States

Another year, Come and gone.

So i'm just going to start with saying, Cross Country is my favorite sport, You get to know your teammates really well and end up like a family.
This year, the entire team has been making phenomenal leaps in amazingness.

Now, I don't actually remember that much from this race, i don't know if thats a good thing or not, so this may be a short post.

Ms. Fournier told us to go out conservatively or else we would overwork ourselves in that first 400 meters. That is the last time i listen to her on something like that. I went out, not slow, but not as fast as i would have. And because we were in box 7, right in the middle, i got boxed in. So I had to make my way to the outside, and then i sprinted past people to get up higher in places. The race went kind of downhill from there.

I reached the first mile, and since i wasn't quite sure where it was I took the latter one, which was the marking on the tree, and clocked myself at 5:30. I figured, that for a first mile that wasn't terrible, although i wish i was doing better. I tried to push it there, however right before we came out of the woods for a second time, Jake, our number 2 runner passed me. I knew Jake was having an amazing race, he had been right on my tail the entire time, but I didn't plan on letting him stay ahead of me. So right before we came out of the woods i passed him back.


The section of woods where you go back in, and get to the 2 mile mark is where i failed. I had jake right behind me the entire time, and so i was able to keep a good pace, but i really didn't make any moves and i should have. I passed through the 2 mile mark at about a 5:40, which put me 18 seconds ahead of last week!!! This gave me energy and I started to make some moves. I passed the scarborough kid who had been pacing off me the entire time and continued forwards.

Next thing I remember is going down the hill before you take a right and go to the finish, i tried to pick it up around this corner, while holding some people off. As I continued down the stretch to the finish chute, i had nothing left, i kept trying to accelerate but just couldn't. A kid from windham blew past me, and i knew that was it, i couldn't let him get too far ahead. I began to accelerate all out, and just went kinda crazy




I managed to edge out the lawrence kid again by mere seconds and crossed the finish line with nothing left. I ran a 17:31, which I knew was incredibly well on this course, especially since my PR was a 17:27 at Belfast, however I was disappointed that because I had gone out a bit slower, I was playing catch-up the entire time and didn't have much energy. However I was incredibly impressed and proud of Jake, our number 2, who ran a 17:37 and PR'd by 30 seconds!




So, with another season gone, i'm wicked excited for next year, however am very sad at the seniors we are losing. Especially Stephen Purcell who began talking to me at the beginning of Indoor track, and really got me to know other runners. And Melody Lam, who also talks to me sometimes.
I am going to miss all the seniors, even if you haven't talked to me that much, you are great competition, and next year I will have fewer runners to run against.