First Meet Success

Our first cross country meet was yesterday and it was a huge success, because of the increased training we have done this year. We took first place at the prairie individual yesterday, beating Iowa City West 52-53. This was a huge improvement from our 93 points we scored last year at the same meet!

If you don't know, the first 5 finishers of varsity cross country races score points. Each place is a point and the team with the least amount of points wins.

Why did we do so much better this year than last, especially when the competition was so much harder? It was because we trained so much harder this summer and since practice started on August 6th. We had ridiculously hard practices! Runs where I would actually hope that I would trip and fall, just so I would have an excuse to stop running! After our yesterday's meet though, I am going to try to think of how these hard workouts are just making us better instead thinking that the workouts are just our coach torturing us.

My time on Saturday was 15:30 for a 4k, which was a full minute faster then I ran at last years meet. I also ran about 100 more miles this summer then I ran last summer. I placed 17th last year and 10th this year. Unfortunately everyone else has also gotten faster so my 15:30 that I ran this year would have placed 5th last year. I was the third runner to finish for Kennedy. Last year, Kennedy didn't have anyone finish in the top ten and this year we had four people finish in the top 11, which shows how much you can improve by challenging yourself and running a little harder each workout.

I also learned from this meet how important it is to pass people. Even if passing them won't effect your time. Our fifth runner on Saturday had an amazing finish and passed two people in the last thirty yards of the race and if she hadn't done that we would not have won. Don't be afraid to pass people it doesn't matter how close you are to the finish line. It could be the difference between winning a pretty awesome glass trophy that lights up and loosing by a couple of points.

Even though the runs may seem like torture they're clearly paying off, so on your next run push yourself and think of how much better you will be in the future and don't be afraid to pass people at the end of your next race.