Melody on the Lam: 2009 MAINE STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS !

Kila Kitu Ni Wezekana. Everything is possible. It's hard to believe it because a lot of the time we, as human beings, instinctively believe otherwise. We spend so much time dwelling on our mistakes, and giving into defeat. The ability to get back up after you've fallen is something to be proud of, and that is what my girls did today at States.

(Louisa Stancioff, Gwen Beacham and Addie Cullenberg, Shelby Aseltine, me)

Throughout this season our girls' had several times where we were upset and disappointed because we maybe fell short on one of our goals. Then there are the days like today that make all of those times we go through completely worthwhile. All of our training, our little 'motivational activities', and our sacrifices payed off today. We are the first Mt.Blue girls' cross country team to qualify for New Englands!

We got to the course with plenty of time to spare. During the course walk we ran down the hills and pretended it was a roller coaster. Basically we just tried to keep things fun and non-stressful. We were thinking about NE's but we honestly thought that was a long shot, based on where we were seeded. One of our big goals was to try to beat Mt.Ararat, since we've had an ongoing [friendly!] rivalry with them. Our #4 and #5 - Shelby Aseltine and Louisa Stancioff - seemed ready to go for it and challenge their #4 and #5. We also had our #2 Addie Cullenberg and #3 Gwen Beacham (above) ready to place themselves accordingly. We've developed into more of a pack in our 2-5 which really helps, especially in big meets. I really wanted to place 8th, and I figured that running anything under 20 minutes on Twin Brook would satisfy me.

The start wasn't as quick as I thought it would be. My first mile was a little over 6 minutes, and I was expecting to possibly go out as fast as regionals in the 5:45 range just so I could get positioned. That was kind of something I had to base off my competition. In the first mile I was running mostly with Kate Spies (Mt.A), and Katie McMahon(Bruns.) was ahead by that point I believe. Grace Glynn (Thor.) and Mia Rapolla from Gorham passed Katie Spies and I, and I really surged to try to go with Mia when she passed, but fell short and she lost me going up the hills. I did surge enough to pass Kate though, and tried to stay close to people ahead.

My two mile was around 12:46 I believe, which was right on for my goal of the 19:50's range. After that the last 800 meters came out of nowhere, and I realized where I was and started to pick up the pace a little. Once I came up over the last little hill (going into the downhill and corner) I could see everyone finishing, and there were about four girls that I wasn't far from. I heard Kelton yelling "come on, you're 9th, you can get those girls right now," and I tried to pick it up and ended up kicking near Fiona Hendry of Cheverus, who passed me by a bit in the last 50 meters.After the finish I had pre-planned for one of my teammates to get me out of the chute and just take me out of the area to lay down. I told her that if the officials thought something was wrong with me to just tell them "No, nothing is wrong with her, she just wants to lay down!" So I actually walked all the way through the chute, and she came and got me and said "where do you wanna go, maybe over on that nice fluffy grass?!" and I was like "ahh my gosh yes!" So I did that, and kinda just layed there for a few minutes making weird noises and flaling because it felt so nice to just lay down and close my eyes! I had quite the runner's high, and I was actually laughing and felt pretty well. Then I got up and walked towards the finish and Addie hugged me and the rest of my team met up.

After that we were all pretty much holding our breaths to find out if we made NE's. Kelton, Addie and I were running all around watching which Class B teams had girls in what places, checking out the two mile times in comparison to our own, and watching the finish to get a rough estimate. I didn't know that we had gotten third place in class A until a reporter started off the interview with: "So how does it feel to be able to get third in the Class A race?" and I kind of looked at him for a second and I was like.. "wait, we got third?!" So that was a little embarrasing but I was happy! After the class B race we believed that we were unnofficially in the 5th slot for qualifying (based on automatically taking one team from A, B, and C, and getting 3rd to Massabesic). So we were kind of getting excited but didn't want to go crazy because there could have easily been some error, etc.

So we hadn't seen it on paper (or online), until a couple hours ago which showed us as the 4th team overall, with the class C winner and 24th team overall - Waynflete - being automatically taken. So that is REALLY exciting!! I'm really excited for NE's because it's so fun to feel like a team with all of Maine, VS. the rest of NE!

After the meet, we went to T.G.I. Friday's and that was wonderful. Now we're just looking forward to going to Connecticut and getting out of school early on Friday!!