ENTRY #5
Years ago, running at my school was unheard of. The focus was largely on year round basketball, so the running teams were weak. Of course there have been individuals (such as Ryan Widzgowski) here and there who made an impact at the state meet, but there has never been depth or an interest. The team rarely made a state meet appearance, including my freshman year. Now, suddenly, the team is making a statement and a run for the state title after countless years of close to nothing. Often times I wonder how one year the cross country team could be unheard to suddenly become perhaps one of the most premier and successful teams (regardless of sport) in the midcoast area. Maybe we got lucky, or maybe a chain reaction started after one person developed a strong interest in running and caught “the bug.” But, either way, my recent goal has been to ensure there are strong running teams in Camden for many years.
To do so, I have tried to develop an interest of running in the younger kids. Last year I organized a running club for third and fourth graders at the Elementary School. I was slightly worried no one would be interested, or after only a half hour they would get bored. But, to my surprise, there were over fifty kids. It was also evident some parents voluntarily signed up their children seeing this after school club as a great “childcare” opportunity. Nevertheless, by the end of the six weeks (one practice per week) everybody was having fun and developed a sense of competition too. That especially became apparent at the ending “mini track meet.” This year, the same thing will be happening except with even more young runners. I am thrilled to know running is making an impact on people all ages.
Anyways, on a more relevant note, a couple meets have passed. There was a meet two weeks ago at Medomak, and that was interesting. In the past, the course was always an extremely fast 5k. Last year that race was actually my PR until the state meet. After many complaints about the course being “easy” the course was changed to 3.367 miles. I was actually slightly disappointed because I was hoping to hit a big PR. The race itself was certainly different from many other races I have run just because of the way I ran the ending. To the best of my memory, during the past couple of years, I have never run a race which came down to the last 200 meters. But, I was glad to see Erzsebet Nagy come back into the season strong.
Last week was homecoming weekend, but we had a meet at Cony. The girls team proved everyone is getting stronger and stronger with each meet. Although it is an extremely tough course, my teammates still ran strong and impressive times. Now with Festival of Champions next week, the pressure and nerves are building up. I can’t wait to see what we can do in this type of competition and environment. Good luck to all who will be running there!
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