(photo Byron Horter)
Thoughts on Cedarville Friendship Invitational
September 17, 2016
It was a nice day with a breeze. The team built our camp and then began to walk the course. Cedarville has a very nice permanent course which was nicely cut and in good condition. The boys started their warm up while touring the course and ended the mile and a half warm up perfectly at our camp. We stretched and then did drills at the starting line. The team seemed pretty well prepared to run. The gun went off and almost instantly I headed to the front of the pack. About a half mile in, I expected the rest of the field to slowly creep up but no one ever came. To my surprise, I went out very quickly despite the fact that I felt comfortable doing so, with the first mile somewhere around 4:40. I further isolated myself from the crowd and hit the second mile somewhere around 9:45. At this point I just tried to gut out the race as best I could. I hit a 15:30 and wasn't upset with that time. Conant Smith then came in, and together we began to hand out water to all the other finishers. Overall it was a pretty good day and a solid day for Lakota East teams. The guys got second overall and the girls got seventh overall out of twenty-five teams or so. This meet was definitely a confidence booster going in to the back half of the season.
(photo Byron Horter)
Moment of the week: After the race, I got to go up to Toledo and see a Rockets football game with my brother Dillon and spend the night with him for the first time in two months or so. It was quite relaxing having my race out of the way that day so I could spend the most time I could catching up with him. It was nice to be reunited with him and meet all of his new friends at college, even some former cross country runners. Even though I had to wake up early to run again, I had fun spending every second I could with him.
