Hey everybody. To those of you who couldn't tell by the title, my name is Mark Hadley, and this is in fact my blog. Before getting started I'd like to thank Mr. Findlay for giving me this great opportunity. I'm surprised and humbled that he chose me of all people to write a blog, and I hope that I don't make him regret his choice.
I thought I'd get my first blog going by giving a recap of my summer training. I started the summer by participating in the 5k at New Balance Nationals. I say participating because that was about the extent of my race. I ran a 15:01 which was 50 seconds behind the winner and I really kind of embarrassed myself in front of a bunch of college coaches. The experience was really pretty degrading, but it shrunk my head a little bit and became great motivation for my cross country training and the upcoming season. I moped about how poorly I had run for a night or two, took a week off, and jumped right back into my training. I decided with my coach that the best thing for me to do over the summer was to build a huge base. In years past I've played around with higher miles a little bit getting up around 60 and even 65 miles on occasion, but never anything consistent. I averaged around 55 miles a week over my junior track season which got me in pretty good shape, but obviously not good enough shape to run a good 5k. This summer was different though. I gradually increased to 75 miles a week and have actually been maintaining this volume since mid July. Once August rolled around, my team began workouts. This was also a big change for us because we were used to running hard days as soon as track season ended. My coach decided that in order for the team to be at its best this year, we needed to put off workouts for a couple months so we could be at our best in November. The changes seem to be working beautifully as of late. The team is healthy and fit, but we also feel that there is great room to improve before State on November 2nd and Foot Locker on November 30th. We did very well at our first couple meets this year coming in second at the OHSAA preseason meet losing only to Mason, who finished 2nd in the state last year. We won invitationals at GlenOak, Kenston, and Walsh Jesuit. Individually I was able to keep an undefeated streak going at all these meets while coasting in the last mile and not burning myself out. I knew last Saturday would be a completely different story though.
Last Saturday was the Spartan invitational, a huge race on my home course. The race took on a completely new meaning for me though because I knew Nick Elswick would be there. Nick finished over 30 seconds ahead of me at New Balance getting second in the nation for the 5k and was also was a Foot Locker national qualifier as a junior, placing tenth in the Midwest Region. Simply put, Elswick's the man. I knew in order to beat him I couldn't jog the last mile like my first four races and would have to give an all out sprint to the finish. So naturally, I was pretty nervous. I never really doubted that I could compete with Nick, but if I told you I had no doubts coming in, I'd be lying. The only thing I knew going in was that I could give him a race, and honestly, it's been over a year since I could say that. My attitude going in was that I didn't care whether I won or not but whatever happened I wanted to have fun and give my home crowd a race to remember.
Initially this wasn't the case though, we went out pretty conservatively hitting the mile around 4:55 and the two mile around 9:50, but at the two mile it got interesting. Nick really started to throw it down -To those of you not up on running lingo I mean he started pushing the pace, and to those of you who don't know what pushing he pace means... you're beyond my help- he probably opened up a 10-15 meter lead on me going into the 4k mark and seemed like we wasn't slowing down any time soon. At this point in the race it was becoming very convenient for me to settle for second place and just be happy that I ran a good time. But around the last 800 meters something clicked. I made eye contact with my dad as I was going through the woods and he didn't scream for me like he usually does. He just gave me the most intense look I've ever seen, and pumped his fist. For some reason this really got my adrenaline pumping and I took off as hard as I could. I started making up ground and was neck and neck with about 200 meters to go. The last 200 meters of our course is a slightly downhill straightaway lined with thousands of screaming fans. Needless to say it made for a memorable sprint finish that would crown the new course record holder. It got so loud that I couldn't hear myself think and it seemed like no matter what I did Nick wouldn't break. We traded position two or three times all the way until about the last 10 meters when I surged to the finish. My official time ended up being a 15:07 with Elswick less than a second back at 15:08. We absolutely obliterated the 15:30 course record set back in 1992 and put up the top two marks in the nation at the time (they aren't anymore but they're still top ten). And best of all, we get to do it again and again... and again. Nick and I get this week off from racing because we're taking an official visit at Ohio State together. But the week after, I'll see him at the Midwest Meet of Champions, Followed by the Stow Invitational, Followed by Districts two weeks later, then Regionals, then State, then Foot Locker Regionals, and hopefully Foot Locker Nationals. Regardless of whether I win or lose these next races, I'm looking forward to a fierce rivalry, blistering times, great memories and hopefully a lasting friendship with one of the best runner's to ever come through the state of Ohio. I'm beyond excited to see how the rest of this season plays out and to see just how far Nick and I can push our limits. Add this to the fact that I'm still struggling to make my college decision and will be going on several official visits and I'd say that my plate is full for the rest of the season... It's gonna be a great year!
