Wow. What a weekend. I don’t know where to start! I guess when people told me that I would be having one of the best experiences of my life they truly meant it. I am so lucky to have been able to participate in the 2011 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, not only because I had the privilege of racing 39 of the best high school athletes in the country, but because I made so many friendships that I know will last a lifetime! All of the people who helped to put on this amazing event deserve a HUGE thanks for what they do. We were completely spoiled all weekend, and truly treated like celebrities. From getting to stay in the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado to getting to run on one of the neatest (and most challenging!) courses ever, the atmosphere was completely filled with incredible moments. I will never forget this experience and I am so sad that I am a senior and I won’t be able to try to qualify again next year!
The weekend started when I woke up bright and early at 3:30 A.M. to catch my flight out of Tallahassee. Once I arrived in Atlanta, I got to meet some of my teammates for the first time. Olivia Ortiz, Grace Tinkey and Josh Brickell from Georgia, and I all had the same flight out to San Diego. Just talking to everyone for a few minutes before we got on the plane, I knew it was going to be a fun trip 
. We got to San Diego safely, and then everything began! We crossed from the mainland over to Coronado and I got my first view of the Hotel Del - it literally looked like a castle! We then signed in, and we got all of our awesome gear. Saucony provided us with so much quality running attire that I can’t even list it all! After we got all of our stuff we got to check into our rooms. My room was a huge suite and thus eventually became an HQ for the South girls! I had three other roommates: Kelsey Braithwaite from Utah, Clare Carroll from California, and Lindsey Burdette from Michigan. They were all so nice and of course extremely talented runners! That night, we had our first taste of what would be a slew of amazing meals. The South girls sat together (like we did at every meal) and just talked and had a good time. Right after dinner, we all decorated South T-shirts 
for the crazy scavenger hunt! We met our elite athlete team captains who would lead us for the rest of the weekend. Our captain was Jorge Torres, the only boy ever to make Foot Locker Nationals all four years, and an amazing professional athlete. The scavenger hunt was extremely hard, but we basically just ran around the hotel acting goofy and taking all sorts of fun pictures. The South boys won the scavenger hunt. Go South!
Friday was extremely busy as well! Grace Tinkey and I wanted to take advantage of the buffet breakfast, so we woke up early to eat so that it wouldn’t bother us when we ran. There was soooo much delicious food: hash browns, yogurt and granola, bacon, steak, eggs, cereal, juice, and every kind of bagel and bread you could imagine! We got to watch the sunrise over the water, which of course was beautiful. After that, we had a while before we had to go to the course, so Grace and I just hung out on her balcony and chatted and iced our feet . Then we got to go to the course! Once there, we practiced our run outs for the next day and got to run the course and scope it out for our race the next day. I had heard that the hill was bad, but I didn’t expect it to be basically vertical. All in all though, the course was very cool, and I especially liked how it was definitely a true cross country course. We got back to the hotel, and had another delicious meal waiting for us: every possible ingredient for making sandwiches (and of course desserts!). There was also a caricature artists and a magician to keep us entertained, as if we didn’t have enough entertainment already. Then some of the South girls decided that we wanted to take an ice bath in the ocean. We ended up getting soaked by the freezing cold waves, but it was hilarious. After that, we still had a ton of time before dinner, so a bunch of us rendezvoused in my room and we just talked and told goofy stories for awhile. I think we probably annoyed a lot of hotel guests because we were shouting and laughing and being loud. This just goes to show how much fun we had all bonding and getting to know each other. We finally went to the pasta dinner where we got to listen to the elite athletes, ask questions, and get pictures and autographs. It was very cool to hear how some of them started out as athletes just like us, and get their perspective on running.
Finally race day came! I wasn’t actually too nervous yet, which was good. Some of the South girls did our warm-up together and we all changed into our uniforms and lined up for run outs. After watching the introductions online these past few years, it was extremely cool be able to participate myself. We high-fived Jorge, lined up, and got ready to race. The gun went off and everyone sprinted out. The race just continued from there, and I felt like I was about to die running up the hill both times. I finished 35th with an 18:29. I wasn’t extremely pleased with my performance, but I ran my hardest, and just being able to race in such a prestigious event was the reward itself. All of the South girls cooled down together and watched the boys’ race and cheered on the South. All in all, it was a great morning. When we got back to the hotel, we got lunch vouchers to spend at some of the hotel restaurants, and later got to make our own sundaes! We ended up talking to Adam Goucher in line for the burger place like it was something people do every day. That is just one aspect of how amazing this event really is. The fact that we are able to come into contact with elite runners is truly inspiring and fun. That night, we got to go to the awards banquet, where we were served yet another delicious meal (and dessert, my favorite part!). Everyone got to go up onto the stage and receive a cool wooden plaque, and the All-Americans got to stand on the podium and receive medals. Molly Seidel and Edward Cheserek got to speak, and since my whole family is from Wisconsin, it was super funny to see Molly do Aaron Rodger’s touchdown move and say “Go Packers!” before heading off the stage. The banquet was followed by the dance, in which we mostly ended up just laughing and acting goofy instead of actually trying to dance seriously. Then we all stayed up late trying to get the most out of our last few hours with everyone.
It was seriously depressing to have to wake up after about an hour of sleep and catch a plane that would take me away from all of my newfound friends and beautiful San Diego. Every single person that I met was so nice, and so easy to talk to. It was such a cool experience to be able to hang out with people who understand what it is like to be a runner, and have the same interests and lifestyles. We were treated incredibly kindly and I literally couldn’t believe everything that Foot Locker and Saucony did for us. Everyone seemed to know that the South girls were incredibly close. It was evident in the fact that we were together almost 100% of our time there. I know that we will all keep in contact, and hopefully we will see each other at meets! I know that there is potential that some of these people will be my teammates in college, and it is so great to have the experience of running at an elite-level meet against some of the best runners in the country. I loved getting to know Olivia and Bridget better as well. After racing them for the past three years, it was super fun getting to know them both! They were both hilarious and fun people to hang out with, and I know that I will luckily see them at meets again for sure! Wrapping up my over-extensive message, I just want to say that this has been one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I met so many great people and so much fun. I probably gained some weight with all of the delicious food too. I hope everyone has a great holiday break, and I will see you all this spring on the track!!
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