Trotters Park: home to fearsome fire ants, people who hitch rides on horses, gazillions of grass-dwelling gnats, and members of various teams that spend way too much time chasing down their balls, only to throw them away again. Fortunately, once a year, a bunch of sane people do what this park was built for, and that is to run races.
This year marks the forty-first annual Edgewater Invitational, and although not all of the previous forty were held here, Trotters Park is what this invitational currently considers its home. Unfortunately, I see derricks on the horizon, and I fear for the future of this pretty little paradise in the middle of what is rapidly becoming Orlandopolis. How many races are left before the developer’s bulldozer turns it into a driving range…an outlet mall…a gated, thousand home community of identical, thousand square foot “estates” (and no yard)? I have a solution: Bocage. This term comes from a Norman French word—boscage--that means (roughly) wood. In reality, Bocage is a type of hedge that grows so thick that it forms an impenetrable barrier against anything with wheels, which includes those with caterpillar tracks wrapped around them.
Most of us are aware of how the French, fry by fry, are killing us by turning our arteries into cement. During WWII, they inadvertently did the same thing to our tanks and armored vehicles. Trapped inside little squares of hedges that stretched into the French horizon, our troops were sitting ducks for the well-entrenched and well-armed German army. Well, I say, let’s use this tactic against the developer’s ’dozer. Plant these hedges fast, and plant them often—all around the perimeter of Trotter’s Park--before it’s too late! When those earth-eating machines turn our way, we’ll stop them dead in their tracks!
Seriously, though, this is a great little park, and race director John Thrailkill and his wife Amy took great pride in hosting this event. It was obvious that they put a lot of hard work into mowing and marking the course, arranging for a dynamic DJ (Kyle 2.0), and inviting a runner’s favorite vendor, Florida (Shave) Ice to refresh the tab labeled “raced-out runner.” To acknowledge the race’s 41st anniversary, they even offered $14 Track Shack gift certificates and a mirror. (Mirrors make them more affordable than coupons in the exact amount.)
The Thrailkills, along with Edgewater Head Coach Ethan Hickey and coaches James Watkins and Rick Colgan--and the entire Edgewater team—hosted an event that reminded me of the flrunners.com invitational, but in miniature. There was even a “chain of ponds” to run around.
Varsity Girls
When you’re in the lead, this three loop course—thoroughly lined by flags, stake and tape, and ground markings—must have seemed closer to a track meet than cross country. But to get a better idea, I asked Anita Green of East Ridge.
“It was a fast course,” she said during the awards ceremony, “but I didn’t like the narrow start. It was hard to get out. I took the lead right before you go up the first (of two) ‘hills’ in the last mile. The girl I passed was a Bulldog, from St. Cloud, Karissa. Her coach was yelling at her, but I don’t think she had it in her to keep up. She didn’t challenge me after that.”
Anita, a sophomore, has been running for four years, and came into the meet with a 20:00.57 personal best, which she ran at the November 12, 2011 3A Region 2 Championship.
“I like cross country, and also basketball. I can’t pick between the two, but you need endurance for basketball. If you’re running up and down the court, you can’t get tired. Plus running helps you jump.”
Isn’t that called steeplechase?
Varsity Girls Team Results
Winning, with 39 points (3-4-9-10-13-16-25), were the WOXC girls. (It took me a few loops to figure out that it meant West Orange Cross Country.) Second was St. Cloud (2-7-14-22-23-28-35; 68), and in third South Lake (6-8-20-27-36-40-46; 97). 11 teams and 79 runners finished.
Varsity Boys
Connor Ferentino is an original. For beginners, he was a soccer/track athlete who just decided to go out for cross country in this, his junior year. Don’t mistake his late arrival for inexperience, however. His track bests include a 2:01.77 in the 800 (last April 4th, in the Brian Jaeger Elite Classic) and 4:21.64 in the 1600 (3rd in the 5/5/12 FHSAA 4A race). But he readily admits that there is room for improvement.
“I’ve always done track, but this year I decided to ditch soccer and concentrate on training. It’s something I want to do in college. I’ve just started the recruiting process; talking to coaches, and calling them up. I definitely want running to be a part of it.”
But back to the running part.
“I’m still learning, pretty much, what pace to go out in, and how to run the race. In the first couple of races I might have gone out too fast. My splits were a little too uneven.”
Aw, shucks. But then I asked him his season’s best.
“15:46 at this year’s flrunners.com meet.”
That would have been in his fourth 5K ever.
“At FLR XIII I went out fast and tried to hang with them.”
So in this meet….
“I pretty much came in to work on even splits; anywhere from 5s to 5:10s. I went out in my own pace. I went out in 5:06, ran 10:30 for two, but I don’t know the third mile time.”
Connor made short work of the competition, although sophomore Joe Thrailkill (2nd in 16:43.2) gave chase. The winner’s time was 16:28.7.
“This is a pretty decent course,” Connor continued. “It was kind of repetitive—three times in a row—but it was nice and flat, so it was easy to run. It would be pretty easy training here every day, but I’ve been going out to Windemere, near Olympia High School, and training on the hills.”
Varsity Boys Team Results
Liberty High School, with a 1:17 spread (first through fifth) won with 66 points (4-14-15-16-17-41-48). Host Edgewater was second (2-6-22-30-35-51-53; 95), and Ferrentino’s Freedom was third (1-11-39-49-52-63-72; 152). 110 runners and 14 teams competed.
JV Girls
In one of those “combined” races, it is sometimes easy to lose yourself in a crowd, especially when you run three of the exact same loops. But the field was small, spread out pretty quick, and although some of the joggers got lapped, it was obvious that junior Lexi Single wasn’t going to be one of them.
“I set out to run my best time; to set a PR and impress my ‘brothers’—not the biological kind, just really good friends. John and Deon go to Lake Placid High School, where I was from, but I moved here (West Orange) this year.
“I usually like running (in the same race) with guys, because the competition is a motivation. I like that challenge.”
Some of her West Orange teammates decided to challenge the fire ants—not to mention cross country rules to the contrary—by competing barefoot.
“I kept mine on. It didn’t come up, but some of us wore shoes, and some didn’t. It didn’t matter. But I like the fact that it was all on grass, and it’s really pretty here. This course would be a great one to train on.”
Team Results
Shoes or no shoes, Lexi helped win the meet for West Orange. With 21 points (1-3-4-5-8-9-11) they under-pointed an equally strong Lake Minneola (2-6-7-10-12-13-14; 37). Harmony was third with 85. (How’s 15-16-17-18-19 for packing them in?) Three teams and 41 runners scored.
JV Boys
Even if I hadn’t seen Kyle Graziano win the race barefoot, I still would have asked. Catching up to him at the awards ceremony, I saw that he was now wearing cowboy boots and a tight pair of jeans slit down the inseam (probably so he could get them past the boots). From no shoes to those boots, this situation begged a question.
What happened to your shoes?
“I got locked out of my house yesterday, and wasn’t able to get my proper uniform and footwear, so I decided to run barefoot.”--and the lone orange shirt on the West Orange team--“I probably wouldn’t take the chance of being disqualified, but if I could, I’d do it every day.”
Too late. The official winner listed was his West Orange teammate, Christian Boscan, in 20:04. Is that an alias, or a wrong #?
Kyle seems to be a lightning rod for sports-related disasters.
“I ended up breaking my ankle playing AAU football. That knocked me out for six months. The mental strength was probably the toughest thing, and getting back into the routine was hard. Pushing past the pain in practice, and running how I would have practiced—if I could have practiced hard--I could have returned to racing hard.”
This race was a step in that direction.
“I’m right about back to the time before I got hurt. I’m hoping for a 17 by districts.”
But running hasn’t been all bad.
“I’ve been running for about four years. My best running experience ever was at a home meet (the West Orange Invitational on October 9, 2010) my sophomore year. That meet we began to come together as a team. All seven of our team ran PRs, and I ran a 17:57. That’s still my best.”
But this time around….
“I want to go to states as a team. We have a really solid foundation, and we run as a group, as a team.”
Boys JV Results
Despite a first place finish by West Orange, East Ridge snuck three runners, right in order, into the top five, sealing a two point victory over West Orange. It was ER 27 (2-3-4-7-11-18-20; 27), WO 29 (1-5-6-8-9-12-13), and Edgewater 72 (10-14-15-16-17-19). Three teams and 34 runners finished.
Footnotes: I’d do this again, even if it was held in the evening…oops, I let the horse out of the stable!
More Coverage
- Complete Results & Coverage
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