Laliberte

This past Friday 23 teams gathered together to race over a 4k course including way too many hills.

Going into the race, I was expecting 5th or better. The reason for this is that I was seeded 5th, however I was hoping to beat some of the people seeded ahead of me. As we were warming up I noticed someone I wasn't counting on. Harlow Ladd, this kid came out of nowhere during outdoor track, and I was definitely hoping he would lose it during cross country.

After making us stand on the line for about 20 minutes we finally started around 4:10. Going into the start I didn't know what would happen, in a race I usually go out pretty fast, so I don't get boxed in, and then see what happens, but no matter what speed I go out at, there are always a couple of people ahead of me, Friday was different. I took off, and only 3 people went with me. The expected Harlow Ladd, Charlie Jones who I battled during the 1 mile this past spring in outdoor, and a newcomer from Erskine named Eben Hodgkins. Following close behind was Cony's Will Lundquist.

For awhile it was the 5 of us battling it out to see who would lead, when we took a sharp left heading up into the woods up the hill, Will was leading, but as we crested the top, I made a move around him and led for the rest of the first mile. Harlow, Charlie and Eben stuck with me as we pulled away from Will. I went through the first mile marker around a 5:34, and that's when Ladd made a move. Him and Charlie pulled ahead with Even still trailing behind me. I attempted to go to Ladd, but was not able to, it then became a race for third between Eben and I.

Every time that he made a move to pass me, I made sure to sprint past him the next chance I got, I hoped this would dishearten him and cause him to tire out. sadly it didn't work, and as we were going around the pond towards the final sprint, he got around me and took off. Sadly I had nothing left, and so was not able to sprint up to him, I ended up finishing 4th with a time of 14:12.

Afterwards at the awards ceremony we got the biggest shock of the day, when it turned out we had managed to win the meet! The way they score the meet is by combining the boys and girls scores, however if you score it individually by gender, our team would have one all 4 categories.

It was a great race for everybody, and we are all greatly looking forward to this friday at Maranacook.

Predictions

I'm not really going to be able to make any good goals for myself until tomorrow (mile time trial at the start of pre season) and after the Laliberte.

I do know that I'm hoping to start the season at the Laliberte running a sub-18, which on that hilly course I would be very happy with. If I manage to run a sub-18 at the Laliberte, then by the third meet of the season, on the very flat course of EL I would love to be close to breaking 17 minutes.

Now for team goals. As a team, we have discussed how we hope to do, and while some of the goals seem a little lofty, with hard work, and a couple of new people this year they are definitely achievable.

The main goal of the team is to win KVAC's or Regionals (both would be preferable) and from the looks of it that is very possible. In a recent me.milesplit article located here it is shown that we as a team are currently seeded 2nd for our region. The winning team being Brunswick, I don't know how many of the people on our team saw this, however the ones that did I believe most likely started training harder right away. The one thing that everyone thought was certain last year was that this year we would be able to destroy Brunswick as they lost Will and Liam. However, due to Patrick, George, and Benson being very close together in time, while they might not have someone finishing first, they will be packed tightly and still have a chance. The good news for us is that we are getting a couple of new runners, who will be challenging our current 3, 4, and 5th man, and will hopefully cause all 6 of them to work hard and be better.

Now I'm probably going to make a quick post with better self predictions after the Laliberte, and I'll try to keep you updated with anything surprising that happens during pre-season.