in meets by coach mike on 28 Sep 2008
Well that was a hilly little 5k. Not sure what to think. The girls had a pack time of 42 seconds 1 through 5. Now in most cases thats good, but when your number 1 is 41st, you have a little problem. Also when your freshman that has been running 6th and mostly 7th for you is number 1 that too is also a little problem. I wonder sometimes how important this is to some of them? Do we focus and prepare mentally? Or do we just show up, thinking that we aren’t going to do well, so why not just go through the motions? Lets not push ourselves, lets just get done with this so we can go home! Do we warm up right? Do we even run any of the course to warm up? Or does the coach need to follow you around like in grade school? I’m looking for someone to step up and race, to lead by example in the race! I know some are trying. Do we not work hard enough in practice? Do we need more miles? Do we need more speed? Or do we need more —–? Positives- the cheerleader, with only three workouts, this past week ran number 2 for us, the freshman ran well. Mollie ran without as much pain. Courtney was sick as a dog, but has she been doing anything to make herself better (sickness)? Kaity ’s problem is showing back up. Alyssa ran a good strong racing starting off and then faded, but you know she was giving all she had. By the way the cheerleader does have a name-Chelsea and the freshman is Tiffany. Right now I predicting a 3rd or 4th place finish at conference and 5th or 6th in the regional, thats not be very positive, but time is running out and the finish line is getting closer each day!
Boys race-split the squad and tried to run two full teams in the varsity and the jv, but that didn’t pan out, we have too many injuries. So we ran 5 in the varsity and 4 in the jv. Nix ran very well, got a very good start and was our number for over half the race, before Jordan caught him. Cory had been getting better each meet. Jordan was under the weather for a couple of days during the week running a slight fever. I like the idea of Nix moving forward. Kubicki had another tough race, he seems to be unable to focus on the task at hand, this is not uncommon with seniors, they have a lot on their plates, all kind of things to worry about, college, ACT scores, girl friends, grades, getting into the college you want. Life is getting ready to be different. Its tough having fun with this sport-you run and you are excepted to run fast. You run over roads, up hills, through creeks, hard dry ground, wet muddy grounds. It hasn’t cooled off yet, so its still hot, of course there is not time outs and no subs-if you are having a bad day, there is no where to hide. Sometimes the fun is the trip home-bus time- time to cut up a little-time to share-time to talk and laugh. We had a very nice trip home-stopped at the food court at Fairview Heights for lunch. That was the bus drivers idea and a good one-NO McDONALD’S! The trip home is a time to bond with your teammates! Back to the race-Thomas also continues to struggle, I know he will come around-he always does. Sam Follett, soccer player, ran his first race of the season, not a good one to start with! But his time was good, 20:23-take almost 30 seconds off for the 3.1 and maybe another 30 or more for the hills, not bad at all. Use Hesser and Clark in the jv race trying to build some confidence for the younger guys, Hesser raced very well, had a bad start but recovered very well to finish 5th overall, would of been 3rd on our varsity-Clark had a good start-faded then came back, finished 21st-they gave 20 medals! Meigs is getting better and will be a solid racer for us in the future years! The day was ok-somewhere different-the drive was easy- the park was very nice, would like to go back and just walk around for a bit sometime and look things over. This week we travel to Peoria for the big invite-hope to put some guys in the top 75 or better-not even sure I’ll have enough girls for a team! May have to have Kirsti Owen run!