Bill Dawson (Warren) Invite

I love this invite. I love that it is close by so a lot of fans are able to come cheer. I love that the course is flat, fast, and easy to "coach" because I can see you a bunch. I love that it is a mix of calm woods and music-filled stadium. And I love that it is named after my good friend and former coach of the Warren men's team, Bill Dawson. (If you bought a shirt--his cartoon face is on the front). Coach Dawson dedicated his life to coaching young runners. He loved cross-country because he enjoyed helping teams develop, and he knew what we all know: that xc makes you better at life!

I met him when I first started coaching, and I immediately was drawn to his practical optimism and enthusiasm. He was open, too:  while many coaches kept their "secret sauce" to themselves, he asked questions about how we were training, what we did to build connections, and how I felt about the women racing 2.5 miles rather than 3. Yes, quick side note:  When I ran back in the day, the xc distance for girls was 2 miles, and for guys it was always 3 miles. The first state meet for women was in 1979...five years AFTER I was born!  In contrast, the men first had a state meet in 1946! Why the disparity, you ask? Well, women were not allowed participate in high school sports for a long time due to outdated thinking. There was a foolish belief that a woman's uterus would fall out of her body if she strained herself too much. I know that sound illogical, but oppression is not built on logic. When women were finally allowed to participate in high school sports equally, thanks a 1972 federal civil rights law that forbade "discrimination based on sex in any federally funded educational program or activity," the IHSA did not think that high school girls could handle what the guys could handle. Accordingly, they were only allowed to compete at 2 miles for DECADES. That unfair tradition lasted until 1998, when the IHSA realized that the different distances needed to change. Their solution? Shift the distance to 2.5 to "gradually" build the girls up to the guys' distance. That lasted way too long (2.5 is a silly racing distance), until we finally reached true equity in the 2002 season, finally racing 3-miles like ! Sorry, not sorry for the side rant. ;)

Ok--back to my point: Bill Dawson was a great friend, an advocate for equity in women's sport, and a brilliant coach. In 2019, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and during the fall of 2020, it finally got the best of him. The timing was so unfair; although he had coached numerous state qualifiers, his biggest goal was for his team to qualify for state in XC. In 2019, the team narrowly missed a team berth, taking 6th place (only top five teams qualified back then), even after dominating the regional the week before. In 2020, his team was even better, but there was no state meet that year due to Covid. In 2021, his team made it to state while wearing "Do it for Dawson" t-shirts. If only he could have seen them shine at state! I am grateful to have known him, and I am even more grateful that the meet is a time when I can honor his memory.

After some great racing at home, I was so stoked to see you all race at Warren. Had Mother Nature cooperated at all, I'm confident there would have been some big time drops. At this point in the season, though, I do not care about time as much as competing. And compete you all did!  :)

F/S Women: Click here to check out the cool timing website. It shows your mile splits as well as our placement for each mile.  We had eight bees in this race, and they were all gritty! April was our first finisher with an impressive race. She got out harder than usual (6:50!) and did a great job of responding to our cheers to work on the people around her. I was impressed by her finish, but more importantly, I like that she challenged herself to go after a medal spot. Although a medal was not in the cards for her today, I like the mindset of going big! That gutsy start is now "in" her system as a stimulus and will pay off later in the season when the weather is cooler and her fitness is even stronger! :) Kyranni was our second bee with an outstanding race of her own. She looked locked in the whole way. In particular, she did a great job of slingshotting off the turn from the stadium, and working up to packs that could challenge her. She ran a big PR, jumping past the 24s and running 23:44. Way to go, Kyranni! Fernanda was our third bee for the day with a great race! She was only seconds away from her new PR from home this week. She also had a great kick, inching out a girl from Mundelein by tenths of a second! Proud of you, Fernanda! Celene was #4 today with a fantastic race. After running almost identical times at Lake Forest and home, Celene dropped some serious time today, bidding the 27s goodbye. Not only did she drop over 15 seconds, but she also had a beautiful kick. Way to go, Celene! Temi rounded out our scoring for the day as our 5th finisher (remember--top five places are added up for our team score). She managed to shave a second off her time from our course (a new PR is a new PR!!!) by working well with her teammates. She worked with Kailey in the first mile, then moved up to work on catching Celene. She was zooming in the stadium for the final kick, too!  Proud of you, Temi!

Yaritza was our #6 today, and she had A DAY!  Not only did she get out faster than usual (9:08!!!), she also ran a huge PR because she stayed locked in the whole time! She was so responsive to our cheers, and it earned her a new LPR that said goodbye to the 30s:  29:55! Yaritza has improved SO MUCH over last year. At Conference last fall, she ran 31:30 for a huge PR. Now...in SEPTEMBER, she is already in the 29s. Her hard work this summer is definitely paying off. Proud of you, Yari! :) Kailey was our #7 today with a strong race. Not only did she run a 40 second PR (!!!!!!!!), she also raced hard. Like Yaritza, she listened to advice about pushing on the turns and working the go-zones. She had a pretty sweet kick too! Excellent growth, Kailey! Finally, Jocell was our #8. Like Kailey, she got out really well and raced hard in the middle mile! She was able to knock off over a minute from her previous best at Lake Forest. More impressively, she was two seconds faster than her 2.5 mile time from Parkside! What?! Jocell's improvement is a testament to patience and persistence. She gave her body a chance to adapt, and now the time is dropping off! Way to go, Jocell! Overall, this group set a great tone for the day:  ignore the heat and just RACE! Way to go, freshies!  

Varsity Women:  By this point in the morning, the heat was disrespectfully making its presence known. While we were blessed with easy temperatures for the first few weeks of the season and racing, the heat rebound now is tricky because we lost our conditioning to it (although by this writing, you all are probably used to it again!). Fun fact:  Your ability to stay cool or to cool off is a deciding factor on pace. Your body has to waste a lot of energy to keep from overheating, so the more efficient it becomes at keeping you cool, the faster you can go. #science ;)

Here's what I absolutely loved about this race:  the pack work. After the gun, I went to the 800 mark to watch our pack emerge from the woods, and what a pack it was!  Rachel was a few seconds ahead of our crew, but Liv, Woman King, Juju, and Norah were all tucked together, looking so powerful. I encouraged them to start working up together. Sofie was in a decent spot, and I implored her to start moving up like the pack ahead of her! After the mile, the pack started to spread out slightly, as Liv pressed. Norah was pulling on her, and then Juju and Arwen were focused on catching their girls. Sofie had a good push out of the stadium, and I moved to the go-zone down the mini-hill to see how we worked the woods during mile two. I was so happy to see our crew was still within eyesight of each other. Yes, it was hot, but everyone was racing SO WELL. There were some really nice kicks today, too:  Rachel nearly caught one girl and held off the Grayslake runner; Alivia caught FOUR runners in the final mile, and nearly ran down a girl from Conant in the final push; Norah ran super even in her last two miles and pressed in the final 300; Woman King caught a runner in the final mile and held off a charging runner from Carmel; Juju ran so strong in the face of her stomach rebelling in the final mile; Sofie was in "No Man's Land" in the final push, but she did a great job of picking it up coming off the final turn. Quick shout out to Norah for being SO CLOSE to her time from Dawson last year. What a breakthrough for a big SPR! It was fun to see you so joyful post-race!

Overall, today's race was about the pack. At the mile, we had a 24 second split from 1-5! Our goal needs to be that we KEEP that spread by mile three. I know that we are capable of keeping it under 45 seconds based on workouts and this summer's work. I challenge you to think about something Woman King and I talked about a few weeks back:  "the pull of the pack." She told me that Oshkosh shifted her mindset because she didn't want to let Xander down at Garbage Hill, and that transitioned into fighting for her Minions in the DMR and her girls in the long run. The reason we do those workouts at Osh is to instill that sense of responsibility to one another. I want you to feel that link...that pull.  That feeling is what helped us at the Regional last year in the final mile, and it is what can help us moving forward. Let's go!

Open Women:  Hot. By the time these chicas raced, the temperatures had climbed to over 76. While that is a nice temperature for a walk at the lake, racing three miles is uncomfortable. Remember--your body has to do more work to cool itself as the temperatures rise, and that takes extra energy that you would rather put into catching sleepy runners from other teams. Despite the conditions, our bees raced so tough! Eva, Candy, and then Charisma got out hard to lead our team at the first 800. Dani and Nathaly weren't far behind, working up to our leaders. Then Carla, Cici, and Cynthia were within earshot of each other, pushing hard coming out of the woods. By the mile, I could see that today was going to be Nathaly's day; she moved up SO MUCH heading into mile two, and by the end of that loop, she had nabbed TEN sleepy runners. Eva caught one and Cici caught two while Dani caught SIX! What great focus during the hardest mile of the race! We did more passing in the final mile, too:  Candy caught one; Carla and Charisma each caught three; and Nathaly and Cici tied for seven each! This kind of alertness at the hottest part of the race is so impressive. What made me even more joyful was hearing the comments after the race. Over and over, these women reported feeling challenged yet deciding to make their mindsets right. Despite the heat, Charisma kept her string of PRs rolling, dropping 20 seconds and saying goodbye to the 28s! Way to go, Charisma! Dani dropped 38 seconds on the season 26 seconds from her lifetime to earn a new LPR, earning her way into the 28s for the first time. So proud of you, Dani! Way to stay locked in! And finally, Nathaly ran a big SPR today, catching a total of 17 runners during her race and dropping 53 seconds for the season! It was a gritty race, and it was so fun to watch! 

Overall, it was a great day from this crew--I could not be prouder! Way to keep your minds in the right spot and seizing the opportunity to race hard!

It is my hope that when we return for Conference, the weather will be helpful, and we can compete against this day to see all our hard work manifest into a more great racing!

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