Cross Country Race Wrap-Up: September 19th and 26th

Nease JV took home 2nd at the Bob Hans Invitational

After a short hiatus from the blogosphere, I am now immersed in the cross country racing season, back on my blog to chronicle the races that occur week in and week out. I will post bi-weekly wrap ups about the races that occured.

Katie Caples Invitational

This race kicked off the cross country season and I was able to don my Nease singlet for the first time in my four-year stint as a member of the team. Three weeks prior, our team designated one of the all-comers cross country meets to serve as the team's time trial to determine varsity. I missed out on varsity by two seconds, meaning I'd start off my season toeing the line at the Junior Varsity race. I had two main goals in mind; first I wanted to improve on my time that I ran at the time trial (20:31); second, I wanted to break 20 minutes, the elusive barrier that I now felt was in my grasp. As for place, I wanted to be in the top 20, or at least relatively close to it.

The Katie Caples Invitational was held at Bishop Kenny (BK) High School, which is situated right along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. The series of races were held in the evening, providing cool weather for all those competing. The course is one of the fastest in the state, host to great times every year.

After warming up and stretching with my JV teammates, I stripped my warm up gear and headed to the starting area. The starting line was packed with runners from many schools, and looking back on the results it turns out that 279 runners finished. After moments of standing around, the starter prepared to fire his gun. With a bang, 279 runners sprinted ahead as I held my position in the middle of the pack. The first turn of the course took us onto the track, where I jostled for position. After a jam-packed first mile I cruised over the low cut grass, clocking my first mile in 6:10. The course traced back much of the first mile, but then took us along the river. I slowly moved up in the field, but I was a far cry from top 20. My second mile was in 6:31, and once again the course looped around on previous ground. With a half mile to go, I dug deep and made my way towards the finish. Once on the track, I quickened my stride only learning to my dismay that I had nothing left. A couple runners here and there whizzed by me as I crossed the line in 19:53, putting me in 40th place overall. The rest of my team crossed the finish on my heels, with the next four runners coming in 20:06, 20:07, 20:58, and 21:17, respectively. As a team, the JV boys squad finished 8th of 22 teams with an average time of 20:29.

Girls' Varsity and JV both placed 17th, while the Boys' Varsity finished in a thriller, taking home 5th place. All in all, a very memorable and successful meet.

Ridgeview Bob Hans Invitational

With another good week of training under our belts, the team traveled to Ridgeview High School in Orange Park for the Ridgeview Cross Country Invitational. Confidence running high, the JV squad and I were prepared to match our times from last week and possibly take 1st Place in the JV team competition. Still, we were unaware of what challenges the course would pose for us.

The whole squad arrived at Ridgeview bright 'n early, most of us arriving there at 6:00 AM. Varsity Girls raced first followed by the Varsity Boys and then the JV squads in the previous order. I couldn't figure out much about the course from the confines of the team tent so I guess I'd figure if the varsity ran good times then the course wouldn't be half as bad. Varsity girls had a great showing, many of them setting PRs in the process. Varsity Boys followed suit, taking 4 of the top 10 spots. The varsity boys ended up winning the meet. Many though had mixed feelings about the race, saying that some parts of the course were notoriously slow. Still, I felt I had the ability to whittle a couple seconds here and there from my Katie Caples PR. After a quick 15 minute warm up with the rest of JV, I stripped off my outer layers and prepared for battle.

Once at the starting line, we did a couple of strides before squeezing in to our assigned box. I was already soaked with sweat as was everyone else, the humidity high and temps close to 90. The starter prepared the pistol then raised his arm. Within seconds we were off, quickly funneling in. I stayed in the middle of the pack, creeping up slowly towards the end of the first mile. I crossed the first mile in 6:07 and was among the top 20. The course now started to get sloppy, going through high grass and sand. The second mile took a lot out of me as I clocked a 6:30 split. The third mile wasn't much better, meandering through segments of trails as well as more sand. The third mile was the most miserable, but I pushed towards the finish line determined to better my time. I crossed the line in 19:52, a 1 second PR. I received 10th place and my teammates took 5th, 13th, 14, and 19th, which rounded out those in the top 20. Mostly everyone PRed minimally or was off their time by a little but all in all it was a good team performance. Our team average dropped to 20:09 and we took home a 2nd place team trophy for our efforts. Stay tuned for next week's wrap-up as Nease takes on the fast and flat courses at Ponte Vedra and Bartram Trail, respectively. So long and keep running!