Saturday, September 6th. The Bulldogs go to the St. Vrain Invitational at Lyons High School, Lyons. There's about a half a billion teams here, and it's a pretty exciting atmosphere. The 'Dogs are nursing some injuries, and hope to have both full teams compete today for the first time.
Today (is this even daytime? Coach, the bus is leaving school at 6am? 6AM? Seriously, these people need to start their meets at a more hospitable time!)
Today (is this even daytime? Coach, the bus is leaving school at 6am? 6AM? Seriously, these people need to start their meets at a more hospitable time!)
Camp is set up and we start to prepare for our races. Ankles need to be taped, muscles stretched (especially the 'yawn' muscles!) and timing chips must be securely laced into our shoes. We hear the National Anthem at 8, then at 8:10 the Varsity Girls begin.
We lose two teammates to sickness & muscle strains right before the race. It's tough to ramp up to being a full-time distance runner. Especially at a time when your body is growing and changing daily. It takes a lot of hard work and pain tolerance to build up to being a competitive high school cross country runner. Our team continues to work hard though.
Jenna again leads the girls thru a talent-heavy race. Jessica, Emily and Morgan all work it to the finish.
The girls get back to camp & rehydrate, then go over their race & what all happened on the course today. It's nice to be able to relax & kick back between races.
Next up: The Varsity Boys.
Next up: The Varsity Boys.
We got to run more guys than usual today for the Varsity Boys, and introduce more guys to a higher level of competition. That was fun, but we end with up more injuries and guys working their way thru some big-time pain. We'll need to spend a lot more time in ice baths, muscle relaxing and stretching in the next week. These tough miles put a lot of stress on young muscles, and one of the toughest thing for young athletes to learn is that those stretches, icing, eating right and getting enough sleep are all very important things. We've got to do those things regularly - not just at practice.
The boys running the JV race today push hard thru the course and finish with some nice sprint close-outs at the end. It's a long 3 miles against some very tough competition, but that last 100 meters feels a heckuva lot better as you're passing other color jerseys like they're standing still!
The girls running JV today also come out & work their way thru a long 3.1 miles. It's tough, it's hard and we've got a number of new runners here. But there's a lot of heart and a lot of great effort - including Hawah's transformation from a 100 meter sprinter to a DISTANCE RUNNER....until the last 100 meters. Then it's back to being a sprint champ! Wow - we get treated each week to some great finishes and this week is no exception. At the end there's a lot of great hugs and empathy for how hard this distance stuff really is.
In the end, we congratulate Dale on his first major top ten finish - 7th place today! And then we get back to what we do best - have some fun, enjoy all the personalities and get refreshed.
Usually we incorporate Ron's photos and George's photos into one page. Today, along with that, we're going to show some of George's work at the end here all by itself. We missed some opportunities because of some blurry photos (that's what happens when you runners go by us old guys TOO FAST!!!!), so sorry that some of your shots didn't work out this week. But here's some of George's hard work to honor the team which works so hard.
Usually we incorporate Ron's photos and George's photos into one page. Today, along with that, we're going to show some of George's work at the end here all by itself. We missed some opportunities because of some blurry photos (that's what happens when you runners go by us old guys TOO FAST!!!!), so sorry that some of your shots didn't work out this week. But here's some of George's hard work to honor the team which works so hard.
The day is done. Because of all the injuries, our team scores didn't reflect our work today. But the important part of this is that it's another building block towards the end of the seasons races. We're learning and getting better every day. Join us next week at one of the great regional meets - The Liberty Bell Invitational!