I couldn’t help but think how fast this Cross Country season had gone by. I had watched the weather all week and knew that it was going to be great today. Cool. In the 50’s or even low 60’s, but sunny by the time I would run. I was thinking it would probably be a fast race. There were some soft spots in the woods, but they weren’t bad.
I’d been thinking about this morning ever since last year’s State meet. It hadn’t even been one hour after I had won at Regionals. I was barely recovered when we found out that our team was the Regional runner-up. I was very happy that we had qualified as a team and that everyone would get to go to State, moving on with me. That afternoon, as soon as I got home, I got on line and looked up the other Regional times, teams and individuals that had qualified. From the other times, I figured that the other three regions based upon the times, must not have had very good weather. As I looked at the qualifiers, I didn’t see any real surprises. Everyone made it through that I had expected. State would be tough. Polman (Ryan Polman, Independence) and Roush (Ryan Roush, South Range) had made it and they both beat me last year. Seas (Mike Seas, Coldwater) and I had battled all year, but he hadn’t beaten me, but, you never knew what would happen at State as everybody was experienced and on any given day, any of us were capable of winning. I was pretty confident though. I was healthy and had trained hard all last summer and during the season. I was a year older and had much more confidence than the year before.
I was kinda surprised how fast last week went by. Practice had gone really well. My main goal had been to engrain a 4:50 mile pace into my mind and body. I knew it was going to take a sub 5-minute mile pace to win. On Monday I ran a comfortable tempo run for 30 minutes. Tuesday was the most important day. I did two, one-mile repeats at 4:50 with a 4 minute rest and three 400m pacers at my 5K pace. Wednesday we had a light day with some fartleks as we began to taper off for Saturday. Thursday I did some speed work with a one mile fartlek and a 400m at 90%. On Friday, both of our teams loaded onto one bus. It took us just over 3 hours to get to National Trails.
We got to the course around 1:00pm and walked the entire course. Then we jogged it. My first impressions of the course were really positive. Overall, the course surfaces weren’t too bad. It was a new course, but the grass was flat and short and the ground was stiff enough to get a good stride going. I liked the rubber mats that were placed on the drag strip crossings. They did a nice job of absorbing the spikes but wouldn’t slow us down. I don’t like to run on gravel, but there were only a few areas on the course where we would cross it. I knew that during the race we’d be to too focused and the few crossings wouldn’t affect anything. When we went through the woods, I was kinda surprised, but the trail wasn’t muddy at all. Finally, the finish was as good as it was going to get. The stone was compacted enough so you didn't slip, and there were surprisingly, no bumps or pot holes.
As we were going around the course, I also made sure that I knew exactly where all the half mile points were. The mile points were marked, but for me it’s important to know each of the halves too. A few things stuck in my mind as we went around the course. First, the hairpin turn at the suite end of the strip seemed like it could box some people in. Second, the hardest part might be the second mile (in the field and the straightaway into the wind on the far side of the drag strip). Third, I thought to myself, you can’t slow down in the woods because that section is shorter than you think. I was also thinking that the finish seemed like it would be extremely fast. The course was pretty entertaining and was similar to the courses at other meets we had run during the season. A mix between Tiffin and Bob Schul with the State meet feeling thrown in. Aside from my thoughts about the course, all of us were joking around with ourselves and the coaches as we jogged. It was fun to keep it light. After we were done jogging the course, we all loaded back onto the bus and headed off to eat and check into a motel about 25 minutes from the course.
On Saturday morning, I was up at 6:15. We didn’t have to be ready yet, but it was impossible to fall back asleep. It really wasn’t a problem though because I didn’t have any trouble sleeping and got 8-9 hours in. Around 7:30, I ate a large breakfast provided by the hotel. It consisted of a ham and egg sandwich, a bowl of cereal, yogurt, a banana, and orange juice. I knew I could load up, so I could just have a light snack before my race.
We were one of the first teams to get to the course. It was around 9:00am. We set up our tent and then went for a jog on the course. After our jog, all of us on the boy’s team just started hanging out and relaxing as we waited for the girl’s race. All ten of us are all very close friends. Having them with me definitely helped keep things normal for me. In fact, it seemed like one of us was always laughing, and for the most part, that helped all of us to relax a little, just like at any other meet. Wenig's crazy sense of humor, Slonkosky's comedic antics and having two sets of brothers, the Subler’s and the Kramers, never failed to crack us up and keep us constantly entertained. It also helped our cohesiveness. We only had three seniors on our team and only Garret Rose was with us. He was our leader. I was thinking how hard this was going to be, and wondering how Garret was going to do it, as he was running with a stress fracture. Garret’s cousin, Tyler Rose and another sophomore, Cole Albers were also with us and both were awesome guys to have along.
About 15 minutes before the girl’s race, we all went over to the start line and wished all of the girls good luck and then headed over just to the right side of the grand stands so we could see the start and finish of the race. We cheered the girls on as they went by and at the finish. I knew that Tammy (Berger) was disappointed, but didn’t get a chance to talk with her or any of the girls after their race. There were only two more races and it was time to start warming up. Coach Gigandet did relay to me that Tammy thought the toughest part of the race was the hill directly after the woods. As soon as I heard that, I decided what my race strategy would be. I would hang with the front pack through the two-mile and up until we got out of the woods. Then I would charge up the hill, make the right turn, use the downhill and my foot speed and turn on the jets the last 800 meters or so. I could picture the race in my mind. In the back of my mind however, I was second guessing myself as well. From prior experience, I knew that things never went as planned at the State meet. I was starting to get a little more nervous and along with the nerves and the anxiousness, I kept asking myself lots of questions. What if I didn’t have the energy to pull ahead up the hill? What if the pace was slow through the first two miles and I had to push earlier? I’ll just have to adjust like always to what other runners do and how the race goes..... Ok, I thought to myself, just relax. The pressure is the same for everyone. You’ve run against these guys before.
After the girl’s race we all went over to the bus to just hang out. The bus was a great place to get off our feet and relax. I taped some toes that were prone to blisters when I run, drank a lot of water, and Michael gave a speech. About one hour before race time, we all got off the bus. Coach Pleiman wanted us outside to start to get acclimated to the weather and to start thinking about warming up. He had us go over to the start line to check in about 45 minutes before our race to get it done and to make sure that there were no problems with our uniforms. The check in took about 5 minutes because of all the numbers and chips. Once we got the check in out of the way, we went ahead and started to warm-up. It was about 35 minutes to race time. I noticed that it seemed a lot warmer than earlier and that the wind had diminished.
The first part of my warm-up was a 5 minute tempo jog. It got my heart rate up and I broke a sweat. I thought it would be a good idea to go over and jog the hill right after the woods all the way to the finish straightaway. As I went over this part of the course, I started to visualize my race at this point of the course. When I was finished with the jog I went over to the start line and began some dynamic stretching and some brief static stretching. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer to race time. With 15 minutes to go until the start, I sat down and switched from my flats to my spikes. I was a little disgruntled after I tied my spikes as tight as I could, because with chips on both shoes, they just didn't feel right. I tried to put this out of my mind and forget about it as soon as possible. As I got up, I took a couple of deep breaths and gathered together with everyone for a prayer and what we call whoop-whoop (a cheer to get us fired up). There was only about 7 minutes left until race time and I did some more run outs still wearing my sweat pants and several layers of long sleeve shirts. As I looked around, almost everyone I saw had already taken off their warm-ups. As we did the run outs, we were constantly giving each other high fives. No one was talking much anymore, but Matt Subler came over to me and said "Let's go S.P. You really deserve this one." We smacked hands.
I could feel myself getting really excited as we were almost ready for the start. I was pumped with adrenaline as I trotted back to the start line to get a sip of water. Coach Gigandet grabbed my arm and said "Take some deep breaths and get this done S.P." I was nervous as the official called us into a meeting and gave us the start instructions and took a few more deep breaths to get myself under control. While the official was talking to us, I stripped off all of my warm-ups: sweat pants, a pair of shorts, a sweatshirt, a long sleeve shirt, a t-shirt, and under armor spandex. I remember the cool air on my body as the mob of runners dispersed and went to their starting boxes. When we got to ours, I threw my warm-ups behind the line, jumped up and down a few times, took a few deep breaths and waited for the whistle. When the sound came everyone got quiet. I leaned forward. My heart was racing furiously. I took a couple more deep breaths. The official raised his hands and the gun went off.
When the gun went off, it felt like any other race. I knew that there would be a few rabbits and I knew to keep my cool. I was concentrating on getting out and trying not to get boxed in. I got out fairly quick and right after we went across the first rubber mat at about 400m, Roush and Seas worked past. I tucked in right behind them in the straightway as we made our way past the grandstands. I heard Coach Pleiman's voice in my head, "Even though it's going to be awesome running past all the screaming fans, don't let that energy and adrenaline get the best of you. Control your pace and contain your energy." I did that even though I found myself falling back just a little.
When we made the hairpin turn back across the drag strip and headed down the other side, I was still in good position and felt comfortable. I hadn’t wasted any energy. Down that straight, the pace started to pick up and some of the runners started to drop from the front pack. Roush was leading. A couple of guys tried to pass him, but he didn’t let them. I was in third or fourth as we went up the slight incline that lead through the gate towards first mile marker. I took a quick look around and the lead pack was about 7 of us. As we approached the blue mat at the first mile, I read "4:48....4:49..." This was right around the pace I had expected.
The east loop field was flat, but all of the turns took an immense amount of concentration because we were battling for position around each of the turns. Throughout the field, Roush continued to push the pace and it didn’t slow down. By the time we exited the field, there were only 4 of us in the lead pack; Roush, Seas, Polman, and myself.
When we left the field, we went through a quick series of rolling hills. I stayed on the left side of the course as we went through them. We we’re all hanging together as we went down a short straight along the drag strip. I was starting to tire a little and thought that we would slow down on the straight as we got near the 2 mile marker, but it felt like the pace picked up with the four of us pushing each other. All of us pushed hard up the hill, down the wooden bridge, and across the track. As I was still gliding down the make-shift wooden hill, Polman blew past me on the right. He surprised me, but I knew I had to go with him in order to stick to my plan of making it through the woods with the leaders. I was starting to feel the race and the pace, but surged back up even with Ryan as we crossed the blue mat of the 2 Mile Mark, "9:55...9:56..." Just past the 2 Mile mark, I caught a little second wind as mentally I thought to myself that the longest part of the race was over.
We pushed the pace going through the woods. It seemed as though we went through the woods section fast. Just as we got out of the woods and just as I had pictured, I made my move. In my mind I said now and began to pump my arms more and took some big strides, pushing really hard up the hill. I took the right turn around the big tree and tried to increase my foot speed on the downhill. I felt the wind at my back and could tell I had pulled away from the others. This move and the slight lead boosted my confidence. I could see the straightaway of the finish now and it seemed as though I was virtually sprinting along the side of the woods as I approached it. I heard Polman and Roush behind me and could tell that they had gained a little ground back on me and weren’t going to quit, but I didn't look back and just kept pushing. I heard Coach Gigandet yell, "Up on your toes and pump your arms! Way to go Samuel!" I did what he said and could see the finish line.
Down the last 300m, I didn't even notice the people cheering. My focus was on the finish and just hoping that no one would catch me. My legs were tightening up like never before as I ran down that straight on the crushed stone. The last 50, I was lifting my knees high, pumping my arms and trying to maintain my form. I was sprinting as fast as I could with my eyes focused on the finish line. As I crossed it and let up, I raised my arms in happiness and relief. I’d won it! I was the state champ!
