In Her Own Words: Olivia Ortiz - Journal #6
Hello everyone! Where has the time gone? I can’t believe this past weekend Districts took place already. It’s crazy how time flies. Before I talk about my District experience this past weekend I wanted to share my thoughts about the sport we all love...cross country. Intense preparation occurs the entire summer after track season to the first official XC practice for the competitive and anticipated racing season. I love how summer training takes place facing the intense heat and then during the season the temperatures begin to drop making it perfect and ideal running weather. Fall is my favorite season during the year because it is when the hot, humid, summer atmosphere changes to the crisp, chilled fall, while bringing the cheerful holiday season. Cross country is my favorite time of the year where summer training and hard work pays off. In my opinion, there is not a better feeling in the world than to run. Racing brings an incredible feeling while long runs jamming to my iPod is a blast.
This past weekend, my District meet took place at Estero Community Park, about a two hour bus ride from Lakewood Ranch High School. In the morning, my alarm went off at 4am since the bus was departing at 5am sharp. Thankfully, we all got to sleep on the bus and when we woke up we arrived at the course. When we arrived the sun had just begun to rise and we started warming up. Coming into Districts I was excited and anxious to run on Estero’s course again. I felt prepared and expected the course to be difficult based on last season where I ran Regionals on the same course. From the start of the race Kacy Smith from Estero and I were stride for stride. Kacy and I have raced against each other in almost every race this season and can only make each other better. She is always a tough competitor. Overall, the course was hard like I expected facing a hill twice, many sharp turns, and volleyball court sand. I am grateful to say I finished first with a time of 18:25. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with my time and will never make any excuses about reasons why because I know I can run better. My goal this year has been to improve in each race from last year and that is what I did by over a minute in this race. As a team, Lakewood Ranch finished second to Estero. Right now our 2nd and 3rd runners are recovering from injuries that we are praying for them to be 100% for Regionals on Friday. On the boys side, our varsity boys team placed third to Estero and Charlotte. As a whole, we are all thankful to be moving on to Regionals this week; which will take place at Charlotte. After the meet we all went out to lunch/brunch which is always team bonding and so much fun. Individually, I need to continue to stay focus on one race at a time and determined. I look forward to the Regional meet on Friday running on the same course I ran Regionals as freshman year. I hope everyone has a great week and Regional meet!
More On Olivia
This past Saturday I finally ran very close to home in the Manatee County Championship which included sven other local high schools. I was very excited to have a race finally in Lakewood Ranch; making it very convenient for family and friends to watch. Coming into the county meet, I had a feeling it might be a little different race compared to the other highly competitive races during this cross country season. - 2011-10-31 12:15:00
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In Her Own Words: Olivia Ortiz (Article)As I knew it would be, this past Saturday morning was intense facing the best competition in the state. Stepping off the bus, about an hour before race time there was a crisp chill in the air making it perfect racing weather similar to last year’s chilly conditions. The Pre State Invitational is a great opportunity to run the state course. - 2011-10-17 13:01:00
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In Her Own Words: Olivia Ortiz (Article)Wow! What an exciting past two weekends filled with cross country! Last weekend, I raced in the Flrunners.com Invitational in Titusville. Going into the race I was faced with a bad head cold, but I was determined not to let it bring me down. - 2011-10-10 10:43:00
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In Her Own Words: Olivia Ortiz (Article)What a great cross country weekend! This weekend the Lakewood Ranch team and I ran in the Mountain Dew Invitational at the University of Florida. We all stayed in a hotel the night before since Gainesville is a three hour drive from Lakewood Ranch. That always makes for great fun and bonding time as a team. I was very excited and focused about this race throughout this week. As a team, we were excited about racing on the Gator campus again and then the opportunity to watch the college races, which is really inspiring before the start of our race. - 2011-09-26 10:20:00
In Her Own Words: Olivia Ortiz (Article)
My name is Olivia Ortiz and I am a junior at Lakewood Ranch. First, I want to say thank you to flrunners for letting me contribute to their incredible website! What a great opportunity and honor to be apart of. What an amazing start to the 2011 season with the first two races having intense competition, forcing everyone to get into race mode. Opening race last week was the Déjà vu Invitational in Tampa also know as the “mudfest”. - 2011-09-19 11:40:00
