Tyler White is a senior at Orono High School, he finished 14th in the Class C State meet last fall. White is the 5th fastest returner in 2012, he is coming off a strong outdoor season that saw him finish 4th in the outdoor 3200m 10:06.21. Follow Tyler in his journey this fall on the trails.
It is almost the point in the season where everything starts to go by really fast. It's funny how preseason seems to go by really slow but as soon as the second or third meet hits the season takes off. The first couple of meets are usually relatively small, but mid-season yields bigger meets and colder temperatures, and the combination of the two really make it feel like the season is nearing its finish. Before you know it it's Festival of Champions and championship season is right around the corner. There are only about 50 days left until states, well under two months away. Not getting too far ahead of myself, I will start with the Ellsworth Invitational which Orono participated in on Saturday.
If you haven't run the course at Ellsworth, consider yourself lucky. When walking the course it doesn't appear to be too bad, but come second loop you ask the inevitable mid-race question "What have I gotten
myself into?". The course was in excellent condition, but the difficulty is pretty high. I would almost rather run Twin Brook...Anyways it is a double loop course that consists of the classic loops around a football field, a grass hill that you zigzag up and come to a near walk on the sharp turns, and a Mt. Katahdin climb following that. (That's an exaggeration, but not by much) Although after the steep 75m uphill it is a rolling downhill that consists of mostly loose dirt and sand. The race plan going in was for me to run my race, and 4th year veteran Schuyler Collett would lead our 3-7 pack through a smart first mile. Based on last years results, I thought I should be right around 17 flat, so my goal going in was to break 17. This is a 3mile course, but the difficulty definitely makes the times not overly comparable to other 3mile results. (So Dan Curts' 16:06 is pretty incredible) We had a solid team warmup that focused on trying to talk about where we stand next to Class C and Eastern Maine rival Bangor Christian. The whole BC squad was there and the guys on the team are very nice so it was nice to see them so early in the season. The gun went off and we ran two laps around the football field and proceeded to the section of hills. As soon as we got off the football field however I recognized that my legs were very tired, but my arms even more so. I was positioned a fair ways behind Dan and a little ahead of Dylan from BC, Rob Lund from Caribou and Josh from MA, and it went on to stay that way for the whole race. The first mile was a pretty comfortable 5:42 but my breathing and body fatigue was very frustrating. The rest of our guys went through at about 6:35 which was a little slower than intended, but it played out pretty well in the long run. I finished the first loop and the places 3-5 were hanging on pretty tight as we neared the 2mile split. I heard my time of 11:43 (a sub-par 6:01) and knew that if the rest of our team was tough enough to play catch-up after the first mile, I could be tough enough to try and create a more comfortable gap from the rest of the field. After nearly crawling up the steepest hill, it was pretty smooth sailing from there. I figured my time was going to be around 17:20 but I saw the clock at 16:54 before the finish and tried to push it. 17:00. Frustrating, but I was happy with the time because last year graduate Alex Bulteel ran 17:11 and most of my season goals are gauged around his times due to us having an identical schedule to last year's. The last mile was a pretty solid 5:17, and that was probably my favorite split of the race besides teammate and number four runner Josh Marquis' 19:27. He ran 23:12 last year, so that amount of improvement is astounding. Our 2-5 came in pretty close with about 1:15 separating them. That is a considerably tighter pack than we had at any point last season, and it is very encouraging mid-race knowing that your teammates are doing their job fighting for the places that matter so much more than 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Bangor Christian had a very good first meet and beat us by 29 points, but that is an indicator that the team race in Class C should be pretty tight this year including Waynflete and Hall-Dale from the west.
myself into?". The course was in excellent condition, but the difficulty is pretty high. I would almost rather run Twin Brook...Anyways it is a double loop course that consists of the classic loops around a football field, a grass hill that you zigzag up and come to a near walk on the sharp turns, and a Mt. Katahdin climb following that. (That's an exaggeration, but not by much) Although after the steep 75m uphill it is a rolling downhill that consists of mostly loose dirt and sand. The race plan going in was for me to run my race, and 4th year veteran Schuyler Collett would lead our 3-7 pack through a smart first mile. Based on last years results, I thought I should be right around 17 flat, so my goal going in was to break 17. This is a 3mile course, but the difficulty definitely makes the times not overly comparable to other 3mile results. (So Dan Curts' 16:06 is pretty incredible) We had a solid team warmup that focused on trying to talk about where we stand next to Class C and Eastern Maine rival Bangor Christian. The whole BC squad was there and the guys on the team are very nice so it was nice to see them so early in the season. The gun went off and we ran two laps around the football field and proceeded to the section of hills. As soon as we got off the football field however I recognized that my legs were very tired, but my arms even more so. I was positioned a fair ways behind Dan and a little ahead of Dylan from BC, Rob Lund from Caribou and Josh from MA, and it went on to stay that way for the whole race. The first mile was a pretty comfortable 5:42 but my breathing and body fatigue was very frustrating. The rest of our guys went through at about 6:35 which was a little slower than intended, but it played out pretty well in the long run. I finished the first loop and the places 3-5 were hanging on pretty tight as we neared the 2mile split. I heard my time of 11:43 (a sub-par 6:01) and knew that if the rest of our team was tough enough to play catch-up after the first mile, I could be tough enough to try and create a more comfortable gap from the rest of the field. After nearly crawling up the steepest hill, it was pretty smooth sailing from there. I figured my time was going to be around 17:20 but I saw the clock at 16:54 before the finish and tried to push it. 17:00. Frustrating, but I was happy with the time because last year graduate Alex Bulteel ran 17:11 and most of my season goals are gauged around his times due to us having an identical schedule to last year's. The last mile was a pretty solid 5:17, and that was probably my favorite split of the race besides teammate and number four runner Josh Marquis' 19:27. He ran 23:12 last year, so that amount of improvement is astounding. Our 2-5 came in pretty close with about 1:15 separating them. That is a considerably tighter pack than we had at any point last season, and it is very encouraging mid-race knowing that your teammates are doing their job fighting for the places that matter so much more than 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Bangor Christian had a very good first meet and beat us by 29 points, but that is an indicator that the team race in Class C should be pretty tight this year including Waynflete and Hall-Dale from the west.
Everyone on our team both boys and girls had very exceptional first meets, and I think everyone is proud of where we stand as a program right now. We have a very flat 3mile course coming up at Bucksport that features only small Class C teams. I think I would be happy with anytime lower than 16:35, but the best part of the meet will be seeing how much time Josh can take off from last year, and how much lower our 2-5 split can get. After Bucksport we have the very small Lee Invitational (@Lee Academy) but usually some of the varsity runners stay back and do a workout instead, although I'm not sure about this year. Nice job to everyone in your meets this opening weekend whether your're a coach or a runner, some very impressive times and hopefully every team has a "Josh" who can go out and just crush PRs. As always, goodluck with training and upcoming meets and stay healthy!
-Tyler