Thursday afternoon at Platte Valley High School, Kersey. We ran here earlier in the season, but now it's all on the line. The top 5 teams will go on to the State Championships next week Saturday. Everyone else is done for the year.
The forecast for today was chilly, but no rain. As we set up camp, the weather is dry and perfect. It's just a tad warmer than perfect running temps, but still feeling like a great day to run. Today is a day for making sure we're stretched out, loosened up and getting taped where we need to tape. Both the girls team and the boys team have been fighting some nagging injuries, but we're hoping we can work thru them today and not get held back by them. By this point in the season we've each run 300 - 400 miles in official practices! Some of the top runners are well over 500 miles since the week before school started. It's so tough on young, growing bodies to work this hard, run this far and keep our bodies strong. It takes either a lot of luck and good genes, or a lot of ice baths, massages, stretch sessions, muscle relaxing and good nutrition and rest to stay in peak form. Most people don't understand how much distance running takes out of you & how many daily aches & pains you get from it.
We do.
The forecast for today was chilly, but no rain. As we set up camp, the weather is dry and perfect. It's just a tad warmer than perfect running temps, but still feeling like a great day to run. Today is a day for making sure we're stretched out, loosened up and getting taped where we need to tape. Both the girls team and the boys team have been fighting some nagging injuries, but we're hoping we can work thru them today and not get held back by them. By this point in the season we've each run 300 - 400 miles in official practices! Some of the top runners are well over 500 miles since the week before school started. It's so tough on young, growing bodies to work this hard, run this far and keep our bodies strong. It takes either a lot of luck and good genes, or a lot of ice baths, massages, stretch sessions, muscle relaxing and good nutrition and rest to stay in peak form. Most people don't understand how much distance running takes out of you & how many daily aches & pains you get from it.
We do.
We set up camp 100 meters from the starting line. We've got a football blocking sled to lean on, hang stuff from and play around with. Someone asks the question: "How many Cross Country runners does it take to move a 5 man football sled"? The answer - we don't know. We only have 20 XC runners here! We'll need more!!! (Just kidding, guys.)
Coach lets us know we've got 10 minutes until the start. It's time to jog to the starting line, do some run-outs and more stretching. This is our biggest race of the season so far. We need to be as ready as we can be.
Coach lets us know we've got 10 minutes until the start. It's time to jog to the starting line, do some run-outs and more stretching. This is our biggest race of the season so far. We need to be as ready as we can be.
Coach Eberhard gives us our last minute instructions, then it's time for our usual run-out and team talk. Last year's Asst Coach Andy gives us a few extra tips, words of encouragement and focus. We get back to the line and......the gun is up!
The guys get their 1st lap done and they're in good position. Everyone is suffering from the usual aches & pains of XC season. A couple of us have some tougher issues going on. Isaiah & Bridger are showing what senior leadership and mental toughness can do when your body starts to feel like it's falling apart on you. This team doesn't know the meaning of the word 'quit', and doesn't even know what 'let up' means. These guys are all in, all the time. It's inspiring to see teammates who will NOT let their team down and will fight thru anything to be successful.
The guys are holding up well. They're past the 2nd mile and the coaches are cautiously optimistic about our placing. C'mon guys, finish this out strong!
The 'Dogs finish a hard, tough race with some gutsy sprints on the track & football field. Daniel just misses All-Regional, coming in 11th. Isaiah fights thru some very serious pain to sprint in 17th - an inspiring finish. Sam is right behind in 25th, working to ignore his body's aches. Uriah & Colter ignore the fatigue and pain to come in 30th & 41st. Bridger, battling some major lower body issues, is 43rd, and has a truly inspiring sprint to the end. All he needs now is for someone to carry him back to camp! Bo, Josh and Ethan know that end-of-season fatigue, strains and aches are all a part of their race today - again, but they're able to fight thru to 48th, 52nd and 60th places. With 100 top Regional athletes running, the Bulldogs have competed like their mascot today. And our younger teammates have gotten some lessons in grit, determination and focus from our seniors.
Coming back to camp, arm in arm and singing Les Mis is an impressive display of team unity. (Nice job guys......."Les Miserable"?????? What????) Well, we ARE those quirky XC runners after all!
Coming back to camp, arm in arm and singing Les Mis is an impressive display of team unity. (Nice job guys......."Les Miserable"?????? What????) Well, we ARE those quirky XC runners after all!
While waiting for their race to begin, the Girls Team has been cheering for the guys and getting ready to run. Stretching, jogging, rolling out muscle knots & getting hydrated. Now it's our turn to go. We're going through all the same fatigue, muscle aches and pains that the guys are. We're also working thru the ligament strains, pains & pulls that annoy, distract and plague runners everywhere. Oh, how sick we are of those!! What, it's time to run? Ok, let's go!
The girls team gets off to a great start! We know we have to finish in the top 5 teams to move on, and we're in great position at the midway point. Jenna is leading the way, hanging around 5th place, with Jessica a couple of runners behind. A short distance back are Pamela & Emily, followed by Kaitlyn. Morgan is next, having fallen during the cornfield part of the run, then Hawah & Bethany follow. If we can hold on to these spots, or improve them, we'll be in perfect position for our finish. At this point it looks like we're running 3rd as a team, and if things break right we could compete for 2nd!
The girls are on the last mile. Can they hold up? The guys are screaming encouragement as they near the track.
The girls labor in to their finish. Jenna leads us off by overtaking a seemingly impossible close-out in the last few steps of her race to move into 5th place. Wow! That one didn't seem possible! Jessica follows by stepping onto the track with 3 other runners, then leaving them in the dust on her way to 9th place. Pamela steps onto the track a bit later, also in the middle of a pack of four. During the first 400 meters on the track, Pamela steadily pulls away from that group, then passes one more runner who'd had a healthy lead on her when they came into the stadium. Her speed & determination pull her up to 25th place. Kaitlyn is next, in this her first HUGE race of her brief XC career. She has no one close by to race or beat, but she closes out her first & last Regionals with a nice run to the line in 29th. Emily comes in 42nd, obviously struggling with her hip pain, but stoic as always. Lesser runners quit when stuff like this happens, but this one doesn't have that word in her vocab. All she knows is effort, determination, perseverance and great attitude. Morgan steps onto the track, pushing thru the foot/arch problems that have caused her to fall a couple of times today. Ignoring the pain, she pushes in to finish 46th. Next to appear is another senior - another hardworking, determined young lady. Hawah is on pace to a PR today, on a much slower course than the Liberty Bell (where everyone sets their PR). She sets foot on the track, and all her instincts kick in. It's a looooong sprint to the end but Hawah has a great finish to her only XC season. Finally, it's Bethany's turn to close out. Her pain is also obvious, but as the rest of her teammates did, she pushes in hard to the end.
The Boys Team is jubilant! We could have done better, but a 4th place finish means another week to run. Next week is State and we desperately wanted to reach that goal again.
Meanwhile, we're all crushed to learn that the Girls Team lost a tiebreaker and misses out on State. By 1 point. We celebrate with Jenna and Jessica being on the All-Regional Team, but carry heavy hearts knowing how close the girls came to reaching that place at State. It's a tough way to be reinforced, but we've all heard the coaches talk time & time again about how 'every point counts'. Now we know it much too personally.
The Bulldogs, while disappointed at the end, know that we've fought thru some tough times. We've done it the best way, too - together. We've been knocked down, but you can't keep us there. Next weekend the boys, along with Jenna & Jessica, will run at State. We hope to see everyone there as we look to top off the 2014 XC season the right way!
Meanwhile, we're all crushed to learn that the Girls Team lost a tiebreaker and misses out on State. By 1 point. We celebrate with Jenna and Jessica being on the All-Regional Team, but carry heavy hearts knowing how close the girls came to reaching that place at State. It's a tough way to be reinforced, but we've all heard the coaches talk time & time again about how 'every point counts'. Now we know it much too personally.
The Bulldogs, while disappointed at the end, know that we've fought thru some tough times. We've done it the best way, too - together. We've been knocked down, but you can't keep us there. Next weekend the boys, along with Jenna & Jessica, will run at State. We hope to see everyone there as we look to top off the 2014 XC season the right way!