This last week started well, went great in the middle, and then ended with our team making it to the State Championships for only the second time in school history. Those are the kind of weeks I like.
Coming off our high from Regionals, the Lady Tigers had a great workout day on Monday at our normal practice spot, Miller Field. Tuesday flew by being the virtual ‘Friday’ of our short school week, and we had tons of fun as we headed to the New Haven course for some repeat work. Coach Erba (my dad) got certified to drive one of the small white buses so we would have easy transportation there and that just made the ride even more enjoyable as we watched him handle the oversized vehicle. When we got there it was cold and raining but I did my best to embrace the situation because I was thinking ‘Hey it could be this bad on Saturday and I’m not going to let it phase me then’. I felt good about how I ran our workout, even though I almost ran over a small soccer player during my last repeat because he got in my way… oops! Being numb from the cold and wet, we could not have been more excited to stumble into Panera Bread for food and it definitely hit the spot.
Wednesday morning, which was my birthday morning, started out on a good note with a nice morning practice. Our coaches even did some extra leg therapy and rolling stuff with our legs so I basically got a birthday massage, it doesn’t get much better than that on a rainy day! The rest of my birthday went wonderfully as I spent the rest of the day with my family and my boyfriend, Jake Poyner.
For Thursday, the rain continued (yes for the third day in a row) but I still got in a good workout before heading to Fort Wayne in the afternoon with my mom. Even though we headed there to shop, we decided to stop by the course just to see how much water it was holding and man oh man was it flooded! I had seen it sloppy before but there seemed to be entire lakes on the course. Luckily, most of the ‘lakes’ were drained before our race on Saturday! While in FW, I hit up two of my favorite stores (Dick’s Sporting Goods and Three Rivers Running Company) and got myself some sweet cold weather running gear for the upcoming months.
By the time Friday came around, we were all feeling good as we once again, piled on the small white bus and headed for practice and a team meal at Coach Bird’s house. His house didn’t disappoint as he has several cross country training courses mowed and marked, in and around his property. We talked about Semi State and State and had some good motivational talks to prepare us for the big day
Saturday morning was different than most race day mornings for me because I had so much time before having to get on the bus at 10:45a. My coaches said a shake-it-out morning run wouldn’t be bad so I headed out for a short jog to help wake me up and get me pumped. The bus ride to the Plex was more alert and alive than any we’ve had all year. I had brought all of my temporary tattoos and everyone picked out their favorites that they wanted for the race. Anna and I put them on everybody; just one more thing to make us feel ready to race! The day ended up being gorgeous, even though the course was still very wet. Before the races began as the teams were warming up, there was really good music playing and a few of us started dancing. I got a little overexcited and tried to dance while jumping over a rope fence… I didn’t make it over, quite to the amusement of the teams in the tent nearby.
The race itself went very well for me; I led from the start and clocked in an 18:07, only six seconds off the course record. I felt strong throughout my race but running alone is always tough, I’m really looking forward to racing against the best girls in the State next weekend and seeing what I’m able to do! Claiming the second Semi State championship of my high school career thus far was even sweeter than the first. Especially coming off last year where I tanked at this meet and didn’t even qualify for State, I can truly appreciate Saturday’s race. As a team we had a good but not great running day. We only had one PR in our top seven but had solid times all around. We placed third as a team, only 17 points back from Carroll who got first. This is an incredible accomplishment for us considering we placed tenth at Semi State last year, not even close to breaking into the top six. Even more impressively is that we didn’t graduate anyone from our top seven last year. We just jumped seven places with the exact, same, girls. Heading into State next weekend is going to be incredibly exciting for me personally and for our whole team…the Warsaw Lady Tiger cross country team is making school history this year!
The top 12, pre-race with one of our biggest team mottos this year: “Believe”
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. - 2011-10-17 11:20:00
This last week started well, went great in the middle, and then ended with our team making it to the State Championships for only the second time in school history. Those are the kind of weeks I like.
Coming off our high from Regionals, the Lady Tigers had a great workout day on Monday at our normal practice spot, Miller Field. Tuesday flew by being the virtual ‘Friday’ of our short school week, and we had tons of fun as we headed to the New Haven course for some repeat work. Coach Erba (my dad) got certified to drive one of the small white buses so we would have easy transportation there and that just made the ride even more enjoyable as we watched him handle the oversized vehicle. When we got there it was cold and raining but I did my best to embrace the situation because I was thinking ‘Hey it could be this bad on Saturday and I’m not going to let it phase me then’. I felt good about how I ran our workout, even though I almost ran over a small soccer player during my last repeat because he got in my way… oops! Being numb from the cold and wet, we could not have been more excited to stumble into Panera Bread for food and it definitely hit the spot.
