Our newest blogger is Will Janakis formerly of Marshwood and presently a junior at Thomas College. Janakis fnished 15th in the North Atlantic conference championship last year running 29:02. Follow Will in his junior xc season for Thomas College.
The last two weeks have been, at the very least, interesting. My left leg kept getting worse last week—so bad that I ended up taking three days off. (All of last season combined, I took only one day off.) I don’t remember the last time, if ever, I took that much time off in season. I was starting to think my running days were over, and it was time to retire (time off helps my legs a lot but not so much my brain). Anyway, my leg’s gradually getting better and doesn’t hurt much to run on now. I ended up running the Elliot festival road race in 17:40 which was pretty good seeing I had no splits the whole time and was coming off of doing nothing for a few days.
This past week went a lot better but not super great. We did 5 x.8 mile repeats in the woods at Quarry Road. We did them on a really hilly loop again; my legs were kind of shaky because of all the time on and off. I also felt terrible from eating an under-cooked cheeseburger for lunch. (Curse you Sodexo!!!). Tuesday, I did an easy eight miles down the road where my good luck continued: my shoe managed to rub all the skin off my heel. Wednesday, we did a tempo run at Quarry Road: 10 min easy, 25 min hard, 10 min easy. We were at Quarry Road again so it wasn’t very fast but definitely got the lungs working. Thursday, we went over and jogged the Colby course to make sure everyone knew where to run. Friday was just another pre-meet four miles. Our coach has now moved from her camp to her winter home (a giant funeral home her husband runs in downtown Waterville), so for the first time in ages we were able to partake in our team’s oldest and most beloved tradition of playing sardines the night before a race! My race went ehh. I was asleep at the wheel. I went out fast enough but eased up too much; I then ended up in no man’s land and got caught by a group of runners. With a mile to go, I wasn’t even thinking—I was just kind of in space. With a half mile to go, I snapped awake and realized there were five guys right in front of me, and my legs felt fine. I had a good kick and passed them all. I know I could have been faster, but what’s happened has happened. I ran 30:53 which is better than the 31:28 I ran here last year. In team news, our number-5 guy ran 31:23! It’s been a real ride to be a part of a program that keeps getting better. I remember when having 5 guys under 35 on a fast course was exciting!
Sunday, I ran at Quarry Road again with Evan to figure out some final course details (there’s going to be a lot of hills!). It was probably the best run, emotionally, I’ve had in a while. The conference is more competitive than ever this year, and I’m not running great; you can probably see where this mentally eats at me. I’ve been thinking a lot about a Ryan Hall quote I read the other day where he was talking about how you can’t tell the difference between a 2:20 or 2:04 Kenyan marathoner; they all have a ton of confidence and self-belief. The race is on my course; I just need to be confident and believe for now.
The team’s next race will be this Saturday at the St. Joe’s running monks invitational.