I was excited for track my junior year, partly to “redeem” myself from a disappointing end of cross country, but also because I barely had a track season sophomore year. My first race of the season was at Ben Brown Invitational, held at UC Fullerton. I had a lifetime PR of 19 seconds to run 19:10. I distinctly remember this race because I found myself with the leaders half way through the race, and I literally had no idea what to do. Should I just try to hang with them? What if they started to slow down? Should I start kicking with a few laps to go because I probably don’t have as good of a kick as they do? I ended up in 4th at that race, and walked away with a huge PR, but knew I could do better. I remember asking Coach what to do when I find myself at the front of races. I figured I would probably be at the front of the second heat in many races, so I better figure this out quickly. When watching Karis race, she always seemed soooo comfortable in the front or just sitting on people. She didn’t seem like she stressed about when to take the lead or when to kick. Because I was always so slow before this, I had never found myself in the position of having to make these decisions. Coach just told me to be very confident in my training and always do what seemed to give me the best chance of winning. Just go out there relaxed and have lots of fun!
I ended up winning my first race ever at an invitational held at CSU San Marcos. It was a 3,000m race, and I remember being so confident going into that race. Amie had been encouraging me to be bold and take the opportunities that come to me. I remember listening to “True Love” by Phil Wickham right before warmup, and being so thankful that my Savior, Jesus Christ would be willing to die a criminal’s death to save me from eternity in hell and intense pain. This example of true love made me inspired to race! When the gun went off, I found myself in a pack of about 6 girls. I remember not wanting to lead because it was very windy that day. I felt controlled but fast and took the lead with about 600m to go. Most of the girls went with me, but when the bell rang, I realized it was for me! I knew I could win this race. One girl passed me with 300m to go, I passed her back, then she passed me, and with 100m left, I took the lead for good. I don’t think I had ever sprinted so hard in my life! I had seen Karis lead the race right before me and lose in the last 50m and I didn’t want that to be me! I crossed the finish line in 11:06, about 3:25 faster than what I had run in age group for a 3k! I looked over at my teammates who had been screaming at me, and most of them were crying! I couldn’t understand why, but I think they realized what hadn’t hit me yet: the hard work was paying off! That race was the day before my birthday, and what a sweet birthday present it was! The sad part was that Abigail was racing at Arcadia that day, so my parents weren’t there.
Summer of my senior year was really fun. We started it by camping in Big Bear for 5 days, at the end of which I got to run the Lake Loop. It’s a 15 mile loop all the way around Big Bear Lake. No girl on the team had ever finished the loop, but I was able to finish it, with my fellow seniors Hannah and Katrina ahead of me. When I finished just under 2 hours, Hannah and Amie were crying again! I think the weight of that moment was lost on me, but Hannah had seen me grow into a real college athlete. The progression that I had seen in my own running has nothing to do with me, but all of the strength comes from God. He is the reason I run. He has given me the wonderful talent and desire to run competitively, and it’s my responsibility to be a great steward of the talent He’s given me.
We had 4 incoming girls (3 freshman and a junior transfer) whom we lovingly dubbed “The Freshies”. I got to run with 3 of them (Rachael was still at home in Florida) that summer, and for the first time in college, I had a group to train with every day! Coach asked me to get our group to run together, knowing we would need a big pack as close together and as close to our “Big Three” as possible. Hannah, Karis and Katrina were the “Big Three” we were chasing down. By the time we got up to Mammoth for our 2 week training camp, our pack was 6 people deep, and we were known as “That Pack”.
The first week in Mammoth was really rough for me as I had a hard time adjusting to the 9,000 foot altitude, but by the second week, I was starting to actually train. The most epic run on that trip is the Inyo Craters Loop, a 10 mile loop around a few craters. It even had a big hill in the middle that took us up the side of a mountain that looked like Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings! I ran with Hollie, Rachael and Charity on that loop until the end when we spread out a little bit. I was so exhausted by the end, and had no idea how close we were to the finish, but just then I saw Ryan. He was injured at the time, so he walked backwards on the loop and used his air horn to cheer us from a long distance. I didn’t know it was him right away, but when I finally saw him, I was excited because I knew we were close. After what seemed like forever, we got back to the cars and realized we had finished the epic Craters Loop. It was that run which helped me realize that I could negotiate with my body and make it do things I thought I couldn’t do. I realized I could overcome great obstacles. My dad even reminded me of this all throughout the season by texting our family the week of each race great quotes about overcoming.
My favorite race of this season was our home meet, The Mustang Challenge. It’s hosted at a nearby park, and it seemed like half of the school was there to cheer for us! We even had a community 5k before the college races, and some friends from church came run in that race! That race was the first time I broke 19 minutes in the 5k for cross country and our team was second for all NAIA schools in attendance.
A few weeks later, we raced at the Vanguard Invitational, and placed 2nd to Biola, who beat us by about 40 points. This was an important race for us because 1 month later we would race our Conference Championships on that same course. The crazy thing was that race at the Invitational was a good race for us, but we knew that we could race much faster. At Conference, we were 2nd behind Biola again, but this time we only lost by 4 points. It was such a bittersweet moment for us seniors, because we knew that it was our last chance to win a conference title, and we had closed the gap between us and Biola so much. I remember hugging Hannah after the race by the awards ceremony. I was really bummed that we didn’t win, because that was our goal all along, but she reminded me of how far the team had come. We reminisced over the Conference Championship race our freshman year where we only beat 1 team and had no All-GSAC and didn’t qualify for nationals. The good news about placing second at GSAC was that we qualified as a team to race at Nationals for the second time ever and the second time in our career. We were excited to go to Lawrence, Kansas for the first time. Hannah and I even got “ruby red slippers” (aka Toms) to wear on our travel days! It was such a fun trip, because the guys team also qualified by winning the fourth straight conference title, so all 17 of us travelled, played games and got to race together!
As excited as we were to race as a team at Nationals again, we weren’t without setbacks. Karis (our #1 or 2, depending on the day) raced at Conference but hadn’t run much between that race and Nationals. She was having issues with her shins and back/hip. Hollie (our usual #7) also struggled with her shins all season but they were getting worse. It was a great thing that all 9 girls travelled with us because Friday morning Coach told us that neither of them would be racing so Morgan and Jess would have the opportunity of a lifetime.
Race day was FREEZING cold, even though our race was at 11:45am! I think it was about 20 degrees plus about 20mph of wind, so wind chill and the real temp felt like really low teens. I wore every sweatshirt and tights I brought on the trip just for warm-up that day! Plus a hat and 2 pairs of gloves. This California girl was freezing even with all of these clothes! The race was held at Rim Rock Farm, which is known for the running statues of very famous runners along the course. We were able to run the course several times, so we knew were going to have to get out fast to get up the first uphill and turn. The problem for me was that I got out too fast in the first 200 meters and with the cold and hills, I went anaerobic quickly. I don’t remember much about the race except trying not to get passed by too many people. At the finish I was hoping to hear that Hannah and Katrina were All Americans, but they suffered as well. Katrina missed being All American by 9 spots and 11 seconds. I soon learned that Hannah was in a pack of 4 at the halfway point of the race, but the Achilles injury she had sustained 2 weeks prior and the cold had overpowered her will to win. Even with our #1 hurt and our #2 and 7 not racing, we placed 14th out of 32 teams. We were happy, but not satisfied.
Stay tuned for the last piece of the series!
A Mustang's Musings 