Wow! What an exciting past two weekends filled with cross country! Last weekend, I raced in the Flrunners.com Invitational in Titusville. Going into the race I was faced with a bad head cold, but I was determined not to let it bring me down. This is one of my favorite courses throughout the entire season because it always brings the best competition and is traditionally known to be a very fast course; a chance to run a PR. Thankfully, the temperature dropped making it ideal running weather. I raced in the Race Of Champions with amazing and tough competition, like Kacy Smith, Shelby Davidson, Bridget Blake, and Sarah Candiano. We all pushed each other throughout every second of the race, competing for the first place title. I am very grateful to say, I came in first running a PR of 17:35. Previously, my personal best was an 18:15. I was really excited and honored to have finally enter into the 17’s. As a team, Lakewood Ranch placed third to Estero and Ferguson. We knew we would be faced with tough competition and needed to run our best in order to place. All in all, everyone did their best and enjoyed the overall meet experience.
This past weekend, I ran in the Disney Invitational in the girls 3A race. The weather conditions were similar to the Deja Vu Invitational. Throughout the entire morning, rain was on and off making the course extremely wet and muddy, adding afun twist to the race. My second year running at Disney, I knew there would be a long, hidden trail for most of the race and the rest on a grass surface. From Estero, Kacy Smith and I pushed each other throughout the race. Kacy is a phenomenal competitor that will always push me in each and every race. We both kept switching the lead in the first half of the race, especially in the muddy trail portion. All throughout the race we had to find the right footing in the many muddy areas, making the race a little difficult, but of course still fun. Thankfully, I was able to place first with a time of 17:56. I was pleased with my performance under 18, considering the tough weather conditions, consisting of rain, wind, and mud. Lakewood Ranch came in second to Estero. I could not be anymore pleased with everyone’s effort. As a team, we just need to continue to work hard and run our best on race day. Specifically for this weekend, we all knew the faster we would run the faster the race would be over and then we could start preparing for our Homecoming Dance in the evening.
Overall, I am extremely pleased with both of my performances. But I know I need to continue to train hard and could always, always do better. Next weekend, is the Pre-State Invitational in Dade City. I am very excited and know that it will be a highly intense race, facing the best competition in the state of Florida.
What a great cross country weekend! This weekend the Lakewood Ranch team and I ran in the Mountain Dew Invitational at the University of Florida. We all stayed in a hotel the night before since Gainesville is a three hour drive from Lakewood Ranch. That always makes for great fun and bonding time as a team. I was very excited and focused about this race throughout this week. As a team, we were excited about racing on the Gator campus again and then the opportunity to watch the college races, which is really inspiring before the start of our race. - 2011-09-26 10:20:00
My name is Olivia Ortiz and I am a junior at Lakewood Ranch. First, I want to say thank you to flrunners for letting me contribute to their incredible website! What a great opportunity and honor to be apart of. What an amazing start to the 2011 season with the first two races having intense competition, forcing everyone to get into race mode. Opening race last week was the Déjà vu Invitational in Tampa also know as the “mudfest”. - 2011-09-19 11:40:00
Wow! What an exciting past two weekends filled with cross country! Last weekend, I raced in the Flrunners.com Invitational in Titusville. Going into the race I was faced with a bad head cold, but I was determined not to let it bring me down. This is one of my favorite courses throughout the entire season because it always brings the best competition and is traditionally known to be a very fast course; a chance to run a PR. Thankfully, the temperature dropped making it ideal running weather. I raced in the Race Of Champions with amazing and tough competition, like Kacy Smith, Shelby Davidson, Bridget Blake, and Sarah Candiano. We all pushed each other throughout every second of the race, competing for the first place title. I am very grateful to say, I came in first running a PR of 17:35. Previously, my personal best was an 18:15. I was really excited and honored to have finally enter into the 17’s. As a team, Lakewood Ranch placed third to Estero and Ferguson. We knew we would be faced with tough competition and needed to run our best in order to place. All in all, everyone did their best and enjoyed the overall meet experience.
