(Photo by Cedric Gillette)
Wow! What a crazy season it has been. As you all know, I missed out on the first couple of months to the season. Therefore, in order to get enough meets in, I had to race back into shape.I ran a total of six races within a month. I would definitely not recommend using your races to get back into shape, but I was left with no other choice. I was running times that I had not ran since seventh grade. I ran in the 20s three times. My coach just kept telling me to be patient. She told me I just needed more time on my feet.
I can't say I really believed her until I ran the Trinity Catholic Invitational. This was the first time I had broken 19 this season. However, the following week I returned to running in the 20s. I came to the conclusion that Trinity Catholic must have been a short course. I remember thinking to myself, "what a mess." State was in a couple of weeks and I was still running in the 20s. I ran a little bit better at regionals but was still not where I needed to be.
The week of state was finally here. I was more excited for state this year than I had ever been. I have no idea why I was looking forward to it so much. To me, the state meet is more than just a race. It's a time when the whole cross country community comes together. Everybody respects each other and shares a common goal. It is when you get to see all of your hard work pay off. In my opinion, the state meet is mainly mental. I believe that most of the top runners are in very similar shape and it all comes down to who wants it more that day.
Due to the fact that I was the only one from our team to make it to state, I didn't have practice at the school the week prior to state. Coach gave me the day off on Thursday, so I went to Chick-fil-A with the team. Afterwards, when I got home, I felt really sick. I thought it was the chicken but nobody else was sick. I threw up all Thursday night, but was feeling a little bit better Friday morning. However, my dad suggested that we don't go to state because I would not run my best and may get sick again. This was the most absurd thing I had ever heard.I called my mom to tell her, and turns out she was sick too. So, I called my brother and he told me I had to go. There was no way I was going to miss out on the state meet, even if I had to crawl through it. I convinced my dad to take us.
We arrived to the course around five. I had only eaten some trail mix because I was having a hard time keeping anything down. I started to run the course and felt decent through the first mile. However, the second mile was a little rough. Some old guy flew past me and I looked down at my watch only to realize that I was struggling at an 8:30 pace. Yikes! I jogged to "the wall" where I was forced to stop and throw up. At this point, I was accepting the fact that this was just not my year. The rest of the night I laid in bed and prayed that I would feel better the next morning. My friends were telling me to keep a positive attitude and just see how I felt in the morning, that it might go away. My coach put zero pressure on me and told me the decision was up to me.
I woke up Saturday morning and felt alright. I planned to get to the course earlier enough to warm up so that I could race. I ran my warm up and felt fine. I told my dad and coach that I thought I would be able to finish the race. I ended up placing tenth. I broke 19 as well and was very pleased with how things turned out. Great job to everybody who competed! Also, congrats to Gabe for becoming a state champ!
