Hey Flrunners! I hope that everyone has enjoyed the first two weeks of the season. It looks like everyone is off to a great start. Last Thursday, my teammates and I had our first meet. It was the Indian Rocks Christian Season Opener at Taylor Lake Park. Sixteen schools competed in this meet and Indian Rocks did a great job putting it together. This meet was a challenge, but it was also really fun!
Because of threatening skies, the meet had to start like 45 minutes earlier. The varsity boys started at 4:45, two minutes ahead of the varisty girls. Having to run around and through a bunch of boys was quite a challenge. Also, having to pass people running a slower pace then myself was a challenge, but some of the boys were pretty cool and cheered me on as I passed them.
The conditions for the race were rough to say the least. There was mud everywhere and there was no shade on the course from the 4:45 p.m. Florida sun. It was probably 95 degrees plus humidity. I'm pretty sure when I stepped in this one puddle my entire shoe was underground.
Our team didn't know what to think about running after the boys, so I decided to make a game of it. For every boy that they passed over ten boys, I would give them that many cookies the next day at practice. We all were so exhausted while running that we lost count, so I just brought a ton of cookies to practice the next day.
Even with the toughest conditions, my team did great. I ran 19:40 and won. My teammate Olivia Rovin finished 3rd, and Sophia Vesley finished 4th, both running under 21 minutes. Savannah Broome finished 8th, and Kai Greenless finished 12th to give us a 28 score for the win.
Quick shout out to 8th grader Brooke Santiesteban for getting second. This girl is going to have a great season, and a great high school career.
It was so weird to run my last first cross country meet of high school. Since I'm a senior, I'm always thinking about my "last___" for everything. I'm still not used to being a senior, but it does have some serious perks, like... official visits.
Speaking of official visits: This past weekend I got the opportunity to official visit Columbia University. What an amazing school in the best city ever! I had so much fun and I met so many awesome people. I even got to go see the Armory which is where Columbia trains in the winter. How cool is that? The Columbia team and coaching staff made sure I had a perfect weekend. I'm actually writing this in the NYC airport while I wait for my plane.
This Friday my teammates and I will head up to Gainesville for the UF Mountain Dew invite. This has always been one of my favorite meets, so I am pretty pumped! Good luck to everyone in cross country (and school) this week.
I'll sign off with my favorite saying that I always remind my teammates "We GET to run!" Running is such an amazing thing we shouldn't take for granted.
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