Spandits!™

Greetings greater running community of Maine (and beyond?)! I am posting to enlighten you all on a fantastic idea for a holiday gift this year to anyone athletic on your list. Spandits!™ makes custom-made tights and other athletic apparel, made in Maine. Here's the link, check them out!
http://www.spandits.com/

Below are some pics of the products that me and my sibs have!


I'm wearing "Sea Breeze" while my brother sports the "Jungle Frog"


My little sister, Kahryn

Upcoming runner!

The Bobcat Chronicles?

It doesn't exactly have the same alliterative charm as "The Cougar Chronicles," but I'm guessing that this blog is something that I'll have to leave behind while packing for college next year anyways. Oh, yes! If the title doesn't give it away, I heard back from my ED school, and shall be attending Bates College come fall! When I found out, I went down to the kitchen and began frolicking around my mother, who was baking Christmas cookies. Honestly, I have a lot of maturing to do before college :P Anywho, I finally (rather casually) dropped the news while I was basting some pork for dinner later on that night. "You know, Mom, it sure is a relief knowing that I'm going to be eating just as well as this next year at Bates." She was like "What!!" One of the things I'm especially looking forward to is being able to practice on a track (recall this past track season, where the MB team would warm up in their "Road and Parking Lot" team shirts..yes, there was a reason behind them). Also, as any of my close peers can attest, I am an absolute chai fanatic, and Bates makes some of the most amazing stuff I've ever tasted. Deal breaker right there ;)



Yes, of course I'm fully aware how sickening and obsessive this is :D

KKNW,
Addie

No Excuses (USATF Nationals, Myrtle Beach, SC).

I'll start this post off by saying that I believe this was the first time in the eight different years that I've travelled via plane in the wintertime where none of my flights got delayed or cancelled. Which was a good thing, because by the time my crew reached charming Myrtle Beach Airport, the sun was setting and the opening ceremony would be starting in less than an hour. The course was on Whispering Pines Golf Course, and, admittedly, I was slightly anxious to see what it'd be like, because I had never raced on one before. It proved to be grass the whole way (obviously), and the only "hills" resembled frost heaves on the roads in winter. Perfect. To top it off, there wasn't any mud on the course, which was a real treat considering the cross country season Maine experienced this past fall. The morning of the race, we got up early to walk the course. I was feeling pretty pumped by the time I slipped my Maine singlet on over my head, mostly because wearing that thing makes me feel so damn proud of where I come from.

I went on an easy mile and a half warm up with Maryam a little bit before her race, and was curious as to what her race strategy was. "The thing I think about the most while racing," she began, "is formulating all kinds of excuses in my head, so that if I finish and am not particularly pleased with my race, I'll be ready with something to blame my bad performance on. I'm going to tell myself to suck it up, that I can't make up any excuses for myself. I'm here, and this is it, no excuses." I nodded and kept running. "You know, after four years of racing and searching for a motto that will stick with me while I'm running, you've just summed up cross country for me. Thanks," I remarked. Maryam took her words to heart. I made sure that when I saw her out on course, I reminded her, no excuses. Possibly because of those two words (oh, and a whole heck of a lot of dedicated training on her part), she not only took nearly a minute off of her previous 5k time (running a 21:21), but also split new mile and two mile PR's. You go girl!

One of the first things that my mom commented on after my race was how she found my attitude right before I entered the starting corral astonishing. She commented on how calm I was, considering that my race was to start less than thirty minutes from then. "I was surprised to see that your hands weren't shaking while you were twisting your racing chips into place." To be honest, I was in the zone, and just thinking those two words to myself. No excuses. During the race, I was more aware of what place I was in (27th by the first mile and 25th by mile two) than what my splits were. I definitely felt like a target that everyone behind me was aiming for while holding the 25th spot. It was quite reassuring when I finally passed the girl ahead of me, as all eyes shifted on her back. Rounding the last corner to the straight away, I was still in 24th. I glanced up at the clock, was completely shocked at the time, and kicked myself up into a higher gear. I clocked in at a 19:44 (my previous LPR was a 20:19 set back in my junior year), and ended up 23rd. Top 25 earn All-American Status. In my last high school cross country race ever, I accomplished my two ultimate high school goals that I'd promised myself I would achieve way back in my freshman year. Break 20, and have my picture join my brother's on the cafeteria wall at school (at Mt. Blue, all of the All-American athletes from every sport have a framed photo on the wall). My next "ultimate goal" is to eventually beat my mom's best 5k time, 18:58. 46 seconds to go. Now that it is less than a minute away, the goal seems a lot more attainable.

Sully Jackson also raced, and ended up besting his previous LPR by two seconds. Whoot! The Awards ceremony was incredibly long, but at the end we were able to get our pictures take with Zola Budd and Amy Yoder Begley, and get them to sign our race numbers. During the free time that we had until our returning flight, we rented a car (my mom surprised us with a red Mustang convertible, she's the coolest) and went cruising around Myrtle Beach. Let it be known that Maryam and I went swimming in the ocean on December 12. And who cares that it was 46 degrees out, it was still in December :P


We said we were going to do it, so we had to..


Loving the car :)

Not that this post needs anything else, but I felt the need to point out that both Maryam and I have battle wounds on our extended legs in our running pictures; she has a bruise shaped like a star, and I have a scar from a ski pole.
KKNW, Addie

MBXC 2011 Season Documentary

I know that I neglected to bring a charged and ready-to-go camcorder to a lot of the races later on in the season, and I apologize for it... but here is the product of a season's worth of dedication and fun that this team was able to enjoy. As the end slide says, I know that this team will carry on to be successful in the coming years, and I look forward to hearing about it.
Apologies for the awful quality, come find me sometime to see the real deal :)
KKNW,
Addie

Just Run.

This car was in my hotel parking lot at New Englands in Rhode Island this past weekend... they know whats up.



I got incredibly excited while my family was traveling to Franklin Park in Boston to watch one of Kelton's college meets this past weekend, and looked out and saw this license plate! I love the running community. (10/05/11)


I suppose I'll just keep adding to this as my "runner license plate" collection :P



KKNW, Addie

STATES 2011 @ Twin Brook

Screw it. This whole week I've been trying to come up with a classy (and cheesy) opener for my final in-season cross country post, but unfortunately, nothing of the type has presented itself. So, this is my blog post regarding my final high school cross country meet! I find it absurd how much we contribute to this lovely sport, while still managing to be, on average, the smartest group of athletes out there. My team was away for a full twelve hours for an average of 20 minutes of racing last weekend at States. I started out running with a pack of six or so girls, including the top four Cheverus runners. I felt very confidant in my performance during the race, and was a consistent 10th for most of it. If you are familiar with the course at Twin Brook, you can imagine the finish in the field, where the trail runs parallel to the cluster of trees and rocks where all the team's bags are congregated. The actual finish chute is on a slight downgrade upon passing the trees. Right around there is where I threw on my last finishing kick, and right about there was where a random spectator walked under the flagging and across the course in the direction of a girl that was on her hands and knees (it states clearly in the MPA rulebook that if anyone has contact with racers during said race that it is considered aid, and the racer will promptly be disqualified, so there were many people on the sidelines screaming "don't touch her!"). The lady was very much oblivious to the fact that racers were approaching her, and I ended up running into her. The action of tightening up my muscles in order to prepare for the crash and lessen the impact triggered something within the memory of my vastus medialis (I strained this quad muscle last year the week leading up to the State meet and was unable to run for a solid month), and started to feel something similar to that of my injury last year during my cool down. Not good. Also, I was a mere four seconds from qualifying for New Englands, so I'm very bummed that my season ended so abruptly. It sucks that I'll never know what the outcome could have been had that lady not been there. Although I was hobbling around a bit in my quad wrap during the week proceeding States, I have finally begun to run again. Justin Tracy (Jr.) ended up qualifying for New Englands by two-tenths of a second, so I'll be heading to Rhode Island with him and some others this coming weekend. As for this season's documentary, it should be posted sometime this coming weekend :D
KKNW, Addie

Regionals 2011- Aka Last Time Racing @ Belfast

Yesterday's Regional performance was definitely, after four years of high school running, a mental breakthrough for me. Before the race, the big motivator for my team was to have us live in the moment during the race; that at every point we were to assess our performances and ask ourselves if we were truly giving everything we could in that very second. I was in fifth for a better part of the race, and then with a little over 800m to go, Emma Wood, a good friend that I've gotten to know through running and skiing, made her move, and when she caught up to me, encouraged me to help her pass the girls in front of us. I took a deep breath, told myself it would be all over soon, and adjusted into a much quicker pace with her. We caught up to her teammate Kelly Lynch, and they ended up running stride for stride with me right behind them. On the last rise of the finishing hill, I remember a parent off to the side yelling "Two for one, Addie!" Seconds from the line, I ended up ahead, and finished 3rd. The kick that I threw in was like the moment in the last Harry Potter book (oh yes, I most definitely will relate myself to HP :) where his wand acts of it's own accord and sends a golden stream of spells at where it senses Voldemort is.. well all right, so the only connection is that I'm not sure where that final kick came from; somewhere from deep within. We also closed the gap immensely on the 2nd place finisher, Teresa Murphy (Brunswick), but I didn't realize it until seeing pictures of the race this morning, because I'd been so focused. Mentally, I believe that I won the day. And winning the race mentally is so tremendously important for me in order to expect improvement later on down the road. Also, several other important things to touch on... Maryam actually got her LPR in the MILE yesterday, breaking her mile record (by a second, I believe it was)! And Josh Horne broke his LPR by over two minutes yesterday, going from a low 21, and skipping both the 19's and the 20's to finish in the high 18's. Justin Tracy ended up 4th, and is currently ranked 12th in the state. Awesome job, guys!
KKNW, Addie

Me (Addie Cullenberg), Kelly Lynch and Emma Wood. Thanks so much guys :D

ATTN Maine XC Coaches: I am truly flattered. Thank you! KKNW, Addie

KVAC's 2011

My race was not stellar. In fact, it was my most poorly-run race of the season. It was caused by a mixture of things. In the end, the biggest contributor was my mental state; remembering my awful race here last year, deciding halfway through the race that I felt the same as I did here a year ago.. I cruised by the first mile in a 6:12 nestled within a pack of girls; Abby Mace, Brittany Bowman, Willow Parker, Bethany Brown and Erzsebet Nagy. After that crucial landmark they began to drop me, and I remained only a few short steps behind them, but couldn't catch up. Once girls started to pass me, I completely lost it, saying to myself "It's just another B girl, it doesn't matter." What I should have said was "OK, the next person who makes a move I'm going to go with," because with the passing B girls eventually came the passing A girls. One reason I love the sport of cross country so much is the support you receive out there from girls on other teams. Once you've been running in high school a few years, they're all so familiar; Maine doesn't have a running community, it has a close-knit running family. Katie McMahon (Bruns) caught up to me mid-hill, and encouraged me to pass one of the runners up ahead with her. Molly Schassberger (Winslow) breathed "C'mon, Ad, you got this girl.." as she went by. So I extend my thanks to everyone out there who continued to encourage me. After the race, I was given a nice pep talk by a family friend whose kids go to Maranacook, and by and by my spirits lifted. All that there is left to say, is that I truly, honestly am very thankful that I shall never race on Cony's course again; too many horrid racing memories (my first time racing that course was in 8th grade for USATF; my mom and I didn't know the course and were doing a preview before my race and got lost. I got all worked up because we had to cut through the woods to the start, where my race was on the line almost ready to go. We can joke about it now, at least :). Mt. Blue girls ended up third behind Brunswick and Mt. Ararat, while the boys came in a rather disappointing 8th.. Regionals next weekend @ Belfast, and I'm ready for redemption.
KKNW, Addie


Madsy Schneider: "Darn, I've never made it onto the wood!"
Me: "Quick, step up on here for a second!" :)

Maryam Norton and Alex Luchini... The "onion" was a motivator for our JV girls team


Sam Wood (whom I've always secretly wanted as a little brother.. wow that sounds pretty creepy), a Hampden boy, Sully Jackson and Justin Tracy as Andy R-P hugs someone else during Class A awards.

Mt. Blue Relays 2011

It has recently dawned on me that this is my year of lasts with the Mt. Blue cross country team. It makes sense that it would be a bit sad for any graduating athlete, sure, but I feel like it's a little bit different in my case. If you were to go through my endless drawers of running shirts in my room, you'd be able to find specially ordered child's size shirts from the Mt. Blue Relays dating back to the 90's. Why? Because I've been wrapped up in the Maine running community way back since the days my mom used to push me in my lime green jogger at her track practices as she coached her athletes. I mean, I used to attend the annual Acadian camping trip in diapers and shyly pass out the ribbons at the Mt. Blue Relays awards ceremony. So knowing that this past Friday has been my last Relays ever is.. hard. Ok, enough nostalgia. This year had to be the muddiest Mt. Blue Relays in living memory. On Thursday, most of our practice was spent draining the water off of the muddy spots on the course and then shoveling kitty litter-like gravel onto those areas. But by the time I ran over those affected areas as the first leg of our team, the conditions were no better than before we'd started the previous day. (Oh, on a side note, there were 18 teams present, a MB Relays high). By the time I tagged off to our second runner, I'd literally eaten mud out on the course, because of the boys in front of me kicking it back as they trampled through the mess. Such a good time. I ended up having the second fastest girls time of the day to Bethany Brown of Waterville, and our girl's "A" team placed second to Mt. Ararat, with Waterville rounding up the top three. On the boy's side, Bangor won, Mt. Ararat was second, and our boys ended up third. After we finished, several members of the team decided to hit up the muddy places on the course, and ended up having a bit of a mud fight. Actually, it ended up being a bit more intense than that; at one point my cousin literally tackled me to the ground right in the middle of it all. By the time we left, anyone running over that section would really wonder what had happened there, as it appeared as though people had literally rolled around in the mud.. :D Dancing, as always, was sweet, and the dinner nice and pasta-ey. Once awards were over we quickly got bundled up in warmer clothes to go support the football team (it was homecoming game), which was followed by our homecoming dance. Needless to say, I think we all rested fairly well that night :) The video link is below, which was fantastically created by Brewer!
http://www.youtube.com/user/runsub5#p/u/0/wjV0_D1piGE
KKNW, Addie

A Festival Fit For Champions.

We were all as prepared as we could be for the mud and rain and wet that presented itself to us on Saturday. There's something catchy in the air at a big meet like this that gets everyone excited, regardless of the weather. I love being surrounded by 924 other athletes getting ready to race, or whatever crazy number it was this year. The day started out with the Canadian and American national anthems being sung beautifully by my fellow ARC running camp buddy, Grant Richards of Belfast. Lovely job!! The race order went unseeded, freshman, seeded (girls/boys respectively in each category). Watching the freshmen boy's race was really sad; there was one racer near the end who did not have spikes on, and was slip-and-sliding all over the part before the man-made hills. As the day progressed, it only got muddier (I refrain from saying "worse" because mud is what we live for). When the seeded girls were only a half mile into the race, we must have looked like some splatter-paint art project. Regardless of the conditions, the first mile on Belfast's course always proves to be incredibly fast, and although I was considerably back from the leader, Abbey Leonardi, I still managed to split a sub six first mile. During the race, I remember being a tad bit confused as to why I was running amongst fellow athletes that had previously run low 19 minute 5k's- especially when I clocked in at a 20:31- but had the conditions been a bit more ideal for PR's, I would have most likely crushed my LPR by over a minute. The idea of that is encouraging, but also makes me a bit stressed knowing that I still haven't actually run that time. When I crossed the line 12th, all I felt like doing was sitting down, despite the fact that every inch of grass out there that day was smothered in double the amount of mud. I didn't really care, but my uniform noticeably required a bit of washing after that meet. ARC really represented in terms of the top boys and girls teams overall that day. MDI girls and Falmouth boys won; a lot of those people had been fellow campers with me this summer in Acadia National Park. Also, nice job to Katherine Gunther, who placed in the top ten in the girls freshman race.
KKNW, Addie
Also, check out the videos from the meet, which can be found on the links below:
http://www.youtube.com/user/runsub5#p/u/2/asrrE8WAgzo (Boys seeded)
http://www.youtube.com/user/runsub5#p/u/1/Ixdsk5q8V6c (Girls seeded)

BRUNSWICK (my Birthright)!

From left to right: Emily G., Molly, Alexaiya, Louise, Casey, Chenoa

Emily Ro., Katherine, Maryam

Today was a rainy day. How beautiful is that? Rain on the day of the Brunswick meet means no horrible "desert" part of the course (cue angels singing Hallelujah). For those of you who have never run on Brunswick's course, you can find it at a farm -Crystal Springs Farm (or something along those lines)- mere minutes away from the school. The course narrows to about a person and a half width within 200 meters or so, and throughout the race, one must negotiate where to step, as footing can be rough with the awkward slanted hills and abundant amount of white roots. I'm just taking a guess that whoever spray-painted all of those roots is probably in the hospital for life due to back problems.. every root bigger than a pencil is highlighted. Which, don't get me wrong, is really wonderful, but jeesh! In the beginning, I felt the need to pick up the pace a little bit, expecting others to follow suit, but when they didn't, I kept going. I passed the first mile in a 6:20, and wondered why I was still alone. Midway through the race, Teresa Murphy (Bruns) caught up with me, and held a little bit of distance on me to the end.. I'm not sure how much it was exactly, because no other team got times (the timing system malfunctioned, but our coach always times Mt. Blue athletes just in case). Unfortunately, I ended up with a 21:02. It would have been a relief to break 21 on that course, but it has made me all the more excited for FOC next weekend. Louisa Stancioff ended up 5th after a stellar kick in the end, and on the boy's side, we had several in the top ten. The girls finished 3rd behind Mt. Ararat and Brunswick (which was only 1 point ahead of us!!)
KKNW, Addie

Highlights:
-Subway
-Cosmo
-The bonding moment I experienced with fellow captain and blogger, Maryam, prior to the race ;)

Small World of Running

So something has been happening to me a lot recently, I see someone who looks vaguely familiar in another town and think all day about where I've seen them before. About 80% of the time I eventually realize that I know them from xc, indoor or outdoor track.
Today I went to an college open house and continuously had this happen to me, I saw a guy asking a question to the head of admissions and thought "I bet he's a runner" and then two seconds later heard him talking about track. The same thing happened with a girl who I was absolutely positive I had seen before, but couldn't place where (outdoor track). Runners seem to have a sixth sense about when other runners are around, and seeing each other usually starts with a "Do I know you?" look and ends with a "Hey, I think we raced together!"
The point of all this is that I am always finding new members of the big running family. Those of you planning on running in college will probably end up having some of your rivals become your room-mates and having high school teammates running at rival colleges. Running is a pretty tight-knit community, and it makes me happy to know that wherever I end up I'll have a familiar face to run with.

KKNW,
Maryam

USATF NATIONALS

Here's my schpeal. Contact me either at a meet or by facebook (whether you are a guy or girl, really, I'll help any of you) if you are interested. The location where Regionals will be held has not been announced yet, but States are always at Cony and Nat's this year are in Myrtle Beach. Teams can carry eight people, and the top three teams at Regionals qualify for Nationals (or you can qualify individually). DO IT, It is SUPER FUN :D
KKNW, Addie

Zucchini Toss 2011

This year was the second annual (if we can call it "annual" already) Mt. Blue cross country Zucchini Toss. Everyone on the team draws a slip of paper with a number on it, and then trades it in for that number zuke. The catch is that you don't know what shape of size your vegetable is going to be. The number zucchini is assigned to an elite running athlete, which the MB athletes then have to find three facts about, so the competition has a learning piece to it as well. I drew #10, Alan Webb. On the girl's side, the farthest throw was by Emily Gardner, and the boy's (and overall) champion was Dustin Staples.
KKNW, Addie

La-La-La-LAWRENCE!

Happy 50th post! Right now I am currently blogging whilst transfixed by the moon. Oh the moon! The sky has been a beaut today; its been absolutely lovely outside (especially the pink and gold sunset on the bus ride home, hope you all took the time to appreciate it :) Besides throwing it in there that I'm extremely hungry for dinner (so I'm going to type this up fast), I'm ready to start! Aight, so there were seven scoring girl's teams, and nine on the guys side (I believe)! Erzsebet Nagy stole the show once again, winning on her home course. Teresa Murphy of Brunswick was second, and I rounded up the top three. Our girls, I was very impressed to learn, placed four in the top ten, and we won with 31 points. Brunswick followed with 64. On the guy's side, Jonathan Stanhope of Bangor kinda came out of nowhere (he's legit, you'll be hearing about him for sure this season), being pursued hot-on-the-heals by Benson Worthington of B-wick. Mt. Blue's own Justin Tracy (Jr.) lead the first mile and finished 4th with an 18:02. It really made a difference in the mental preparation department carrying the team's iPod player during the course walk with our playlist going. And, if anyone from Lawrence happens to read this post that didn't already hear it from me, we really appreciate the food station that you provide the runners, it's fabulous. See you guys at Leavitt next week, without the hill :( Awesome jobs today running, now for dinner :D
KKNW, Addie

Home Meet, Home Mountain.

Home of Mt. Blue Relays, the Mt. Blue High School course is a legend, known throughout the state as one of the most challenging (and usually muddy) race venues in Maine. This year the orchard where the start and finish are looked quite charming; a wedding had taken place there during the weekend of Irene. The bases of the old, gnarly apple trees had been circled in mulch, and pots spilling with flowers had been scattered hither-dither atop the rings of mulch. As we learned in elementary school to never judge a book by its cover, Maine athletes have realized to take the same caution with our course. Pretty in the field, hilly in the woods. The team did not do a course walk because we'd previewed the following day in practice, and I was quite surprised during the race when things started to get messy. They were not conditions to PR in. That being said, I will now contradict that statement by announcing that Ersie Nagy of Lawrence set a new course record. The previous one had been set by my close friend, Melody Lam in 2009. On the boy's side, Harlow Ladd (Mess) just barely missed the boy's course record held by my brother, Kelton Cullenberg. As for team scores, both the boys and the girls managed victories. What more can I say other than the fact that after the race, we had an awesome team-sleepover and had a shirt swap, where we made a team shirt for another person on the team.

KKNW, Addie

High School Cross Country Preview, Class A

-Lewiston Sun Journal

KKNW, Addie

It's A Documentary!

This year I've taken the liberty of composing a documentary of the MBXC season.. which necessitates my showing up to all of the venues with my face behind a camcorder. Feel free to inquire about an interview (spaces are filling up fast :p), request to have a still-frame taken with a MB team member and your Great Aunt Fuffa, or even just submit ridiculously awesome candids of the team, I promise they wont mind that you do so. A link to the video will be added below at the end of the season, and the finished documentary will probably receive its very own post. I extend my thanks in advance to the Maine running community :D
KKNW, Addie

Quite the Dueling Team

Alright, this is my first post on the MBXC blog so let me introduce myself. I'm Maryam, a junior runner and co-captain of our lovely team. The first thing to note on this post is that this Wednesday we had our first annual Dual-A-Thon. A tradition in our group where people compete in teams with one 2-mile runner, one 8-mile biker and another 2-mile runner. This year was a first for us because (due to lack of a safe road) we ran/biked on the nearby railroad bed. Coming in the lead was iron-man Justin Tracy with a 52:23. Followed closely by a team of Dustin Tracy and Silas Rogers (54:07). Alex Chandler also iron-manned it with a 60:01. Everyone ran well AND had fun documenting the time with Addie's video camera, as well as bike-riding lessons.

Tonight we also had our first team dinner of the year. The food was delicious as always with Sully's famous mac n' cheese and some kind of berry dessert that some mysterious person always brings (thank you). After swimming and eating, some of us relaxed and got pumped for our home meet tomorrow by putting on fake tattoos and listening to Nicki Minaj.

KKNW, Maryam






Kila Kitu Ni Wezekana

(This tattoo has inspired Addie to want to actually get a real one like it)

Sandy River Track State Meet!

Alright, so I realize that I created this blog on account of wanting the world to know about our fun high school team, but I cannot exclude mentioning our "feeder program" as well, the Sandy River summer track and cross country teams (Fr. Katherine Gunther, our current #2 girl runner, has recently come to us from the program). Here's a brief background on the program: My parents are go-getters, so when the Farmington Rec. AND the Mt. Blue Middle School decided to both discontinue their running programs, they were naturally furious. The reasoning for shutting down both programs was for lack of participation, so it was natural that they would decide to make budget cuts in those areas. Several years later, my parents, as well as help from parents of the young athletes on the team, have turned the programs around, more than doubling the participation of each program. I help as a volunteer coach (in fact, it's volunteer work for everyone). The middle school-aged team went from having two girls on it, to having a State Champion girls team over the course of a year. Props, girls!
Below are some pictures taken at the recent USATF Youth Summer Track State Meet.
KKNW, Addie


Our boys were super excited to place as a relay team at States!

My little sister, Kahryn, and I (watch for her in a few years :)

Our lovely team banner for the traditional parade

Sandy River Track Team State Qualifiers 2011! Awesome job, team :D

Scot Laliberte 2011

I'm always incredibly antsy at the end of the summer to get on the trails and begin racing, which is one of the many reasons why I love having a pre-season meet such as the Scot Laliberte Invitational. At the start of the race (it was a 2.5 mile course for both varsity and JV this year), Tom Wells gave a very nice short speech about Scot. He said, "It poured here yesterday, and the East Coast is preparing for Hurricane Irene to hit tomorrow. But look up, folks. An absolutely blue sky. That's a perfect description of how Scot lived." And I fully admit that I, along with half of my girl's team, got a wee-bit teary eyed and shivery at those words. The gun goes off, which precedes one of the most hectic starts I ever experience in races.. because boys are usually, not more aggressive in the start, but certainly stronger shovers, on accident of course (I love "course" puns on this blog.. as well as Pre ones, now that I think about it :P) Our top guy finisher was Jr. Justin Tracy (13th) followed by Jr. Sully Jackson. In the girl's JV race, Sr. Courtney Qi podiumed (9th). I ended up as the 4th girl (88th overall) with a 17:26.. both place and time were my exact goals :D Following me were Fr. Katherine Gunther (15th) and Louisa Stancioff (after Katherine) Also, Mt. Blue was pleasantly surprised that we pulled off a 3rd place overall team finish, behind Brunswick and Mt. Ararat. Nicely done, gang :D
KKNW, Addie

Acadia Trip 2011

Every year the team piles into vans and cars and drives to Mt. Desert Island for three days of camping, swimming and, of course, running! Before I get to the actual running part, there were several occurrences I would like to highlight. In the mornings, the team goes on an easy run before breakfast. On the first morning, we were running and saw a desolate beach down the road. I noticed something big on the shore that was reflecting the sun off of it.. and it was definitely not a rock. "You guys, is that a whale on the beach? Oh my gosh, there's a whale on the beach down there!" As we approached the beach, we could tell that it was, in fact, a beached whale. Obviously we all sprinted down to investigate. There was a marine biologist from the College of the Atlantic who was down there, and informed us that it was a nineteen-foot sub-adult male minke whale. The smell of rotting whale, by the way, is absolutely nasty! The whale's tongue was lolled out onto the sand, and it was rather dried-up.
The second major event happened on the last afternoon in Bar Harbor. I'd gone to the sketchy old bathroom in the park to change into street clothes, and literally bolted myself shut into the huge stall (whose walls were made of concrete). There was no way I was going to be able to climb over the stall door, and the space under it could not accommodate the size of my body. My friend said to stand back, and she was going to kick the door in. She did, and I was free :D
Okay, running. So the team is a fairly young one this year, but don't I seem to say that every year!? In the two mile time trial we do on the carriage trails, I bettered my previous time by twenty seconds. Louisa Stancioff (my savior :) followed a little less than a minute later. The rest of the varsity (as of now) will include Fr. Katherine Gunther, So's. Sarah Wade and Macee Qi, Jr. Maryam Norton, and joining us this year, my cousin, Sr. Emily Roberts. We're ever so pleased for all of you to be on the team!! The guy's team is showing promise as well! Looking forward to Scot Laliberte tomorrow :D


The team on top of Cadillac Mtn. for sunset

Silas Rogers and I riding some waves into Sand Beach

Left to Right; Me (Addie Cullenberg), Louisa Stancioff and Silas Rogers

Top Ten Pictures At States

I recently saw an online article about the ten best photographs taken at the Class A outdoor track states this past spring... and then also realized that one of those pictures was of me (and recent graduate Gwen Beacham!), so I thought I'd post it and give awesome photography credit to Pam Swan :)

Pre Lives In All Of Us (GMRC 2011).

Green Mountain Running Camp (Week One, 2011)- Running Camp #2. My fourth and final year as a camper.

This year I was accompanied by fellow teammates Maryam Norton (2nd year camper) and first year campers Juliette Luchini and Dustin Staples. One of the fantastic parts about camp is that returning always feels like a big family reunion. I always get excited butterflies when we pull in to the familiar Lyndon State College campus. My roommate this year, Christa Fagone (from Simsbury, CT.), is an amazing friend of mine that I met three years ago at camp. Her bus was running extremely late, but when she finally arrived it was like we'd never left camp last year (minus the fact that we had a good year's worth of life in general to catch up on).
GMRC is absolutely meritorious running camp.

(Note: this post is still under construction :)

ARC 2011

For those of you out there who do not know me on a personal level, I'm just going to throw it out there that I can be pretty man-ish sometimes. No, pretty bro. I like that term better. This afternoon (after an extensive trip to Mardin's) I returned from running camp #1, the Acadian Running Camp, in which the campers stayed at Smuggler's Den (it was pretty in-tents, ha ha!), a campground on the island. All but about three of the 85 some-odd campers are from Maine schools, which makes it pretty unique (FOC shall be fun). Back to my reasoning on being pretty bro. I am not the least bit ashamed to admit that I only took 1 (yes, one) shower during the whole time, and it was on the eve before we all departed. Not to say I wasn't clean(ish), because I went swimming in the pool, lake and ocean every day. And I reapplied deodorant at least 10 times there. After winning the rock throwing game and being a bit more, eherm, skilled at frisbee than several anonymous male folks (Jay Lesser and Alex Coffin), I was taken in and kind of became one of the guys. So now onto the actual running part of running camp..
The first afternoon I ran to Echo Lake with a group of Falmouth girls, which was about three miles. I tend to forget that Echo Lake doesn't get deep for a while, and always end up awkwardly running in and semi-diving into the knee-deep water. On the second day, the group was bussed to the wonderful carriage trails, and I ran around one of the many water resources on the island (that you are not allowed to swim in, what a tease) with Mallory Evans of York. Nina Boutin (also York) ran with us for a portion of the six mile run. We went into Bar Harbor for ice cream, and I also ended up in a knife/ gun/ binoculars/ ass-less chaps/ jewelry store.. quite an interesting place. On the third day, the camp did a 2 mile prediction run, in which the boys could not run faster than 16 minutes, and the girls 18. I predicted 20 minutes for myself, as I thought I could easily settle into what I assumed to be a 10 minute mile pace. I ended up 7th overall, with a 19:49.. 11 seconds fast. And finally, on the last morning (yes, it was waaaay too short of a camp), all I did was take down tents and play more frisbee because of a blood blister I got on my toe as a result of the dance the previous night. I'm most definitely looking forward to next year already, because the camp allots incoming freshmen in college to attend as well, so I will still be eligible. Also, anyone reading this should come to the Summerfest 5k in downtown Farmington Friday night!
KKNW, Addie



My yummy blister, excuse my dirty summer toes..

Finally a Laker.

I have been competing on the Laker's team (that enables athletes to qualify for the USATF National races) for the past three years. It is only now, however, that I can truly call myself a "laker." During our summer run yesterday, I finally, finally (FINALLY!) ran completely around the lake, something I've aspired to do since freshman year. I don't know what was holding me back for so long, but I'm usually a pretty low-mileage kind of gal (not that seven is anything to shake a stick at). So there, I did it.
KKNW, Addie

Bass Park, where the team meets... this blog was created after an incident here that promoted our first post!


Wilson Lake, Wilton

Correct Your Form, Before It Is Too Late.

If you have ever had the misfortune to see me run, you'll chuckle and understand why I say "misfortune" (you were also probably wincing a little as I passed by).Unfortunately, growing up in a running family has not blessed me with flawless running technique... at all. For those of you lucky enough to have never witnessed a race that I have been in, I'll help you visualize my "form" going into high school. Picture a person sitting with a straight back. Maintaining the angle of their back, they were then coaxed into imaginary alpine ski boots, which make one sort of in a sitting position, and provide no alternative to taking heel-slapping steps. Add some arms awkwardly bouncing at 160 degree angles at the sides and a stationary ponytail and you've got me. The past three years I have really been working on my arms. I've even run with giant branches in my hands to remind me that I've got arms that require more acute-angled swings. I haven't entirely corrected my arms, but I'm actually using them somewhat now. Bit of a hypocrite, really, as my favorite cheering phrase is use your arms, they will carry your legs! Anyway, the point of this post is to let you know that if you are naturally a sit-runner like myself, that you really must work on leaning forward. I gained thirty strides on my mother in two minutes by leaning forward (it corrects the heel landing).
KKNW, Addie

Here's a wonderful demo on good running form.

Transition Into XC

Ahhh, XC. I can practically smell it in the humid Maine July air, with preseason starting "just 36 days from now" (exclaimed my mother this morning while she enthusiastically typed out an email to the team). The last time that I raced was at the Bowdoin Gala on June 17, after taking my Calculus and Chemistry finals on my last day of school. Needless to say, it wasn't a fantastic race, because I decided to not use a watch in the mile but pace off of another racer seeded with a 5:20. My advice after that experience- you cannot rely on others in order to have the race of your life, because they might just end up having the worst one of theirs. Lets just say my pacer did not have the race of her life. Enough said. Alright! In the meantime, the team gets together a couple of times a week for low-key workouts/runs. I've also been doing a lot of cross training this summer (more than running, in fact)- rollerskiing and hiking. This past weekend my family and some family friends went on our annual wilderness camping trip on Flagstaff Lake. The teens all got up on one of the mornings and hiked to the top of Avery Peak on Bigelow, which is a 9 mile hike. It literally took all day, but was literally a lot of fun.
KKNW, Addie



Ashten Hackett (remember that awesome State Champ Hurdle/Jumper from Edward Little??) and I atop Avery Peak, Bigelow Mtn.

My LPR's

Short and sweet end of the season recap:
5k (xc)- 20:19
3200- 12:49. Oh my! :/
1600- 5:30
800- 2:29
400- 64.84

Mt. Ararat (Track 2011)

Mt. Ararat. One of our longest drives. I always feel like the track was built in the middle of a marsh while I'm competing on it, but the team very much enjoys it there. One of the toilets near the track was majorly clogged so waiting in line took forever, and Gwen and I were near peeing in our spankies. We didn't realize they'd made final call for the mile until a teammate of ours hurried over to tell us. Whether it was the adrenaline or the (finally) empty bladders that helped us we're not entirely sure, but we both ended up qualifying automatically for states, running a 5:34 and 5:39 respectively- 5:40 is automatic. After, we went on a pathetic cool down with Molly Schassberger of Winslow (Molly and I went to Rhode Island for Regionals together last November, along with Riley Jones, who earlier that day had LPR'ed in the RW). I say pathetic because we managed a lap around the track in the time that the second heat of girls had finished racing their mile. I was having some cramping issues, and then Gwen's shins were bothering her, and finally Molly declared there was an issue with her foot. But goodness don't we love running :P Our recent addition to the team, the throwing part, has improved..er.. not leaps and bounds, but shall we say heaves and launches, with quite a few scoring positions :) Fr. Miranda Nicely ran a 2:32 leg in the 4x8, and our dear Louisa Stancioff (Jr, of the New England/School Record holding 2010 4x8 team) joins us again this year after playing the lead role in the school's Pride and Prejudice.
KKNW, Addie

The Meet We Went To @ Maranacook (Track 2011)

Athletes of the Meet: Shireen Luick (So) and Dustin Staples (Fr)! Shireen took more than a minute off of her racewalk time, as well as adding 13 feet to one of her throws. Dustin ran a sub 60 second leg in the 4x4 and then proceeded to jump just shy of 18 feet in LJ.

Whew. Today was quite the day. The meet (including Messalonskee, Leavitt and the two obvious teams) started out with the 4x8; Sr. Gwen Beacham, Fr. Sarah Wade, Jr. Addie Cullenberg (Me), and Fr. Miranda Nicely. We crushed our previous season time of a 10:44 with a 10:28 (the school record, set last year by Gwen, Louisa Stancioff, Melody Lam and myself, is a 10:01.25). I ended up with a split of a 2:33, 4 seconds slower than my best 4x8 leg time. Gwen followed with a 2:34. Last year at this time we were running in the low 2:40's. It's wonderful to be able to recognize improvement for our dedicated practices. Miranda and Gwen both took the plunge in trying the open 400, in which they placed 2nd and 3rd respectively to the winner, our very own Sr. Allison Brown. And not to forget or underplay any other event categories, there were several male throwers on the team who DOUBLED their LPR's today!! Also, hurray for Shawnee for getting up after that last hurdle in the 300mH and finishing, giving our girls an extra point (we won to Mess. 108-107)

My events:
4x8
800
3200
4x4

Incase you are unfamiliar with event scheduling, the 4x8 was the first event, then toward the end is the 800, and after that is the 200, followed by the 2 mile. Meets conclude with the 4x4. My last three events were almost in direct order. I was shooting for a 13:30 in the 32 because I had not done it since the beginning of last season. Let's just say I ended up with a lot of cheering from the Maranacook boy's team who so desperately wanted to see me beat some of their guys (twas a combined event), and I ended up running a 12:50. Also, congrats to Emily Ramsey for winning both the hurdle events today :D
KKNW, Addie

Photos to follow

Oxford Hills: Rain, Sun, Repeat. (Track 2011)

Last Thursday was our first official meet, because we were not scheduled to race at Waterville until Coach threw us in several days in advance. Oxford Hills is our longest drive (1.5 hours) and the bus took a wrong turn and continued for an extra 40 minutes. Go bus driver :D O.H. has a very round track which can play into noticeable time differences for, above all, sprinters. Our girl's 4x8 team won, as well as our 4x1 and 4x4 teams. Miranda and I placed 1-2 in both the open 8 and the mile, with Marina West running for 3rd in the 800m. Girl's team ended up winning with 91 points. I started this post too late, I'll keep it here as a reminder to finish it :D

Earth Day Love.

http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/happenings/mt-blues-track-and-field-team-clean-up/

KKNW, Addie

Waterville Relays, Track 2011

Waterville Relays took place this past windy, sunny and snowy bi-polar Thursday. Mt. Blue had not been to this particular meet since the days that it was hosted by Winslow, so it's been a while. If you haven't had the chance to get onto Waterville's track this year, there have been several major changes, one being that it has been newly resurfaced (so we were actually able to wear spikes!). The other is that it is now red.
Upon arrival, Coach (this being my sixth season with my mother as my coach, I've decided it's damn well time to start referring to her as Coach, although "Momma Coach", "Coachie", "MC" and "Beast" are just as effective) was asked by members of the team how many laps the 400 was. And other people inquired about the distance of a 100 and a 200 meter race. Whoops, so let me back it up a little bit and explain where our team currently stands.

As you can see, more than half of the people on our team are brand new to the sport. This year, our new throwing coach was most affective in recruiting some of the football guys to join up (what seems like half of the guys in my grade, actually), so this year won't be another "cross country team- just in track season" year, which is fantastic to see. We also are not able to even use the tar "track" at our school because the whole site is under construction, getting completely rebuilt, which means that in several years, MB will actually have a track facility and will be able to host events! But until then, we are making it work by referring to ourselves as the Mt. Blue Road and Parking Lot team. Gotta love hill workouts during track season! Anyways, the first time that half of our team had ever stepped onto a real facility was on Thursday, so questions were to be expected from the newbies.
I was in the winning 4x8 (with Sr. Gwen Beacham, Fr. Sarah Wade, and Fr. Miranda Nicely); we finished in 10:44- we've got 44 seconds to cut off to beat last year's new school record time, which is completely doable. My DMR team took second to MTA, and was comprised of Miranda, Sr. Allison Brown, Gwen and myself. My third event, the 4x4, came in third (same members as the 4x8). The important thing was that improvement was shown since the beginning of last year.
Athletes of the Meet: Shane O'Neill and Miranda Nicely. I would say that Miranda will be a freshman to watch this season, but she's already proven that she IS one to watch this season, running a 2:37.3 in the 4x8, followed by a 2:36 in the DMR. Wowzah. "Nicely done, Miranda!"
KKNW, Addie

Transition Into Track.

There are no rules that state that this blog has to be solely oriented around the cross country season- and anyways, I'm feeling the need to briefly sum up my training and sports since nationals in December. So this will serve the purpose as a "transition into track" post. I was a member on the Mt. Blue girls nordic State Champion ski team this past February (18 out of the last 20 years or something). It was quite an exciting several days of racing, because Class A states were held up in Presque Isle. The team hung out during the evenings in the hallways of the hotel, playing guitar and watercoloring. We also threw an awesome surprise luau party for one of our guys in the pool room, showering him with wonderful How-could-I-ever-live-without-them gifts from MARDINS! Another highlight was my hardcore ski pole gash I received from a very dear friend and teammate of mine (picture below!). She brutally stabbed me in my sleep after finding out I was dating her ex-boyfriend that she was still in love with behind her back. Well, just kidding, the incident wasn't quite that scandalous, it actually happened because we were skiing down the course in a train and the leader fell, causing the rest of us to fall on top of each other. I happened to land on my friend's pole tip, and it ripped through my overalls (it was a fun race where everyone dresses up, we were hicks), underarmor and flesh. So if you happen to see a scar on my right thigh during the season, you'll know the story behind it!

Finally, I qualified to represent Maine on the Maine Team at the Eastern High School Championships (rather like New Englands in running, but it's states against states). The festival took place March 18-20 and was loads of fun. This year it was held in Rumford at Black Mountain, so the team actually ended up staying at the Comfort Inn 10 minutes from my house. Oh yeah, and I ended up being in charge of getting our girls awesome pink sports bras that say "Maine Love" on them with a heart on the back. Any one of them would probably attest to the fact that they were the highlight of EHSC. Track officially started the week after my big ski festival, so I had a full SEVEN (that number will always remind me of Miss Melody Lam) days off in between seasons! Whoo! And now... welcome to the bloggin' track season of 2011!
KKNW, Addie

Winter Blah!

The date is January 7, and we have no snow. Ski practices have been really creative and limiting in terms of working on our technique, so running has stayed a big part of our routine, not that I mind, but come on, this weather is getting ridiculous. Winter outdoor track, anyone?
Also, December 12, Michelle Haluska (Brewer), Michelle Reidy (some island off the coast of Maine) and I traveled down to Hoover, Alabama for the USATF National XC meet. The course footing consisted mostly of cat litter-like rocks, but is definitely at the higher end of my list in terms of favorite courses. I placed 35th (10 places from All-America, damn!) and Michelle H. came in three behind me. Every night we stayed there (our return flight was completely canceled, we got home nearly two days late) our hotel room (and hotel!) upgraded because of problems or inconveniences. By the last night we were staying in a two bedroom suite complete with two bathrooms, dining and living rooms, kitchen, and fireplace, all for $80 a night. Sweetness. I believe Michelle and I had cursed ourselves on the first day we were there by singing a song we made up "We're stuck. In Aaa-lah-bay-mah!" on a baby grand piano in the main USATF hotel (we were getting impatient because we were not on the list of registered racers, therefore, our names were not on the t-shirts). Anyways, full story will be eventually published :P
I have to go celebrate a holiday that my family invented many years ago and eat Belgian waffles with ice cream and strawberries for dinner, ciao ;)
KKNW, Addie