Week Six: @ Mundelein, Wheeling Invite/Sterling Invite

Monday:  @Mundelein:  Well, this meet was interesting for sure.  While I liked the comparison to running David Park miles, the course was a challenge for sure.  While the times were not blazing, Yareli found a way to overcome it and run a new lifetime PR of 28:25.  Times aside, I was pleased to see some progress on pack racing and racing in general.  There are definitely a few lessons to be learned from this meet:  1.  make sure you notice where to turn (on the THIRD lap...Maira and Joseline), bee careful of crazy debris in the path, and stay strong in the last half mile. 

Saturday:  @Wheeling:  It sounds like this was an interesting day of racing...after the course was reconfigured to 3 (ish?) miles, the times still seem a bit slow (according to my sources).  McPherson believes that we could subtract at least 45 seconds to convert the times to what we would run on our home course.  Without the conversion, we had several PRs:  Cindy, Kamisha, Erin, Tori, Lydia, Alexis R., and Ashley.   With the conversion, we would have several more:  Angie, Syra, Stephanie, Haley, and Yareli. Although I was sad to miss seeing you race, I am glad that so many of you kicked butt!

@Sterling:  After a ridiculously long bus ride, we arrived at the park for a quick run of the course.  As the sun was setting, we did strides up to the finish chute and imagined what would unfold the next day.  A late dinner and a later chat finished up our evening before some much needed sleep.  Saturday provided excellent racing weather--sunny and brisk--which was perfect for our pink shirts.  After our small yet loud breakdown, I knew you ladies were ready to run.  We had a perfect starting box on the far outside with no one to push us around during the long stretch to the woods.  I would have liked to see you get out a hair faster, but when I watched for pink to emerge from the woods, I was pretty happy with our placement.  The mile and two mile splits were solid, and I knew that you still had some juice to work in the woods.  As I yelled times a the start of the finish stretch, I saw each of you wake up to attack the last climb.  This has to be our best team race in several weeks, and I was equally pleased with the PRs:  Alexis, Joseline, and Rachel ran lifetimes while Ally ran a season PR.  Ana and Lindsay were both within 5 seconds of their lifetime bests, and Kimmy looked solid despite her recent leg issues.  Clearly this goodness had to seep into Maira and Bug's races.  They looked equally ready in their pre-race routines.  Both got out GREAT, and were in fine position coming out of the first woods loop.  I was very pleased with each of their splits, and saw them perk up in the final stretch as I yelled times.  Maira popped a 14 second lifetime PR and looked great every step, and Bug finally looks like her old self after being sick.  What a great way to head into Conference!