Wow. Wow. Wow. What a past few days it has been. As many of you guys know, our team qualified, for the first time ever, to NXN. I really do not know where to start. Every ten minutes it hits me how surreal the experience was. I am truly speechless and in awe of what happened. Our team knew from our training that we were capable of qualifying, but going out and doing it is completely different. Words cannot describe how close our team is, and to make it to Portland with them is truly a dream. Making it to NXN has been a dream of this team since I was still in diapers. In 2010 we were capable of making it as we had won Great American earlier that season, and were ranked 13th at one point with five guys sub-16. That season was a fuel to this team's fire. When we found out that we had advanced, one of the first things on our minds was that team in 2010. That team made all of us push a little harder during workouts, made us get to sleep a little bit earlier, and made us race with more guts. I remember my freshman and sophomore year I would watch every interview, race video, and workout that involved them because they were my inspiration. I know for a fact that this team would not be where we are if it were not for those men who walked and paved the road before us.
Leading up to the race most of us were calm, confident, and hungry as we performed well the preceding week, and our training was right where it needed to be. The time flew by and before we knew it our feet toed the starting line. Before the gun went off I reminded the team to lean on each other when we are hurting because that is what brothers are for. Out of all the crazy things that could have taken control of my mind right before the gun went off, the one thing that I thought about was all the support behind us. Everyone in our school, everyone in the state, all of the small schools were right there- ready to go through the pain with us. Then we took off.
I am not sure what our 400m split was, but I would not be surprised if it was close to 60 flat. At the bottom of the hill I looked around to realize that our top five was leading the race. It was scary but calming at the same time because in 2010 we were out of the race from the start as the boys got wedged in the middle in almost dead last. After about 1200 meters, us five got separated amongst the herd of racers. However, Chas was next to me. We ran through the mile in about 4:42 and did not panic. After what seemed to be a 5-minute span, I was at the base of the final hill. I passed one or two guys to finish in 12th. I turned around immediately to count our guys. I saw Chas right away. I waited, waited, and then came Jesse. I started to panic because as each second passed, more kids flooded in. Then came Patty. "Oh no" I thought as I could not spot Kayamo. After what seemed to be an eternity, finally Kayamo came up the hill to finish. I congratulated him and told him that he did his best and that was all we asked for. The team kind of separated for a little bit as we were accepting 5th place at best. We waited and waited and waited until finally the male team awards were announced. I was with Chas toward the stage because we just got individual awards while the rest of the crew was toward the back. We were holding on to each other as each team was called, starting from like 15th place. It got to 10th and with every team called our hands squeezed tighter. 7th, 6th, "oh here we go" we thought, as he called 5th. At this point our heads were pointed toward the ground with our eyes shut. 4th was not us. My heart was racing. This was it. What the heck was going on?! An hour ago I would have laughed if a man said we were 3rd. Finally they announced it. It was not us. Chas and I screamed so loud and then ran to our team. This was unreal. "What happened?" we thought. It was pure joy. We got on stage to accept the second place trophy and an automatic bid to NXN.
This was a dream and I was ready to wake up. Luckily, I did not wake up and I am currently putting off packing for the trip to Portland, which we leave for tomorrow morning.
Now we are ready to enjoy the trip and ready to run with nothing to lose. Thank you to everyone who made this dream a reality. We could not have done it without you. -Thatcher
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