New England Championships 11/08/09 - 11/15/09

NEW ENGLANDS

was so epic. Just ask the kid beside me who yelled "THIS IS SO EPIC" during the first 200m of the muddy and wet Wickham park course. I had to smile when he said that. But he was so right! Mud was flying up absolutely everywhere! I was getting hit by mud all over (even up to my hair!). I wanted to redeem myself so badly in this race because after states and I think I did. It was kinda weird: my odd numbered post season races #1 (KVAC) and # 3(States) were pretty bad... but my even numbered races #2 (Regionals) and #4 (New Englands) went really well! I placed 9th out of the Maine guys at NE's and 43rd total. I was 23rd out of Maine guys last week so I am pretty happy with the improvement. Last year I was 82nd at New Englands. My time wasn't all that impressive... but I really don't care. The race was so much fun.

The Race: The starting line was just as big as I remember. There was actually the same # of runners as last year (266). I got to be in a box with a bunch of out of state kids and I talked with one of the about USATF from last year. He was on a team we competed against and he remembered us. When the gun went off I got squeezed out a little bit but I made a move up at about 150m into the race to get a good position. I was already covered with a pretty good amount of mud after only 400m (awesome). Things didn't seem to be going out really really fast, although it was definitely faster than last year. I could still see the lead guys for a while which I thought was good. I had no idea where I was in terms of place but I could tell I was up a lot farther than last year. I felt pretty good throughout the entire race, there wasn't the energy drain like States and KVACs. The mud did make the race pretty slow overall but there is no way it would have been as fun without it. I think I would have been able to place better without it but it doesn't really matter.

(me looking cool)

At that big hill I tried to run up pretty stong and I picked off a couple of people. Running the course was weird because you would work hard up the hills but get no rest going down-hill. You had to work to keep yourself from falling. The worst part was just after the two mile. There was a long gradual down hill which I wanted to run fast on SO BADLY but I couldn't because I couldn't control where my feet went! The finish was pretty flat except for the last 100m and I think I finished pretty strong. The chute was slippery just like the announcer said and I saw a lot of slipping tired kids.


SPEAKING OF SLIPPING:

Absolutely the best part of the meet-

Sliding down the hill at the end was so sick. You could go so far! You also got to taste mud.... Which was worth it based on the fun level of the activity.

Well, this is the end of XC (for many of us). It was an incredible season. Whether or not you had the season you were really hoping for, you have to recognize that it was a great season and a lot of fun and awesome things happened. I wish good luck to all in XC who are continuing their season and a huge good luck to everyone in their winter sport!

XC 09 :) -Seeks

P.S.
I got back to Maine hours later and then went to Farmington with Nic! So much driving in a day but so worth it! We ate a good breakfast the next day (fruit + muffins!!!!) and then went to Mandy Edwards' balloon release at EA. So many nice balloons! We came back later and decided to run through puddles and splash everywhere. I definitely hadn't had enough rain and mud for the weekend :)

Maine State XC Championships 11/02/09 - 11/08/09

The 2009 Maine XC season is almost over with only New Englands left (which I just BARELY made)! I can still remember everything just starting off with the Cony Laliberte Invitational. It seems like a long time ago, but the memories are still very fresh. The state meet has come and gone and, truthfully, I didn't make my time or place goals for the meet at all (not even close really). But I have decided to use my frustrated-ness to finish my XC season on a high note at New Englands and train hard going into indoor track to kick some butt! I am pretty annoyed with my post-season but every time I think about it I get a little more fired up for later races.

My training the week of states really wasn't much. It really just included easy runs and an easy speed workout on the track.

The class B race began at 1:15 in the afternoon but my day of states really started at 7:00 when I got up and ate honey-nut cheerios for breakfast. Our school had decided to take a bus down to bring anyone down who wanted to watch the meet. It had been decided that the bus was going to leave at 8:15, so that's when I was going to have to be there. The reason for the early time was so Eben and I could run the course before the "A" races started. I had only ever seen the course once and Eben hadn't seen it at all. The bus ride down went as usual. We all just listened to music and danced/partied on the bus.

When we got the I admit that I got pretty nervous. This definitely isn't unusual at a big meet for me, but I hadn't felt that nervous for a while so it just seemed weird. Eben and I ran over the course and hung around watching the other races. People were running so fast! As our race time approached we did some more warming up and eventually got down to the starting line. The start actually felt really good. It was, of course, fast but it wasn't bad at all. Then Frye started to take off and from there everybody started chasing and things stretched out.

I felt ok at the beginning of the race but pretty soon I started feeling my energy drain, a feeling that you don't normally get until about 400m to go. It just felt like there was no gas. Logan Price came up next to me for a while and I used him to push up for a little while.

After he pushed away I was running alone for quite a while. I couldn't really see people all that close in front of me and I couldn't hear people behind me (yet). After I climbed the wall at the end Tim Follo caught up to me and I tried to reach for that end of the race push but came up empty. I just kinda watched him run away from me. Here's me looking tired at the end:

Eben did have a pretty good race, however. Considering the course he ran to a very strong time in 17:44. He doesn't look to bad in his pictures:

Nicole Showed up to the meet and made me feel better and people tried to cheer me up and it helped but I was still pretty bummed. I really wasn't sure if I had made New Englands after the B race so I had to stay around and see the C race. As it turns out I was 23rd out of 25 so I made it but was really close. Now I have another meet to take out my XC-sub-par-post-season-rage on! Yes that is all one word!

But really XC season was great this year. The team grew quite a bit and everyone ran a lot of times that they were very happy with.

Next week!!! The (heroic) end to XC! I have already decided that NE's will be great! Good luck to all racers. Make it good!

Eastern Maine Regionals 10/19/09 - 11/01/09

After two weeks of waiting regionals finally came and I am so glad that they did! With an unexpected delay in the season our team just had to plan out another week of training (not a big deal). However, we had to keep ourselves pumped up for the important meet during the time off (a very big deal). The boys were definitely ready to have a better race than at KVAC's (I know I was). I made sure the guys knew how important every second they could take off was. 10 seconds off one of their times could mean as much as 4 or 5 places.


Training (since KVAC's)

Monday October 19- easy 5 mile + strength workout


Tuesday October 20- Hard 3 mile + track work (200's)


Wednesday October 21- Track work (repeat 1200's + long warm up)


Thursday October 22- Easy 3


Friday October 23- Rest Day before Regionals NOT! 4 mile run.


Saturday October 24- Regionals NO! 7 mile run

Sunday October 25- Rest Day went to movies with Nic and saw CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS! Very funny and very cute. Ate popcorn by myself because not everyone in the world has recognized the magic of buttered popcorn.


Monday October 26- 5 mile easy. good warm up.


Tuesday October 27- Track work 2x800, 2x400, 2x200. Faster than race pace.


Wednesday October 28- Medium pace 3 mile + 200's


Thursday October 29- easy 3

Friday October 30- rest before regionals no really this is for real this time.


Saturday October 31- Regionals! Very windy yet pretty warm. 16:30.72. Volunteered in the haunted house in Augusta and scared some kiddies. Drove to Farmington and watched some cheesy Halloween movies.

Sunday November 1- Rest Day. Hung out with Nic!

Regionals - Much better than the day regionals was originally scheduled for. It was almost 60 degrees at the meet which wasn't bad at all. The wind made it feel a little chilly but overall the weather was really not bad for a race. I made sure the guys did plenty of warm up + mobility exercises before the race. I didn't want anyone to have stiff muscles. The course didn't look too bad and even by the time the class B boys race was ready to go (the 4th race of the day) things weren't too muddy. We lined up in box 13 only to be moved to box 8 (our girls team had box 13....). We did our run outs and were ready to go. The race started and, like usual, went out fairly fast in the first 100. Surprisingly, though, the pace didn't stay as fast at the beginning as I thought it would. I had based a lot of my race strategy off of a fast start. But when the first 800 was definitely slower than I expected I decided to take over and push it out. I knew that Ryan James, Darik Frye, Ben Chapman, and Gabe Stewart were moving positions around behind me but I wasn't quite sure where. A quick check going around a corner about 600m after the mile mark told me that Gabe Stewart was right on me.

From there I just tried to keep the pace up and eventually crossed in 16:30, not my best at Belfast but better than KVAC's! Eben had an amazing race to PR in 17:22. Spencer Gray also busted out an amazing PR with his 19:36.

The awards ceremony had its cool factor increased by at least 3 points when THE Ryan Widzgowski and myself did an awesome handshake + chest bump. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZrdFKhgWs8

Oh and if any of you went to the haunted house in Augusta (at the old circuit city) on the night of Halloween I was the Werewolf in the camping room... Not the scariest room in the house but I did my best.

NEXT WEEK! States @ Twin Brook in Cumberland. Good luck to everyone! Its gonna be good!