There are those of us who go through life with disadvantages that could limit our true potential, if we let them. Fortunately, in today’s politically correct society, our hopes are no longer smitten by embarrassing labels, and others are willing to extend a helping hand when needed. I know this, as well as anyone, because I am among those who call themselves the “directionally challenged.”
I’ll never forget the embarrassment of my first college cross country meet. Despite having—as I remember it—hundreds of other runners to follow, I got lost! But that was nothing to compare to my returning to campus to find that my “friends” had placed signs, beginning at the entryway to my dorm, and ending at my room, each of which read “Ralph’s Room” with an arrow underneath it. Oh the shame!
Today, of course, we have Mapquest, GPS, and when things go really wrong, On Star. I generally depend upon more than one. But to use these clever devices, you first have to know your destination. As the listing for this meet was seriously lacking in any directions, I e-mailed Jim Lowenstein (who told me about it) for guidance. His exact response was: We’re going out SR44 and then south on some road down to SR50. It’s in south Lake County.”
I thought, “Am I missing something here?” So I tried map-questing it, but Mapquest can be quite uncooperative without a destination, with all those little flags popping up on the screen (none of which says what you want it to). And, although my GPS eventually found its satellite, I had no way of knowing if it would find a “Trailhead Park” in Florida, or Costa Rico.
So I called Lake County Parks. That was a good move. Park Rangers are our friends. Even when they know absolutely nothing, they can fake it so professionally, that we walk away feeling that we’ve truly been enlightened. But we diverge. Eventually—and I can’t remember the exact sequence of events—one of the phone calls I made was answered by Don DeNoon (the race director).
“Don here.”
“Can you tell me where the meet is?”
(Silence, which I assume meant that he was looking around.)
“It’s in Minneola. Where are you coming from?”
“Deland. Can you give me a physical address?”
“I don’t think there is one. It’s a park.”
“How about a house, is there a house nearby?”
“Yes, across the street.” I heard him say to someone, “Run over to that house and get their address.” To me, he said “Call me back in five minutes.’”
So I did.
“1514 Madison Street, in Minneola.”
I thought, “Isn’t Mineola on Long Island, a stone’s throw from Queens?” I didn’t want to go there. To Don, I said “Thank you very much.” I keyed the information into my Garmin GPS, and hoped for the best.
The trip, other than being long, was not especially eventful, and I got there just in time to see that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know exactly where they were going. In fact, I didn’t even know that she had won the race until the second runner sprinted by…which is why her finish is not among the other photos.
Girls Varsity Race
Mt. Dora sophomore Ashley Heitling is no stranger to taking a circuitous route to her destination.
“Last time, too, I got lost,” she reminisced. “I didn’t know where to go. They said, ‘Go left…go right…go left.’ I said, ‘Just point!’ This time I promised myself not to get lost.”
Until the chute.
“Until the chute. Leave it to me. I have a little story, every time I run!”
One of her recent big adventures occurred at The September 28th Villages Invitational.
“I was late, so I had to run with the JV, and it was boys and girls mixed. I was up with the leaders, a group of Circle Christian boys. They were just practicing on the course, because that is where their districts will be, so they shouldn’t have been running that fast. Their coach said, ‘You shouldn’t be running that fast.’ But then he saw me and corrected himself. He said ‘No, no, you have to pace her.’
“I finished third (in a 19:37.40 PR). Now we know each other. It was really cool to expand that friendship to a new ‘circle.’”
Actually her time was first among the “JV Girls,” and would have been second to the Girls Varsity winner, Mollie Jones (Geneva School), who won in 19:21.90.
“When we ran here last time—The East Ridge-South Lake Open,--I also won (20:38). I felt that the course (today) was a lot better. They took out the ‘drainage area’ (hence the Warning sign). There were a lot of ups and down (which she illustrated with her hands). Other than that, it was really great.”
Although she didn’t lead the whole way, Ashley said “I felt that I was in control. I used the girl from South Lake, I believe her name was Holly (Blackburn, second in 20:51) to my advantage. Having a constant person in front of you pushes you, because it gives you motivation to get to the finish (first).
So Ashley won her second race in a month, even though she didn’t actually cross the finish line. She ran past the finish, hung a U-ey, came in from the left side, and ducked in under the flags. I, like everyone around the chute area, was thinking, “Where is she going?”
The course, a confusing three-loop configuration that could best be described as a figure eight that had been man-handled by an angry Hulk, resulted in runners coming and going every which way. Sometimes they seemed to know where they were going, and sometimes they weren’t (going where they should be). I asked, first a high school runner, then his coach, for a description of the route.
Deland’s Dale Papineau said “You go around the mud bog, then around here (a sort of picnic area), then around a ball field, up a steep hill—Florida-wise; not long but steep (and he illustrated with his hand angled at about 135 degrees)—along a bike path, down the Hill…and that’s one loop.”
Got that?
“But wearing spikes is questionable,” added one of his varsity runners. “There’s holes everywhere. The Slope (as opposed to the Hill) is like this--his hand turned over like an airplane doing a barrel roll—then you hit a strip of concrete.”
Listening to this was the main reason that I missed the Girls Varsity finish, but let’s not miss Ashley’s second finish.
“I didn’t take the lead until the final lap, when we had a quarter mile left. It was in this last part, a downhill. It was cool.”
Boys Varsity Race
This race, except for Ashley’s creative finish, was a pretty close copy of the Girls Varsity. Mt. Dora’s Zach Mclain (with a 5K PR of 17:18) is a senior, looking forward to attending the University of Miami next year, and eventually becoming a cardiologist.
“I ran this course before, but it was a lot different. It was (speculated) to be 800 meters longer and the times were terrible.
This race, however, belonged to Zach.
“I followed the top two runners, from Tavares and Seabreeze. The Tavares kid goes out in surges. You catch him, and then he goes out again. It hurts your self-esteem. When you get in front, you think ‘I caught him.’ Then he sprints ahead, and you say ‘No, I don’t.
“I caught him right before we started on the second mile. He took off because he knew people were going to be cheering for him. A couple of hundred yards after that he dropped back and I caught him again. I led the rest of the race.”
Zach would be challenged one more time before he crossed the finish line.
“I heard him (Deland’s Ken Paneira) behind me with 800 meters to go. My coach said ‘If you don’t sprint now, you’re not going to win.’ I’m not used to leading. There’s usually a guy (in his races) who runs a 15, and I’m following him. I had some doubts about winning (today), but it turns out he wasn’t that close.
From Paneira’s perspective, Mclain wasn’t that “soft.”
“I tried to catch him,” said Paneira, “but I couldn’t.
“I was in fourth place. In the last lap, the Seabreeze runners started to slow down. I tried to take advantage of that by speeding up. My Mom said, “Keep it loose and let go. She was a track runner, and ran the 800. I passed them both.”
Although he hasn’t won a race, Paneira (a freshman) has been putting together a string of top five finishes in recent weeks and may not be all that far from the big day when he is first to the clock.
JV Race
Before catching up to the third straight Mt. Dora winner, Maximillian DeLaRosa, the Canes coach caught up to me.
“He surprised me,” said Andy Douglas. “I didn’t think he had it in him today, but he said that he did. He just doesn’t like to lose. He was #1, and he’s going to try to win.
“Last year, he ran varsity, but he got hurt. He’s trying to work his way back. The season may be too far along for him to be #1 again, but he’ll help us make another win in Lake County and Districts.”
DeLaRosa, who ran a 17:30.88 PR in the 2A District 3 Meet—finishing 6th out of 80,—was a big part of Mt. Dora’s second place finish last November 4th. (Crystal River was 12 points ahead with 50). More than anything, he’d like to reverse that order before he graduates this year.
“I was trying to help the team today, compete with the best, and prove to people that we deserve respect. I have a messed up knee, my ACL. I could have done better, but it was a warm up…to get to where I should be. I also want to motivate the team to get better. By the end of the season, by Districts, I know we’ll do great.”
DeLaRosa’s finishing time is up to speculation (19:45 with a question mark in my steno book.). The Girls’ JV winner was Grace Gaffney (26:30), of Foundation Academy. Being in the last race of the day, she ran right past me, through the chutes and onto an already idling bus….Okay, so I made that last part up. I just couldn’t find her in time for an interview before all the buses roared away. (First team to McDonald’s eats first!)
TEAM RESULTS/FOOTNOTES
A number of last minute team entries overwhelmed the scoring process, so as of this writing they were not available. I was offered a clue to this surge in popularity by someone who never fails to see the BIG picture. Included in that infamous, aforementioned email, an always budget conscious Jim Lowenstein wrote, “It’s within 50 miles of our county line, there’s no entry fee, and there’s no school the next day for the kids…It’s a beautiful thing!!!
