August 26 was the Scott LaLiberte Invitational. I wasn’t totally sure what my plan was going into the race. Last year I placed 4th behind Harlow, Eben, and Charlie. I knew Charlie wouldn’t be there and I wasn’t sure about Eben because he’d been injured all outdoor. It turned out he wasn’t running. Therefore it was just Harlow and me. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, I knew that Harlow had been running extremely well, especially since he had been injured for most of last year.
I was a bit worried before the race because I didn’t really feel like my body was awake and ready to run, but I figured it would shake itself out when the gun went off, which it does often. My body did feel to shake itself out in the first few steps of the race. I went out right behind Harlow, with a kid from South Portland behind me. When we reached the first mile I realized what was wrong with my body. I went through the mile around a 5:37 and started to realize that I hadn’t hydrated enough and I get a bad cramp. I tried to hold on to Harlow for as long as I could but I knew I was fading fast. he ended up getting pretty far away from me and I knew I had to just hold off everyone else for another mile. I came around the last pond and remember thinking that if anyone passed me now they would beat me. It wasn’t a good thought I had, but luckily I didn’t have to find out if it was true or not. I hit the football field and did my best to start sprinting. I knew that it was the end of the race and I had to give it all I could. I ended up finishing with a 14:09, just a couple seconds faster than last year.
Start of the Laliberte Invitational
That next week we didn’t have practice on Monday because of the wind we had Sunday. Many people didn’t have power. Because of this our hard practice was moved to Tuesday, which included our time trial. Our hard practices usually include a time trial of some distance, and then either 500’s in the woods or 1000’s on the field.The time trial this week was a mile. I decided to take it hard to try and make up a bit for not preparing properly on Friday. I ran my mile in 4:49, a time I was happy with and then managed to run my 1000’s a couple seconds. All in all it was a good week.
On Friday we had our first regular season meet at Oceanside, a course that I’d never run on before but I heard was tough and hilly. It was the complete opposite. It was one of the flattest courses I’ve ever seen. It was basically 3 big loops that was challenging in it’s own way. My coach told me I should try to go out in a 5:15, fast but relaxed. She wanted me to go through the two mile somewhere between 10:40 - 10:50. Allowing me to slow down a tiny bit in the second mile. Then just give it all I had in the third mile. I came through the mile at 5:13, right where I wanted to be but I could already feel the heat getting to me. I tried to pick it up through the second mile but ended up going through at around a 10:50. I tried my best to get moving for the third mile but I wasn’t really able to pick it up until the last half a mile. I ended up finishing with a 17:03. A bit disappointing, but the race was definitely a learning experience for me.
With no school Monday and our coach up north we once again had no practice. I went for a long easy run, ending up somewhere around 7.5 miles. Then came back with a hard practice on Tuesday. Once again we had a time trial. It was supposed to be a mile and a half but due to a home soccer game starting at 3:30 we shortened it to just a mile. Nick Parsons (Class of 2011, awesome kid) was coming back from his warm-up run to laugh at us before he left for his run when we all convinced him to run it with us. I wasn’t really feeling up to running a fast mile but as soon as my coach anti-climatically said go I was off. I just started running. I managed to finish up with a 4:42. A satisfying time. We then went and did 4x500 then 8x200s. It was a good hard practice, and a nice way to start the week.
One final note. (I promise, or hope at least) The wind storm we received last week managed to wreak havoc on the Lewiston course so this Friday instead of running at Lewiston we will be running at EL, a course I’m kind of excited to see for one last time.I hope everyones first meets went well and everyone has a great season.
