Running across the bridge in Manhattan
Monday, October 5th: After yesterday's long and strong effort, I knew that today would have to be a much simpler effort. I could still feel the stiffness of yesterday's run in my legs, so I decided to go running with some teammates and take it easy. Everybody was still feeling significant soreness, so we ran slowly, looping around Philadelphia University's campus on our way to 34:29 minutes. I got to catch up with everybody, and to relax some of the pressure I usually put on my runs to be perfect in splits and effort. Afterwards, the entire team regrouped at the weight room, and we did two full circuits of upper body lifting. I went around in a group with Henry Ziegler, a freshman on the team, and Zack Crenshaw, another junior in my class. Since we began doing this type of work last season, I have been tracking my progression of weights and repetitions, and it's comforting to see a general positive trend in both categories. While we may not bulk up like other athletes (such is the distance runner's tragedy), we certainly can develop lean fitness, and killer posture. Collectively, we did a goal session afterwards outside the gym, but I could sense that everybody's minds were in different places than with the team. I was a little nervous about how well we'd do in the meet the next day, but I didn't pay much attention to the general lapse in focus at the time.
Tuesday, October 6th: The team got out of school early to make our way over to Westtown for one of our final dual meets of the season. Because of how well the team had been doing up until today, we decided to give some of the better runners the day off, letting them take a moderate run instead of racing all out against our competition. The responsibility to bring home the win thus fell mostly on the JV squad, including some younger members of the team who we hope will one day be varsity athletes. I went out as usual, progressing into my heart rate zones, which ended up putting me in second place overall in the race after the first mile. Up ahead of me I could see the fastest athlete from Westtown's team, Ryan O'Donnell. I paid him no attention, given that I wasn't supposed to be a factor in this race, but kept him vaguely within range. Curiously, I didn't see any of our own athletes either, and though this was a little discomforting at the time, I chose to ignore it and carry out the intent of the day. Everything was coming along smoothly until my coach Rob Hewitt came sprinting up the hill, shouting at me that I needed to chase down Westtown's top guy. Apparently, something had gone wrong in the race for several of our runners, and we weren't going to win unless we all moved up significantly in places. I started all-out sprinting after the lead, running a 2:03 split for the last 800 meters, but it wasn't enough for me or for the team. I wanted so badly to do what I could for my teammates, but I realized after finishing that there was nothing I could have done to change the outcome of the day. Westtown gave the Germantown Friends team our first dual meet loss in 12 years, and the every single member was devastated. I stood by the finish line, waiting for the rest of the varsity boys who came in much too late to be factors in the race, and told them the news. One of the quietest cool-down runs I've ever been on followed as the team slowly realized what had happened. I could see it in everybody's eyes, the sort of reflective anger and resentment every runner knows, which filled our minds the entire ride home. I knew immediately that this was going to be a critical moment for our team, and it was up to us to choose whether we used it as fuel for the rest of the season, or lamented in our own shortcomings.
