Eastern Maine Regionals

Yesterday morning our team was greeted with bad news as we sat on the bus waiting for everyone to arrive. Our number 2 runner, Jake was running late because he thought that bus wasn't supposed to leave until 7:30 as supposed to 7:00. We called him up and he got in his car to head over. On his way he called again with the bad news that he had gotten in an accident and for us to leave without him. Luckily it wasn't bad he has just gone off the road, however he did total his car.

With that bad news we started off. We ended up being the 2nd team to arrive (Mt. Blue beating us by minutes because of our wrong turn) we all unloaded and went STRAIGHT to the bathroom! After we were done, we went out and walked the course. The conditions were much better then last year, there being a ton less mud, however the one big downside was that there was a lot of wind!

The girls race went first and it was pretty crazy. I know i shouldn't have been but when I saw melody out in front I was glad that she was having a better race this week then she did last, plus I knew our girls had it in them to win anyways. Going into the last half mile Katie from Brunswick pulled ahead of Kate by a couple of feet. But then they crested the hill Kate had pulled back ahead by quite a bit.

The girls managed to squeak by with a 4 point lead on Mt. Blue to win. Finally it was our turn. Approaching the starting line I was a bit nervous. We didn't have our number 2 runner, and Colin Swan was running instead. If there was a runner I would want running on varsity its colin, I don't know why, but when we did our strides having colin there next to me just felt right. The main worry was that without Jake we might not have enough to get in the top off. I was rather confident that I would be able to make it (being number 14 last week) but I was really hoping we would make it was a team, we have all worked our Asses off for this race and we deserve to all go no just one. The gun went off and I BOOKED it out of there. I think everyone went out a bit fast to counter-act the amount of wind there was. I was happy to hear after the race that Colin Cundy and Nick D. Were both RIGHT behind me for that first mile, and the three of us were very close behind Will, Kelton, and Jason.

My goal for the day was to run with Will Lundquist from Cony. I went out with him for the first mile (running a 5:15) but then he managed to pull ahead going up the long grass hill. I started to hurt my second mile and felt like I slowed down, but when i reached the second mile and took my split I was surprised, I had run a 5:58, one second faster then I did at KVACS, my only thought then was that I was going to have to run a very fast third mile if i wanted to run sub 17.

I really love the last mile at Belfast because it feels a lot shorter then it actually is. As I went across the bridge I had the Lewiston and Lawrence kid right in front of me. Those were the two I was going for. Going through the little dip roller-coaster is where I made up ground, and cresting that is where I passed the Lewiston kid. I managed to hold him off until taking the turn that brings us back around to the finish sprint. I could not get myself moving until i crested that hill at the very end. Then I started moving. I blew past the lawrence kid and ended up only 2 seconds behind the lewiston kid with a time of 17:27

I was happy with the fact that I got 17:27 and placed 12th which meant I moved up 2 places. However I was mad at the fact that I wasn't able to keep up with Will Lundquist or get a sub 17. However I am now ranked 32 in the state for class A, so if I run fast enough, i may have a small Chance at making it too New Englands, but that chance is very very small.