Week of: September 29th – October 5th
Training
Monday: 500 repeats on track @ goal pace
Tuesday: 6 mile LSD with speed work mixed in
Wednesday: 4.5 miles with speed work
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: easy 3
Saturday: Festival of Champions!
Sunday: 2 miles easy
This week was our hardest week of practice so far (says Kelley). When she said that on Monday I was like ahhh, but it ended up being just hard enough. I kind of liked working on the track, even though it's not a track but a messy cement oval that is not the right size. It's not exactly the best surface, but the workout was good and everyone toughed it out and looked really strong. I've been doing the workouts lately with Jaron's brother Jonah Jones, Kjell (pronounced Shell) Nordstrom, and Jakob Wyder. So as much as I have been complaining about not having anyone to run with, I think I found the perfect group because I fit right into the middle of that group and I think we push each other. The week went really well and I felt like I was really prepared for FOC on Saturday.
My race day recap for FOC overall is that I'm SO UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY. I believe it was the best team experience I've had so far in all my H.S XC career. We went into that race ranked 10th. Not only did we get 3rd , but that was the strongest I've ever seen our team. Addie was 3rd in the freshman race with 21:24, and Gwen and Shelby really picked it up today and ran right with each other the whole race and ended up in 21:40's I believe. That's 3 PR's in one day, and a very happy team! Everyone on our team ran so well, I'm so overwhelmed. Hannah West was a little back from our top 4 but I know that she can definitely be right there and I'm betting she will be soon. Addie ran an awesome race coming into the freshman section ranked 4th, but ended up 3rd! She started out just right a little behind the front pack, but caught up and ran an incredibly strong race in 21:24 for a new PR after the previous one she just set at Brunswick. Our team knew we had to step it up if we wanted to do well, and that's exactly what we did- our #3 and #4 Gwen Beacham and Shelby Aseltine really picked it up and made such a difference for our team. They wanted to start with each other and stick like that, which worked out phenomenally because they both PR'd going sub 22 for the first time in 21:40's! I ended up 6th in the seeded race with 20:14 which wasn't my time goal, but I was ranked 9th and the course was blah so I can't complain about that (too much). I started out in 14th or something (people were yelling it) and I didn't really notice that I had moved up until the very end, because I started out further back than I had expected. At the start I was looking around and saw a few people ahead of me that I didn't think should have been so I made a little effort to pass a few and then I was just trying to stay behind Amelia Lundkvist in a good position for the first mile.
Then I'm not sure what happened because I looked around and I was a little lonely running right on Kim Spencer's (Bapst) heels with Heather Spurling (MDI) just behind. I honestly wasn't sure if I had passed Amelia, or if she had snuck around the other side of the pack and passed us all. We're both relatively tiny people so it's hard to see each other when you're in a pack of average height and/or tall girls. Then I was running next to Kim and in my head I was thinking, how can I keep this pace? I'm dying. And for some reason my body and my head were not agreeing because I passed her going around the baseball field and caught up with Mallory Goding and Mary-Jo Sheehan. I was trying to stay right with them but they kept switching it up and by time we got to the last ½ mile Mary-Jo was leading us and I just wanted to keep pace at least and I would have almost been content with finishing behind them (that sounds terrible I know, but I'm just being honest it's what I was thinking). Then we were curving into the finish straight and someone yelled: “you've got a quarter of a mile to go”, and I just went. I passed Mallory and when I caught up to Mary-Jo I wasn't sure if she was going to see me next to her and start sprinting her heart out, or if she was sticking with that finish-pace, so it was a little scary because you never know who's going to kick, and when. So I just kept going and tried to have a strong finish and I think it worked out pretty well for me. I have turf toe, which is kind of like a sprain in my big-toe knuckle. I taped it before the race and I was hoping it would help instead of making it tingly and numb cutting of my circulation. I think it did a little of both, but going up the hills hurt it quite bad because bending it doesn't feel nice. I finished and re-taped it shortly after. During awards Addie and me were trying to think of where we finished as a team, and I said I'd be happy with top 10. Kelton kept saying he knew for a fact that we were top 10, which was nice to hear, but we needed to hear it from the announcer! So the names just kept coming: York, Ellsworth, Caribou, and where was ours? Then we heard Brewer's name in 7th and I just about had a heart attack. John Bapst, then Brunswick? It was so overwhelming, and every time he said a team Addie went, “so we definitely got top __, okay now we got top ___”, and so on. But Brunswick being 5th, we went crazy. Fourth was Falmouth with 218 points, “OH MY GOSH.” Third was Mt.Blue with 206 pts.?!?! MDI 2nd, Scarborough 1st ! I can't even explain how it felt. First of all MDI was ranked 7th on the poll, WAKE UP PEOPLE! Mt.Blue was ranked 10th, and it is the absolute best feeling in the world to be doubted, and then have all of your hard work pay off. If anyone wants to question MDI or Mt.Blue's “depth”, question yourself. It doesn't matter if other people know you're strong, but only if you know you're strong, and you can come out as a team and show it. You put in the dedication; the time and the miles, and you have to believe in yourselves, and run with your heart. For MDI Heather Spurling came in 10th place with 20:23 even though she had a busted ankle that we all saw during the awards ceremony. That just goes to show that anyone can make up excuses for their team, “so and so has a cold, she hurt her foot, she just had an off day”, but none of that matters. If your team is strong they will show it regardless, which is what MDI did. Congratulations to everyone that ran and the Scarborough teams for their victories!
Now I'm just looking forward to the big meets coming up. Mt.Blue Relays is on the 10th and I'm so pumped for the 2 mile race. It's always sweet because lots of teams come, then we eat spaghetti in the cafeteria and dance after.