Grudges

The first few days of indoor track were very exciting. Seeing a ton of new faces to the team, including my younger brother, and old faces to bring nostalgia. I have been desperately attempting to talk to my coach about doing intramural. I basically want to use indoor to keep in good running shape between cross country and outdoor track in the spring. But every one of my teammates immediately denies that they want me to and claim coach will not let me either. Even though there is one person who did cross country temporarily between football seasons, and is now doing intramural due to a slight hand injury. The main reason I planned on doing intramural is because I simply cannot run indoors. No, I'm not bad at indoor, but the air in every indoor track facility is so poorly fumigated. And every indoor meet in past years had me left with severe runners cold and asthmatic related issues. And the fact that I would then start outdoor track while sick would make me even sicker as allergens came into season. But my freshman year I did not do indoor, mainly because I found no interest in it because it was mainly a sport for sprinters. Not to mention that because of this and the changing of the seasons, I had never really had a "good" indoor track season. I was out for most of last year with a severe hip joint injury and I only ran three races the whole season. My first mile finishing in an embarrassing 5:21, my second race a 5:12, and I eventually got my time down to 5:01 at my third and last race, not my best but better than I was expecting. But this year is different, with many old faces not returning (for reasons unknown), there is nobody on the distance squad to keep the mellow pace of our usual long-runs. Now with Tyler and Jill at the top leading every run, we always go way too hard for a long time. Despite my coaches strict orders to keep it "nice and easy, it has become a practical joke for him and all of us to make fun of Jill and Tyler because they have no self-control. I must admit though that I respect their will to work themselves practically to death over a simple practice, but I don't like when it involuntarily involves us who are just trying to get through practice without dying. I'm not complaining about hard days because I know they are essential to improving. I just find it annoying because literally every practice is a hard workout now; I understand that a runner needs his/her fair share of hard days, but they need their recovery days too; and it has been a pretty long time since I have had one of those.

Cross-Country Senior Recap

It has been one hell of a ride these past four years. Even I found it hard to believe that the slowest rookie of the freshman team would be one of the top three on the senior team (that being said, the standards were much higher my freshman year (We had two sub-16 runners at the time) ). I still vividly remember my first ever race at Waltham High School. Despite going at a jogging pace, it was still one of the most exhausting days of my life (it was over 80 degrees F), running 1.8 miles in 12:18. And I remember my first ever 5k on our home course where I finished in 21:06 and ended up with a 19:46 by the end of the 2012 season. I ended up no doing indoor track that year and going right to outdoor in early 2013, with the mile as my main event. I started with a 5:47 and finished the season with a 5:33, making a promise that I would break 5-minutes by my senior year. That summer I decided to go all out, regardless of how hot and humid or dark and stormy each day would be, I ran and ran and ran until my legs and chest went numb. And it paid off midway through the 2013 cross-country season, running a new record of 19:13 on my home course. Four days later at the annual Bob McIntyre Twilight Invitational I got my time down to 17:48, breaking 19 and 18 minutes for the first time on the same day, I ended up pushing to #2 on my team that year. After an unsuccessful indoor season, I found myself running low 5s in every mile race; that was, until the 2014 DCL Championships. That day, I went out so hard, and pushed myself so far; I thought I would just make it, but during my kick I saw the left side of the clock still had a 4 on it. I kicked so hard and broke through the finish line in 4:51, which still remains my current record. Then my junior xc season I ended up as the top runner on my team after our previous top guy sadly came down with anemia (I know it was not a fair comparison). The majority of the season was even until I ran a 17:27 at Wrentham Fairgrounds for the last race of the season, but not before injuring my pelvic bone that forced me out of running for over a month. After a rocky start to the indoor season due to my hip, I eventually healed and got my indoor mile down to 5:01. I thought if i could get an indoor mile down that far, outdoor would be a piece of cake; it wasn't. This is where my plateau came into place. I thought after a season with a 5:03 record and being beaten by other top milers from my school, that I had peaked and my running career was over. I felt terrible everyday during that summer and for the first half of my senior cross country season. Not until the 2nd half proved otherwise. It has been a remarkable journey from rookie to runner-up (pun intended). And now with indoor going on, and my younger brother joining me for this season, I hope there will be more to come.

All-State Championships at Stanley Park

This morning marked my last ever cross country race of my career. While it was almost a relief, I could not help but feel sad, like part of me was gone forever. The day started off as a usual meet day, full of nerves and struggling to gulf down a large enough breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee. It was a freezing cold morning, and I'm not going to lie: It pisses me off when we say that the bus leaves at 7:15 am tomorrow morning and people think that means to arrive at 7:15 am. The fact that we had to switch buses twice due to fuel shortage did not help the fact that we were already late. But at least there was no early morning traffic during the ride. We were forced to park at a nearby church about 400m away from the course, so I was forced to carry the water jug and the tent for about a quarter-mile. I cannot imagine that's something good to do before the biggest race of your career. Part of me was nervous watching the girl's race because I was scared of getting lost. The other part of me was somewhat depressed that it was just the 3 of us instead of the entire boys team. After all, this was the first race since my sophomore year that was on a course that I had never run on before. We warmed up on the 2-mile woods-coated path that fed the majority of the course, noticing how wooded and rooted the ground was but not the narrowness of the path itself. Upon returning to the tent, we stretched, put our spikes in, and headed down to the starting line to do strides. But when he gun went off, my nerves shot me forward. It was a tight end start and I just narrowly escaped being boxed in, though I was cut off my several runners at the turning point. During the race, the narrowness of the woods path made passing very difficult; it was also hard to go hard downhill from fear of tripping on rocks or roots. But I must have been doing good anyway because I crossed the 2-mile mark in 11:04. However, that means my last mile was slow because I finished in 17:11. I was disappointed that I did not break 17 minutes and would now possibly never get the chance to do so ever again. But overall, I'd say it was a good end. After stopping for lunch on the way home, we soon arrived back at the school. When I helped my coaches put away the tent, water and ice bags. I shook each of their hands; "thank you both" I said "for everything." During the drive home, I felt so sad and so relieved at the same time, and I swear I had heard Good Riddance by Green Day somewhere in the distance.

EMass D5

I'm sorry for how rushed this is (I write a lot of these way ahead of time and post them all on the same day), but this morning was very stressful because I could not find my uniform. I ended up having to ask the team captain who no longer runs with us) if I could borrow his, which he luckily agreed. It was frosty and hopelessly windy today, to the point where I lost all feeling in my arms, hands, and ears during our warm-up run. And it was even worse during our strides because of how tired they made me, despite that they always felt easy in practice, but I shrugged it off as part of how nervous I was. The boys team had a reasonable chance of making it to the Mass All-State Championships at Stanley Park. It was all dependent on our 5th and 6th finishers (Brendan and Sam). When the gun went off, I bolted; my nerves all shot out adrenalin at the same moment. I felt great my first two laps (it was the first runners high I had ever had during a race). I crossed the one mile mark at 5:28 and the two-mile mark at what I thought was a 12:05 unknowing that the clock was 50 seconds fast. Because I thought I was so slow, I ran my heart out the last mile; I could feel my exhaustion catching up as I closed in on the last 800 meters. I kicked as hard as I could, passing 10 people before crossing the finish line at 17:14. Only losing to my top teammate by 6 seconds and beating Vincent by 28. I was met with hugs and high-fives from my parents and teammates. I was surprised at how I ran so fast despite feeling good for the vast majority of the race. The best news is that my top teammate, Tyler, Vincent, and I are all going to All-States next week. Unfortunately, neither Brendan nor Sam had a good day and as a result, the boys did not qualify as a team. On the bus ride home, I swear I had heard Vincent crying softly.

Post DCL & Upcoming

Franklin Park has been declared a success with a new record of 17:49 despite my shortage of kicking at the finish. Once again edging out Wayland's top runner by a fair 3 seconds. Although I finished after Vincent today, I still felt refreshed knowing that I am capable of running a sub-18 on a very slow course without killing myself. I noticed I felt so shortened at the end that I had to stop kicking with 100 meters left to go, and had to start up again at the 50 meter mark. I told this to the assistant coach and she said "that means you ran well." Even though I am excited that I ran what I did, there is still some disappointment about missing the all-school halloween assembly, it confused me on why this meet had to be on a Friday, when every other year it had been on a Wednesday. At least now I will get two more weeks off from meets while preparing for what is likely my last cross-country race of my high school career, the Eastern Mass Division 5 Varsity race in Wrentham, MA. Other than Barnstable, Wrentham is my favorite course even though a lot of people do not like it. Not only is it quick, but has a few small up-and-down hills, which most runners consider to be a disadvantage. For me, they give me an extra step (no pun intended) to pass other runners who have a tougher time with them (I only have a tough time with consistent long and steep hills). The only thing that deeply worries me is that the warm weather is expected to turn cold by the end of next week, and while I usually feel worse running in heat, I always end up running faster due to increased blood flow from a high body temperature.

Upcoming DCL All-league 5k

Tomorrow marks the 2015 DCL Championship meet at Franklin Park, Boston and also marks my last ever race on the Franklin Park course. I am going to be crystal clear: I do not like Franklin Park; I despise its sharp turns, hard gravel paths that wear down your spikes and impossibly long and steep uphills. What really sucks is that this is coming less than a week after Barnstable, the fastest course in the DCL and possibly in New England. I would have rather had it vice versa so I could start off with a bad race but finish with a good one. Even during our meeting after practice yesterday, my coach stated, "We're not going to kid anybody; your time will be slower than on Saturday." The more annoying thing is that the race is on the same day as Halloween at school. Because it is a relatively early meet, me and the rest of the tea are being dismissed at 12:30, but the halloween assembly starts at 2:15. I was being "PC Principal" from Comedy Central's South Park and had been working on my impression for almost 3 weeks. But let's get back to running. As you've read I had already ran this course twice this season alone. My first meet this season where I embarrassingly ran a 12:03 2-mile and the race last Tuesday where I ran an 18:18 because it just was not my day (my best time at Franklin was an 18:02). I'm at least hoping that other runners have the problem that I do: Inconsistency in race performance. One race I'll feel great and run a great time, other times I will not feel good at all and end up running like s@#t. But I have yet to break 18 minutes on this course, and my parents (my dad especially) are begging that this be the day to do it, because I will have no more races there and do not want to miss my last chance.
I will have to pack an extra set of running clothes to change out of my PC Principal outfit, I will hydrate like crazy, and keep up my appetite. I will just try my best and do what I did on Saturday: Go out at a good pace the first mile, settle in and relax the second (with the huge hill), and then speed up the third and go all out down that last straightaway. It is not an easy course, but I will give it my all and do what I can. If I don't meet my parents expectations but I still feel good about it, then they can shove it. (Just kidding I love you mom&dad please don't kill me!).

Twilight Invitational

This past saturday, 10/24 marked the 5th annual Bob McIntyre Twilight Meet at the Barnstable Fairgrounds in Cape Cod, MA. Barnstable is one of the fastest courses in the DCL, if not the fastest. The course is about 90% flat with a very slight 100m incline in the middle of the lap with a long downhill nearing the end. Combined with fast runners and a fast course, even novice runners can notice a significant change in their times. The only thing that made this meet quiet were the fact that our captains were not attending due to school and family-related affairs.
I was freaking out of nerves worse than at any other race I had ever run; I knew this could possibly be my only chance to get a good P.B. (personal best).  As soon as the gun fired, I bolted, but not before being elbowed, kicked, spiked, and tripped by the 250 surrounding runners. The runner I always stick with, Vincent, was about 200m ahead of me at the start, this got worried me so I began to dodge my way around runners but was unable to find him again. During the second lap I attempted to conserve energy for the third, but then I saw a familiar head right in front of me. It was one of the Wayland boys, Zach, who I worked with at a day camp over the summer. He had beaten me every race this season and always gloated about it, but that was to be no more. I sped up along the uphill and past him and before I could tell, I was level with Vincent. When the second 1/2 of the third lap came around I began to stride to prepare for my ending kick. I passed Vincent and knew I had to stay in front of Zach. And when I saw the clock say 16:45 as I came down the 150m stretch, I gave it my all and sprinted as fast as I could. I passed through at 17:03, disappointed that I did not break 17, but satisfied with a new PB and that I beat both Zach and Vincent.
Before I knew it every boy on our team had gotten an astounding new PB that night, including some former "scrubs" finally breaking 19.
It feels so great to be back, despite how quiet it was that our captains were not there. I felt on top of the world, but I knew there would be greater expectations to follow in the future.

Me (3117), Zach (2933), and Vincent (3107) on our final lap.