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Hey Everyone!
I hope you are all enjoying your last full week of September! This is definitely one of my favorite weeks of the year because it is homecoming week at Maranacook. Maranacook students have become more focused on school spirit since my freshman year, which is really exciting to me, especially since I'm helping plan the Homecoming festivities! Even though I'm super pumped for the Friday night football game under the lights, the dance, and the return of spirit night, this last week of September is also filled with some great workouts.
Monday, the Maranacook harriers kicked off the week with the Thunder Castle Chase. The Chase is one of Rosalea's annual and much anticipated workouts. "Thunder Castle" is the name of a 3.8 mile loop that begins and ends near my school. After undergoing a thorough analysis of past race results, Rosalea organized the team into groups. Each group would start running Thunder Castle in order from fastest to slowest with a specified amount of time in between the start of each group. The goal of the Chase, which is run at tempo pace, is that everyone finishes at approximately the same time.
I was in a group with three of the guys--Nick, Kilton, and Colby. Because we were in the second fastest group, we ran for twenty minutes before beginning the Chase in order to give the other groups a head start. We started at a conservative pace--I don't know if it was because I was feeling really good, but I felt like going faster. So when my brother blew by me after the first hill (and he started out a minute after I did!), I chose to stay with him. I felt a little guilty about deserting my group, but I decided that pushing myself and getting in a quality workout was important, too. Although I didn't know exactly how fast I was going, I felt like Kelby and I were clipping along at a reasonable pace because soon a giant pack of our teammates came into view. As I came closer and closer, I heard the slapping of the runners' footsteps on the hard pavement. Soon my footsteps had synchronized with their rhythm and I felt a pang of adrenaline as I reeled them in. Yet the workout was by no means a competition, and I made sure to congratulate each teammate on his/her effort as I passed.
As I was striding up the last hill, I could feel my body fatiguing a little, but overall I still felt great. I had managed to stay right behind Kelby, but he was starting to turn on his end-of-race sprint, and my legs couldn't quite handle his top speeds. However, I picked up my pace, especially because I wanted to pass one last teammate, Ian. He had been in my sight for most of the run. Accelerating down the last stretch, I caught up to Ian. With Ian on one side of the road and me on the other, for about 20 seconds I sensed a battle between us. I decided to end the battle as fast as possible and quickened my pace. In the final strides of the run, I overtook him and finished just as my legs started to feel a little weak. Overall, Homecoming week began with a great workout--my time for the Thunder Castle Chase was one of the fastest on the team!
Good luck to everyone in their Friday races!
-Abby
