Trey LaNasa: What's Happening In The Panhandle

Hey there again Flrunners! The panhandle is feeling great now that the temperature is now in the 80's instead of the 90's. The ramp up in training is palpable, the times are dropping faster, and competition is only getting better. There were two meets on the docket from this weekend, Gulf Coast Cross Country Stampede and Ram Run.

The Ram Run was located in Panama City and hosted essentially the PCB teams such as Arnold, Bay, Mosley, Rutherford, and then outliers like Wewa and Marianna.

Ironically the winner in the male race, Hunter Potts, ran as an individual coming out of Graceville High School with a time of 16:43. On the girl’s side, this meet saw some domination by the Arnold girls with the top two finishers. I ran this race last year. The course has some sand and is mostly wide open going around baseball fields and ponds and what not.  Not a particularly fast course if I remember correctly and if there is anything we have an excess of here in North West Florida its sand and there is plenty.

The other meet this weekend was the Gulf Coast Cross Country Stampede. With six races between college, varsity, and JV runners the course got a lot of use this past Saturday. With almost 40 high school teams showing up I think it might have been the biggest race in all of Florida this weekend. I was super excited to race at the Equestrian Center because I kept hearing how fast the course is and how awesome everyone ran the previous years! We may not have been fighting the mud and rain like some other meets but we fought some dirt, and sand. As a sand hater I was dismayed but vigilant in my positive thinking attitude that keeps me focused for the race. As my momma once told me, “if you go up to the line with an excuse, you're already beat”.  The best part of the meet was watching the college athletes go at it on both the girls and guys sides. While the guys side was completely lopsided for the win, the girls was a very interesting back and forth competition. (We were watching from the sides as the top girls just rolled past us at the one mile mark).

I actually spent a good amount of time watching the girls race as the course is set up to see them run at least half of it within eye sight of spectators, which was very cool. You may ask, why call it the great stampede? The answer lies at the start. The start of the race is like a funnel, but not exactly because on one side is a ton of sand and dirt that you can run through, but seriously who wants to race in dirt when there is grass five yards over?. This created a huge exodus with everyone just KILLING the start. Watching the girls you pick up so much about how to start, how everyone goes, what it's like and such.  It was awesome to look at, but not to experience. Some awesome out of state competition was present with top teams from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and even Louisiana. Fortunately our Fort Walton girls pulled out the team title! Good job ladies.

Some in race perspective from Maclay senior Elizabeth Santoro:

"At the stampede race, it was cool to be able to watch the collegiate races and then run the same course. Though the sand was definitely a challenging aspect to the race, the course was a good opportunity for fast times, as two of our girls got PRs and one was in the top ten."

The guys’ race was much the same in terms of starts. Our team planned on getting out hard and settling out with the top group running what seems to be our trade mark pack. After the start, we went into the woods and hit some sand and a small portion of mud. Nearing the  one mile mark with three of my buds, we were safely tucked into the steadily declining amount of runners in the lead group. Surprisingly, local celebrities Thomas and Nick were only about ten meters ahead. Saying the gap would increase would definitely be an understatement. The second mile was a myriad of surges and pace changes to shake various charges from several out of state runners. The race may have not been our fastest, but we ran it flawlessly as a team. I wish I had a video of the chase pack of guys zigzagging through the sand to find hard land and intense pace changes which were just awesome on the legs! Nearing the two-mile in about 10:25-10:30 (later stages of a race: functions such as seeing and hearing correctly no longer occur) we were feeling all right running as a trio with two of our other runners just 10-15 yards back. The third mile back in the open air and sun wasn’t the best of feelings but we got it done and it was a solid effort. Glad to see everyone out, racing well, and the region showing up in force to a great event.  I’m also loving my t-shirt!

UP NEXT: FLRUNNERS

It’ll be the first huge meet to test the panhandle talent against the best in the state. All in all, missing a full day of school and tests on Friday, running on Saturday, and hitting up Universal Horror Night all Saturday night, this weekend sounds like it’ll be hard to beat.

“No rules, no stopping, no pity. Take what’s yours.”

 

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