Hello again! With two races under my belt things are beginning to look great. The Barron Collier Invite that took place last Saturday was an eden of luscious Bermuda grass, insane humidity, and the regular Florida heat. It proved itself to be a tough course along with the conditions and definitely thrust toughness upon those who took part in the 3.1 mile, triple-looper. Despite the solid training during the week leading up to the race I felt like I wasn’t in the game mentally. I suppose I just needed a bit of a wake up call to get things going.
This past Saturday (the 15th) was the 34th Annual Optimist Invitational (our very own Ft. Myers home meet). With over 800 participants registered, this optimist turnout was the greatest in the history of the race. In the week leading up to the race, our coach gave us a “drop week” where we “drop” one workout (we have these weeks periodically to help recover a bit). I talked to my coach quite a bit during the week,and ithelped me get my head back in the game. All of our guys worked super hard during the week and on Friday night we had a team lasagna dinner at a volunteer’s house.
The Optimist race proved itself to be true to the spirit of cross-country. As always, the dreaded hill was steep and tough. My plan was to get in good position, stay relaxed and then work my way up. I knew Carlos Miranda, and my own teammate Tyler Bennett (who has had great success in the last few races) were both gonna be right up there. When the race began, I hung with Tyler (“KoolT” as the guys call him) and then moved up right behind Carlos and let him sort of pull me along. He made a bit of a gap toward the end, but I did my best to hold my position. In the end, the Ft. Myers varsity and JV boys pulled it through for another win.
As for next week, we will be at the North-Port invite.
