What's up Flrunners? I can't believe that the season is over already. I hope that everyone really enjoyed their seasons. I'm really sad that my high school cross country career has come to an end. States this year was my favorite race of my entire school and I'm so glad I could end my season on a good note.
My teammates and I were really excited about state finals. Thursday night, we had a team dinner at Casey Cuerton's house. 
We messed around, bonded, TP-ed a teammates car, and played a hydration game. It was a lot of fun and it was a good way for us to relax before going to states.
Friday morning, we left for Tallahassee. It's like a 5 hour bus ride, which can be boring, but we made it interesting. I was particularly entertained by a surprise YouTube video that my best friend Erin Waterman made, wishing me good luck from her and all of my closest friends (here is the link if you want to check it out http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
My teammates and I went into states with one goal: to give it everything we had. We warmed up in many layers, stretched, got our spikes on, and headed to the line. We were so excited, but also nervous. We all wanted to do well for the team. The gun went off and states had begun!
I made my way to the lead pack and I stayed there for the first two miles. There was a pack of about six girls through the first two miles. At two miles, Julie Wollrath sprinted away from the pack. I also broke off from the path. I felt like I was going to die towards the end of the race, but I told myself that Coach Joe Burgasser said I wouldn't die and to keep pushing (Coach Joe is my club coach and he is awesome and helps me a lot). I kept my distance from the pack to finish as the runner-up in 18:22. Congrats to Julie on another state title, and congrats to every other state champ, and everyone who ran at states!
After I finished I was so excited that I literally felt I was in a dream. I stayed at the line and cheered for the rest of the 1A runners. Then, I headed back to the Shorecrest tent, and everyone was hugging me and congratulating me. I even heard a funny story about how my dad was on the restricted inside part of the course and almost got arrested by a sheriff.
My teammates and I then watched the boys race and they did amazing! Some of them PRed, and Luke Peterson placed 9th, 
getting a medal. Ross was 11th and had a great last race. The boys placed third as a team and I am so proud of them. Our girls team placed 4th as a team and we were a little disappointed to not get third like we did last year, but we are still very proud of our 4th place finish.
On the bus ride back, we stopped at Publix and bought a bunch of junk food. We passed around cookies, cookie dough, chips and other cookies on the drive back to St. Pete. We also had multiple nerf fun wars, intense hot potato games, and lots of singing, dancing, and jumping on the seats.
Cross county has been such a big part of my life and I will remember it forever. I've been so lucky to have the best Coaches (Cuff, Burgasser, Mr and Mrs Raab), teammates (Olivia , Sophia, Savannah, Kai, Peninah, Rachel, Caya, Josh(es), Justin, Luke, Casey, Ross, Chris, and Matt ), and experiences. I can't wait to run at the collegiate level, but I'm really going to miss high school cross country season.
Although, cross country is not completely over. I'm doing Foot Locker south as my official last race. Good luck to everyone going to Foot Locker or Nike. Thanks so much to Todd and Jason for letting me blog this season and thanks to whoever read my blogs. I hope you liked them! Happy running!
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