Redemption 5k

Pasta Party at Coach Erin's House :)

La Verne XC Women's Team after the race

After missing what was expected to be our only 5k of the season, the girls team was disappointed to say the least. I know that I was really looking forward to setting a new personal best and establishing the tone for the rest of my season. When we missed the race due to a lack of communication and failure to abide by NCAA rules on the race directors part, I did everything that I could to brush it off and move on.

Sunday came and after spending the morning with my dad getting coffee, as per our usual routine, I got a call from Coach Mike. Coach Mike mentioned the idea of racing the 5k at UCR the following weekend and wanted to know my thoughts. I was ecstatic at the thought; I would get to race my 5k as planned and I knew that it would be a worthwhile performance because I felt confident and prepared. Coach warned me that it was only up in the air at that point in time, however, he would do his best to get the girls into the race.

Turns out, we got to race our 5k after all. :) I managed to set a new personal record in cross country by over 14 seconds and I couldn't have been more thrilled. Okay, I take that back; I probably would have surpassed my level of ecstasy if I had beaten a few more CMS and Redlands girls. Overall, it was a successful race for me and my teammates. And I had a fun Saturday spending time with my cross country girls; this includes giving a random host at Mimi's Cafe our number...or Sydney's number that is. (FYI: He still hasn't called but it will happen eventually)

As I fast-forward to this weekend's race, Pomona-Pitzer better be ready because La Verne cross country has high expectations for tomorrow and there will be no holding back or missed opportunities. :)

Life Lessons

All we could do after a crazy and disappointing day was smile...so that is exactly what we did. I love my teammates!

I feel like I am constantly apologizing for my blogging laziness! With that said, I really am sorry for not updating sooner but this semester has been hectic to say the least. By the way, I am writing this instead of taking a nap like I should, seeing as I got about 3 hours of sleep last night and did an uphill tempo run this morning. I can guarantee however that within the next hour, I will definitely be passed out in my bed and will remain there for a good couple of hours. Thank goodness for not having class until later tonight!

And now for all of the updates. We opened our season at the Fullerton Opener held at Carbon Canyon Regional Park. They decided to change the course up this year and unfortunately, the new course consisted of 2k loops around the thick grass. Unfortunate, but I knew that I would suck it up and give it my all. I have been experimenting with this new strategy of opening up with a controlled first mile and then picking it up from there. I struggled to remain calm and the hardest part was being okay with not being in the front of the pack. I followed the plan however and came through the mile a second off of my intended goal pace. The race felt long and painful. And I spent the next few miles trying to play catch up which was kind of fun. I had no kick which wasn't surprising but I was hoping I would at least have a little something left in the tank considering my new race strategy. I finished in 47th place out of approximately 215 girls and my time was the farthest thing from satisfactory. However, all the times were slow that day because of the course change-up and there was no way to compare the times this year from last year.

Now let's fast forward to the second race of the season at UC Irvine. I can say with confidence that it is a day that I will never forget. The week leading up to the race, I was nervous. I had a very disappointing mile repeat workout on Wednesday and I felt like I didn't have much confidence approaching the race. Similar to the Fullerton opener, I was hoping to blow my time from last cross country season out of the water. Driving to the race on Saturday, we notice that the weather is cold and overcast. We all make the comment about the perfect weather, getting excited to race our only 5k of the season. As we get to UCI, we notice that the sky drastically takes a turn for the worse. A trip to the bathroom sends us all running for cover as a lightning bolt hits the ground and thunder violently follows. We run back to the cover of the parking structure and Coach tells us that the race will be postponed due to the lightning. At least 10 laps in the parking structure pass by before we decide to head up to the field to complete our warm-up drills. As we are running up to the field, we notice that all of the teams in our race have already sprawled out across the starting line. Panic washes over us, along with the realization that our race is about to go off and we are not even close to being ready. The gun goes off before we have time to decide what to do. I did the first thing that came to mind. The army of runners pass by us and I am rushing to throw my warm-ups off. At about the middle of the pack, I decide to "jump" in the race and go for it. Micaela and Andrea chaotically chased after me and we were off. We raced a solid mile before Coach pulled us out. All I can say is that at least I picked a good spot in the race to jump in; Pomona Pitzer girls surrounded me on all sides and a few Oxy girls also joined.

Moral of the story is that we missed our race. The race started on time and we didn't make it because we were under the impression that the race would be postponed due to thunder and lightning. In the 6 years that I have been running, I have never missed a race. While I was upset and disappointed that I didn't have a chance to compete, I also knew that it was an experience I would never forget. I learned that our lack of communication with the officials is the reason why we missed the race. So for future reference, if ever there is a confusion or misunderstanding, the best option is to go to the race official and demand clarification. We finished out the day with a long run and had a great time cheering on our boys. They all did an amazing job and I was very proud of them for succeeding despite the odds and the disastrous beginning to the day.

I am looking forward to the next race, whether it be at UCR this coming weekend or at Pomona-Pitzer in a few weeks. No matter what, I am going to be ready to run fast! :)