Warsaw Community junior Ashley Erba comes into 2011 as one of the top distance runners in the state of Indiana. Follow her on her quest to the state meet and the postseason in this series we like to call "In Her Own Words".
In Her Own Words: Ashley Erba - Journal #1
What a great day for the Lady Tigers! We had our Regionals today at Oxbow Park in Elkhart and WON for the first time in Warsaw history! It felt great coming back as a junior this year and getting to go up to claim our championship awards after it being just out of reach the past few years when we just barely missed winning. But hey, sometimes that’s the best motivation. So far this year, that has certainly been fueling us; we’ve won the NLC, Sectionals and Regionals in the past two weeks which is huge for us. It feels great to see our team finally coming together and accomplishing great things.
Today was a little chilly but still great weather for running, leave it to Indiana to give us hot weather early in the week and then drop the temperature way low. I was really glad it wasn’t raining like it was on Thursday though when we had a 300m workout and were slipping and sliding all over the place in the mud. The course looked pretty good at Oxbow this morning and I always love running there anyway. It’s a perfect mix of wooded paths and grassy open areas. Every year we race there at least three times so I sure do have a lot of memories that go with it! I’ve gotten even more great ones throughout the past few meets there and I’ll be sad not to race there again until next season.
Today Anna Bearss (our No. 2 runner) and I kept with the pattern we’ve been pulling this year as I placed 1st and she brought home a strong 2nd. We didn’t have any big time drops between the two of us but part of that came from taking out the first mile in 6:04. Anna and I planned on just sitting with the front pack of runners for the first mile to help pull our own pack up higher early on and then moving out to set PR’s but they pace at the front was uncharacteristically conservative. I still finished in 18:10 though, only a second off my best time so far this season so I can’t complain even though I’m always wanting to go faster. After awards, our team stuck around and we put in a few more miles on the course. Anna and I had some good conversations about the upcoming weeks and how pumped we are for them. This next week should be especially fun, Anna and I will head out for a early morning run tomorrow. On Tuesday our coaches are taking us to the New Haven course (our semi-state course) for practice and then treating us to Panera Bread (my favorite!) afterwards, Wednesday is not only the first day of fall break but it’s also my birthday and then two days of no school before Semi-State… an equation for a great time. I can’t wait to see how everything shapes up, there’s so much to look forward to!
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Warsaw Community junior Ashley Erba comes into 2011 as one of the top distance runners in the state of Indiana. Follow her on her quest to the state meet and the postseason in this series we like to call "In Her Own Words".
In Her Own Words: Ashley Erba - Journal #1
What a great day for the Lady Tigers! We had our Regionals today at Oxbow Park in Elkhart and WON for the first time in Warsaw history! It felt great coming back as a junior this year and getting to go up to claim our championship awards after it being just out of reach the past few years when we just barely missed winning. But hey, sometimes that’s the best motivation. So far this year, that has certainly been fueling us; we’ve won the NLC, Sectionals and Regionals in the past two weeks which is huge for us. It feels great to see our team finally coming together and accomplishing great things.
