Team dinner the night before our races
Thursday, September 24th: Today was our first dual meet of the season against George School. While traditionally we have been the best in our league in cross-country, we still always make sure to treat these dual meets with respect, and to race them for the win. We devised a race strategy, and organized our team so that we could get the win, while also not over-exerting, but all of that changed when my teammate Grayson Hepp twisted his ankle half-way through the race and dropped out, forcing us to readjust. Gordon Goldstein, another senior on our team, reacted almost immediately, making a strong push for 500 meters and catching back up to the front group to take Grayson's spot. I reacted as well, catching up to George School's fastest guy and sitting on his shoulder, waiting for my moment. To the credit of the rest of the guys, they did exactly what they had to do for the win, and Gordy made a heroic effort to get those critical second place points, while I cruised in for a first place finish. We caught up with Grayson post-race, and after icing his ankle, he was feeling much better. In total for the day, I ran about 50:53, with some extra work tacked on after the race finished, for a solid, moderate effort with some higher speed work in the middle. We debriefed with the rest of the team on how their races went, stretched as a whole team, and packed back up the buses for home.
Friday, September 25th: All schools in Philadelphia were off today and Monday for the Papal Visit, so we took full advantage and spent the day driving up to New York. After meeting at 10:00 in the morning, we drove straight to Poughkeepsie, home of Bowdoin Park and Nike Cross-Regionals later in the season, where we were entered into the Boys Varsity 1 Race the next day. In total, we brought twelve boys with us, five of whom were entered in the varsity race, and the rest of whom were competing in the JV races later in the day. For many people on our team, this was their first overnight trip, which is truly a different experience altogether. For me, these weekends with the team are usually the highlights of the season, between the racing and just hanging with the team before and after. We've always had success when we travel, which is another positive, so I'm feeling very excited about our race tomorrow. In preparation, we made it down to the actual course late in the afternoon, to do our run and get a feel for the course. I jogged it alongside Gordon, Grayson, Daniel, and Zack, the other boys who were entered in the varsity race with me. We went up and down the course, noticing the conditions as well as the topography, until we made it back down to the start line. There, we did a full set of fartlek intervals on the flat fields where the race starts, and stretched out before packing up and getting back to the hotel. After some down time and a team dinner out on the town, we came together outside in a circle for a goal session, discussing our plans and where we envisioned ourselves during the race. I feel like the team is in a very good place going into tomorrow, and we're ready to do something big when we take the line in the morning, bright and early.
