MaineTrackXC Journal: Emily Durgin #2

 

 

 

 

Rewinding back to the week before, I just wanted to add that our whole team was feeling ready for the end of the high school season.  We had some nice recovery runs, and also some quick repeats to keep ourselves feeling fast.  The annual SMAA banquet was also last week.  Our coach Valerie was named Coach of the year for the second year in a row!  Many of the girls on our team were recognized for 1st team (Fiona Henry, Shannon Conley, Kiera Murray and myself), and our only senior Hillary Morin was recognized for all academic.  As the week ended the pressure and stress started to kick in.  Going into the meet as a State Champion team, and also being ranked as one of the top teams we all knew that it was going to be tough.  As for individually I was the defending New England champion, and I knew that the competition this year was much stronger.  I tried not to stress myself out too much (I normally don’t get to nervous days before the race…but it hits me at the starting line).  I knew I had to be somewhere in the low digits(out front) to help my team.

 

 

 

 

 

Back to our various events leading to the actual race.  First off…something was wrong with the air on our bus and it was probably 80 degrees, and we were all dying!  Skipper(our wonderful bus driver) finally decided to stop and try and figure out what was going on.  At this point we were well on our way to Vermont and Skipper  had fixed the heat problem  (well…then it got really cold and we complained some more).  Once we got to the course we were all ready to get off the bus and walk/jog this crazy course everyone had talked so much about.  It was just exactly as described…short start, funnels in quick, down hills, long up hills.  We all agreed that you had to get out quick or you would be stuck in the pack, but also not to kill yourself in the first mile because the second half of the course was even harder.  After a strategy session on how we should race, the Cape Elizabeth coach (Derek) came up to us and asked if we would give his team a ride to their hotel because their bus had broken down.  Following our wonderful school motto “people for others”,  we said,” yes“, and we all piled onto the Coach bus.  Once we dropped them off, we headed back towards our hotel.  Our next dilemma on the trip was that we had no rooms at our hotel.  The computer had deleted the reservations (Valerie did manage to use her magic and get  rooms for us finally).  This made us late for our dinner reservations at Loui Louis, where Lizzy spilled her water all over the table, and our food took forever.  Anyways we all got some food in our stomachs and then got back for bed.  (ed.note  A big shout out to Cheverus for helping us out and Custom Coach & Limousine driver Skip. Very much appreciated!)

 

 

 

 

 In the morning we all got up to do our team wake up run.  I got no sleep, and looked awful!( I managed to shower quickly and fixed myself up a little).  The weather was absolutely beautiful, it was a little chilly but nothing major.  It was race day and we were all ready.  The girls race went out extremely quick just as predicted.  I ran behind the front group for the first mile.  Lindsay Crevoiserat, Jackie Nicholas, and Kelsey Smith were the girls I  paced off with through the second mile.  The last 1000 of the race is very tough.  Going up the last hill I was in 4th and I knew the finished was down hill so I had to kick soon.  Lindsay had taken the lead at this point, and had started to make a slight gap from the rest of the pack  I managed to pass Jackie in the last 200 to finish 2nd.   This was the type of course that if I had run before I would have used a different strategy.  I was happy Lindsay did well, she has had an amazing senior year and I wish her the best of luck at Nike Regional‘s.  The rest of our team finished pretty well also.  Shannon came in 19th, Fiona in 44th, Kiera was 88th, and Maddy our lucky 5th runner was 159. This was good enough for 4th overall.  Not exactly what we had wished for, but one place higher than last year, and we are all back with the exception of Hillary next year.  It was a good end to the season, everyone had worked hard all season and it showed.  Great job Cheverus girls, and also everyone else who raced on Saturday!

 

 

 

 

   Looking forward to Footlocker Regional’s on November 27.   I am very excited to see everyone from last year, and also race at Sunken Meadow.  I plan to keep training and keep myself healthy.  The Northeast is very strong this year so it is going to be a great race.  Those of you who have completed your cross country season Congrats again, and those who are going forward to Footlocker or Nikes good luck, and I hope to see some of you in New York!