My official last post about the Holidays

This will be the last post I will write about the holidays, because they are almost over. Christmas was yesterday and the only holiday left this winter is New Years. The Holidays coming to an end is sad, but also kind of good. The holidays are really fun and no one really wants to go back to school yet, but they are also stressful. I spent the holidays a lot differently this year than I have in the past.

 

Every year for as long as I can remember, my family and I go to my relative’s (not quite sure how he is related to me) Girl Scout camp. We eat turkey, talk, and walk around the camp attempting to burn off all the calories we had just consumed. This year my grandpa was in the hospital, because he had been falling a lot and they found excess water in his brain, so my grandparents wouldn’t be doing anything for thanksgiving and we decided not to go to the Girl Scout camp. Instead we went to my Uncles house. We had always spent Thanksgiving with my dad’s side of the family, but this year we were going to my mom’s side. It was nice to go visit them for a change, but it was also kind of a hassle. They really didn’t know what they were doing and we didn’t eat until 2 o’clock. They also have a super hyper dog that annoys the crap out of me and we spent most of the time sitting around or listening to stories that we had heard hundreds of times. Even though it could have been better, I did enjoy hanging out with my mom’s side of the family and I was glad we got to visit them.

 

                Christmas was also very different this year. My mom’s side still came down on Christmas Eve and it was a lot of fun, but instead of going to my paternal grandmother’s house on Christmas Day, we spent most of the day in the hospital. We celebrated Christmas on my dad’s side on Saturday, because it worked better for most people and it was really nice, I don’t see my cousins very often. We didn’t have any plans on Christmas day, so we decided to see my dad’s best friend and a very good family friend who was in the hospital. After having a kidney stone removed, he became really sick and could hardly breathe and was diagnosed with pneumonia. He has been in the hospital for a week and at one point was doing really bad. He is getting a little better though, and we ended up spending hours at the hospital with him and his family. One of his daughters came home with my family that night and went sledding with my sister. She came home limping and later went to the hospital and found out she fractured her ankle. So I spent most of my Christmas in the hospital, which actually turned out to be okay and reminded me how lucky I was.

                This year for New Year’s Eve we are going to Memphis to watch the Liberty Bowl!!!!!! I am extremely excited, but I will miss going to a hotel with family friends like we have done in the past.

The holidays were a lot different for me this year, but they ended up being equally as good. Although I am sad that all the holiday fun is ending, it is also quite relaxing. Hopefully I will be able to spend more time running now that the holidays are ending. :)

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The True Meaning of Christmas

There is twelve more days until the best day of the year! CHRISTMAS! Christmas is my favorite holiday, family, food, presents, but I find myself having a hard time remembering what Christmas is all about. Christmas is all about Jesus, which in a materialistic world where everything is about who has the best clothes or the newest technology, it’s really hard to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.

 

Presents are still an important part of Christmas, but it’s not about what you get, it’s about being grateful and giving, like Jesus was grateful and giving. Everyone makes a big deal about what they are getting for Christmas (including me) and nobody really thinks about what it means to give. My sister has a huge list of very specific gifts she wants and she is constantly reminding and begging my mom for the gifts. I try to tell her to stop it, but she gives me glare that says “you’re stupid” and she tells me, in a creative way to shut up. So I drop it and leave her alone to beg, and I occasionally find myself begging to and thinking too much about the presents. Presents are an exciting part of Christmas, but if it is the only thing you care about then you are missing all the other great things about Christmas and all the wonders Jesus gave us.

 

Not taking things for granted is also very important during the holiday season. Instead of focusing on not getting that IPod 5, like all of your friends be grateful that you even get presents and that you have someone who gives them to you. There are plenty of people who don’t get any gifts for Christmas (and not because they’re Jewish) or have families that would even give them gifts. It is important to be thankful like Jesus, who died on the cross for us and suffered so much, yet never complained or even cared about how hard his life was. So every time you feel pity for yourself, because you didn’t get the things that you wanted, just think of all the good things that you have and be grateful for them.

 

Presents can be great, but it can also cause people to be ungrateful. Not getting what you want for Christmas should not be a big deal and people should focus more on family and Jesus then getting everything they want for Christmas, but every one occasionally finds themselves thinking about presents or being ungrateful for what they have. Try to focus more on the real meaning of Christmas this year.

 

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Just Keep Running

As the days get colder my miles are getting shorter. I am finding it hard to get up off the couch and run and I am finding it hard to not turn around after a mile of running. I don’t know how much I should be running; all I know is that I haven’t been running nearly as much as I did for cross country.

I am having a really hard time breathing in the cold air and after a couple of miles my lungs are burning, my body feels weak and I am ready to turn around and head home. I know I should try and push myself more, but I am finding it really hard to get motivation. I have so many goals set in mind, which would normally be very motivating, but once I step out the door all I can think about is how cold it is. Winter also means that it gets darker a lot earlier. Between the freezing cold weather and the fact that I can’t run in the dark, I am really struggling to find time and motivation to run. Going to the gym is helping though. I can’t run as much miles at the gym (you have to run 10 laps to run a mile and running a lot of miles on the treadmill hurts my legs), but at least I am running. Running is hard during the winter, with the cold and daylight savings, but going to the gym does help.  

It seems like everyone is always busier in the winter. I don’t know if it’s because of school or holidays or a mixture of both, but I am having a hard time finding someone to run with and I really don’t like to run by myself. The people I normally run with either can’t run right now, don’t want to run right now, or I just haven’t seen in a long time. So I am left running with my sister and she has less motivation then me. I find it almost impossible to run more than four miles by myself and my sister hates running more than three miles, so most days I am only running two to four miles. Considering that I ran at least five miles a day in the weeks before cross country started, four miles being my longer runs is really bad for me. With everyone being busy, I am left running shorter miles.

 

Cold weather, daylight savings, and the busy season is making it really hard for me to get my miles in. I am going to continue to try to toughen it out and push myself to run more.

               

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An Inspiration to All: Drew Wall

A couple of weeks ago a really great guy passed away. His name was Drew Wall and he was an inspiration to all of us at Kennedy High School. He had been battling cancer since 7^th grade and on November 26^th, he passed away. He was an amazing guy and I look up to him.

Drew was in my Chinese III class, after skipping Chinese II, because he was extremely smart and he was in my Biology class last year. His health made it really hard for him to make it to class, but on the few days that he showed up he outsmarted all of us. I have never heard him say one thing bad or negative about anything. He was a good student and even though he went true so much he always stayed positive. We get too caught up in the little things and life and we find the need to complain about everything that doesn’t go our way, but Drew battled cancer for 5 years and never complained, never lost hope, and always remained optimistic. I hope that I can be like him one day and I hope that he inspires others to be more like him too.

Another thing that really impresses me about Drew is that he always had faith in God, even when everything wasn’t going his way and almost everyone else was asking God, why did it have to be Drew, how could someone so good have something so bad happen to him? But Drew never lost faith and I will never forget that.

Drew was also one of the strongest people I have ever met. He went through so much, but he always seemed like he was doing just fine. He was a golfer, he went out for swimming for a while last year, and he did everything that a normal teenager did with one leg instead of two. He was extremely brave and he let nothing get in his way.

I will never forget Drew’s positivity, everlasting faith, and strength, which continues to inspire me and a lot of others at Kennedy High School. Drew will be missed by so many people, but I hope that everyone learns something about him, whether that be to remain faithful in God during all times, or to simply complain less.

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Gift Giving

Christmas is approaching and I need to try to come up with gifts for my friends and family. For some people this is quite easy to do and for other people, like me, it’s almost impossible. I am extremely poor right now (just spent my last dollar at Chick-fil-a last night), so that pretty much means I have to either beg my mom for cash and get everyone really cheap crappy gifts or I have to make them something. Why is gift giving so hard?

I think standards for gift giving have been raised a lot, especially as I am getting older. People either want something expensive or something meaningful. What happened to the days when I could just draw my parents a picture and give my sisters and friends a pack of gum? Now everyone can buy their own gum and my parents have stopped appreciating my poorly colored pictures from the coloring books I have owned since I was 6. I really would like to get people something meaningful, but thanks to my lack of creativity that’s a lot harder said than done. I have been spending hours on pinterest trying to come up with something creative, but everything involves money and a lot of time and talent. So every year I end up getting my friends and family something from the dollar store, while they get something either expensive or creative and I end up looking really stupid. Expectations for giving gifts are getting ridiculously high.

It is also hard to know who to give gifts to. I definitely can’t afford to give gifts to all my friends and there’s no way all my friends will give gifts to me, but how am I supposed to know which friends are going to get me something? Some of my friends are doing secret Santa, which I thought meant that I didn’t have to give any gifts to any of the friends that are also doing secret Santa until one of them came up to me and said that she was so excited to give me my gift and that it was such an amazing gift. Great. I have no idea who I am supposed to give gifts to and I don’t want to be mean and not give someone a gift when they got me one. So I am left trying to think of the people who are my best friends and would give me a gift, which is extremely hard.

I am not sure if it is hard for everyone to give gifts. Maybe it’s just natural for some people, but for people like me, gift giving can be a long and difficult process. With the higher expectations and trying to decide who to give gifts to, preparing for Christmas can be quite stressful.  

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How do they do it?

“Run forest, run.” One of the most famous lines in a very famous movie is this line that Jennie yelled at Forest Gump whenever he was in trouble. Forest ends up running all the way across the United States at one point in the movie and I know that it is just a movie, but some very impressive people make me wonder whether that is really possible. I have heard of people running so many miles, that it seem extremely impossible to me.

Over the summer I went to Wartburg Cross Country camp where some very interesting runners came to talk to us. They ran the marathon in the Olympic Trials a few years back and placed 8^th and 9^th. I am already extremely impressed by marathoners, it seems impossible to me to run 24 miles nonstop. The longest I have ever ran was 13 miles and by the end I was completely starving, almost falling asleep, and I was running out of things to think and talk about. And if running a marathon isn’t enough, these girls were running at under a 6 minute pace!!!! My pace for 2.5 miles in the state cross country meet was 5:45, how could they run just slightly slower than that for 23.5 miles more! Marathoners are extremely impressive, running 26 miles seems impossible to me.

Another extremely impressive race is one that a leader at my friends’ church ran in. He said that it was a 24 hour race, where there was a 10 mile lap and whoever could complete the most laps won. He ended up finishing 23 and he ran 6 full laps!!!!! How could at least 23 people run 60 or more miles in one day!!!! How could your body take that? How could you even walk 60 miles in one day? It seems so ridiculously hard that I didn’t even believe him at first, I just don’t understand how people could run so much in one day.

There are a lot of extremely impressive people out there who can run unbelievably long distances in a crazy amount of time. It is extremely impressive and almost inspires me. Who knows maybe I will be a marathoner or run a 24 hour race in the future and accomplish what seems impossible to me right now.

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The Wonders of Winter Running

I am laying on the ground, my heart pumping, my lungs still burning, and my body completely numb and I realize it is only going to get worse. It is only December 5th and I am already questioning why I put myself through the torture of running in the winter. There are so many things that make me despise winter running, but in the end I will probably end up running all winter, because I want to get better (and in the past I didn't really run in the winter and regretted it a lot when Track started).

I think almost every runner hates running in the cold. It burns your lung and you have to wear what seems like 50 pounds of clothing to not freeze to death. It sucks! Anyone who says they like to run in the winter is either a) lying b) runs to the end of the driveway and back and thinks they get an extra piece of cake for dinner, because they worked soooo hard or c) THEY ARE CRAZY, so if you like running in the winter then I am sorry to hurt your feelings, but your probably crazy. Although, I don’t think I have ever ran in the snow, I think it would be extremely hard and dangerous and add to why I don’t like to run in the cold. I do love to run and I would hate to stop now, but it’s hard to love something when you are scared of freezing to death because of it. Running in the cold isn’t fun, but you have to gear up, get out there, and try to forget about how bad you feel, because you will regret not running in the winter when spring comes and you’re completely out of shape.

I also don’t like to run in the winter, because it is in the school year and it seems like you always have some kind of excuse to not run. In the cross Country and Track season, when you have a big test or you’re really busy that night you go to practice anyway, because you are dedicated to the team, but in the winter when you have a test or your busy you just don’t run, because it’s the offseason and you don’t make your coach mad when you miss one day of running in the winter. Unfortunately, some people miss a lot of days and it seems like I am almost always running by myself or with people who aren’t my speed.

It is also hard to run in the winter, because the holidays are coming and you feel like you have better things to do. You have to go see your family, bake cookies, set up the Christmas tree, and so much more that running ends up being pushed back on the to-do list that it is hard to get to it. By the time you get through everything and you have time to run its dark out (daylight savings= another thing bad about winter running) and you are exhausted. Almost everyone is extremely busy during the holiday season and that just makes running so much harder.

There are a lot of things that make running in the winter really hard. The cold making it hard to breath and forcing you to wear a thousand layers of clothes, school and other things that make it hard for people to run every day, and the Holidays, where you are too busy to even consider running until it’s too late, all make it hard to run in the winter. No matter how hard it is to get yourself out there and run, it is so important that there is no way you will regret it when Track starts.

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A Hope in the Unseen

In AP Lang I am reading A Hope in the Unseen. It is about a boy named Cedric who goes to Ballou High School. The school is in a “ghetto” neighborhood and most kids who go to the school couldn’t care less about school and getting an education, but Cedric is different. He strives to get good grades and wants to learn. Even though Cedric wants to be proud of his grades and appreciated for them, students at the school make fun of kids like Cedric who have good grades and Cedric is forced to try and hide the fact that he has good grades. There are a lot of similarities and differences between Ballou high school and the school I attend, Kennedy.

Ballou high school, Kennedy high school, and probably every high school around have students that don’t care about school. There are students that don’t mind failing and are happy when they pass a class, simply because they don’t have to retake the class next year. A lot of times these students make fun of straight A students, like how Phillip makes fun of Cedric in A Hope in the Unseen. Good students are called names and get made fun of by students who don’t try. Everywhere you go there will always be people who don’t care and don’t try hard and sometimes they make fun of the kids who do try hard.

There are underachieving kids in every school, but I think Ballou has a lot more of them than most schools. In Ballou the majority of kids don’t try and in Kennedy I think most of the kids do try. This makes Cedric and other straight A students try to hide the fact that they are good students, to avoid ridicule. They skip assemblies to avoid being called names and getting beat up later. I think this makes Kennedy and Ballou very different. Although there may be some name calling at Kennedy, people don’t hide from assemblies or go to such extremes to avoid being bullied about grades, because there are so many people who also get good grades.

There are kids at both Kennedy and Ballou that don’t try hard, but there is so many kids at Ballou that don’t try hard that kids at Ballou think that it is dangerous to be recognized for being a good student, so they try to hide from other students and the fact that they have good grades. Although there are similarities between Kennedy and Ballou, there are a lot differences that make it hard for students to be successful at Ballou.

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Staying in Shape for the Holidays

There is about three weeks until Christmas break, which means three weeks until fun, family, stomachaches from eating too much and guilt from realizing how out of shape you are getting. It is hard for everyone to exercise during break and after taking a couple weeks off from working out you pretty much lose all of the hard work you have done and have to start over with your training. There are still ways that you can keep in shape through the holiday season, but it won’t be easy.

          A great way to keep in shape is to watch what you are eating during specific times. It’s almost impossible to limit what you eat when you’re at a relative’s house and there is a dessert table, filled with mouthwatering treats that you only get on special occasions. You can still eat all of those delicious desserts, but if you can try to limit the portions you eat and the amount you eat at one time. Make sure you save the desserts and the unhealthy foods for the parties though, just because its Christmas break doesn’t mean you can go crazy and eat a Christmas feast on December 21^st. Make sure you keep those cookies locked up and out of reach until it is actually Christmas.

          YOU STILL NEED TO WORKOUT. Almost everyone says that they plan to work out over the break, but when the time comes you don’t feel like it or you’re too busy and after a week of saying this you are  already out of shape. Plan to work out at a specific time every day and make sure you do it. It is very helpful to have a friend to work out with, because you can’t just ditch your friends because you don’t want to work out. It also helps to work out in the morning, so you can just get it out of the way and it won’t interfere with your plans for the day. It can be hard to work out during the holidays, but if you really try to exercise, you will be thankful you did.

          Staying healthy and in shape over the holiday break can be extremely difficult. We often make excuses for why we can’t exercise and cave in to unhealthy food, but if you try really hard, eat healthy while you’re not at parties, and make time to work out, you can stay in shape for the holiday’s.

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State (part 2)

110 of the fastest runners in Iowa 4A schools started to sprint. I tried to get out fast and stay in the front and in any other race I would have been in the very front, but I was about in the middle of everyone here. I was so scared I was going to trip and fall. I think I accidently elbowed someone. I was still freaking out, when we got to the first corner, about 400 meters into the race, and I saw my dad, my sister, and a couple of my really good friends from the cross country team. All of my nervousness just stopped and I focused on staying with the top ten runners.

We reached the 800 meter mark, then the 1 mile, then the 1.5. I realized that I was running at a pace way faster than I normally do, but I was confident. I had a chance to achieve my goal of finishing in the top ten and I wasn’t going to let my chances of achieving the goal slip right by. My place kept switching from 9Th to 11Th and I was trying so hard to stay with everyone. I kept on hearing people cheering and every time I heard the voice of one of my family members or friends, I wanted to do better. They motivated me to try harder, because I had a bunch of people out there wanting me to do well and I didn't want to let them down.

We were getting closer to the finish line and I tried to pick up my pace. This was it. This was where it counted. It was pass people or get passed so I pushed myself to pass the girls in front of me. I was in 10th or 11th when we turned the last corner and had a little less than 400 meters left. I sprinted as fast as I could, knowing that this would be my last race of the year and I didn't want to have any regrets. Around the 100 meter mark I lost my vision. Everything was just a blur and I couldn't tell that I had approached the finish line, until I heard the voices of people saying good job and move out of the way and I almost ran into one of the blurs in front of me. My vision slowly started to come back and my arms and legs started to feel a horrible ache. I tried to sit down, but someone told me to stand up and walk around. I could hardly hear over my loud breathing, but I did what they said and when I turned around a couple of my teammates had just finished. I went over to congratulate them, but I probably just sounded stupid and I couldn't even lift up my arms to give them a high five. I guess they must have known what I meant, because they said something back, which like me, also just sounded like mumbling.

My vision was almost completely back, my breathing had decreased to a normal rate, and we were allowed to leave the fenced in area. I found my parents and friends and received a thousand hugs. This is my favorite part of state, all the hugs and everyone telling me how good I did, makes me feel so happy and loved. The unfortunate part though, was that my arms were unbelievably sore and I could not lift them without getting a shooting pain up my arm, so I couldn't hug anyone back. My dad told me I ran around a 14:20 and I placed somewhere between 7th and 9th. I couldn't believe it. I had achieved my goals and I couldn't stop smiling.

 

I got some water, found my sweats and running shoes, and headed over to the pavilion, where they post the results. When I was almost to the pavilion someone announced that they need the top three teams, Pleasant Valley, Linn-Mar, and Kennedy, to come to the pavilion. I couldn't control my excitement. I screamed, ran over to my teammates, gave them hugs even though it hurt. My lips ached from the smiling, but I was so unbelievably happy. I lined up to get my individual award. While in the building, waiting to receive my award I saw some of the girls I ran with at Johnston. We said hi and talked a little and then I was called out to receive my award. I stood there smiling like an idiot as they put the surprisingly small metal around my neck. After the top ten individuals received their metals, they told us that if we were part of a team that finished in the top three to go join them. So I turned around, but my team wasn't there. My heart sank. I almost cried. I ran out of there to find my teammates, but no one was there. I checked the results. They had changed and they said Johnston had beaten us by one point. Apparently one of their girls tag didn't appear in the system and they had gotten 3rd. I wanted to cry, but at the same time I was really proud of how I did.

State (part 1)

Warming up started to make my nerves turn to excitement. I couldn’t wait to race and I couldn’t wait to PR. For some reason I was then overwhelmed with confidence and I knew I was going to run a good race. We finished running our warm up and headed back to the van to stretch and do skips. Unfortunately, we must have been running behind schedule so we didn’t have much time to stretch. This was a little concerning to me, but I just told myself it didn’t matter, because I was going to do good anyway.

We walked to the starting line and started doing build ups, when we noticed one of our runners was wearing a bright blue sports bra. We didn’t know if she would get disqualified or not so she hurried to the port a potty’s to switch sports bras with one of the alternates. They budged in front of the boys and then came out of them to switch bras. One of the boys said “I don’t think were supposed to see this,” and they all turned around which I thought was funny.

Because, one of our runners was switching bras, we couldn’t really do our tradition of a spike circle after buildups, so we just had to do a 10 second spike circle at the starting line. The announcer told us to take our sweats off and line up at the line. The starting of races is always the scariest for me and today everyone would be starting faster and the crowd cheering would be even louder. I tried not to focus on anything. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing.

 Then, well I can’t remember the exact words, but the announcer said something and the gun went off.

Ice Cream I miss you!!!!

I am going insane. I normally eat ice cream at least once a day, but because state is approaching I have decided to take a break from eating ice cream, cake, and other sweets. And it’s killing me.

 

I think I have the biggest sweet tooth ever. I always eat something sweet after a meal and I always crave sweet food. So trying to live off of healthy food is just too hard. I feel like a 400 pound person who’s trying to lose weight!!!!! I NEEED SWEEETS!!!! There are cupcakes just sitting on the counter, taunting me and every time I open the fridge I can hear the peppermint ice cream calling my name.

The week after State is what I call my fat week. I eat whatever I want whenever I want and I don’t run. Last year I gained 10 pounds. So I am sooooooo excited for my fat week this year and I think trying to eat healthy is going to make me eat supper unhealthy next week, but that’s ok because I need to gain some weight anyway.

I only have to wait 2 days and like 4ish hours until my mouth will be stuffed with chocolate, ice cream, and other treats. I can do it (I hope).

Next up, State

Jensen (my coach) told us that there are 4 factors that we can control, so that we run well at state. In general these factors apply to all races, but they are quite hard to follow. I have been trying my best to do what he told us to do, but it has been a little hard. These are the factors and how they apply to me.

Nutrition: This one is a little obvious, but extremely important and really hard to follow. You have to eat healthy, a lot of carbohydrates, but not from junk food and candy. Being that this is football season and Halloween is approaching this is really hard to do. I have been trying my best to eat healthy, but it hasn’t been going as well as planned. I ate breakfast at home instead of getting McDonalds with my family last Saturday, but then I went to a football game and ate a bag of chips. I only ate half of a cupcake today, but I ate a milky way too. So my diet is slightly better, but nowhere close to where it should be right now.

Sleep:  Jensen wants us to get a good amount of sleep and regular hours of sleep. That means getting home early this weekend. Friday night I did good and I was home before 10, but last night I was planning on getting home at 10:30, but ended up not getting home until 11:20ish. I have been getting 7 ½ - 8 hours of sleep every night so that’s good!

Training: Jensen tells us what to run, but you actually have to run what he says to run and at the pace he says to run it at. Last weekend I forgot to run three miles and Jensen says that’s the reason I didn’t run as well on Thursday, so since then I have been running exactly what he has been telling me to run.

Stress: Family stress and school stress plays into how good you run. I am not sure why, but even though my grades are on the borderline of good and bad, I haven’t been getting that stressed out. It helps to just have times where you do nothing and forget about everything. Sometimes you just have to calm down and just relax.

District Champions!!!!!

Officially the first Kennedy Cross Country team to win a State qualifying meat!!!! This was my team’s major goal this year and we accomplished it on Thursday, beating Iowa City by four points! It was a hard meet, but a big accomplishment.

 

It was freezing cold at the meet!!! I normally never wear under armor or running tights during a race, but I did on Thursday. My coach was not so sure about us wearing tights, because they slow you down, but we did anyway. I’m not sure if the weather caused me to do bad or what, but I had a horrible time and not that great of a place. An Iowa City girl passed me at the four hundred yard mark, which really pissed me off. I tried really hard to stay with her, but for some reason my legs just did not want to move fast enough. Then our fifth runner finished right behind their fifth runner and I started panicking. Our main goal this year was to win the district meet and get a banner and if we lost by a couple points it would be my fault for not passing that Iowa City girl.

Our team has been desperate for a banner. We have worked so hard and we make it to state, but we have nothing to show for it. Banners are a pretty big deal for us. At the assembly, we present the banner in front of the student body. So we really wanted that banner and when I found out we won it I almost exploded with excitement. I was screaming and jumping and hugging and I probably looked a little crazy. My coach told us to look like we have won a meet before, but we were just so overwhelmed with joy that it was a little hard to do that. We finally accomplished our goal.

My excitement died out just a little bit when I found out that girls only get banners for winning their district and boys get banners for placing in the top three for their district in Iowa. I think this is completely unfair and I plan to confront the president of IGHSAU about this after state. Our team has qualified for state for the last two years, but because we didn’t win our district we didn’t get a banner to present during the assembly? It just makes no sense to me.

Now we won our Conference, we won Districts, but can we do well at State? We really want to place in the top three and get a trophy and I cannot even begin to express how much I want to place in the top ten and get the school record back at State!!! I haven’t PR’d yet this season and I really need to! I am not sure if I would be able to live with myself if I don’t improve by a lot from last year! So much pressure is on my team and I and I really hope everything turns out all right.

 

 

Tapering!!!

The end of the Cross Country season is coming. That means tapering!!!!

Tapering is when you go from running 45 miles a week to only running like 20 miles a week. When your season is ending you really don’t have much time to build up strength and endurance so instead you taper, so your legs can heal from all the hard training and you have a surplus of energy.

We have been tapering for about a week now and I already have a ridiculous amount of energy. I didn’t think it was possible that tapering could have that much effect on someone, but I think everyone just thinks I am weird now, because I have a crazy amount of energy and I literally can’t stay put.

Tapering is very important for runners. It makes a big difference in how someone runs their final races. Last year, I improved be 30 seconds after 2 weeks of tapering and I am really hoping I can do that again this year.

So how much should you taper? Well you should start tapering about 2 weeks before your last race and on the second to last week you should run about one fourth of what you have been running. Then on the week before the race you should cut your running back by at least 50%. Sometimes it’s hard to judge exactly how much you should taper. You do not want to get out of shape and you do not want to train to hard. Sometimes you just have to use your best judgment and sometimes, if you are lucky like me, your coach is a really good coach and he knows what you need to run. Just make sure you run what you need to, or else your last race will not be as successful.

Tapering week is one of my favorite weeks. I get home from practice a lot earlier than I normally do and I have a lot more energy. Freshman year, I was an alternate for state and everyone was a lot faster than me, so I did not really get much tapering, but last year when I actually got to taper, It was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to these weeks of tapering!

There are also negative aspects to tapering week. It means the season is coming to an end and there is a lot of pressure to do well in your last meet. But if you learn to ignore the pressure and realize that even though your season is ending, you have had a lot of great times, these weeks can be a lot of fun.

Tapering is a lot of fun and very useful, but you have taper right or else it could have a big effect on how you perform in your last races of the season.

Conference Champions!

First Kennedy girls Cross Country team to win Conference!!!! Last night’s meet was exciting! I ended up finishing second, our team was first by 15 points and our coach won the coach of the year for our conference!!! This race had a lot of good aspects, but there were bad things about it too.

It was awesome that we won and we made history at our high school, but I think our team could have ran a little better. No one is really improving much, but we still won the meet and there was two really good teams there. I just hope we keep placing well and then maybe when theres even more competition we will run faster times.

We also have a new fifth runner. CS was beat by JR, which kind of surprises me and worries me. Both runners tend to be inconsistent and we really need both of them to pick it up. JS has been out most of the season with injuries, because she doesn’t run during the summer! This pisses me off how she doesn’t train and then all the sudden she’s running well than all these girls who have been to every practice and have worked really hard. She even kicked TM off of varsity, and she has never run a race other than varsity, and now she won’t be able to run in state her senior year! L It just shows how some people are naturally good runners and other people (like me) have to train extremely hard to improve. If you’re a naturally good runner, you should still come to practice and at least make it look like your trying, or else you’re just making the rest of the team feel bad.

Although that made me mad, I am glad that we have another good runner. I am also scared for our other runners though. No one’s really improving. KW, AC, LM, and me keep on running around 10 seconds worse than we did a few weeks ago. I am hoping once we start tapering (lowering the miles we run every day) we will start getting better. I am putting my faith in Jensen  (our coach) that he knows what he is doing and the training will make us better for districts and state.

So, this was most people’s last meet. I am going to miss everyone. Our team will now only consist of our 7 varsity runners and 3 alternates. This is one of my least favorite parts of the season. I have so many friends on J.V. and my sister is not on varsity, so I won't be able to see all these people nearly as much as I am used to and this really makes me sad.

There were a lot of not so great things about this meet, but overall it was a pretty good meet. We had 3 girls get first team all-conference and a girl who was 1 second off from first team all-conference! The coase was a decent coarse. The weather was not amazing, but it could have been a lot worse and a couple of my friends came to cheer us on. I also got ice cream after my race so that is always a plus.

Our Varsity team and our coaches.

KW, me, and AC with our first team all-conference certificates.

Thank God for running!

One thing that is so great about running is that you do not have to be that coordinated.

The other day in US History, we were playing this weird jeopardy game where you had to shoot a ball into a trash can. Well, unfortunately, I can’t catch or throw a ball to save my life. So when the teacher threw the ball right at me and hit me in the stomach, before falling to the ground, let’s just say there were some laughs. Then I chose to throw the ball from around the 4 foot mark and missed by a lot. Again there were more laughs. Oh, why am I so awkward?

The good news is that I am a runner. It would be a lot worse if that happened to a basketball player (that actually did happen to me when I played basketball, and it was even more embarrassing).  So I am hoping no one judges me too much, since everyone knows I am a runner.

One of the reasons I became a runner was because I could not catch or throw a ball. I used to play basketball, but I mostly just sat on the bench, and I used to play softball, but I was that weird kid who sat in the outfield and didn’t even move when a ball came near.

So I decided I probably was not going to go far with basketball and softball and I wanted to be good at something. I wanted people to remember me for something other than being that girl who tried out for everything, but wasn’t good at anything (I also tried gymnastics and I danced for 12 years, even though I sucked).  I couldn’t sing, I couldn’t do any sport that involved a ball, and I wasn’t extremely smart. So that left me with art, swimming and running. I chose running, mostly because my dad also did track and I did track in 7^th grade, but now I decided I am actually going to try at track and I wanted to be good at it, so I went out for cross country to get into shape. That started my running career.

I really don’t know what my life would be like without cross country, but I am thankful for being that awkward girl who can’t catch a ball from 2 feet away, because that led me to running. Thank god you don’t need to be that coordinated to run!!!

Rankings?

I am not a huge fan of cross country rankings. Iowa Association of Track Coaches creates a list of the top 15 teams and the top 30 runners in 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A. I feel like these rankings are very inaccurate though. Last year I was not even ranked and I finished 16^th at State.

Right now I am ranked 5^th which really confuses me. It seems like the top 10 finishers of our last meet are the exact same top 10 rankings in the state. So I finished 5^th last meet and now I am ranked 5^th? This really confuses me. I am wondering if all the other schools had a really hard course, but it still does not really make sense.

Our team is now ranked 3^rd. Dowling Catholic is now ranked 2^nd, yet they only have 2 people who are even ranked! And Linn-Mar beat us last meet, but they are ranked 4^th.

So, basically, just don’t trust the rankings, because they make no sense at all and more than likely the state meet won’t turn out like the rankings say it will.

Color Run!!!

Yesterday I walked the color run in Des Moines. It was awesome!!!!!! I highly recommend it to everyone. It’s a 5k where you can run, walk, or dance and volunteers throw this colorful dust at you along the way. It is also international.

Since my coach and my dad would kill me if I ran the race, since it’s so close to state, I walked the whole way. 5K’s feel a lot shorter when you are walking them then when you are running them. I went with 3 of my really good friends who also run cross country. It was soooooooo much fun!!!!

You walk about 1000 meters until you see a giant cloud of color ahead and you start to hear music playing. This was the point where I started getting really excited and probably looked like a lunatic. In the cloud of color there were people with bottles of colorful dust that were spraying the dust at us while we passed. I really wanted to get super colorful so I just stood in front of the volunteers until they sprayed me with color, laughed when I am still standing there, and then sprayed me again with color. After the race there was a party. At the beginning of the race they gave you packets of color dust and then at the end, everyone sprayed their color dust everywhere. It was so awesome!!!!!!!

 

 

 

After the run we went to McDonalds and my face was still slightly pink and my hair was green, and then I ordered 20 chicken nuggets and a McDouble, so I got some strange looks.

Here are some tips if you ever go to the color run.

1.    (slightly obvious, but needs to be said) BRING A CAMERA

2.    Wear white (also a bit obvious)

3.    Make sure you stand in front of the volunteers, until they spray you with color dust

4.    Take your time going through the color dust

5.    Do not use your color dust they give you until the party, because it’s so much more fun to use it then, and it’s really annoying when you use it before then.

6.    CLOSE YOUR MOUTH, the stuff tastes gross!

7.    Be prepared for this dust to go everywhere. Blowing my nose afterward was very disturbing and it was also in my ears. It also does not wash out of hair that easily, so I had to go to a haunted house with green hair.

7th Meet

I really do not want to write this post. No matter how much I do not really want to write it I feel obligated to talk about each of my meets, and I did learn a lot in this meet. Last Thursday, I learned how it felt to lose a meet (well really we got third place, but it was a huge lose for us).

The meet started out good. Runners in the races before us were running close to the same times they have been and we had beat all the teams there before, so I had a good feeling about this race. I was also completely shin splint-free and full of confidence.

The race started like every other race. KW and AC were a little bit in front of me and LM was right next to me. Around the half mile mark I noticed LM was not even that close to me, which I thought was weird, but figured I had just started the race too fast and she would catch up to me. So I kept on running and I was still behind KW and AC until I passed KW and then I passed AC. I figured I was doing pretty well, but I had some concern for my teammates, who at that point, I had no idea where they were. We normally stick together for most of the race.

I approached the clock at the finish line and estimated my time to me 14:55 (which it actually was).  At first I was thinking okay it’s not great but at least I am still under 15 and then I looked over to watch KW and AC finish. They did not do that great (probably 10-20 seconds worse than me).  Then I started looking for LM. I saw her still running with about a hundred yards left and then I looked up at a board, which showed all of the finishers from the school they are from and I noticed are chances of winning the meet were declining.

I was then overcome with emotion. I wanted to scream and cry. I was so overcome with anger and then I thought, where the hell is CS (our fifth runner)? I saw Jensen (our coach), who I think was experiencing some of the same feelings, and I asked him where she is, he shrugged and said about 60^th. Then I went and ran my cool down, by myself, and accidently gave death glares to some people.

I later learned that LM was cutoff and she tripped and fell and her leg was bruised and scraped up. So I definitely could not blame her for doing worse then she normally does, but what about CS, who ran almost a minute slower than normal.

I think I take cross country way to seriously, because even though CS is one of my good friends I am still having a hard time not being mad at her and the race was 3 days ago. I am still disappointed with this meet. I learned that when you are doing so good and you have a really bad race, it’s hard to remember the good races. The best thing to do is to just not have those kinds of races, but unfortunately, almost every team/person does, so you just have to get yourself back out there and work harder next time.

So our team is officially undefeated and it sucks.

Mental Aspect of a Race

The mental aspect of a race is very important. If you think you can do it you probably can, but if you doubt yourself you probably won't be able to achieve your goals.

During a race it is important to look up and focus on passing or keeping up with the people around you. You have to keep positive and think about how if you just try a little harder you could get a new PR (personal record) or you could place a little better. For some people it helps to keep track of how much of the race you have left. It also helps if you think about the race before the race so you know what to expect and you don’t get as nervous.

Unfortunately, like many other people, I have a hard time achieving positivity during races.

What I think about during the race:

(We’re lining up) Crap I am not ready I don’t want to do this. Wait, no I am ready for this I am going to do awesome. Shit, he just shot the gun, now I have to start.

Stay with Katy! Why am I breathing so much harder than everyone else? That girl just gave me a nasty glare! Tree. Uuuuhhhhh, this is hard, there I can trip over that root if I need to. I can say that girl with the nasty glare tripped me, and I need to stop. No, Jensen would kill me. Tree. Turn left. Turn Right. Hi dad thanks for cheering for me! Tree. There’s Megan. She’s not even cheering! I am going to have to talk to her… tree. Turn left.  

(Coming close to the end) Oh were almost done, that went by fast! I think I am going to pass this person. Yay, I passed them. Only a hundred yards until I finish and get a sandwichJ.

It Runs in the Family

One time after state my coach asked me if my mom was a runner or if my dad was. This got me wondering if running does run in the family. I never really thought it did, but it would make sense. I know of at least 6 people either on the cross country team or are alumni of our cross country team who have siblings that have also run on the team.

My sisters also run, but (not to be mean) they are not as good as me and I do not think they like running nearly as much as me. My dad was also a runner, but he was a sprinter. So where do my running skills come from? I think running might run in the family, but it I don’t think genetics is what makes people good at running. I think determination plays a bigger part in making someone good at running.

Shoes

Shoes are a very important part of running. It is extremely important to find the perfect shoes for your feet, because they have such a huge impact on how you run. If you don’t have good shoes that fit right there’s a good chance you will face injury at some point in time, because your shoes don’t fit you right.

The best way to get a good pair of shoes is to go to a local running store. Not Dick’s Sporting Goods or Scheels or NIKE, an actual running store, dedicated only to running. There they will watch you walk or look at the arcs of your feet or do something to make sure you buy shoes that are right for your feet and won’t make you get injured. I normally go to Running Wild. My assistant coach works there and they are normally really helpful.

Unfortunately, even if you go to a store that’s really helpful, shoe shopping is not always easy. Normally you have at least 3 different shoes that the workers say are good for your feet, and then you have to pick the one you like best. At Running Wild, they let you actually run down the sidewalk in the shoes, which is very helpful, but it’s still hard to find the perfect pair. You need shoes that fit right, last a while, and are comfortable.

Brands of shoes are all different. Some last longer than others, some are made to perfect your running form and some are more comfortable than others.  Saucony shoes last a long time, but from my experience with them, they’re not that comfortable.

(My current shoes)

 

My favorite shoes are Brook’s Ghost. I have had 4 pairs of Ghosts and I will probably continue to buy them. They are extremely comfortable and they fit really well, but they do not last very long. Considering I probably run somewhere around 900-1300 miles a year I end up having to buy about 3 pairs a year, which is really expensive. It’s almost impossible to get shoes for under a hundred dollars anymore, so 3 pairs of shoes is a lot of money. If you buy Saucony’s they will last for about 500 miles, so that would save some money, but I do not like those as much. I have also heard good things about Mizuno’s and Asics. I am not a huge fan of NIKE’s, but I know people who like them.

It is very important to buy good shoes and it is also very important to know when you need new shoes. My assistant coach always tells us to look at the bottom of your current shoes and if you can start to see a different color coming through the bottom of the sole of your shoe, then you need new ones. I can always tell when I need new shoes, because my knees start to hurt and I start to get a lot of blisters on my feet. In general, you should replace your shoes every 300-400 miles, but factors like weight and where you run also play a part in when you need your shoes replaced. I think the best way to know when you need new shoes is when your joints start to hurt or you start to feel pain, even when you are not doing harder workouts.

Shoes are a major part of running. Knowing what shoes are good and when they need to be replaced is something every runner needs to know.

6th Meet

Last Tuesday my cross country team had our 6^th win of the season! We remain undefeated! It’s extremely amazing to win a meet and it’s absolutely unbelievable to have won six meets in a row! I am still in shock by how good our team is this year.

This meet was in Iowa City at the same course we ran on in the second meet of the year. I ended up running 14:44, which was 25 seconds faster than when we ran there in the second meet.  I placed fourth and was the second runner for Kennedy. It was a good course and since our team runs together for most of the race we do pretty good. I think we also are running better, because of the training we did at the begining of the season.

This was one of my favorite courses for many reasons. Courses with long straight away’s (The first stretch of the race before you have to make the first turn), like Iowa City’s make the start of the race a lot easier. Having a long straight away allows for enough room for everyone to start the race without being trampled and in my opinion, also makes the beginning of the race feel shorter. The course also is one big long loop, instead of multiple loops around the same course. I also think that this makes the race seem a lot faster. One thing that is bad about this course it that it is in a hay field. If you have allergies and you’re running in a hay field make sure to bring allergy medicine, because for me, running always makes my allergies worse.   

There is no one in our team that is exceptionally good, but we have four people who are pretty decent and a fifth runner who is not too far from us. Because we have such a close team, we are able to accomplish a lot in meets. I think the most important thing on a cross country team is to have a close team. It not only makes cross country more fun, but it’s the reason our team is doing so well. If you can push yourself to run with the people in front of you, there is a good chance you will be more successful.

We have been training for our race by running intervals on Mondays. I can't even explain how much these intervals suck, but I think that they are a big part of why we're getting a lot faster. We run 4-5 1000-1200 meter intervals. They take forever to recover from, but I think they are really helping us. We never did them last year, and now that we are doing them this year we are all a lot faster.

Runners High

After the meet on Thursday, I experienced runners high more then I normally do. New York Times explains how endorphins are released after exercise, which gives you the feeling of runners high. I am not really sure how to explain this feeling, but it’s something I have experienced multiple times. I just get really happy and energetic and I experienced this to a greater degree on Thursday.

I think it might have been because I ran so well, but I didn’t even break my all-time PR so I am not really sure why I was so happy, but I just wanted to dance and sing and laugh. This could also be because for some reason I get a lot of energy at night (yes, I do spend countless nights having dance parties by myself, in which my sisters make fun of me).  

So I had all this energy and so did a lot of other people, and we had over an hour long bus ride. Let’s just say I am pretty sure that bus driver will not be driving around the Kennedy girls cross country team anymore, but it was sooooooo much fun and definitely the best bus ride I have been on.

After we got off the bus, several members from the team headed over to Parlor City to enjoy some ice cream (which is probably my favorite thing to eat). We had a lot of fun! One of the cross country boys asked me to go to homecoming, which reminds me I should probably go dress shopping soon since there’s only like 6 days until homecoming :/ and some of the boys also decided to play leap frog across the street and we ran out of songs to sing, so it was a very interesting night. One of the nights that remind me why I run.

The next morning a couple people told me that I was actually acting high though, but I guess that’s what I get for running so well ;)

I am soooooo glad I have such a fun team this year!

  I wonder if all runners experience a runners high like I do. I would assume it’s different for everyone, but since I can’t exactly explain the feeling that running gives me, it’s a little hard to compare to what other people feel.

5th Meet

My team had another great meet last Thursday! We won our fifth consecutive meet this year and we won another trophy for our almost full trophy case!

The meet was in Dubuque, at a course that in the past I didn’t particularly like. Last year it was freezing cold and rainy.

However this year I ended up getting my seasonal PR and I think most of the team did too. Almost everyone ran a lot faster than they have been so my coach thought that the course might have been a little short, but the whole course was measured out with signs, so it would surprise me if it was short.

I ended up running a time of 14:40 and I finished fourth. I was also the fourth runner for Kennedy, so clearly our whole team was doing well. We ended up with only 22 points (a perfect and nearly impossible score is 15)! Unfortunately, Linn-Mar did not run their varsity runners at the meet, so our only big competition was Iowa City High, which we ended up beating by close to 50 points. 

It really made me mad that Linn-Mar wasn’t there. I was really looking forward to getting to compete against them, but instead their team ended up running in Illinois and getting 2^nd place out of about 20 teams from Illinois.

I was also surprisingly really sad that two of our Kennedy runners beat the school record that I set last year. I knew that my record was going to get broke, I was just hoping that I would be the first to beat it and judging by what my mom said about how strong the first two Kennedy finishers, finished their race, I’m thinking I might not get to set the school record again this year. I think I am going to make it my goal, though to set the school record again, but it will be extremely hard since I am competing against three of my very competitive teammates who have the same goal in mind and are also working very hard to achieve it. As selfish as it sounds, sometimes I think it would be easier just to have a team that was not as good, so that I would just be the best runner and there would be less competition.

This was also the first time I was the fourth runner for the team, which I wasn’t too proud of either. Normally I can run with the other 3 teammates, who run close to the same time as me, for most of the race and then speed up around the 2 mile mark, but they sped up more at the end then I did.  I think this is partly due to my shin splints, but I think that they are also getting a lot better.

Overall this meet has its up and downs, but it was a pretty good meet and I am looking forward to our next meet on Tuesday.

Page 3B in the gazette

A couple of days ago my team and me were interviewed for the newspaper and this morning the newspaper article was published. http://iowaprepsports.com/2012/09/19/kennedy-g-xc/

This was the third time I have been interviewed for the newspaper and it still excites me so much.  I cut out every single article in the newspaper that I am mentioned in (normally it just has my name and the place I got) and put it in a box. Someday I want to refurnish a table top with all the newspaper articles from cross country and track.

The article is about my three teammates and me, who run close to the same time in every meet. We have been taking turns leading the team to our four.

Our coach talks about each one of us separately in the article, which is kind of interesting. I thought it was funny how the one thing he said about me was that I don’t worry. I think that that’s probably not true. I do worry I just normally worry more before the meet than right before the actual race.

The last time I was in the newspaper, teachers, neighbors, old coaches, and my family all sent me copies of the article along with a note of congratulations, which I thought was really nice and I appreciated it a lot.

Tonight we have a meet at Dubuque. I am really hoping we win this meet too, but I know Linn-Mar is going be hard to beat, since we kicked them to a 4^th place ranking in state, and we normally are ranked about ten spots behind them.

I am guessing Lauren might lead this race if she is having a good day, because Dubuque tends to be a little hilly and I don’t think hills really bother Lauren. I am really hoping to get a season PR tonight and I am hoping my shin splints don’t bother me tonight.