My name is Lauren Gonzalez and I am a senior at John A. Ferguson Senior High School. Having run for four years I can definitely say that this year so far has brought great achievements to our girls' varsity team and myself as an individual.
Since my time on Fergusons cross country program we have placed 11th, 15th, and 9th at the state meet. Last year was the first time in Fergusons history that the girl cross country team even breaks the top ten. To see how much my team has grown as a whole from just one year is remarkable. This year as we contend to be one of the top five teams at the state meet and all of us have been putting in more time and hard work than ever before. The amount of talent in our classification can be seen in schools such as Plant, Our Lady of Lourdes, Hagerty, and more. To see our girls program finally at that competitive level is still unbelievable to me as I’ve seen this program grow so much.
This year has brought tough courses (Deja Vu) and competitive races within the first three weeks of the season. This past weekend I ran the Spanish River Invitational winning as an individual for 4A.I was so happy to have won one of my favorite races and winning a very competitive race against St Thomas Aquinas. This was one of my many goals this year. Though my team placed second we are more determined than ever. This week we came back and raced on our own home course for our very own Falcon Invitational. This had to be one of the best races our girl’s team has run all year long coming in with a spread of just 24 seconds, placing six of our girls within the top ten, and beating out Lourdes for the win. Running on our home course was a great advantage to us, but we always know it doesn’t matter how well you know Larry and Penny because it’s always very hot and humid. We always joke around saying that Larry and Penny must have a somewhat like dome around its self, because even if there’s a hurricane on the way for some reason the minute we stand on the line the sun comes out. Even though I placed seconded at our invitational I’m so proud of our team.
This week’s training consisted of long runs, stride work, core work, and you can’t forget quarter workouts, Raposo’s favorite. We’ve focused our training style more on pacing then speed this season since we know the most important aspect of a race is being able to pace yourself through every mile. This weekend we are having our annual run-a-thon on our very own track to help support our cross-country team. This is a great way to get the whole team together and bring out everyone from the family to enjoy delicious barbecue and raise money to go to out of town races such as Flrunners.
As Flrunners weekend approaches I’m anxious to see how I will do hoping to finish in the top thirty in the elite division and coming in top three as a team. This year has been a year filled with memories and friendships that will always remain in my heart, and hopefully the year will end with our girls placing top five at the state meet and my goal of coming in top ten as an individual. Nobody knows what the season might bring, but I’m excited to see !
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