Last Friday the JV runners had a meet in Mead, CO, about 20 minutes from Longmont, CO.
It was very cold and rainy that day, not exactly good running conditions. The cold is okay, but the rain isn't helpful with glasses and with the wind. It was 45 degrees out, a little weird for September. I bundled up and got out of the bus. The JV girls were the third race that day, after the middle school girls and boys. We warmed up, got to the starting line, and stripped of our warm clothes, leaving us in singlets and shorts. It was freezing and muddy. I would have thought this is be gorgeous weather had I been inside, but outside was a different story. A lot of the course was pure mud, thick and slick. We all started to run on the sides of the course, thinking that we were so clever, only to run that section again and see that the sides were now trampled and slippery with mud that came off of our shoes. My shoes came untied at various times during the meet, leaving me with ample opportunities to trip and fall. And trip and fall I did. Twice, actually, and within 5 strides of one another. I tried my shoes with my trembling fingers and started running again. I knew that I lost my sub-30 race that day, but I was determined to still PR. And so I did, slashing off 2:25 from my last meet. My knee was scraped up pretty good from the falls, but I didn't feel it; it was a combination of adrenaline and numbing of the cold. Overall, it was a fun race, not what I was expecting, but still exciting.
Yesterday our team (JV and V boys and girls) piled into the bus at 5:50am, about to embark on a 2 1/2 hour trip to Sterling, CO for our next meet, the Patriot League meet. It's now championship time, with this meet being all conference. We arrived safely in Sterling around 8:30 ish and set up camp, putting up our tents and tarps. It was freezing cold and very windy, really not helpful conditions. The V boys were the first race that day, with the V girls next, then the JV boys, and 5 minutes after, the JV girls. The cold had let up a little by 11:15, but the wind hadn't a bit. The gun went off and so did we, all 15 JV girls runners. I went out way to fast, but I only regret that a little. It was my only time being in the top 3, but I slowly fell back. The course was supposed to be fast and flat, but I didn't find that to be true. My first mile was 9:15, second around 10:28, and last mile +.1 mi was 11:45. I have never sprinted that fast in a race, ever. The varsity boys were standing and cheering me on for the last straightaway, which was really really nice and really inspired me to keep on sprinting, no matter if I could breathe or not. I clocked in 31:18, a new PR. My goal was sub 30, but that just wasn't how it was supposed to be that day. I'm pleased with that result, but I'm really just proud of my teammates, lots of them getting PRs, including my fellow JV girl runner who was hoping just to finish the race, but got her best time, 26:08, in her first race of the season. The varsity boys got all conference, with them grabbing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 11th spots for the race. The varsity girls only had 2 placers, but they still did really well. The JV boys got 4th place overall, with lots of them getting PRs. The JV girls only had 2 runners in the race, but my teammate grabbed 1st place, with the second place finisher over a minute behind her. I got 11th place, and with that our team got 3rd place. It was a really fun day, and we had some good laughs on the bus ride home. We learned that our JV boys took a detour during the race, taking a wrong turn in the forest somewhere, but they still did remarkably well! I'm really proud of Lyons, considering all we've been through, we are still pushing hard and not letting anything defeat us. Some of us consider ourselves Sea Lions now, with all the flooding. Seems like there is always a bright side to the difficulties we may face.
