AAU National Cross Country Championship

It was after 3 months of hard, intense training that I was finally ready and prepared to prove myself. The occasion- the AAU National Cross Country Championships in Decatur, Alabama. My goal was to break 16:00, something that seemed impossible to me at the beginning of my training. My journey to this race seemed endless but let's just start at the important part- the day before the race. I had to wake up at around 5:00 AM on Friday to pack my bags and head out the door to my coach who lives in Orange Park. He was going to drive me and the rest of our 4-man team (plus some parents, including mine) to good ol' Decatur, Alabama. Once we arrived at the house we all piled into the van and began the treacherous 10 hour drive. I was quite productive during the ride by catching up on some homework as well as some shut-eye. Luckily during the drive we passed through the central time zone therefore giving us an extra hour. I had the breakfast and lunch meals of champions- McDonald's and Chick-fil-a. In a couple more hours we arrived out our motel- I mean hotel, the Day's Inn. It was complete with hot breakfast, free wi-fi, and shark tank swimming pool (a term my dad coined after staying at the Tallahassee Day's Inn and observing the very dark and ominous swimming pool that no one would go near). We didn't come to Decatur for the hotel so once we checked in we were back on the road to the Jesse Owens Memorial Museum where we would pick up our packets for the race. The process was quick which gave us some time to spare to check out the museum. We saw the tiny shack Jesse Owens was born in and got to see all the memorabilia inside the musuem. After about 30 minutes spent at the museum we headed to the Oakville Indian Mounds, the park where the race would be taking place. One thing that suprised us all was how flat the course was. It was a nice scenic trail winding through and around the nearby woods. It was unusually flat for the region of Alabama we were in. It was a perfect course to PR on. After our course walk/jog through, we went out to dinner at a nearby pizza place. We had our hopes high when we saw it won numerous awards including Best Pizza, Best Italian Restaurant, etc. All of us were quickly disappointed when we took a bite out of the pizza. It was at the bottom of my all-time list, only slightly better than the Hungry Howie's garbage pizza I had at the Last Gasp Cross Country race. But I made do and had a couple of extra slices for good luck. Once I got back to the room, I prepared myself for the next day's race and then quickly conked out at 8:00 PM. The next day I woke up bright and early, 5:30 AM to be exact. I went over my race plan in my head multiple times. I waited until my parents were up and then started getting ready and making sure everthing was good to go- timing chips, spikes, bib numbers, etc. After putting on 5 or so layers, we headed to the lobby to get our complimentary hot breakfast. I gorged myself on about 5 biscuits with gravy, enough to last me until dinner. Dad enjoyed the breakfast and proclaimed that it was better than the continental breakfast at the Tallahassee Day's Inn (as the biscuit and gravy dripped down his chin.) Once we were finished with our hot breakfast (our best meal in Alabama by far), we packed up our stuff and headed out to Oakville Indian Mounds for our races. We got there about an hour before the coach's son, Cameron, would race. I enjoyed seeing all the runners finishing and it doubled as a source of motivation for me. I was the last race of the day so I had plenty of time to prepare myself. Once Cameron's race was over, it wasn't another two hours until Steven, another teammate of mine, would compete in his race and then it would be another hour before I competed in my race. But I still watched everyone and cheered for everyone crossing the finish line. About 40 minutes before the race, I stripped my multiple layers and started warming up in the 40 degree weather. 20 minutes later I stripped to my singlet and shorts as I was assigned my starting block. I headed to starting block 6 and waited about another 15 minutes, doing a few stride-outs here and there. I was good to go. Upon "runners set", I hunkered down and got ready to go. The gun shot and I found myself sprinting, trying not to be stuck too far behind. I hugged the inside once we came upon the first turn which took us around the lake. I kept accelerating and tried to stay at a good pace. At about the 1st kilometer we began the loop in the woods. I had a couple of down hills to take advantage of and I climbed up a few more places. I completed the first mile in an amazing 6:14, my fastest mile to date. My surroundings were all a blur, the only thing filling my mind were my monotous foot strikes and labored breathing. Once the trail winded out of the forrest, there was a slight incline that took out more energy than you could expect. I slowed down for a bit but then pushed hard once coming upon another decline. The trail brought us back to the heart of the crowd where there were multiple spots to view me. I passed mile 2 but was in too much agony to notice it. With my fists clenched and a mean yet painful look on my face, I sprinted towards the finish after rounding the final turn. Once I crossed that line, it was like someone pressed the stop button. I regained my senses and looked down at my watch, forgetting that I had to stop it. It read "16:08" which made me feel sort-of confident that I met my goal of 16:00. The next 40 minutes had nothing more than me waiting in the finish chute for someone to let the 200 some runners out. Eventually they handed out top 25 medals (I finished 76th in the nation in the 13-year-old division) and after that we were released. Since I was the last race of the day, we all piled back into the van and headed back home. During the 20 minutes that I was awake in the long car ride home, I reviewed my success in these past two months, reminding myself that I had improved 2:30 since October and 1:00 since just two weeks ago. All in all, I felt I was sucessful in reaching my goal and improving such a large amount. Here at the Nationals it wasn't going to be my typical road race where I would get 1st in my age group without even trying. Now I like to chase PRs more than receiving a useless piece of wood. I still am feeling the sense of achievement I earned a few days ago. And to make things better, on the results online they posted the real times- not the clock times that were 40 seconds slow for my race. It turns out my time was 16:00, no more no less. I achieved my goal. Only now I'll have to chase a new goal. My next 5K will be the Reindeer Run 5K in Amelia Island this Saturday. I plan to take the family 5K PR away from Dad (21:22 that he ran this summer at Run for the Pies) and get it into sub-21 territory. Then I plan to lower that time some more at the Gator Bowl 5K on Dec. 31, where I hope to achieve my New Year's Resolution from last year- sub 20 in a 5K. But only time will tell if I will break that goal. So long and feel free to comment!