CLASS A EASTERN MAINE REGIONAL !

I'M SO HAPPY !!!!!!!!!!!!

After my let-down at KVAC's, I planned on making myself eat breakfast in the morning before regionals. So the night before, I laid out everything I would need in the morning, on my kitchen table. Everything was there... a banana, some granola, a cup, my water bottles, tea, etc. I had everything very planned out. And I wrote a list of things to have in the morning. It went something like: eat a banana, drink some chocolate soy milk, then some orange juice, then a cup of water, and take my "women's one daily" vitamin (those pills are monstrous). I figured that this was generally the reason that I did not succeed at KVAC's, so I wanted to eliminate the risk of failing because I simply was too stupid to eat something for breakfast. So I set my alarm and woke up at 5:47 (because 7 is my lucky number, I always set my alarm for a time ending in 7) and did what I told myself to do, and what I needed to do to feel alright to race.

When we got on the bus it was still quite dark outside, but it was kind of cool. It made it really hard to fully wake up though. I was pretty tired. The ride to Belfast was long and all in all boring. We ended up being the first team there so we would have time to spare before racing, which worked out well. I felt really prepared and I was not rushed while getting ready for the race. That was really important to me. I hate rushing, because rushing makes you stress, and we all know how much that sucks.

We warmed up well, and got over to our box (#5). All of us were in our spankies, so naturally we felt invincible. After calling out all of the teams we were turned over to the starter. He gave the commands, but apparently we were moving too much and he had to start over again.

The gun went off and I don't remember thinking anything really. I normally don't start out in such a sprint, but this race I nearly did. I'm not sure where I took the lead or opened the gap, but I went through the first mile in 5:48 which is absolutely ridiculous for me, seeing as how my best time for a mile on a TRACK is 5:32. Either I took the first mile out too quickly, or I should be running faster in track. I'm gonna go with a little bit of both. My coach probably knew I was freaking out when she said 5:48 so she just kept yelling "just go with it!"

I slowed down after that and came through the two mile in about 12:21 (I believe). I had the lead the whole race but I didn't know where the other runners were behind me. My main competition was Kate Spies of Mt.A and Katie McMahon of Brunswick. They were behind me the whole race and I was pretty nervous most of the time not knowing if they were close behind or about to catch me or close the gap. I ended up coming through the finish in 19:37.72 which ties my lifetime best [from states on the same course last year] to every exact number. I find that really strange. Either way I am still incredibly happy with the day. My team got second place overall [to Mt.Ararat] by FOUR points!! At KVAC's we got second to them by 9 points. That makes me so ridiculously happy because I know that we have improved, and that we still have room for improvement. The great thing is we have more races left to improve in! It's just really exciting seeing progress like that. I'm so proud of all of them. We had four girls in the top 20, with 3 in the top 10 which was really awesome! Our guys' team qualified for states as well which is very exciting.

(this is the top 10 - me hugging my teammate Gwen Beacham)

All in all the day was pretty amazing. After the race I hurt very badly. My arms and legs felt like they were on fire, and when I finshed I just wanted to lay down but [obviously] no one would let me. A couple people kinda propped me up got me off to the side. I was fine but I was just really ridiculously tired mentally, physically, yada yada all of that. I also had to pee quite badly, and I was really hoping that I wouldn't pee myself (I did not)! According to a couple of my friends I was saying some weird things at the finish, but I really have no idea what I was saying! After my team finished we found each other and tried to find out how we did. I went over to my coach and we hugged and were both really excited about the race! I did tear up as usual but this time no tears actually ran down my face, they just made my eyes all watery!


So CONGRATS to everyone that raced today and thanks to everyone who made the trip there to scream their heads off for us!!! It was an awesome day. States next week at Twin Brook!