Week 8

Saturday @ Grant Regional:
I am a stat nerd. I love looking at Athletic.net because I can track growth, remind myself of races of the past, and now (thanks to a cool "simulate" feature), I can see how we rank against future competition based on everyone's season best time. 

But here is the problem with that function--it assumes everyone is going to have an A+ performance on the same day. According to Athletic.net, we were seeded 3rd in the Regional, comfortably qualifying ot the next week. But this isn't my first rodeo; I saw that the point differential between 3rd and 7th was only 20 points. That's nothing in a stressful qualifier race.

So I kept that simulation stat to myself all week and just let you shine. The Monday long run was glorious in the fall colors of Beulah Woods. The Tuesday workout was so impressive, with you all shining like the stars that you are in a difficult, unpredictable repeat session followed by a mile time trial. And what great timing to have some time back after testing on Wednesday? A chance to just run on your own and relax. Thursday and Friday felt light and fun and pancake-filled (Thanks, Tolliver!). And even on Saturday morning--the energy felt good! You were chill on the bus and enjoyed the pretty trees as we got close to the course, so I didn't want to make too much of trying to get through as a team because I wanted you all to run light.

But I could see after the warm up that you guys were nervous. I don't think I have ever seen shoes get re-tied so many times in my life!  And as I always say: It's ok to be nervous; it is normal and means that you care. But I didn't want you to run tight or talk yourselves out of what you are capable of. 

When the gun sounded, I watched you all dart up the hill for the first of three times, then headed to the 800 mark when you emerge from the woods. We were in solid position, but I was concerned about the looks on everyone's faces. We were not in the race like we had been the weeks before. I sprinted across the field and up the hill to catch everyone after the mile. Things still felt "off." At this point, I could see that Alivia was not having an "A" day, and I encouraged our veterans to pick up the slack while reminding Liv to BREATHE. Waiting for the team to emerge from the woods was like torture. By the two mile, Fia had stepped into our second slot, eating up competition, while Lauren was still holding her own in our first spot. I could see that she was struggling, though, and I encouraged her to fight for her girls! Rach still looked like she could push for the last mile, as did Brionne. Our hills looked great, but I could see that Alivia was in trouble. She was pale, and I could see that she was probably hyperventilating a bit, which makes running feel awful. To her freshie credit, she kept scrapping, keeping her head up and fighting. I kept repeating that we HAD to catch people in the woods for the final time.  As I sprinted to that 300ish to go mark, I could see that we were not in good shape coming out of the woods. Other teams seemed to have made moves while we were going backwards. At this point, I was in full freak-out mode. I was yelling at anyone who would listen that we needed to catch people in the last bit. Lauren fought to the end, staying strong for her team even though she did not feel great at all, while Rachel had a rebirth in the last mile, picking up her sister Fia in the woods. She pushed hard in the final moments, catching a girl from Vernon Hills. Sofia kept her eyes on her teammate, driving home hard for us and fighting off a few girls. Brionne, though...Brionne was a true senior. When I screamed, "WE. DON'T. HAVE. IT!!!" she turned into Riley. That final 300 meters was simply a sight to see. Not only did she catch at least five competitors, but she did it like she was on fire. She owned the last section of that course, and it made a huge difference in our team score. Liv hung on to be our 5th runner for the day. And while Brionne's kick was awe-inspiring, Liv's grit was, too. She was NOT feeling well, but she fought through it to finish HARD. Had she given up. Had she faltered even a bit in that last mile, we would not have had another week of XC. Jana did that work, too. McHenry was the 7th place team. Even though Jana didn't affect OUR score, she pushed up THEIR score by beating their #5 by only 3 seconds. Do you know how easily that could have gone the other way? And what about Norah? After dealing with an injury the week before, she stepped in to fill Juju's shoes (pun intended), and raced SO HARD for her team.  I am SO PROUD of this seven!

What I'm trying to say is this:  While Mr. Niemi certainly celebrated Brionne's kick as the difference-maker, this TEAM had to step in together to make it happen. ALL SEVEN of you had to set discomfort and fear aside to keep our Sectional-Qualifying Streak alive. Honestly, if you would have asked me in June if we would advance as a team, i would have said, "Maybe...we will see." I just didn't know if we could grow enough to get the job done. This race, while not pretty, represents what I absolutely treasure about XC--team racing. Sure, I loved watching Audrey and Riley shine individually as State Qualifiers last year, but a pure team race like this one is my coaching dream come true. You simply would not quit on one another. And while it almost gave me a heart attack, it was really cool to watch.

And so I offer this challenge to you all:  Let's embrace this team mindset during track and all summer and next fall. Let's keep leaning on each other like we did today. Because if you can pull off qualifying for Sectionals while feeling the way you did on this day, I will bet on you bees EVERY TIME. STARS--every single one of you.

I'll be honest--I'm finishing this blog in February, and I can still feel the chills that I felt that day. I'll also be honest--I know that we had a ton of fans yelling for us everywhere, but I simply cannot remember all the names. Rather than leave someone out, I will say this: it took every yell, every pointed finger, every clap, and every voice to make this happen. Thank you for pouring your love into these seven. This is truly a TEAM achievement.