The 17 minute barrier

This past Friday we were at EL. We knew that this was going to be our hardest meet so far, and possibly during the entire regular season. Both our guys team, and the EL guys team were evenly matched, and we knew it would be a good race.

Going in to the race my goal was a sub 17, and a side goal of beating Faisal. I knew to do this I would have to go out with Faisal, and then probably try to out sprint him to get me under the 17 minute barrier.

The start of the race was rather surprising. The starter told us "okay, so there will be two commands, runner set, and then Go." so we all lined up and he said "Runners set" then maybe one second later says "go" and that was it, we were all taken a bit by surprise, but still got off the line pretty quick.

At the beginning of the race, it was Faisal, Hussein, and I running together, and then as we crossed the driveway, Faisal made a move and I went with him. It was then Faisal running a bit in front of me, with Hussein falling behind. Faisal went through the mile mark at around a 5:02, with me close behind at a 5:10. I then pushed ahead and almost caught him, but then he managed to also push a bit after I had settled back into my pace. I came through the two mile mark around a 5:34 (much better split then last week) and by then he was probably 10 seconds ahead of me. I knew I had to make a move, and tried, but failed. Looking back, my coach was able to figure out my last mile was a 5:20, and the last .1 was about 41 seconds.

For those of you very good at math, that brings me in at a 16:45, second, but breaking 17. By quite a margin. Which felt amazing!

Looking at the team standings, our boys team got 2nd by 4 freaking points! we know though that in the future we can beat them, because our number 3 Jake, had a bad day due to allergies, and so next time we face them (KVACs) we should beat them easily.

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.

I'm a horrible person

Wow, so I haven't updated this since the beginning of outdoor, I'm a horrible person!

So I'm gunna try and start again, however it probably won't really take off until Cross country season starts again, I'm so excited!

Anyways. I've been training a lot harder this summer than last, which isn't hard since I didn't really run at all last summer.

This summer I've been running almost everyday, anywhere from 3 miles to 7, the main goal for me this summer is to train for the B2B which is in like 2 weeks, I'm not sure where the summer has gone!

I shall be posting again shortly (I promise) about what my predictions for the season are, and my goals.

Edward Little Tuesday April 20th

Hey all, sorry it has been so long.

Yesterday was our first outdoor meet of the season, after it was postponed from Friday. I was originally going to run the 1 mile, 2 mile and the 4x4, but then the meet was postponed so we were going to be missing more people. Unfortunately my coach took me out of the mile, so instead yesterday I ran the 4x8, 2 mile, and 4x4.

I was looking forward to running the 4x8 because I always loved running it at the beginning of an indoor track meet because it is a nice warm up. I also was lucky enough to run the anchor leg which I also love. Freshman Ryan Smith opened up the 4x8 running a 2:13 and giving a significant lead. Senior Colin Cundy ran second keeping the lead, and if anything widening it a bit, he also finished his leg with a 2:13 and passed off to Sophomore Nathan Jackson. He went out fast and managed to pull off a very solid 2:16 with the EL kid gaining on us just a bit. Nathan handed off to me and I went, I was followed closely by EL's Hussein Mohamed. He went out fast and managed to close the gap to a few feet. During the entire race he was right behind me and in the last 200 he passed me, coming off the last straight away I dug deep and managed to swing off the turn around and passed him, I sprinted to the finish to pull off a first place for our 4x8 team. I cooled down and began to wait for my 2 mile.

The mile was an interesting race. Colin Cundy ran was one of the 2 that ran it for us, and he did an excellent job running a 4:52 for his first sub 5 mile during a meet.

It took them about 5 minutes to decide whether or not they were going to run the 2 mile together boys and girls, luckily they decided too. My coach wanted me to run a 10:40 which meant a 5:20 mile split.

I went out pretty fast, and was leading for the first 200, then Liam Cassidy and another EL kid passed me. They pulled ahead and it was me and Hussein again, he tailed me the entire time. I came through the mile with about a 5:11 split, I tried to push it as hard as I could and pull away from Hussein but I wasn't able to, coming around into the last 200 Hussein tried to get passed me again, he managed to get ahead and I held on, then in the last 100 was able to get around and beat him to the finish once again. Unfortunately I ran a 10:43 which was 3 seconds slower then my coach wanted, and slower then I should have run anyways.

I then ran the 4x4 on the A team and ran a 62 split which wasn't too bad considering I had just run my 2 mile.

For team scores, it went the same on both sides

Edward Little

Mt. Ararat

Brunswick

Oxford Hills

It was a fun meet, and everyone on Mt. Ararat did very well, and we should have a great season!

Dartmouth Relays

Okay, so first just to say, this shall be long! and so I'm going to break it down into parts, so if you really want you can skip to the more fun parts!

Friday: Driving

So there were 10 of us who ended up going, plus a coach.

I rode up with Erin Fitzimmons in her car. Also in the car was Ellen Pinnete, Jessica Leeman (Squirrel) and Rebecca Merrit.

The drive down was a ton of fun, not an hour into the drive we got off the highway because our coach, had to pee. We got out of the car, and headed inside and who would we see, but Joe Hyatt our team photographer from last year!

He is there in his car, I swear!

We then got back in the car and continued on our journey. We definitely had the fun car. We blasted music, and there was a great time while we were listening to the beatles really loud, and all singing along... and it felt rather funny.

With another stop to pee (coach again) we finally arrived at our hotel.

We hung around there for about half an hour, and then got back in our cars for the drive to Darmouth College.

Friday: Meet night

So there were only 2 of us running Friday night, Me and Ariel, and we were both running in the mile unseeded.

We got there around 2 maybe 2:30 and I didn't run until 4, so it was way to early although I didn't know it at first.

I warmed up for awhile, and finally my coach made the smart idea for me to put my headphones in, and lie down to relax.

At 3:50 I headed over and got my number, i was in heat 3, seeded 5th

My plan for the Mile was to go out and PR, and maybe hopefully get a 4:50

That meant I would be running a 2:25 800, that wasn't impossible.

My coach had planned out every 200 split I would need and so he had found a place to stand near the finish line and he would let me know how I was doing.

The start was incredible, I was seeded 5th, and the guy next to me had never broken 5 minutes so I thought it might be a nice fast and easy start, I was wrong. The gun went off and he was throwing his elbows everywhere. I knew one of my ways for a good race was to get out start, so I had to push him aside and take off.

I'm so fast you can barely see me!

I came through my 800 at 2:26, about a second off so I tried to pick it up a bit. With a 400 to go I tried to pick it up, but it turns out that lap was a bit slow. I came into my last lap around maybe a 4:10, I'm not sure because I couldn't remember perfectly what the clock said. Either way I knew it was a bit slow and so I kicked it. I had been running with a group fighting for 2-4 and so going into my last 200 on the first turn i pushed and pulled into first. By then the number 1 runner had pulled ahead a bit and that is who i was going for. I picked up into my sprint with a 150 to go, about 100 earlier then usual but I had hope I could make it. As I pulled around the last corner into the last 55 I was in 2nd. Out of nowhere another runner comes out of nowhere sprinting into the finish, I dug deep but wasn't able to catch back up to him, I finished third in my heat with a 4:55.22 a new PR, although not the time I was looking for.

After the race, as I cooled down I watched Ariel Mcnett run her Mile. She was seeded a 6:03 but because she missed her heat, she ran in the slowest heat, and ended up running a 6:09

Friday: Dinner

Because Ariel and I were the only ones running on friday we were able to leave after Ariel finished. For dinner we went out to a restaurant called Molly's. While there we were sure to leave our mark

We let them know who we were!

and why we were there

I also managed to get this beautiful picture of Coach Holmes pretending to be a spawn of the devil.

After our fun dinner we went back to the hotel to relax. We ended up hanging around our room until about 11 when we settled down to sleep.

Our coach offered to sacrifice a bed for us

Saturday: Race Day

So now we get to one of the longest posts. Our first runners of the day were Erin Fitsimmons and Rebecca Merrit in the 55 Hurdles. Rebecca ran a 9.6 which was a PR and Erin ran a 10.46

We then jump forwards to the next event that we had people running in. The 400.

Ellen Pinnete and Jessica Leeman ran in it. Ellen ran a 1:08.78 and Jessica ran a 1:06.13

After that we had Rebecca running in the 300, we don't have the 300 in Maine, so it was an interesting race. She ended up running a 44:07 which as far as I know, is not bad!

During all this we had Timmy and Mckenzie jumping, and Randi throwing Shot Put. In the Long Jump Timmy jumped 20'-06''.75

In the Triple Mckenzie jumped 41'-00''.75

and Timmy jumped 42'-02''.75

Both jumped incredibly well, and I know at least Mckenzie PR'd

In the Shotput Randi threw 36'-05''.75 which was a foot farther then she was hoping for, and a PR

Continuing on we had Erin and Chloe running in the 800. Chloe was seeded 2:30 and Erin 2:35

They both did very well, and Chloe ended up edging Erin out by running a 2:34.80 compared to Erins 2:35.55

After that was the mile and 2 mile seeded. The mile was a great race for me to watch, and gave me times to

look for next year!

The 2 mile was an incredible race, Will and Jake ( a kid from somewhere else!) were 1 2 during the entire race,

until finally going into the last lap Will started pulling ahead and ended up running a very fast time of 9:18.70

Liam then ran in the next heat and had a huge PR by running a 9:36.64

After that we had the girls 4x400

Our 4x400 team was Ellen, Jessica, Rebecca, and Chloe. they all ran very well, especially considering they

had all already run and had been at the track for about 9 hours now. they ran a 4:28.12 which I found was

very good!

We were finally able to leave the track, about 10 hours later around 6.

Saturday: Ride Home

So we headed home, same cars as on the way up, but this time we were starving. It was a very fun ride home,

but I'm going to be quick. It was really a lot like the ride up, although for the last hour or so, we were all getting

pretty tired but we didn't want to sleep, because we didn't want erin to be alone, so Ellen plugged in her laptop,

and we listened to the Across the Universe soundtrack. We ended up getting home somewhere between 10:30-11:00

Overall I loved the trip, it was tons of fun, some great bonding, and I am very much looking forward to White Plains

this spring and Both of them next year!

Dartmouth Relays and my birthday

So first and foremost my birthday was yesterday, I'm 16 now! Look out roads here I come

I got a digital camera which i was hoping for, which means I will no longer have an excuse for not having pictures in these blogs!

and that is what leads me to my next item of interest

Dartmouth Relays

So I leave Friday morning for Dartmouth.

there are 8 of us going, and 1 coach.

I am running in the mile, which I think will be an amazing experience.

The coach that is going with us is hoping I will break 4:50, which I feel like is a good goal, but would involve me cutting off 6 seconds. I however do plan on going for it.

I have talked to some of our teammates and we are thinking about playing capture the flag in our hotel, with each team getting a floor, however there aren't many of us so it might not work out.

I am looking forward tons to the meet on friday, and am sorry I haven't been able to update you on our last 2 meets for indoor track.