Bethanie Brown is a senior at Waterville HS. She ran XC for the first time last fall, and had some success. Brown finished as the runner-up, she would go on to finish 5th in the New England championship. That was just the beginning of what was to come during the track season, as indoor Brown earned All-American honors in the 2 Mile, and capped off the outdoor season with a state all-time best for 1600m. follow Bethanie as she prepares for her 2012 XC season.
I can’t say I’m thrilled that my summer vacation is over. It was busy this year, but it was a lot of fun. I am, however, super excited to have started the cross country season! Waterville has a great girls’ team this year, and I think this year could be really fun for all of us.
Last weekend, to kick off the school year, our team went on a trip to Abigail’s camp in Bremen. Abigail is one of the six senior girls on our team. Coach Stanton thought it would be a good team bonding activity, and something fun for us all to do before the beginning of the school year.
Both the boys and the girls went on this trip, which was really neat. We have small enough teams so that it’s pretty easy to carpool! The first thing we did, of course, was a workout. Yes, the purpose of the trip was fun, but running’s fun, right? So we decided to start out our day the right way, and when we arrived at about 10:30, we headed out for a little bit of semi-exhausting “fun”.
Coach Stanton was at first going to have us do just a regular run, but then, of course, the day before he mentioned he might “put a little zip into it.” So, instead of a regular run, we did a run with a little bit of tempo in the middle. We did an easy warm up until we got onto a quiet road near the camp, and then we did a pyramid of 1 minute fast, 1 minute slow jog recovery, then two fast, two slow, three fast, three slow, and then went back down the ladder. Nick, Joseph, Chris and I were a group, and then Coach separated some of the others into groups. The freshmen didn’t do exactly what we did, they just did a negative split run, where they tried to run a little faster on the way back than they did on the way out. It was a pretty successful workout. When we got back to Abby’s camp, we were all sweaty and hungry, and totally ready for lunch.
Lunch was filled with some really, um, interesting conversations. I guess it’s my fault for sitting with the boys’ team. We had a few bags of Lays chips, and they have that contest going on where you can invent a flavor and win prize money. To enter, you have to pick a name, three ingredients, and be able to have a description of the flavor. So, all through lunch we were coming up with chip flavors. We can’t tell you the flavors, of course. They’re top secret; but let me tell you, they were pretty amazing flavors, and I think that if we ever
In Photo: Lauren, Lara, Abby, Joseph, Billy, Bethanie, Caleb, Nick, Chris, Alexa,
Emily (behind Alexa), Erica, Tiana Missing From Photo: Louisa, Sierra, Noah (and Coach Stanton)
enter them, we’ll definitely win. Plus, according to probability, with the number of wonderful chip flavors we invented, we’re likely to win! We tried texting a flavor on one of our phones, but then it texted us back and told us to text help, so we decided we’d have to wait until we had internet and enter it online.
After we finished eating, everyone drove to Damariscotta Lake. We had a great time splashing around, getting some sun, and playing pass with the football and Frisbee. The girls, of course, ended up hanging out on beach towels and taking pictures. The boys needed something more interesting to do than that, so they made a sand castle. The day ended with a stop at a nearby ice cream shop.
After all the fun and games, this week we began school, and we had our first meet on Friday. It was a pretty exciting day for both the boys’ and girls’ teams. Our boys’ team has 6 boys, so it’s really small, but they did really well individually. Chris Cote, a sophomore, got second place.
The girls’ team also did really well. We have 10 girls this year! Besides me, there is Tiana Thomas (a senior who came in 4th, just behind Kylie and Elizabeth of Hampden), Lara Bluhm (a senior who was third for Waterville at the meet), Emily Cote(a senior who does swimming and drama during the track seasons), Abigail Weston (a senior sprinter on the track team), Louisa Nyhus (a sophomore), and four newcomers. Three of our newcomers are Erica Jenson, Lauren Brown, and Alexa Frame. Erica and Lauren are freshmen this year. They were actually the first two freshmen to finish the race. Erica finished in 22:29 and Lauren finished in 23:04. Alexa is a senior sprinter who decided to do Cross Country this year to improve her overall strength and endurance. She runs primarily the 400 and hurdle races. She finished between Erica and Lauren, running 23:01. Sierra Roy joined us late and ran in our first race with very little time to prepare – great job Sierra!
So overall, it was a really great day for everyone. Running in our first meet has made everyone excited for the season, and we’re looking forward to our home meet next Thursday. Go Panthers!
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