals. I remembered that last year at the Richmond meet I had a lot of energy during the course of the race. I always feel like I could have done a little better in all of my races but this one in particular I knew for a fact that I hadn't used enough energy to make the race the best it could be. This year I was going to redeem myself. I'm not sure if it was the course, but I felt that extra energy again and said I was going for a sub 22 this time. At this point I was getting doubtful that I could keep meeting these insane goals. After all, I had already cut a minute off my PR last week; how could I do it again? They had altered the course slightly from last year which took out a very steep hill so that made me feel a little more comfortable. I started the race easy for the first quarter to half mile but broke free soon after. I was getting my goal and that was final. Every once in a while I would hear a split called out which reassured me that I was on pace. The finish was just about come into sight when I heard a split called out that made me happy. I'd have to run hard but I could do it. I battled that last quarter mile knowing very well what I wanted. I crossed the finish line truly exhausted but eager to see if I had done it. I hobbled over to my coach, almost hesitant to ask, fearing disappointment. He smiled at me and showed the time he had written down: 21:33. My eyes widened as it sunk in. That was another minute and three seconds from my PR set a few days before. I had redeemed my self-that's for sure.

Homeschool Nationals was the first weekend of November. We got to Springfield earlier in the afternoon to check in with the friends that we always stay with when we're down there. Later, KEW and I went to the course with the team to do a run though. After which, we went to Fazoli's to fill up on pasta. Most people were staying in a hotel so I, along with KEW, tagged along and hung out in the lobby for awhile. Most of us girls painted our nails like we had done last year.

The race day weather was very similar to last year: a bit chilly for spectators but perfect for the runners.

I placed very differently this year ranking 5th in varsity rather than 4th in JV. But I was still crushed because I had finished with a time of 21:45. I had reeeeally wanted to go sub 21 and didn't even break my PR. On the bright side, I now knew that the PR I had made the week before hadn't been a fluke and I really could stay under 22.  A college coach from the area had been there to watch and said if I had been on a flat course, with the way I had been running, I could have easily broken 21. This course was extra tricky and I had run my heart out so it wasn't all bad.

Some of the team stopped at Golden Corral for dinner. I ate a lot of salad because I wasn't ready to break my sugar fast quite yet. This is my dear friend, Emily, enjoying her ice cream in front of me.

The Awards Banquet was the next week. I got my letter pin, was recognized for being in the 300 Mile Club this year again and presented our coaches with a book about the season that I had made.

Click here to view this photo book larger
My coach also asked me to make a slideshow for that night so here it is:

In the past, this would usually have been the end of the season (except for the end-of-season bonfire which I was not able to make it to this time). But no, I was able to extend my season for a few more weeks! We were made aware of a club team, the Brocaw Blazers, located in the area. Joining this team gave KEW and me the opportunity to practice with a coach twice a week and go to a fairly large meet in Kentucky.
We got on tour buses bound for Kentucky the afternoon of November 21 and drove all day, ate pizza on the road and stopped in St. Louis at a hotel for the night. The next morning we ate the breakfast the hotel provided and drove until we got to Louisville, KY. Our first stop when we got there was the race course to do a run through and take a team picture. We ate at Golden Corral for dinner and then headed over to our hotel for the night.

The buses left in shifts the next day. My bus left first, bright and early at 7. My race didn't start until 10 so I just took a nap on the bus until it was time to warm up. Warming up seemed like it might be a slight problem because it was so cold but I was layered up enough that once we finished our 10 minute warm up jog, I was sweating. As soon as I took off my sweats, just before my race began, the cold hit me but not as hard as I thought it would. That day, I learned the trick of slathering baby oil on exposed skin to block some of the wind. After only maybe a half mile, I was warmed up and into the racing groove. This was the flattest course I had ever run on so I felt good about this race. I knew I wouldn't be placing very high but a PR was there for sure. In fact, I wanted a sub 21 minute 5k and I knew it was in there. I finished the race in 24th with, sadly, a time of 21:12. Not the sub 21 I wanted but it was still a huge PR! Here is a video of the race. I show up plenty of times but even better, I am interviewed after the race.
This is an album of pictures taken of my race. wowtrackshots.com/p1038179884

After our races, my friend, Henry, and I ran around watching all the races. He actually did some videoing of the action. This is the video he made of the whole trip up until the end of the meet.
I failed to realize that there was an ongoing awards ceremony until after the time I was supposed to be there. I also hadn't realized the I had placed in the top 25 so I would have gotten a personal award. At least I made it in time for the team award. KEW's race was the very last one. He didn't do as well as he had wanted to because he got boxed in for part of the race but you can click here to watch his race. I stuck around for his award ceremony and took some pictures of him getting his personal award. Unfortunately, it was getting unbearably cold so I went back to the bus before he got his team award.

As soon as the last of the awards had been handed out, the team went to Ryan's for dinner. Because we had already checked out and packed the buses that morning, we were able to get on the road as soon as we were done with dinner. We were driving straight through tonight, so it was mostly watching movies and sleeping the whole way home. At about 3am, we pulled into Lee's Summit where our dad picked us up.

Now that the season is over--OK it was over two months ago (I'm a slow writer, I know)--I look back and have no idea how I did what I did. Although I'm not in the elite group, I still went from beginner to semi-competitive in just one short year. I shot for what I thought was the moon and ended up hitting the sun on accident. I wish I knew how I did it but I hope I can keep improving and make next year, my last year of high school cross country, the best it can possibly be. So I'm going to make my new insane goal: sub 20. 

Running, Running and More Running

Having solely run track since 2009, I figured this year I should branch out so I took up cross country. It involves a whole lot more distance running than track so I was a little worried. At the beginning of the year I ran my first 5K and did better than I thought I would. I kept running almost every day through the summer, a sacrifice that even now I don't understand. Preseason started in June once a week and the season officially started in July.

Our first meet, August 30th, was painfully hot and I didn't do very well. It was only a 4k, I believe, but it was probably my least favorite meet.

The second meet, September 8th, on the other hand was my best of the year. I set my 5k PR of 25:16 which I have yet to break. It was a small meet but I still placed 6th out of about 20 if I remember right.

 6th place metal, a bloody toe and still loving it!

I missed one meet while I was in Mexico and got sick while I was gone. I was still recovering 2 days after I got home when we had our next meet. I really didn't feel well but I didn't want to skip the race so I went on ahead and I finished a 5k in 31 minutes. I knew my time would be bad but I wasn't planning on it being that bad. Oh well, I guess trying to run 3 miles on a super hilly course while feeling like you're going to puke will do that to you.

The second meet of October, the 6th, was cold, cold, cold which I totally prefer over super hot. I did an OK job on this race but nothing I'm really proud of.

On the 13th I had a good race...until I got DQed. You aren't allowed to wear ANY jewelry and I was wearing my EFY bracelet and another entrance bracelet I got in Mexico. I'm not sure how I got away with it at the other meets but I learned not to risk it after that. I was mad but there wasn't much I could do about it.

The 18th I had another one that I felt like I could have kicked it a bit harder but the run felt really good in any case.

Homeschool Nationals, November 3rd, in Springfield MO was the last meet of the season and it was a complete success! We went the day before and stayed at our friends house over night. Most of the families were staying in a hotel, so the HS girl planned some night-before-the-big-race bonding time in the hotel lobby. We painted our nails our team color.

We arrived at the meet site early the next morning while there was still a chill in the air. It was, in fact, perfect running weather.

A nice warm up run...

 ...and soon it was time to line up.

Apparently I didn't run hard enough because I didn't feel like I was about to die at the end but maybe part of it was because I was decently happy with my time of 25:20. Five seconds from beating my PR, which is frustrating, but I hadn't come anywhere close to that since I had set my PR at the beginning of the season.

 I hadn't made it to varsity for this meet but that just meant that it was easier to get 4th in JV!

My brother, who is a way better runner than I am, placed second in the JH boys division by .2 seconds. That's point 2. That was hard for him to swallow but it was also the best he had run all season. He even lead his team to become the #1 JH boys team.

Oh and our varsity boys team wore pink socks.

 After a victorious morning, the team went to chipotle for lunch.

We had our awards ceremony the next Monday. I was actually surprised that I had lettered.

 

Starting July first, our Athletic Director and Coach challenged the team to join the 300 Mile Club. Basically, if you ran and logged 300 miles between July 1st and October 31st, you would be in the club. 5 people, including my brother and I, made it.

And that was my first, but certainly not last, season of cross country. Yes, its only the beginning. My PR needs a lot of work. Is a 23 minute 5k a lofty goal for next season? Maybe, but I want to try! For now I'm just getting impatient for track to start. I think the training from all this distance running will really help my shorter distance running.