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.