Abby Mace Blog #1

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Hey everyone!
 
My name is Abby Mace, and I'm a captain of the cross country team at Maranacook Community High School.  I've been trying to convince myself that I'm a senior, but I still can't fully believe that this is my last year of high school!
 
I spent yesterday afternoon with my team at the Laliberte Invitational at Cony.  Laliberte is a big preseason race in honor of a former Cony runner, Scot Laliberte, who passed away in 2000.  Even though I decided to forgo the race this year, I had a lot of fun screaming for my teammates at the mile mark.  One of my teammates and I were timers, so I felt like a coach as I called out mile splits to the Maranacook runners.  For me, watching cross country races is almost as exciting as racing in them, so I tend to yell kind of loudly when my teammates run by, especially my brother, Kelby.  When Kelby came out of the woods, I sprinted over to the opposite side of the field to tell him that he was in 19th place and to pass a pack of runners ahead of him in that intense coach's way of  leaning-close-and-yelling-in-the-athlete's-ear manner.  Well, at least I thought I was being pretty loud and intense, but if you ask Kelby, he never heard a word I was saying.
 
Overall, Maranacook finished seventh, led by Kelby in 15th and Hannah, a super-dedicated freshman, also in the top 20.
 
Maranacook has long been a cross country team built on tradition, and last weekend, our newcomers got to experience several of them.  Every year, we do a two-day retreat during preseason to bring the team closer together.  We usually go camping and hiking somewhere, but this year we got rained out so we went to my teammate Kate's house.  After a short hike on Mt. Pisgah, narrowly escaping a torrential downpour, we went to Kate's house for a spaghetti dinner (we're runners--what else would we eat?) and a sleep over.  
 
Later in the evening, we huddled around a campfire to partake in another ritual--the handing out of our Tradition shirts.  I don't know how long the Tradition shirts have been a part of our team apparel, but the captains and our coach, Rosalea, look forward to handing them out each year to the newcomers.  I was proud to hand out our Tradition shirts to an enthusiastic group of girls who joined the team not only because they want to try running but because they want to be part of a supportive, friendly, and fun team of people.  The back of the Tradition shirts read "Not just a sport...a tradition", and at Maranacook, this is certainly true.  Our cross country team has many traditions, but perhaps the biggest and most important one of all is the caring, close-knit environment that allows all of our members to feel welcome, become a better runner, and have fun.
 
 
 
Check out Abby's Profile