After our intense camping and mud race in Oregon with the cross country team last weekend, we hit the ground running this week with prep for hosting our home meet. When we started hosting this meet 3 years ago, Jeff lovingly named it the Sunburn Invitational because there is no shade on the course and it is usually very hot since it's held so early in September. The top 3 runners in each race get a bottle of sunscreen as a trophy. This year's edition of The Sunburn was actually a bit cooler than the past, although temperatures were still in the high 70s/low80s, which felt plenty hot in Sunnyside's shade-less South Hill Park.
Jeff dusted off and fired up the automatic timi
ng system in his classroom during free moments of the school day this week. Then on Friday, he took a half day off so he and I could go mark the course with orange surveyor flags, in preparation for the cones, stakes, and banner flags we would put up on Saturday with the help of a few volunteers. When we got to the park on Saturday morning at 7:30am, however, half of our carefully placed orange surveyor flags were GONE! Stolen. How LAME is that? A pack of 100 surveyor flags cost $12 at the hardware store, so stealing our flags wasn't exactly a financial gain for the thief; it just made our day longer and harder. With the flags in place, we can turn our 4 volunteers loose on the course and have them mark it with cones and banners while we do other setup. Without the surveyor flags in place on 50% of the course this time, I had to go mark the course with the volunteers instead of helping Jeff set up the finish line area.
Thankfully the stolen surveyor flags was the biggest drama of the meet prep. The timing system misfired twice during the meet, so we had to start the JV boys' race three times before it worked, but that was it for problems. Yay! We had sufficient helpers to man the finish line and to start the race. My ankle tendons wouldn't let me run around getting things done, but I was able to walk.
Our runners did so well! Our top two boys finished 2nd and 3rd in their race. Our top girl (a freshman!) WON the girls' race after a relentless 3.1 mile battle. I loved seeing our team work hard and finish the race. That's the best part of coaching: being there during the vulnerable moments of hard work, and cheering kids on to accomplish hard things.
Jay, Rose, and Amber all had EXCELLENT races. It was SO FUN watching them race!
First up was Amber, running the middle school 2.5K race (1.5 miles). Amber is a completely different runner this year than she was last year. She ran at least one mile per day most weekdays all summer, along with doing all of the plyometric drills and strength work with the cross country team. Her hard work paid off in a big way during her race! She cruised through the course and beat our entire middle school girls' team, finishing 3rd place overall! She ran a massive PR of 12:45 and won a bottle of sunscreen.
Next came Rose, running with the varsity girls. She started strong and then held on for dear life. She ran the whole race with her teammate Mia. They passed each other back and forth for the entire race, until Mia outkicked Rose at the finish. Rose's time was 26:46. Rose told me afterwards, "I have NEVER wanted to walk so badly during a race. It took the most mental effort EVER to keep running and not walk. I am so glad I did it! I am happy with my race." After a rough season last year, it was wonderful that my Rose girl was satisfied with her race. Not sure if I was being Mom or Coach, I pointed out the reasons she was satisfied (not giving up, consistent effort, running with her teammate). You don't have to run a PR to be proud of your race. Hopefully she can take those lessons forward!
The last race of the day was the boys' varsity race. Team co-captain Jay had the best cross country race of his life. He was nervous because he sprained his ankle on this course last year on one of the many sharp turns. I was worried for him too, because an ankle sprain is an annoyingly huge setback in the short high school cross country season. But Jay didn't get hurt! He cruised through the first mile in 5:56 as the 6th runner on our varsity team before pouring it on and catching his teammates. Jay methodically caught and passed two of his teammates, finishing as the 4th runner on our team, 11th place overall out of 54 runners, with his best cross country 5k time to date of 19:06. (He ran a road 5k in 17:49 last month, but this was his best unpaved cross country time so far.) He raced so well, chasing down his teammates and passing them--he even passed our 3rd runner near the end of the race before getting outkicked. Jay was so happy with his race. He told me afterwards, "I was worried about spraining my ankle so I said a prayer before the race, and it helped. I ran the first mile slower and then sped up." His first mile was actually his fastest, but what he meant was he was cautious with his footing during the first mile until he had more confidence.
At practice two days before the meet, sole of one of Jay's nice Nike racing spikes completely peeled off of the shoe. Jeff went to three stores in Sunnyside before he found some shoe glue to stick it back on. The glue cured just in time for Jay to race on Saturday. Thankfully it held and Jay was able to wear his spikes! Jeff had a pair of Nike running shoes that fell apart last week too. Come on, Nike--do better next time! We chuckled about Jay's glued shoes--the glue totally oozed out the sides and Jeff had to shave it off with a razor blade. It was too rubbery to get all of it off, so Jay's spikes are now one of a kind with a blobby design on one shoe!
All of that writing was about one day of the week. The rest of the week happened. It did. Piano lessons and lawn mowing and youth activities and housework and homework and appointments, etc.
1 comment:
Your tendon troubles have not hobbled your blogging skills one bit!
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